Latest Achievements

Anthropology students Spencer Mitchell, Jose Chavarria and Hannah Ritchey were awarded the Undergraduate Research/Creative Activity Fellowship by the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Their proposal is titled "Maya Political Interaction through Monumental Display” supervised by Dr. Cortes-Rincon.

David Franck from the anthropology department was awarded the Undergraduate Research/Creative Activity Fellowship by the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. His proposal is "GIS Analysis of the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project" supervised by Dr. Cortes-Rincon.

Sam Sonntag was elected Chair of the Research Committee on Language and Politics of the International Political Science Association at the IPSA World Congress in Madrid last July. She also presented a paper at the Congress entitled "The Political Economy of India's Linguistic Diversity," for which she had conducted field research while a Fellow at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies in New Delhi last spring.

Professor Noah Zerbe was elected chair of the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS). Founded in 1977, ACAS is the progressive caucus of the African Studies Association and campaigns to move U.S. policy in directions more favorable to African interests.

Dr. Alison Holmes, Program Leader for International Studies and Lecturer in Politics, has published a chapter 'Transatlantic Diplomacy and Global States' in a volume entitled, "Anglo-American Relations: Contemporary Perspectives," edited by Alan Marsh and Steve Marsh. The book, out soon, was published in London by Routledge.

Rollie Lamberson, emeritus professor of mathematics, is one of several co-authors of the paper, “Developing a Broader Scientific Foundation for River Restoration: Columbia River Food Webs, published in the _Proceedings of the National Academy of Science_. He is also author of "A Brief and Biased Look at Spatial Structure in Ecological Models: A Route to Individual-based Models," which recently appeared in _Natural Resource Modeling_. And, in January he will be giving an invited address, "Sustainability and the Crisis in World Fisheries," at the annual joint meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.

Professor of Sociology, Sing Chew, was invited to present some themes from his new book at the international conference, Dimensions of the Indian Ocean World Past 9th-19th Centuries, in Perth, Western Australia. The title of his paper was: The Southeast Asian Connection in the First Eurasian World System 200BC-AD500. He was also invited as an International Scholar by the National University of Singapore (NUS) under its University Scholars Program to give a public lecture. The title of his public lecture was Global Economic Crisis, Energy Shifts, and Climate Changes: Let World History be the Teacher of Life. He also gave a colloquium on early Southeast Asia to faculty and students of NUS.

Sharon Kahara and Walter Duffy along with colleagues Ryan DiGaudio (PRBO Conservation Science) and Rosemary Records (Colorado State University) published a paper in the journal "Diversity." The title of the paper is "Climate, Management and Habitat Associations of Avian Fauna in Restored Wetlands of California’s Central Valley, USA". The paper reports the results of a two-year study of avian diversity on restored wetlands in California's Central Valley. Restored wetlands support a large number of avian species; however, securing access to water in the drier southern valley is imperative to sustaining bird use and diversity.

Biology student Gregory Manata has received the 2013 Crellin Pauling Student Teaching Award from the CSU Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB). The $1750 award recognizes outstanding student teaching by California State University students in biotechnology.

Manata will be honored at the 25th Annual CSU Biotechnology Symposium Jan. 6 in Anaheim.

California Governor Jerry Brown recently named Lisa Perry, outreach specialist for the College of Natural Resources and Sciences, to the state's 9th District Agricultural Association, Redwood Acres Fair Board. Perry was education commissioner at the California Forest Products Commission from 2002 to 2007 and held multiple positions at Precision Printers from 1984 to 1997, including secretary and office administrator of inside sales. She is a board member of the North Coast chapter of California Women In Timber, Redwood Region Logging Conference and California Women for Agriculture and is a member of Forest Owners of California.

Professor of Music Eugene Novotney, recently returned from the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Austin, Texas, where he performed as a member of the PASIC All-Star Steelband. The performance featured Novotney’s recently published arrangement of Pan Army, which he performed in Trinidad, W.I. in 2010. Pan Army is the only authentic Trinidadian Panorama tune that has been published and made available for international distribution in the last decade. Novotney also serves as chairman of the PAS New Music Research Committee, and coordinated six showcase performances in Austin to honor the 100th birthday of composer, John Cage.

Lecturer Rose “Shoshanna” Anthony created and performed a collaborative dance tribute for Nawal El Moutawakel, the first Olympic Gold Medalist from Morocco, first woman Gold Medalist from all of Africa and International Olympic Committee (IOC) leader, as she was inducted into the International Hall of Fame of the International Women’s Forum in San Francisco on Friday, October 26, 2012. She was joined in this endeavor by her Ya Habibi Dance Company (including several HSU students and alumni) and a group of Moroccan style dancers led by Bay Area dance artist Hannah Romanowsky in a colorful and festive dance celebration.

Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Peg Blake was recently honored by NASPA, a leading association for the advancement, health and sustainability of the student affairs profession as a "2013 Pillar of the Profession" winner. Each year, the NASPA Foundation recognizes distinguished leaders, teachers and scholars in student affairs and higher education. Individuals are nominated as a Pillar by colleagues, students and friends. A gift of $2,500 is made in the nominee's name to the Foundation to support student affairs research and scholarship. Blake was one of 12 winners nationwide to receive the honor.

John Meyer served as Harrison McCain Visiting Professor with the Department of Politics and Social and Political Thought Program at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. During his three week October visit, he also presented a public lecture on "Automobility and the Politics of Freedom."

HSU Sociology student Rachelle Irby (’12) has received a 2012 Sustainability Leadership Award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), the national organization that advances sustainability in higher education.

Irby was granted AASHE’s “Student Research on Campus Sustainability” award for her graduate thesis entitled: “Student-Driven Energy Independence: A Case Student of Humboldt Energy Independence Fund” at the organization’s national conference Oct. 14-17 in Los Angeles. Irby’s winning paper provided an evaluative case study of the Humboldt Energy Independence Fund (HEIF), HSU’s student led-fund that supports projects to reduce the university’s environmental impact and energy consumption. Her thesis is available online through Humboldt Digital Scholar.

Alison Holmes - Program Leader of International Studies and Lecturer in Politics, gave two presentations at the International Studies Association - Western Region Conference in Pasadena October 19-21. The first was a pedagogy/active learning paper based on a comparative politics simulation she designed last year. The second was a roundtable discussion on Women in Politics.

Judy Warren, Regional Coordinator for Humboldt State’s new Regional Training Institute ─ Community Disaster Preparedness, is a finalist in the “Marigold Ideas for Good” contest, potential winner of a $5,000 grant to provide disaster preparedness courses at no cost to attendees.

Based in part on the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel film, the contest provides $5,000 grants to individuals above age 50 who have carried out innovative ideas for improving their communities and the world. Warren and colleague Linda Nellist formed the new Regional Training Institute via HSU’s Office of Distance and Extended Education. It addresses the significant need for disaster preparedness education for the residents of the five relatively isolated northwestern counties of California.

Lonny Grafman will co-facilitate the Epicenter Entrepreneurship in Undergraduate Engineering Education un-conference Oct. 1st, 2013 at Stanford Sierra Camp. http://epicenter.stanford.edu/

Professor Cliver gave a talk at the 13th Biennial Meeting of the Textiles Society of America in Washington, D.C. September 20. The talk, entitled "Politics and Production in China's Silk Industry during the Korean War (1950-1953)" was part of a panel on the effects of war on textiles and was well-received by the conference attendees.

Two HSU students (Dawn Albrecht, Masters Environment & Community) and Claudia Velasco (Geology BS) are the recipients of the first two RCTWG Internships through the State's Earthquake Country Alliance (ECA). These internships will provide $7000 to each of these students to work on earthquake/tsunami preparedness issues. Dawn will be working to promote wider ShakeOut participation in the RCTWG area, and also with vulnerable populations (elderly, disabled etc.) to create disaster plans and promote resilience. Claudia will be developing Spanish language versions of much of our material and helping to develop a Spanish outreach program. Claudia grew up in Fortuna in a bilingual home and has strong connections to the local Hispanic community. She is also completing a senior thesis project on the impacts of the 1964 tsunami in Crescent City.

Rae Robison, of the Department of Theatre, Film & Dance is directing the season opening, Humboldt Premiere of the 2010 Pulitzer prize nominated "In the Next Room" (or the Vibrator play) for Ferndale Repertory Theatre. The play revolves around a doctor who treats women's "hysteria," his neglected wife, their marriage and his patients.

The Humboldt State football team was recently featured in a NY Times article by HSU Alum Matt Krupnick ('98, Journalism) about its current season, and the administration's decision to continue funding football despite its cost, for the sake of campus and community morale: http://nyti.ms/Oom6JY.

Associate Professor C.D. Hoyle co-authored a paper in the journal "Classical and Quantum Gravity" with colleagues from the APOLLO collaboration:
"APOLLO: millimeter lunar laser ranging," T.W. Murphy, Jr., E.G. Adelberger, J.B.R. Battat, C.D. Hoyle, N.H. Johnson, R.J. McMillan, C.W. Stubbs and H.E. Swanson, Class. Quant. Grav. 29 (2012) 184005.

Judy Sears, Humboldt State University graduate student in the Social Sciences master’s degree program, Environment & Community, received the 2012 Mary Fran Myers Scholarship from the the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Sears attended the 37th Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop in July in Broomfield, CO and the following two-day Natural Hazards Mitigation Association Practitioners Meeting. The Mary Fran Myers Scholarship is awarded to “outstanding individuals … who are committed to disaster research and practice and who have the potential to make a lasting contribution to reducing disaster vulnerability.”

In 2011, Sears took part in the development of the Regional Training Institute-Community Disaster Preparedness (RTI) in the Office of Distance & Extended Education at HSU. RTI offers preparedness classes for the five northern California counties.

Both student athletes were named 2012 Collegiate All Americans for USA women's rugby. They were two of the twenty five collegiate players in the nation to be invited to travel to the women's national elite camp in Colorado this past summer. Aoibheann and Adriana played for HSU this last spring, when Humboldt made it to the sweet sixteen finals.

Dan Pambianco received the 2012 Fred S. Stabley Sr., District 8 Writing award for his feature article, "Remembering 9/11," a look back on the circumstances surrounding Humboldt State's football game the Saturday following the terrorist attack on its 10th anniversary. The visiting team's quarterback was a native of Afghanistan, and the game was one of only three played in the West Region that weekend.

Ronald L. Mize, Ph.D., in the Department of Sociology, was recently featured in the Columbia University Press's blog for a post on the federal election and immigration politics. The original post appeared at the Univesrity of Toronoto Press Publishing Blog at this link: http://utpblog.utpress.utoronto.ca/2012/06/28/author-footnotes-with-ronald-l-mize/.

The post on the Columbia University Press blog is here: http://www.cupblog.org/?p=7187

HSU economics major and 2012 Economic Fuel winner Alister Shirazi has been inducted into the Rotary Club of Southwest Eureka with an honorary one-year membership. Shirazi won the $5,000 Economic Fuel prize, which will help him expand his Arcata business “iPhone Surgeon,” a repair service for iPhone, iPod and iPad devices. He plans to open an Arcata storefront in the near future.

The Rotary Club of Southwest Eureka awards an honorary membership to one Economic Fuel winner annually. The organization awards $117,000 in seed capital each year to local college students who compete in the business plan challenge. Click on www.economicfuel.org.

Professor Jianmin Zhong in the Department of Biological Sciences has been awarded a $353,500 R15 grant from the National Institutes of Health. The title of Professor Zhong's project is Symbiotic Rickettsia Species as a Model System for the Study of Folate Biosynthesis.

Prof. Steve Martin published a peer-reviewed paper with former graduate student Kristen Pope titled, "The Influence of Hand-Held Information and Communication Technology on Visitor Perceptions of Risk and Risk-Related Behavior" in "Wilderness visitor experiences: Progress in research and management" Rocky Mountain Research Station-P-66. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.

William Wood was the winner of the “Most Likely to Change the World” award for his research commentary on The Academic Minute. This broadcast was part of Northeast Public Radio’s daily program on research from campuses around the world.

Lonny Grafman will be following up his presentation at the Bronx Museum of the Arts with a presentation at Poe Park in the Bronx, New York on the Flock House and a Dominican Schoolroom: Local Resources for Building Resilient Homes, Schoolrooms, and Communities.

http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/poepark/events/2012/07/27/flock-house-…

Yvan Delgado de la Flor, class of 2013 with a major in Wildlife Conservation & Management, is working with a faculty mentor to study Biotic Change in Declining Hemlock Forests.

The 11-week Harvard Forest summer research program, with funding from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and several universities, has been running for more than 20 years. Working with a faculty mentor, each student completes an independent project during the course of the program. Students then present their work at the annual research symposium.

HSU student Conor Handley is taking an educational leave for fall 2012 to run in the Peace and Dignity Journey 2012. Runners start simultaneously from both ends of the continent in Chickaloon, Alaska and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina traversing the Western Hemisphere by foot, from community to community and, joining together for a final gathering in Guatemala. The 2012 run is dedicated to water, reminding those who have forgotten that water is an important and shared resource for all.

Handley writes on his blog, "Whatever sacrifices I have made for this run now seem like a such a small price to pay for all the blessings and love that Ive received along the way. There are no words in this language to truly describe the magnificence of this land. Every stone, tree and withered elder is a library of unimaginable vastness. I feel like i could spend the rest of my life with every place we travel. But I know the day is coming when I will begin to learn the teachings my own people, my ancestors. The cultural genocide that has left me blind to my own traditions ends here. No prayer is ever left unanswered."

Learn more about this journey at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1568213893/peace-and-dignity-journeys-2012

Psychology Professor Chris Aberson was recently named Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology (JASP). Published by Wiley-Blackwell, JASP is devoted to applications of experimental behavioral science research to problems of society. Dr. Aberson joins JASP after completing a four-year term as Executive Editor of The Journal of Social Psychology (JSP). In honor of his service with JSP, Dr. Aberson was named Executive Editor Emeritus, making him the youngest person to ever hold an Emeritus title.

The work of Geography Dept. faculty member Monica Stephens was featured recently in an article in The Atlantic. In "Where Do the World's Tweets Come From?," associate editor Rebecca J. Rosen, explores new research that graphically depicts 4.5 million tweets and their geolocations captured in March 2012. For the full article, including the map of the world's tweets, visit "The Atlantic":http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/06/where-do-the-worl….

Emeritus Forestry Professor Larry Fox has completed a volunteer project investigating the death of more than 1500 people fleeing Libya across the Central Mediterranean using geospatial and remote sensing technology. Fox and researchers from the University of London produced a report on a particular case of migrants’ death involving 63 people, where the military and other actors failed to provide assistance to seafarers in distress.

The report was the basis for a legal case against France and may be used to file cases against other countries that participated in the 2011 military intervention in Libya. The full report is available at: http://www.forensic-architecture.org/homepage/fields/investigations/sea. The project was supported by GISCorps, which coordinates short term, volunteer-based GIS services to underprivileged communities.

Associate Professor in Wildlife Micaela Gunther co-authored a paper with colleagues from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute entitled, "Inbreeding Avoidance Influences the Viability of Reintroduced Populations of African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus)."

This research, published in the online journal PLoSONE, matched genetic data with behavioral observations to determine that African wild dogs employ a mechanism to avoid inbreeding. Combined with the isolation of wild dog populations, inbreeding avoidance can rapidly lead to the extinction of small and reintroduced populations of this endangered species.

Food Studies at HSU

Routledge, one of the leading academic presses, has published a book on food studies, co-edited by Professor Michael S. Bruner from the HSU Department of Communication:

"The Rhetoric of Food: Discourse, Materiality, and Power" edited by Joshua Frye and Michael S. Bruner New York and London: Routledge, May, 2012, ISBN 13: 978-0-415-50071-5 (hbk)

The book begins with a Foreword by Raymie McKerrow, the Editor of The Quarterly Journal of Speech, and contains fifteen chapters on all aspects of food studies, including a reprint of an historic chapter by Sir Albert Howard, the founder of the organic movement. Other chapters address diverse issues, including images designed to raise money to fight hunger, community gardens, the slow food movement, Michelle Obama's "Let's Move," and cannibalism.

In addition to Dr. Bruner, two other HSU professors are involved in this book project. Dr. Maxwell Schnurer has a chapter in the book on "greenwashing" and farm subsidies. Dr. Laura Hahn has a chapter in the book, comparing the organic movement to the vegetarian/vegan movement.

The book should be useful to HSU readers who are interested in Communication, food studies, Environment and Community, media influence, social movements, and related areas.

Learning Center staff members Donna Clark and Arianna Thobaben received national certification as Supplemental Instruction (SI) Supervisors following four days of training in Kansas City, Mo., in May 2012. The University of Missouri, Kansas City is where SI was originally conceived. This peer learning program has had a positive effect on student success in targeted Biological and Physical Science courses at HSU. Twenty-seven sections of SI will be offered Fall 2012 under Donna’s coordination. Visit http://www.humboldt.edu/learning/si/ for more information.

Humboldt State's women's ultimate disc team—the Humboldt Hags—finished a great season with a no. 8 ranking by USA Ultimate, a second place finish in regionals and a tie for 17th at the national level. The team was profiled in a recent edition of SkyD, a national magazine that covers the world of competitive ultimate disc. Read More at SkyD.

The Service Learning Center donated over $4,000 worth of food to Food For People, Humboldt County’s food bank, through its annual Meal Points Food Drive.

During the end-of-the-semester event, service-learning interns gather unused meal points from HSU students. This year, they collected over 300,000 points from students in the residence halls, at the “J”, the Depot and the HSU Bookstore.

The points will be used to purchase healthy protein options for the food bank.

Iris is a graduate student (class of 2012) presenting her research on oak woodland restoration at the Society for Ecological Restoration conference at UC Davis, May 15-17. The title of the presentation is "Landscapes in Transition: Private Lands Oak Woodland Management in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion." This research was a collaborative project between HSU, private landowners, and numerous agencies and organizations who are concerned about oak woodlands in this region.

Michael S. Bruner, Professor, HSU Department of Communication, received word from Delta State University in Nigeria that his article, “News Framing in the United States of the Violence in Jos, Nigeria,” appears in the Volume 4, Number 1 (April 2012) issue of the Journal of Communication and Media Research.

Bruner’s analysis compares news framing, especially culturally-embedded frames, in The New York Times and The Washington Post with news framing in several Nigerian newspapers. This study is part of the ongoing work in HSU’s Department of Communication on international and interculural communication.

Journalism lecturer Hank Sims has been chosen to serve as a judge for the annual Association of Alternative Newsmedia "AltWeekly" awards.

The Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) is an organization of 130 alternative newspapers and websites across the USA and Canada, and includes the Village Voice, the LA Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and many other respected alt-weekly newspapers.

Wildlife Chair Matt Johnson was nominated by the California State University to be featured on its (STEM)2 website, which highlights the science, technology, engineering and mathematics service-learning work of California State University faculty members. Johnson's service-learning course engages students in a local wildlife research project relevant to local land managers. (STEM)2 is a grant-supported initiative in the CSU that promotes student success in STEM disciplines. For more information, visit http://calstate.edu/cce/stem/.

Student volunteers from HSU’s Waste Reduction and Resource Awareness Program (WRRAP) helped collect over 80,000 pounds of electronic waste from more than 650 participants during the Humboldt Waste Management Authority's (HWMA) annual electronic waste collection event held April 28 at HSU. The e-waste was recycled through ECS Refining, which dismantles electronic waste in California and is certified by the Basel Action Network (BAN), an organization that monitors the environmental conditions surrounding e-waste exports. The annual event provides convenient, low-cost e-waste recycling for students and the public.

Graduate students Joshua Peterson and Michael Stobb with faculty members Ethan Gahtan and Bori Mazzag published a paper on a graph theoretical model for the posterior lateral line sensorimotor pathway of a zebrafish in PLoS ONE. To the authors' knowledge, it constitutes the largest and most complete identified neuron connectome model described in any vertebrate.

Assistant Geography Professor Matthew Derrick was selected as a grantee by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Eurasia Program Title VIII to participate in its “Summer Workshop in Quantitative Methods” in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, this June. As a participant in the workshop, which is designed to enhance training in quantitative methodology and increase familiarity with existing data sets among scholars of the region with policy-relevant interests, Derrick will further develop an in-progress article examining the territoriality of religious temples in Russia. His research will be considered for inclusion in the SSRC Eurasia Program Title VIII Policy Brief Series.

Matt Mitchell is a winner of Patricia O. McConkey Award for outstanding graduate thesis: A Comparison of Invertebrate Communities Occupying Spartina Invaded and Restored Salt Marshes of Humboldt Bay, CA.