Updates about the latest accomplishments—including latest research, publications, and awards—by students, faculty, and staff
Sara K. Sterner (Education) was recently elected to serve a three-year term on the Children's Literature Assembly Board. The Children's Literature Assembly (CLA) of the National Council of Teachers of English is a professional community of children’s literature enthusiasts who advocate the centrality of literature in children’s academic and personal lives.
ERE lecturers Dr. Brian Buchanan and Dr. Jo Archibald, along with colleagues working in the New York Hudson River watershed, published a paper on using machine learning to identify stream barriers.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479721020144
Chris Aberson, along with Academic Research M.A. graduates Latisha Jett-Dias and James Clifton recently published a paper titled Contact, Threat, and Attitudes toward Same-sex Marriage and its Beneficiaries in the Journal of GLBT Family Studies. The work addresses how well Intergroup Contact Theory and Intergroup Threat Theory, two theories primarily based in race and ethnicity, predict attitudes toward Gay and Lesbian people. A preprint of the paper can be found here https://osf.io/ygrkq/
Former Environment & Community Master's student Brooks Estes and her advisor Dr. Matt Johnson (Wildlife) recently published a paper in the journal California Fish and Wildlife about winegrape growers' environmental values. URL: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=195584&inline
https://hcoe.org/2021/11/selpa-administrator-accepts-statewide-position/
Current HSU Faculty Mindy Fattig and HSU Alumni ( previous name- Melinda DeSchryver Class of ‘95).
Forestry MS student Zack Erickson gave an oral presentation at the prestigeous National Conference for the Society of American Foresters, entitled "Integrating Ways of Knowing: Utilizing Tribal Management Perspective to Guide Modern Silvicultural Methods in Cooperative Forest Management." His thesis committee co-authored the talk: HSU faculty Prof. Pascal Berrill, Dr. Kevin Boston, and UMN professor of Tribal and Indigenous Natural Resource Management Dr. Michael Dockry.
Dr. Hunter Harrill was the moderator of a panel session entitled "What We Will Be Building With In The Future," at the 112th Annual Pacific Logging Congress, held in Indian Wells, CA from November 8-10th, 2021.
Dr. Hart's new article "This Veterans Day, the Centennial of the Unknown Soldier, Skip the Platitudes and Talk to a Veteran," is the lead story this week on Religion Dispatches: .
Dr. Mark Henderson and Dr. Andre Buchheister received a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to support research into deep-sea corals and sponges (DSCS). The project will compare species distribution models for DSCS that are associated with commercially important fishes, and assess suitable DSCS habitat inside and outside protected waters in southern California. Results will provide information on where DSCS may be occurring, and may point to areas that are important to fisheries and the greater ecosystem due to the known connection between DSCS and commercial fish.
Former graduate student Nissa Kreidler will be a project collaborator.
Dr. J-Pascal Berrill and Dr. Christa Dagley have received a $227,000 grant from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, CAL FIRE to support Phase I of a collaborative “pyrosilviculture” research project between HSU, UC Berkeley, and UC Cooperative Extension. The prescribed burning fuels reduction project on Jackson Demonstration State Forest will demonstrate and compare various approaches designed to help timberland owners be proactive in reducing potential impact (severity) of future wildfires. HSU undergraduate and graduate students working on this large-scale wildfire risk mitigation project will collaborate with forestry and fire management practitioners, researchers,
Taylor Team (MS student, Geology), Melanie Michalak (Geology) and Susan Cashman (Geology) co-authored a conference presentation at the annual Geological Society of America meeting held in Portland, OR, entitled, Neogene-Quaternary faulting in the Klamath Mountains Province, California and Oregon: evidence from geology and thermochronology. Their work addresses newly identified or constrained crustal faults in the Klamath Mountains.
Samuel Bold (MS student, Geology) was selected for a prestigious $4,000 American Federation of Mineralogical Society scholarship from the California Federation of Mineralogical and Geological Societies. Sam's MS thesis work uses geochronological methods to date timing of uplift and faulting along the Van Duzen River.
Tyler Ladinsky (Geology M.S. '12), Harvey Kelsey (Geology) and Melanie Michalak (Geology) published their Final Technical Report in collaboration with USGS scientists, from their paleoseismic studies on the Little Salmon and Goose Lake faults near Hydesville, CA, funded by the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. The report is entitled, In Southern Cascadia, do upper plate faults rupture in concert with subduction zone earthquakes: a paleoseismic investigation of the Little Salmon fault zone. The work helps to quantify earthquake hazards in northern California. The full report is available at this link: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/cfusion/external_grants/reports/G19AP00046.pdf
Lonny Grafman co-authored a new book with Dr. Joshua Pearce on how communities come together to harness the power of the sun and how other people can do it as well.
Thanks to a partnership with Humboldt State Press and the Appropedia Foundation with the backing of a very successful Kickstarter campaign, this book is available free to all that need it.
Interested in renewable energy, solar power, photovoltaics, community-based projects, DIY, or preparing for a zombie apocalypse (or Public Safety Power Shutoffs)? You can find out more and get your copy at https://www.tocatchthesun.com
A new cooperative grant from the Bureau of Land Management to HSU will support graduate students working with Wildlife faculty member Dan Barton to study conservation of seabirds and the Trinidad Seabird Protection Network around Trinidad Head and Sue-Meg over the next three years.
Working with colleagues from four other institutions around the country, Wildlife faculty member Dan Barton co-organized and facilitated a workshop "Active Learning in the Wildlife Classroom: Engaging students beyond the field" with 30 participants at the annual meeting of The Wildlife Society in early November 2021.
INRSEP+ was recognized at the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) 20 years + recognition ceremony for continued excellence in mentoring. INRSEP was originally honored in the PAESMEM class of 2000.
A recording of the event can be seen here: https://paemst.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6880153236f96abb2f9e1d566&id=62477548be&e=5bd7670971
INRSEP is at 36.38.
Wildlife graduate student Janelle Chojnacki has received a grant from The Nuttall Ornithological Club to fund her research into the foraging behavior of common ravens, and their predator impact on the western snowy plover, a federally threatened bird. The project aims to address the causal factors related to increased raven abundance and proximity to plover nesting areas to provide conservation practitioners with useful information for identifying key areas to focus mitigation efforts. Results will be applicable to other prey species throughout ravens’ range in North America.
Chojnacki received the award working in collaboration with her graduate advisor, Dr. Barbara Clucas.
On October 28, Christina Hsu Accomando, professor of CRGS and English, presented an invited talk, "Critical Race Theory: A Vital Lens to Examine Systemic Racism," at the Bedford/St. Martin's WPA Workshop.
Stephen Nachtigall presented a solo exhibition of new works titled "Languisher" at the Morris Graves Museum of Art. The exhibition is open to the public from October 9th to December 12th, with an artist talk to take place on November 7th.
Amber Gaffney, Associate Professor of Psychology co-chaired a symposium titled Identity motives and the rationalization of polarization: Research, practice and a call for inclusive leadership and gave a talk titled To the victor belongs the spoils (the ability to fundamentally change political parties) at the Society for Experimental Psychology (SESP). Dr. Gaffney’s co-author for the talk was Lily Syfers, a Psychology Academic Research MA graduate who is currently completing a Ph.D. program at the University of Alberta. SESP is among the most prestigious and exclusive organizations in social psychology. Membership is by invitation only.
Dr. Rafael Cuevas Uribe (Fisheries Biology) has received a grant from the Western Regional Aquaculture Center to support a collaborative aquaculture project between HSU, Virginia Tech, and Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center, which aims to collect and assemble information on western aquaculture and distill it into easily accessible digital media forms.
Funding will enable Cuevas Uribe and a graduate student to collect farm-level data from fish farmers in California, and then produce at least one video vignette that highlights the farmers, their care for their animals, the commitment to environmental stewardship, and social responsibility.
Chris Aberson, Professor and of the Chair Department of Psychology, recently published a paper titled Building Interactive Tutorials for Teaching Psychological Statistics Online with learnr in Technology Innovations in Statistics Education. The paper provides a detailed guide for statistics instructors in developing interactive tutorials that include videos, quizzes, and space for running analyses using R. Dr. Aberson first presented as a workshop in 2019 for the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Dr. Bell recently gave an invited talk at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Title IX and Women's Athletics at Syracuse University in New York. Her talk, "When Black Women Athletes Enter, We Enter With Them," is an excerpt from her forthcoming book Sporting D.I.V.A.S. : Black Womanhood, Empowerment & Citizenship.
HSU Communication Professor Dr. Maxwell Schnurer and Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies Lecturer Ana Bernal received a $300,000 grant from the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women to support the continuation of the HSU Consent Project, a 9-year long campus program that aims to prevent and respond to sexual assault, dating and domestic violence.
Funding will directly support efforts to broaden the reach of the program’s prevention work, it’s team, and it’s capacity to support victims/survivors. It will also further the program’s capacity to offer restorative justice processes through Title IX.
Frank Fogarty (Wildlife) published a new paper demonstrating that observational data can be useful for predicting songbird nest sites in Ibis. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.13020
HSU Fisheries Biology Professor Dr. Darren Ward received a grant from the Cooperative Institute for Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Systems to support an ongoing research collaboration project between HSU, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Fisheries Ecology Division, and the California Coastal Area Office, NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region.
The project supports research and graduate student training related to habitat and conservation of federally-listed salmon, and allows for enhanced research efforts that complement NOAA Fisheries research and management information needs in northern California.
Jaese Lecuyer ('22) and Lauren C. Wieland ('20) and Dr. Troy Lescher (Theatre Arts) published the “Doctoral Projects in Progress in Theatre Arts, 2021” report for the Association of Theatre in Higher Education [ATHE].
President Tom Jackson, Jr. was named Highline College’s Distinguished Alumnus for the 2020-21 year." Read more about the recognition here.":https://thunderword.highline.edu/2021/09/30/distinguished-alum-found-hi…
The Lora Webb Nichols book has been shortlisted for the Paris Photo - Aperture Foundation PhotoBook of the Year.
Book curated and edited by Art Professor Nicole Jean Hill.
Dr. Deepti Chatti (faculty in Environmental Studies at HSU) presented her research at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health on September 30. Dr. Chatti's talk was titled "Taking community voices seriously in international development research".
As leading representative of the Geoscience Alliance, HSU’s Dr. Nievita Bueno Watts (Director, INRSEP+) is participating in a collaborative project with UC Berkeley, UArizona, and the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) to connect Native American students and programs through the National Science Foundation INCLUDES Alliance Project, “Broadening Career Pathways in Food, Energy, and Water Systems with and within Native American Communities” (Native FEWS Alliance).
Project collaborators include Dr. Alice Agogino, UC Berkeley; Dr. Karletta Chief, UArizona; Carrie Billy, JD, AIHEC; Dr. Diana Dalbotten, U Minnesota; Dr. Marco Hatch, U Western Washington.
HSU Wildlife Professor Dr. Micaela Szykman Gunther has received a grant from the Humboldt County Fish and Game Commission to support ongoing research into the diets of two local at-risk species, the Humboldt marten and fisher, and their predators. The project aims to analyze diet data to help inform land management practices that may benefit the two species, and to understand predator impact that will further help land managers and conservationists.
Project collaborators include Dr. Katie Moriarty (National Council for Air and Stream Improvement), graduate students Alyssa Roddy and Erika Anderson, and two undergraduate students.
Dr. Steinberg (Adjunct Professor, Geospatial Sciences) is one of a select group of State Department Exchange Program Alumni chosen to participate in the upcoming Thematic International Exchange Seminar (TIES) on “Environmental Diplomacy and its Impact on American Society”
In February 2022, alumni from across the United States will convene in Denver, Colorado to explore the economics of environmentalism with a focus on how to build new green infrastructure, transition to renewable energy, increase environmental justice, and support sustainable environmental practices that create new economic opportunities.
AmyK Conley published an article "Imagining the Future of Literacy Instruction in California" in the September 2021 issue of the journal California English.
Sophia Lemmo (Forestry graduate student advised by Lucy Kerhoulas and Rosemary Sherriff) gave an invited talk about the post-drought demographics of select true fir species in northern California at the Annual Meeting of the California Pest Council.
Lucy Kerhoulas (Forestry faculty), David Hammons (forestry undergraduate student), and Nick Kerhoulas (Wildlife faculty) published a paper in Northwest Science investigating bigleaf maple within-crown leaf morphology and seasonal physiology. Read the paper here: https://bioone.org/journals/northwest-science/volume-94/issue-2/046.094.0207/Bigleaf-Maple-Within-Crown-Leaf-Morphology-and-Seasonal-Physiology/10.3955/046.094.0207.full
William Weinberg (Forestry & Rangeland Resources undergraduate), Jessica Suoja (Forestry & Rangeland Resources undergraduate), Lucy Kerhoulas (Forestry & Rangeland Resources), Ryan Maberry (Forestry & Rangeland Resources undergraduate), Chris Lee (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection), Dave Baston (HSU Core Lab), and Susan Marshall ((Forestry & Rangeland Resources) published a "research paper":https://hsu.link/ZcR, "Phytophthora ramorum foliar infection reduces leaf-level productivity in tanoak and California bay: A pilot study from Redwood National Park," in Madroño. This study was featured by the National Park Service as a "Science Story":https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/sos-diseased-trees.htm and will be presented as a talk at the Society of American Foresters National Convention in November, 2021.
The North Coast Brass Ensemble (HSU faculty members Dan Aldag, Chris Cox, Ronite Gluck, and Fred Tempas, along with Tom Hyde) recently presented a live stream performance on Facebook, which has been viewed over 450 times. The performance can be seen at https://www.facebook.com/arcatapresbyterian/videos/537167707385791
Adhikari (ERE Faculty) and researchers from Texas Tech University recently published an article on design configuration and flow dynamics of Pond-In-Pond (PIP) wastewater treatment system for reuse. The findings showed that the PIP offers more advantage over traditional ponds and thus may be a potential alternative to existing treatment systems. For more information, please refer to:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2021.07.012
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2019.103523
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwpe.2020.101281
After 21 months of delays, James Floss, Lecturer Emeritus of the Communication Department and ERFSA member opened a successful production of Lucas Hnath’s A DOLL’S HOUSE PART 2, a Tony award winning play, at the Western Stage in Salinas, CA. The Western Stage is a program of Hartnell College: https://www.westernstage.com/studioplaybill
As COVID rules have allowed, Music faculty have returned to performing. Paul Cummings, Karen Davy, Daniela Mineva, and Garrick Woods participated in the Trinidad Bay Arts and Music Festival (as did alumna, Richard Rios, and current student, Makani Bright). The Arcata Bay String Quartet (Cindy Moyer, Karen Davy, Sherry Hanson, Garrick Woods) performed on the Opus Chamber Music Series in Mendocino.
Tani Sebro published the chapter “Tourism Otherwise? The Touristic Mobilities of South-South Travel” in Tourism Geopolitics: Assemblages of Infrastructure, Affect, and Imagination (University of Arizona Press, 2021); which was co-authored with her former student, Jordan Hallbauer, and based on ethnographic fieldwork with migrant travelers along the Nicaragua-Costa Rica and Thai-Myanmar borders.
Frank Fogarty (Wildlife) published a new paper on utilizing point count data to estimate the abundance of mobile animals in Ecological Indicators. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X21008359
Sophia Lemmo (MS student in Forestry) was awarded a $1500 scholarship from the North Coast Chapter of the California Native Plant Society for her study of regional forest mortality and regeneration.
Sophia Lemmo (MS student in Forestry) was awarded a $1000 Northern California Botanists Research Scholarship for her study of regional forest mortality and regeneration.
Joshua Frye (Communication) and alumna Samantha Stone (Environmental Studies) recently published a co-authored chapter in the Palgrave Handbook of International Communication and Sustainable Development. Frye & Stone contributed a case study examining the ideological framing of the global food sovereignty movement and juxtapose with global food policy convergence around food security. The book is a major resource for stakeholders interested in understanding the role of communication in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The handbook seeks to enrich understanding of communication for development and proposes crucial policy interventions.
Prof. Robert Cliver (History) published an article this week in the French journal Entrerprises et Histoire titled "Factory management in Chinese capitalist enterprises in the 1950s. The case of the Shanghai silk weaving industry labor-capital consultative conference." https://www.cairn.info/revue-entreprises-et-histoire-2021-2-page-36.htm?contenu=article
Gregg Gold, Psychology, and Co-PI Erick Eschker, Economics, along with Joshua Zender from Business have been awarded $465,000 from the State of California to evaluate, enhance, and promote legal, safe, and equitable innovation in the cannabis industry. This two-year project, which begins this fall, will open the door to those currently underrepresented in the cannabis industry who can then serve as role models and mentors for others in their community.
Christina Hsu Accomando, professor of English and Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, presented a June 17 Macmillan Learning webinar: "Teaching Ethnic Studies and Critical Race Theory during Pandemic, Protest and Backlash." In the wake of last year's global protests against systemic racism, we saw increased interest in structural inequities, as well as efforts to silence discussions of racism and ban Critical Race Theory. The webinar addressed how critical concepts from Ethnic Studies and CRT can inform classroom teaching and DEI work. https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/product/Race-Class-and-Gender-in-the-United-States-An-Integrated-Study/p/1319143652