Faculty Notes, Dec. 17, 2015

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Peter Atherton, DMA, associate professor, Conservatory of Music, College of Performing Arts, will direct Pacific Symphony’s Family Musical Mornings production of Pirates of Penzance in February at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa. This is Atherton’s fourth consecutive year directing productions for Pacific Symphony.

“The Onegin Gambit,” a short story by Mark Axelrod, Ph.D., professor, Department of English, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, will be translated and published in an upcoming issue of the Italian literary journal, Nuovi Argomenti. The story first appeared in Axelrod’s short story anthology Dante’s Foil & Other Sporting Tales published earlier this year.

Jennifer L. Bevan, Ph.D, professor, Department of Communication Studies, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, presented research at the November 2015 National Communication Association, Las Vegas, Nev., including: “Dominance/Control and Relationship Satisfaction in Romantic and Family Serial Arguments: A Dyadic Power Theory Interpretation,” and “You’ve Been on My Mind Ever Since”: A Content Analysis of Predictors of Attraction in Craigslist.org’s Missed Connections Posts.”

Wenshan Jia, Ph.D., professor, Department of Communication Studies, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, presented research at the November 2015 National Communication Association, Las Vegas, Nev., including: “New Perspectives of Communication Roles in Chinese Communities: From Physicians’ Weibo Use, Hong Kong Protests, Genetically Modified Food to Public Emergency Events” and “New Responses to Social Phenomena in Chinese Communities: From Political Protests, Heath Trends, Women’s Social Status to Memories of Yuanmingyuan and National Image.”

Jia was also recently interviewed by Wall Street Journal on the topic of expatriates and changing political attitudes.

Kerk F. Kee, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Communication Studies, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, presented research at the November 2015 National Communication Association, Las Vegas, Nev., including: “Teachers on Teaching Series: Honoring the Pedagogy of Karen Anderson-Lain and Leah Bryant,” “An Applied Framework to Understand, Conceptualize, and Increase Content Engagement on Social Media Platforms as Strategic Marketing in Higher Education,” “Social Media at Work: The Roles of Job Satisfaction, Employment Status and Facebook Use with Co-Workers” and “Water Conservation Messages in California: Towards a Typology of Individual and Complementary Message Strategies.”

Sara LaBelle, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Communication Studies, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, presented research at the November 2015 National Communication Association, Las Vegas, Nev., on the topic “The Development and Testing of a Health Specific Subjective Numeracy Measure.”

Jake Liang, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Communication Studies, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, presented research at the November 2015 National Communication Association, Las Vegas, Nev., including: “After Making a Decision: The Effect of Cognitive Dissonance on the Selection and Processing of Reviews,” “An Applied Framework to Understand, Conceptualize, and Increase Content Engagement on Social Media Platforms as Strategic Marketing in Higher Education” and “Water Conservation Messages in California: Towards a Typology of Individual and Complementary Message Strategies.”

Peter McLaren, Ph.D., professor and co-director, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice College of Educational Studies, received a Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of Chilecito on Nov. 3, in Los Sarmientos, Chilecito, La Rioja, Argentina. This is McLaren’s third honorary doctor degree with the others being the Universidad del Salvador, also in Argentina and the University of Lapland, Finland.

McLaren and Lilia D. Monzó, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Educational Studies, have been named honorary member /president, and vice president for the US, respectively, for the Center for the Study of Pedagogical Epistemology. The center brings academics together from across Latin America and is based in Cuba.

Michelle Miller-Day, Ph.D., professor, Department of Communication Studies, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, presented research at the November 2015 National Communication Association, Las Vegas, Nev., including: “Entertainment education videos as a persuasive tool for school-based substance use prevention intervention, keepin’ it REAL” and “Mothering in the 21st Century: Current Issues in Mother-Daughter Relationships.” Miller-Day was also honored at the conference with the association’s Bernard J. Brommel Award for Outstanding Scholarship or Distinguished Service in Family Communication.

Christopher J. Nicholas, DMA, assistant professor and director of bands, woodwinds and brass studies, Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music, College of Performing Arts, announced that his new book Paul LaValle: Conductor, Composer, Visionary will be published this spring by Lambert Academic Publishing (Saarbrucken, Germany).

Kyndra Rotunda, professor of military and international law and executive director of the Military & Veterans’ Law Institute, published the article “Military Sexual Assault and Harassment Reform: A Balanced Approach but What Ab out Veterans?” in the November 2015 issue of the magazine Orange County Lawyer. The article discusses recent reform – and proposes additional reform –   related sexual assault and harassment occurring in the Military.

Ramesh Singh, Ph.D., professor, Schmid College of Science and Technology, gave an invited talk titled “Use of Remote Sensing and Geophysical Techniques for Urban Planning” at the 5th International Conference on Civil Engineering and Urban Planning (CEUP 2015) held in Beijing, China, in October.

Also in October, Singh was invited by the Key Laboratory of Crustal Dynamics, China Earthquake Agency, Beijing, China, and gave a talk titled “Ground water Fluctuations, Gas Emissions and Land Surface Temperature: A Possible Link to Atmospheric Anomalies.” In November he attended 6th Multi Disciplinary Science Forum, organized by the US-JSPS Fellows Alumni Association, University of California, Davis, and gave a talk on “Growing Population and Atmospheric Pollution in the Most Densely Populated Region of the Earth.” He also attended General Assembly of US-JSPS Fellows Alumni Association held in November.

Suzi Soohoo, Ph.D., professor, and Peter McLaren, Peter McLaren, Ph.D., professor, College of Educational Studies, have been included as two of the 18 educators featured in the new book, Leaders in Critical Pedagogy: Narratives for Understanding and Solidarity (Sense Publishers).

Lisa Sparks, Ph.D., professor, and chair of the Department of Communication Studies, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, presented research at the November 2015 National Communication Association, Las Vegas, Nev., including: “The Development and Testing of a Health Specific Subjective Numeracy Measure.”

Riva Tukachinsky, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Communication Studies, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, presented research at the November 2015 National Communication Association, Las Vegas, Nev., including: “Relational and Interactive Aspects of Parasocial Experiences: PSI/PSR Revisited” and “The Effect of Primetime Television Ethnic/Racial Stereotypes on Latino and Black Americans: A Longitudinal National Level Study,” “Lessons about Romantic Conflict from Prime-Time Television: A Content Analysis” and “Parasocial Relationships and Actor-Character Incongruence: Vicarious Cognitive Dissonance Approach.”

Jennifer H. Waldeck, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Communication Studies, Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, presented research at the November 2015 National Communication Association, Las Vegas, Nev., including: “Moving Beyond the College Classroom: Embracing and Exploring Instructional Communication In New Contexts,” “Fostering Course Creativity with Instructional Technology,” and “Consulting That Matters: The Role of Communication Scholarship and Methodology in Practice.”

Waldeck also edited Consulting that Matters: A Handbook for Scholars and Practitioners published by Peter Lang Publishers.

McLaren and Lilia D. Monzó, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Educational Studies, have been named vice president of the Center for the Study of Pedagogical Epistemology Peter and honorary member /president and Vice President for the US, respectively, for the Center for the Study of Pedagogical Epistemology. The center brings academics together from across Latin America and is based in Cuba.

Miguel Zavala, Ph.D., associate professor, College of Educational Studies, was recently the keynote speaker at California State University, Fullerton’s Chicano/Latino Faculty and Staff Association, a campus-wide organization, presidential reception and banquet. Zavala was also recognized as Scholar-Activist of the Year by the organization.

Dawn Bonker

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