Our faculty members participate in conferences around the world, conduct groundbreaking research, and publish books and journal papers that contribute to their field and highlight their expertise. We feature those accomplishments and more in this section.
College of Arts and Humanities
Devon Tsuno, assistant professor of art, is currently exhibiting “Los Angeles River: Urban Reclamation” at the Santa Barbara City College Atkinson Gallery through Dec. 2. As an avid fisherman, Tsuno shares through his work his “embedded perspective” from the banks of the river, a “place where land and water meet.” His work emphasizes the importance of developing an “engaged and critical connection to the place in which we live.” Tsuno also visited Santa Barbara City College to share with students the influences that affect his artistic process, and covered such topics as installation, spray paint and acrylic, and screen printing.
Nancy Erbe, professor of the Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding, was cited in the book “The World Bank Legal Review: Fostering Development through Opportunity, Inclusion, and Equity” for her research that draws a link between good governance and mediation with a specific examination of her eight interdependent elements of good governance.
Matthew Greif, classical and jazz guitar instructor, and his group the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet played a concert at the University of Wyoming Oct. 21. The Grammy Award-winning group, which is “composed of four uniquely accomplished musicians” regularly plays sold-out shows worldwide and is recognized as one of America’s premier instrumental ensembles. Each year, the University of Wyoming Cultural Programs brings a variety of internationally recognized performers to campus.
Gilah Hirsch, professor of art, recently completed two artist-in-residencies: at the Academia Luciana’s Summer Art LAB in Civitella d’Aglioni, Italy, and in Slovakia as part of the International Painters’ Symposium. Her work was exhibited at the National Gallery of Slovakia in Dunajska Strede.
College of Education
Saili S. Kulkarni, assistant professor of special education, and her master’s student Carissa Hernandez, will present their research projects at the Japan-US Teacher Education Consortium (JUSTEC) at Ehime University in Japan, taking place Nov. 4-7. Kulkarni will be giving an oral presentation entitled “Towards a Critical Disability Studies Model in Special Education Teacher Education.” Kulkarni served as Hernandez’s thesis adviser for her Student Research Day 2016 poster presentation, “How Community Based Instruction Influences Social Skill Development in Middle School Students with Moderate to Severe Disabilities,” which Hernandez will present at the conference.
College of Health, Human Services and Nursing
Terri Ares, lecturer and Clinical Nurse Specialist program adviser, has published a feature article on her study “Comparing Clinical Nurse Specialist Students’ Socialization Based on Magnet Employment” in the November/December 2016 issue of the journal Clinical Nurse Specialist. Ares’ study examines if clinical nurse specialist students differ on measures of professional socialization based on employment in a Magnet-oriented hospitals. Ares found that Magnet students were more likely to be exposed to the clinical nurse specialist role in the workplace, and overall, that there were no group differences in socialization outcome measures; but in the subset of students with workplace exposure to the role, those with Magnet experience had higher professionalism self-concept scores.
College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences
Tieli Wang, assistant professor of chemistry and biology, and Amanda J. Picard and Adjunct Professor James M. Gallo, from the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, have published their research, “Histone Methylation by Temozolomide; A Classic DNA Methylating Anticancer Drug” in the July 2016 issue of Anticancer Research. Despite advances in multimodal therapies, gliomas, which account for approximately 80 percent of all malignant brain tumors, remains a cancer of poor prognosis. It is attributed to the aggressive nature of the tumor and the development of resistance to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Wang and her fellow researchers found that histone methylation status can also play an important role in the brain tumor resistance to the anticancer drug, temozolomide, a classic methylating agent. Their project is expected to contribute to the development of novel anticancer agents.
University Library
Carolyn Caffrey Gardner, information literacy coordinator and liaison librarian in the University Library, is a contributing author in the book “Critical Library Pedagogy Handbook,” which is edited by Nicole Pagowsky and Kelly McElroy. Gardner’s chapter, which she co-authored with Rebecca Halpern, is titled “At Odds with Assessment: Being a Critical Educator within the Academy.” A two volume set, the “Critical Library Pedagogy Handbook” is a guide to make “critical pedagogy more accessible for library educators,” by examining theory and practice that explores teaching for social justice.
Recent quotes and/or interviews in the media from faculty
Larry Rosen, professor emeritus and psychology professor, and Adam Gazzaley, professor of neurology, physiology, and psychiatry at UC San Francisco, were guests on the national radio talk show “The Diane Rehm Show” to discuss their research and theories in their book “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World” (MIT Press), which was published in September 2016.
Tyree Boyd-Pates, adjunct professor of Africana Studies, was featured on KPCC’s radio show “Take Two” in a self-narrated piece in which he shared his experiences growing up as a poor African-American child and the racial stereotypes that prevailed at the time, as well as such topics as how apathetic attitudes toward racism in the United States are still prominent today.
“Younger generations believe that they can multitask with anything and that is simply not true. What they rapidly discover is that they cannot do two tasks together as well as each separately, and, in fact, it adds another layer of stress to their already stressed lives raising children.” -Larry Rosen, professor emeritus and psychology professor, who was interviewed by Reuters “Health News” writer Lisa Rapaport for her article “Why parents are stressed out by their own smartphones.”
