Updates about the latest accomplishments—including latest research, publications, and awards—by students, faculty, and staff
Dr. Dallasheh participated in College and University Educators Workshop at the Council for Foreign Relations in New York, NY. The workshop brings together over 100 professors, from around the USA, who are teaching courses on or related to international relations and U.S. foreign policy, along with those from other fields who are interested in introducing global issues into their classroom.
Dr. Dallasheh presented a paper entitled "Despite the Nakba: Palestinian Nazareth in Israel" at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. The paper was a part of the Institute for Middle East Studies Annual Conference 2018 - Nakba: Past and Present.
Rosemary Sherriff (Geography) co-authored a new perspective paper titled "Advancing Dendrochronological Studies of Fire in the United States" in the new journal Fire. http://www.mdpi.com/2571-6255/1/1/11/html
Alum Michael Vernon (MS 2017) with Rosemary Sherriff (Geography), Jeff Kane (Forestry), and Phil van Mantgem (USGS) published a paper titled "Thinning, tree-growth, and resistance to multi-year drought in a mixed-conifer forest of northern California" in the journal Forest Ecology and Management.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2018.03.043
John Meyer will serve as an invited Visiting Scholar at the University of Reading Centre for Climate and Justice, UK, from May 21-June 9, 2018. While there, he'll work with the Centre's Ph.D. students and is also organizing a workshop on "everyday environmentalism and climate populism" to include presentations by Julian Agyeman (Tufts), Nancy Fraser (New School), Lisa Disch (Michigan) and Sherilyn MacGregor (Manchester).
https://research.reading.ac.uk/centre-for-climate-and-justice/
Roman Sanchez – HSU Theatre Arts Senior
At the National Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, held in Washington, D.C., Roman Sanchez was honored to receive the ASTEP scholarship - an all expense paid trip to attend the Artist as Citizen Conference at Juilliard this summer. He also received the National Arts Impact Award (Cash prize, all-expense-paid trip back to DC to speak on behalf of arts activism to Congress).
As a bonus he was able to be mentored by Deans of YALE's School of Theatre Management, Vicki Nolan & Kelvin Dinkins Jr., and have powerful, one-on-one conversations with Jane Alexander, David Saar, Jorge Huerta, Luis Valdez, and many other nationally-recognized lea
Students Alex Childers, Sarah Godlin and Hartford Johnson, and Librarians Brianne Hagen and Carly Marino presented "Researching the Redwoods: A New Approach to Archival Internships" at the Society of California Archivists' annual meeting in Yosemite.
Librarian Kyle Morgan and Instructional Designer Morgan Barker presented the poster “Publishing Simplified: A High-Impact Productive Disruption, Teaching the Publishing Process for Student Self-Efficacy” at the CSU Symposium + PolyTeach Joint Conference.
Librarians Kyle Morgan and Garrett Purchio presented their hands-on workshop “Students Lead the Learning: A Game Show Approach to Teaching Database Searching” at the CSU Symposium + PolyTeach Joint Conference.
Congratulations to our 2018 scholarship recipients in the Forestry and Wildland Resources Department! At the annual awards banquet, over $55,000 in scholarships were distributed thanks to the generosity of alumni and other donors. A new scholarship was created by the family of Allan Eugene Nilson, who taught for 14 years in the HSU Forestry department. The Nilson scholarship will support high-achieving students with financial need.
Special congratulations to Kristy DeYoung, recipient of the Professional Promise Award, and Mike Padilla, recipient of the Academic Excellence Award. Also congratulations to Dr. Kevin Boston, recipient of the student-selected Outstanding Faculty Member Award.
Dr. Ray was invited to give a public lecture, "Coming of Age at the End of the World: Eco-Grief and the Climate Generation," at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.
Spanish major, Jonathon Salinas, will present "Representation and Contributions of Latinas in the Gay Liberation Movement" at the UCLA Qscholars Undergraduate Research Symposium on May 18th.
As a queer person of color, Jonathon works to highlight narratives of underrepresented groups in the LGBT+ community to empower and engage his communities. Director at HSU's Queer Resource Center, activist and, community organizer, Jonathon organized Humboldt County's first ever inclusive Pride event to bring attention to the racism, ableism, misogyny, transphobia, and many other forms of exclusion that plague queer/LGBT+ spaces.
Geography professor Matthew Derrick delivered a conference paper presentation titled "Territorial Politics of Mosques in Post-Soviet Central Asia" at the Central Asia Fulbright Seminar for U.S. Scholars and Students, held April 9-12 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Derrick is currently spending his sabbatical year as a Fulbright Scholar based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Mark Hemphill-Haley is co-author on a recent publication in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America entitled "Onshore to Offshore Ground‐Surface and Seabed Rupture of the Jordan–Kekerengu–Needles Fault Network during the 2016 Mw7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake, New Zealand" It provides detailed observations of one of the most complex earthquake surface ruptures in history.
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/bssa/article/530021/onshore-to-off…
Savanna Schaffer was just appointed the president of the Redwood Coast chapter of the American Association of Zookeepers. She has been serving as Youth Assistant Keeper Program Coordinator at Sequoia Park Zoo for the past two years.
Suzanne Pasztor published two articles on Mexican history in Volume 74 of the Handbook of Latin American Studies, published by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress and University of Texas Press.
Ryan Hazen, Stephanie Osborne, and Zachary Weaver are the recipients of the English Scholarship for 2018.
Prof. J. W. Powell, Philosophy, will deliver an invited presentation to the North American Wittgenstein Society (NAWS) and the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association on March 28, 2018. The title is “Locke and Heraclitus on Whether Language Is Based on Convention.”
Locke says yes, “else there would be but one language amongst all humans.” Heraclitus says no, roughly because what makes sense for one must make sense for all. There is of course more to the story.
Former graduate student, Matt Brinkman, authored a paper in Wildlife Society Bulletin, co-authored with his graduate advisor, Mark Colwell. The paper describes a field experiment using Carbachol to condition Common Ravens to avoid eating quail eggs made to look like Snowy Plover eggs. While successful in the short term, ravens still ate real plover eggs in the area of the field experiment.
Dr. Armeda Reitzel presented her paper titled "The Star Spangled Story of the U.S. National Anthem" at the Popular Culture Association conference in Indianapolis, Indiana on March 28, 2018.
Prof. Janet Winston (English and Critical Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) presented research at the 27th Annual British Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies Conference in Savannah, Georgia on February 17, 2018. Her paper—“Rainbow Flags, Lizard People, and Me: Unpacking the Visual Rhetorics of Contemporary Antisemitism and Pro-Israelism”—examines how current forms of antisemitism, charges of antisemitism, and responses to antisemitism circulate in public discourse.
Emily Cobb recently returned from exhibiting her latest artwork in Sirens: New Work by the JV Collective during Munich Jewellery Week in Germany. Munich Jewellery Week is one of the most significant international events for contemporary jewelers, collectors, gallerists, curators and jewelry artists from around the world. Sirens is an interactive exhibition, and during opening night the podcast Percieved Value recorded several interviews in the gallery space. Listen soon at: https://www.perceivedvaluepodcast.com. The Sirens exhibition will travel to the Baltimore Jewelry Center in Maryland this April and New York City Jewelry Week in November.
Mark Hemphill-Haley (Geology) returned from two-week investigation of the 2016 M 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake, South Island, New Zealand. He joined HSU alumni Russ Van Dissen ('83) and Jessica Vermeer ('13 BS, '16 MS) and NZ researchers to investigate the deformation associated with more than 9 m (27 ft) of offset during the earthquake. The investigation involved trenching across the fault to assess fault structure and timing of previous earthquakes.
HSU's Soil Judging Team places 3rd in Region 6!
Humboldt State University's first Soil Judging Team braved snowy roads to travel to Butte College on Saturday, March 3 and placed 3rd in Team and Group categories. Team members Miles Ritch (Rangeland Resource Science), Monica Pina (Wildland Soils), and Yoselyn Ayala (Ecological Restoration) ventured into wet, muddy soil pits to evaluate soil textures, colors, and structures, then classified and rated soils for several land uses.
During the afternoon, hail and heavy rain-storms pummeled contestants from CalPoly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Fresno, Cal State Chico, and Humboldt State University. Thanks to Dr. Garrett Liles of CSU Chico for hosting the event. Region 6 of the Agronomy Society of America-sponsored contest includes universities from Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, New Mexico and Nevada, although only four teams from California competed this year. Teams from CalPoly SLO and CSU Fresno will compete at the National Competition March 18-23 at the University of Tennessee. The National Collegiate Soils Contest will hosted by CalPoly SLO in 2019.
Maral N. Attallah (Lecturer in the Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies Department) was honored as one of the keynote speakers for the 35th Annual Sonoma State University 2018 Holocaust and Genocide Lecture Series. Her lecture, “Armenian Genocide: Legacies of Denial” - was presented on March 13th in Warren Auditorium at Sonoma State University.
Professor of Art Nicole Jean Hill was invited by the Center for Prairies Studies at Grinnell College to be an artist-in-residence for the month of March. She is developing a series of photographs and animations about the ecology of the restored and remnant tallgrass prairies at the Conard Environmental Research Area in Kellogg, Iowa.
The Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will award Professor Marcy Burstiner a James Madison Freedom of Information Award March 27 in San Francisco for significant contributions to advancing freedom of information or expression. Burstiner will receive the Beverly Kees Educator Award for guiding students to harness the power of the California Public Records Act.
Undergraduate student Ely Boone received a second place award in the best science poster category at the 52nd annual American Fisheries Society Cal-Neva conference held in San Luis Obispo last week. Ely presented his summer 2017 research on environmental DNA, which he completed in the Rroulou'sik Program.
Christina Accomando co-authored the article "The Cynical Red Herring of Arming Teachers," with Kristin Anderson of the University of Houston. Posted in Psychology Today blog "Benign" Bigotry: The Psychology of Subtle Prejudice, Feb 28, 2018.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/benign-bigotry/201802/the-cynical-…
On March 8 at 7pm, Dr. Ray will be talking on "Coming of Age at the End of the World: Eco-Grief, College Students, and Climate Change" for the "My Favorite Lecture" series at the Plaza Grill in Arcata.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Claire Till was awarded an NSF Ocean Sciences grant in collaboration with a group at Texas A&M. The $116,500 grant to HSU will fund the analysis of samples taken along a transect from Alaska to Tahiti for a suite of trace elements.
Professor of Chemistry Joshua Smith was awarded a Fulbright scholar award to study triplet ground state aromatic compounds at Angstrom Laboratories, Uppsala University, Sweden during the 2018-19 academic year.
Associate professor of Geography Matthew Derrick presented a paper titled "Mosques and Monumentality in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan" at the South and Central Asia Fulbright conference, held in New Delhi, India, February 26-28. Derrick is currently a Fulbright scholar based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Karen Kiemnec-Tyburczy (Lecturer, Biological Sciences) and co-authors recently published a peer-reviewed article entitled "Genetic variation and selection of MHC class I loci differ in two congeneric frogs" in the journal Genetica.
This article is "in press" and available online at: https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10709-018-0016-0
Wildlife students Korinna Domingo and Ximena Gil's abstract was accepted for the Aquarium of the Pacific's Citizen Science for Conservation in Southern California Symposium (March 24th). They will be presenting a Lightning Talk titled, ‘Using citizen science to estimate frequency of latrine site usage along tributaries of Humboldt Bay by North American river otters.’
Wildlife undergraduate student Korinna Domingo’s abstract was accepted for the Wildlife Society Western Section Conference in Santa Rosa, CA (Feb 5-9th). She presented a poster titled, ‘Informing local government regarding wildlife activity in a recreational area through inexpensive and noninvasive trail camera methodology.’ See the poster here: bit.ly/TrailCameraPoster
Through his work with research scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Jacob Partida recently published his first co-authored article in a scientific journal. The article “The Changing Nature of Shelf-Break Exchange Revealed by the OOI Pioneer Array” can be found in the most recent volume (31) of Oceanography.
Dr. Alison Holmes - International Studies, Loren Collins - ACAC, and Morgan Barker - Academic Technology will present a poster at the 20th Annual CSU Symposium on University Teaching, Cal Poly Pamona PolyTeach 2018, titled “Career Curriculum as a ‘Classic’ Productive Disruption: utilizing Canvas to assess student learning mastery in a cross-disciplinary model” on April 13 & 14, 2018. The objective of the project was to develop a model that would facilitate the dissemination of the collaborative ACAC/CAHSS curriculum and feedback/assessment mechanisms, allowing faculty to customize content, while enabling closer connections between students, faculty, career staff.
Graduate student Keith Parker's abstract was accepted and he was awarded a travel scholarship for the NSF/AAAS Emerging Researchers Network Conference in Washington D.C. (Feb 23-24) to present his thesis research, 'Evidence for the genetic-basis and inheritance of ocean- and river-maturing life histories of Pacific Lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) in the Klamath River, California.' Parker will also present at the American Fisheries Society CAL-NEVA annual meeting March 1 in San Luis Obispo, CA.
Kezia Rasmussen received a Siering/Wilson Research Endowment award to conduct exploratory data analysis on her own microbiome. She will use contemporary data science techniques in this analysis. Her faculty mentor is Kamila Larripa (Mathematics).
Humboldt State University's Range Plant Identification team placed 1st in the U.S. and 3rd overall in a contest during the Society for Range Management Meetings in Reno, Nevada. Deedee Soto, HSU Botany major with a range minor, placed 5th in the individual category. Coached by lecturer/NRCS Rangeland Specialist Todd Golder, team members include Corina Godoy, Amanda Albright, Deedee Soto, Eric Bo Garcia, Michael Rada, Sarah Nolan, Melissa Chase, Tess Palmer, Sierra Berry, Miles Ritch, SRM President Larry Howery, Thomas Mendoza, Darren Pinnegar, Abigail Price, Don Hijar (Pawnee Buttes Seed, Inc.), and Todd Golder. These students practice plant identification skills in RRS 475 Advanced Study of Range Plants, offered every semester.
The team owes much to HSU's excellent range and botany courses, including the Agrostology course (BOT 354) offered alternate years.
In addition, Professor Susan Edinger Marshall was interviewed and approved as a candidate for the 2018-2019 ballot for the SRM Board of Directors.
Four FWR & ESM undergraduate students (Forestry: Alex Gorman & Joey Wright; ESM: Chelsea Obeidy & Holly Powell) coauthored a peer-reviewed journal article with forestry faculty Pascal Berrill & Christa Dagley on field research at HSU's L.W. Schatz Tree Farm: "Variable-density Retention Promotes Spatial Heterogeneity and Structural Complexity in a Douglas-fir/Tanoak Stand" published in Current Trends in Forest Research.
Yoon Kim (Mathematics), Christa Dagley & Pascal Berrill (Forestry) coauthored a peer-reviewed article in the journal Restoration Ecology: "Restoration thinning enhances growth and diversity in mixed redwood/Douglas-fir stands in northern California, USA."
Jenn Tarlton has been recognized as the National Association of Interpretation Region 9 Interpreter of the month. It was posted in the Feb 2018 edition of Further WestWinds which will be available here: https://nairegion9.wordpress.com/member-services/further-westwinds-archive/
The HSU Student Veterans Association was awarded $2,000 from the national SVA organization to cover travel costs to the SVA national convention in San Antonio, Texas. The club will be sharing photos, videos, and live broadcasts for the entirety
of the trip and the conference in an effort to recruit more students and benefit the community.
Fisheries graduate student Grace Ghrist was awarded the Council on Ocean Affairs, Science & Technology (COAST) Graduate Student Research Award. This award will support Grace’s research looking at how freshwater habitat use affects marine survival of threatened coho salmon.
Prof. John Powell, Philosophy, will present an invited paper 28 March in San Diego at the North American Wittgenstein Society's session of the Pacific Division American Philosophical Association. The paper aims to clarify the issue of whether language is conventional and sides with Heraclitus in claiming the currently widely-endorsed conventionalism is baseless and empty and supported by a tissue of begged questions. The paper also surveys stakes involved for current accounts of language as signs. with a fair amount of name-dropping. A draft will be posted to the APA Pacific Division Program website.
Rosemary Sherriff, Geography faculty and chair, has two new publications in disturbance ecology. (1) A co-authored article on bark beetle impacts on socio-ecological systems in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (January 2018, volume 16, doi: 10.1002/fee.1754). (2) A co-authored chapter on deciphering the complexity of historical fire regimes in the co-edited book: Dendroecology: Tree-ring Analyses Applied to Ecological Studies (2017, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61669-8_8).
Mark Colwell and Allie Patrick published a (Dec 2017) paper in Wader Study, an international journal dedicated to the ecology and conservation of shorebirds. Their work summarized a 12-year dataset on breeding Snowy Plovers in Humboldt County and showed that plovers nest in loose aggregations, especially when population size increase.
ESM graduate student Monique Silva Crossman was awarded the Council on Ocean Affairs, Science & Technology (COAST) Graduate Student Research Award. This award will support Monique's research that explores the effects of manual and mechanical Ammophila arenaria removal techniques on coastal dune plant communities and dune morphology.