Publications – CSUN Today https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu California State University, Northridge Thu, 28 Mar 2024 16:52:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.30 CSUN Prof’s Research Finds Evidence Homo Sapiens Were in Northwest Europe More Than 45,000 Years Ago, Years Before Neanderthals Disappeared https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/education/csun-profs-research-finds-evidence-homo-sapiens-were-in-northwest-europe-more-than-45000-years-ago-years-before-neanderthals-disappeared/ Wed, 14 Feb 2024 17:34:53 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=55113

A re-examination by CSUN anthropologist Hélène Rougier of bones first excavated in the cave site Ilsenhöhle beneath the castle of Ranis, Germany by archaeologists in the 1930s has contributed to the discovery that modern humans reached northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago, thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared.The cave site Ilsenhöhle beneath the castle of Ranis. Photo © Tim Schüler TLDA, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

A re-examination by CSUN anthropologist Hélène Rougier of bones first excavated in the cave site Ilsenhöhle beneath the castle of Ranis, Germany by archaeologists in the 1930s has contributed to the discovery that modern humans reached northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago, thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared.The cave site Ilsenhöhle beneath the castle of Ranis. Photo © Tim Schüler TLDA, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.


Sometimes it pays to go back to the beginning. In this case, a re-examination by California State University, Northridge anthropologist Hélène Rougier of bones first excavated by archaeologists in Germany in the 1930s has contributed to the discovery that modern humans reached northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago, thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared.

Hélène Rougier examining bone fragments. Photo courtesy of Hélène Rougier.

Hélène Rougier examining bone fragments. Photo courtesy of Hélène Rougier.

Rougier is part of an international team of researchers who have been able to document the earliest known Homo sapiens, or modern humans, fossils in central and northwest Europe. Their research reveals for the first time that those fossils were accompanied by markers — namely long blades made into points — for the Upper Paleolithic era known as Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ), which existed more than 45,0000 years ago.

Those same markers have been discovered at locations across Europe, from Moravia and eastern Poland to the British Isles, and can now be linked to an early arrival of small groups of modern humans in northwest Europe, several thousand years before Neanderthals disappeared in southwest Europe.

“Early modern humans were much more advanced than we typically give them credit for,” Rougier said, noting the discovery that Homo sapiens traveled as far as Germany in small groups indicates that they were sophisticated enough to be curious about what was beyond their usual territory and left the comfort of their “home” to see what was “out there.”

“We tend to think of them as ‘cavemen,’ primitive,” she said. “Yet, they used natural features, such as the overhang of a cave, to get protection from the elements; they lived in organized groups; and they understood their environment enough to get the foods they needed. They were sophisticated enough to choose some things over others, and they passed on tradition, like making tools in a certain way. So, yeah, they were a little more complex than we give them credit for.”

The results of the researchers’ discovery were recently published in three articles: “Homo sapiens reached the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago,” in the journal Nature and “The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo sapiens at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany” and “Stable isotopes show Homo sapiens dispersed into cold steppes ~45,000 years ago at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany” in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Stone tools from the LRJ at Ranis. 1) partial bifacial blade point characteristic of the LRJ; 2) at Ranis the LRJ also contains finely made bifacial leaf points. © Josephine Schubert, Museum Burg Ranis, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

Stone tools from the LRJ at Ranis. 1) partial bifacial blade point characteristic of the LRJ; 2) at Ranis the LRJ also contains finely made bifacial leaf points. © Josephine Schubert, Museum Burg Ranis, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

Rougier, who teaches in CSUN’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, is one of 125 researchers from around the world working together for more than a decade to explore prehistoric life in Europe, hoping to gain perspective on what human life was like before recorded history. Their disciplines span the spectrum, from biological anthropology and archaeology to biochemistry and genetics. The interdisciplinary approach provides an opportunity to bring new perspectives and raise questions that individuals in a particular specialty may not consider or be able to resolve.

The team’s latest efforts involve the cave Ilsenhöhle, located beneath the castle of Ranis in Germany. The researchers re-excavated the Ranis site to locate the remains of an earlier excavation that took place in the 1930s. They also wanted to clarify the stratigraphy and chronology of the site and to identify the makers of the LRJ points.

“One of the things that made this site so interesting in the first place was the fact that when it was first excavated, tools (the blades made into points as well as some finely made leaf points) were found,” Rougier said. “People didn’t really know how to characterize them. They didn’t know if it was the late Neanderthals who made them, or our early ancestors who arrived in Europe. Lots of people in different places in Europe have been trying to figure out who made those things. We were trying to figure out the answers to their questions.”

When Rougier’s colleagues got to the bottom of the original excavation, more than 26 feet below the surface, they found about five-and-a-half feet of rock their predecessors could not get past. After carefully removing the rock by hand, they found the LRJ layer and thousands of fragmented bones, including pieces that belonged to modern humans.

Rougier led a new analysis of bone fragments originally collected in the 1930s. Each fragment was examined individually in an effort to identify human remains.

Once 13 human skeletal remains from both the old and new excavations were identified, DNA was extracted and analyzed. Researchers were able to confirm that the fragments belonged to Homo sapiens. They also found that some of the fragments from both excavations belonged to the same individual or were maternal relatives.

“We were able to get DNA from the bones — we only have part of the DNA for now and are working on the rest — but there is one bone from the new excavation that has the same mitochondrial DNA as several of the bones originally found in the 1930s,” Rougier said. “It clearly shows the connection between the old and new excavations, and that those modern humans, with at least one person who was closely related to another, visited the cave on different occasions.”

Excavating the LRJ layers 8 metres deep at Ranis was a logistical challenge and required elaborate scaffolding to support the trench. © Marcel Weiss, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

Excavating the LRJ layers 8 metres deep at Ranis was a logistical challenge and required elaborate scaffolding to support the trench. © Marcel Weiss, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

By using radiocarbon dating, the researchers discovered that Homo sapiens sporadically occupied the cave as early as 47,500 years ago, thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared from Europe.

An analysis of the stable isotopes of animal teeth and bones found alongside the human fragments offered insight into the climate conditions and environments that the pioneering groups of Homo sapiens encountered around Ranis. Those early modern humans had to deal with a very cold continental climate and open, unforested, grassy landscape, similar to what is found in Siberia or northern Scandinavia today.

  “We’ve been able to show that our ancestors were really like explorers — they were mobile, they adapted to their environment, and they moved when the climate changed,” Rougier said. “We have to understand that when these Homo sapiens ancestors visited north central Europe, it was a very cold environment. They were originally from southern Europe, where the temperatures were much warmer, and the environment was much more hospitable. Yet, they still made the trip.

“As we examine those movements, I think it’s important to reflect on the fact that climate has always affected us,” she said. “Today, we’re trying to counter some of its impact using our technology, but we are still animals in the natural world — though, we’re advanced, technological animals. Climate is still around us and we are still dependent on nature. I think what we’ve learned so far about early modern humans can put things into perspective.”

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carmen
Faculty and Staff Achievements Fall and Winter 2023 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/community/faculty-and-staff-achievements-fall-and-winter-2023/ Thu, 08 Feb 2024 18:15:07 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=55077 The work of CSUN faculty and staff members is recognized in a variety of ways, including:

  • Funding from outside organizations to support unique programs and cutting-edge research facilitated on campus.
  • Publications of books or articles.
  • Professional awards.
  • Presentations at conferences.
  • Appointments and elections to governing boards.

Please use this link to announce your achievements for publication in CSUN Today.

Below is a list of the individuals whose work was recognized from November 2023 to January 2024.

Awards

Tigran Arakelyan (Music) is named among the Top 30 Professionals of the Year by Musical America Worldwide. Earlier this year, he earned a “40 Under 40” award in Washington’s 425 Business Magazine.

Irene Clark (English) received a Campus Initiative Fund Award titled “Literacy Narratives and Current Multicultural Perspectives.”

Maria Dunlap (English) won the 2023 Margaret Atwood Society award for Best Undergraduate essay — titled “Through Double Doors.”

Xóchitl M. Flores-Marcial (Chicana/o Studies) is now the chair of the Mexican Studies Section for the Conference on Latin American History which is part of the American Historical Association (AHA). She recently chaired the roundtable at the AHA annual meeting in San Francisco, “New Voices in Mexican Historical Studies,” and presented a paper at the same conference — on a panel titled “The Issue of Marriage and Family in the Colonial Iberian World: Representation, Consumerism and Survival.” She co-authored a recently published Digital Studies / Le champ numérique article, “Colonial and Nineteenth-Century Latin American Studies and Digital Public Humanities.”

Vanessa L. Martínez (Office of the Dean of Humanities) has been selected by the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education | NASPA Center for Women to receive the 2024 Ruth Strang Award. At the NASPA Annual Conference in March 2024, she will be presented with the award at the Center for Women/Womxn in Student Affairs Knowledge Community Alice Manicur Symposium Alum Reception.

Khanum Shaikh (Gender and Women’s Studies) received a 2024-25 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Award to pursue research for her current book project, “Moving Through Culture: Gender and Urban Transformation in Contemporary Pakistan.”

Danielle Spratt (English) along with co-project directors Nicole Shibata (University Library), Heidi Schumacher (Gender and Women’s Studies), Ellen Jarosz (University Library) and Melisa Galván (Chicana/o Studies) received a 2024-25 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Award for their project, “Blank Spaces in the CSUN University Library Archives.”

Mitchell Thomas (Finance), Certified Public Accountant, has been named a new audit partner for the Santa Barbara and Ventura-based accounting firm Nasif, Hicks, Harris & Co. LLP.

Brandy Underwood (English) has been elected to the executive committee of MELUS, the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, as project chair. She will serve from 2024-27.

Publications

Ryan Baylor, Sean Flanagan, Jacob Hinkel-Lipsker and Victoria Jaque (Kinesiology) recently published an article, “Older People Trip, Some Fall – A Program to Decrease Seniors’ Fall Risk.” It was published in the Strength & Conditioning Journal Vol. 45, No. 6, December 2023.

Jennifer Berry (Gender and Women’s Studies) recently had a piece published in Best Stage Monologues for Women 2023 by Smith and Kraus Publication, edited by Debbie Lamedman.

Danielle Spratt and Jennifer Sams (English) were featured in the “Remnants of Resistance” podcast by CSUN’s Queer Studies Program and the University Library Special Collections & Archives. The episode is titled “Queering the Page and the Nature of Disruption.”

Colleen Tripp (English) published two articles, “Empires of Extraction: Silver Field Ecologies and Eugenics in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s ‘Mexican Gothic’” in Studies in American Fiction, and “‘Coach, I Got a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore:’ Ted Lasso and the Heartland Mythos” in The Journal of American Culture. She also has a forthcoming article that’s scheduled to appear in the journal Nineteenth-Century Studies entitled “Ornamentalism and Spectacle Ethnography in Sui Sin Far’s ‘Mrs. Spring Fragrance.’

Svetlana Tyutina (Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures) recently published a bilingual book of short stories about the Mexican deaf community, Escuchar sin oír: Relatos del Silencio // Listening without Hearing: Tales of Silence.

George Uba (English) published a poem, “Full Service at J & S Shell,” in the New England Review, Vol. 44, No. 2. His poem, “Girl Receives Rose, a Narrative” was named a finalist for the 54th New Millennium Writing Awards.

Research and Sponsored Projects

Ravinder Abrol (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has received $71,862 from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in support of a project entitled “Targeting Brain-Metastatic Breast Tumors with HER3-Homing Bioparticles.”

Alyssa Arentoft (Psychology) has received $55,134 from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, in support of her project, “The Health and Aging Brain Study – Health Disparities (HABS-HD),” and $26,417 from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in support of a project entitled “Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI-4).”

Behzad Bavarian (Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management) has received $18,375 from the Savannah River National Laboratory, in support of a project, “Tank Bottom Corrosion Control Monitoring for Materials Technology & Energy Section.”

Annette Besnilian (Marilyn Magaram Center) and David Boyns (Community Health & Well-Being) have received $395,500 from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, in support of the project “CSUN CalFresh Healthy Living Program.”

Tiffani Brooks (Social Work) has received $20,061 from the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, in support of a project entitled “Mentored Internship Program.”

Robert Carpenter and Peter Edmunds (Biology) each received $145,556 from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in support of their project, “LTER: MCR IV: Long-Term Dynamics of a Coral Reef Ecosystem.”

Zhen Chai (Special Education) has received $248,606 from the U.S. Department of Education, in support of the project, “Project CREATE: Preparing Culturally Responsive Early Educators in Teacher Education,” and $119,065 in support of a project entitled “The Bridge Project: Bringing Early Childhood Special Educators and Behavior Interventionists Together Through Interdisciplinary, Evidence-Based Preparation to Serve Young Children with High-Intensity Needs.”

Thomas Chan (Psychology), John Valdovinos and Xiyi Hang (Electrial and Computer Engineering) have received $100,000 from the National Institutes of Heath (NIH), in support of a project entitled “NIH AIM-AHEAD PAIR,” and $100,000 from the NIH in support of a project entitled “Health Equity in Aging Congenital Heart Patients.”

Gary Chapman (Physics and Astronomy) has received $72,213 from NASA, in support of his project, “Studying solar irradiance variations using full-disk indices from continuum, UV, magnetic field and spectrographic data from ground- and space-based images ”.

Rafi Efrat (Bookstein Institute), Merav Efrat (Health Sciences) and Sara Berzenski (Psychology) have received $450,000 from the U.S. Department of Treasury, in support of a project entitled “The CSUN VITA Program.”

Maria Elizondo (Student Affairs) has received $80,904 from the Cal State Chico, in support of the project “CalFresh Outreach FFY 2022-24.”

Michael Eller (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has received $246,554 from the Brookhaven National Laboratory, in support of the project, “Angstrom Era Semiconductor Patterning Material Development Accelerator” and $141,158 from the Mayo Clinic, in support of a project entitled “Mass spectrometry for highly sensitive and sample-sparing analysis of extracellularvesicles in liver diseases.”

Brian Foley (Secondary Education), Virginia Oberholzer Vandergon (Biology) and Kellie Evans (Mathematics) have received $241,651 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “Extending and Enhancing the STEM Teacher Pipeline through a Community of Learners and Virtual Lesson Study.”

Holli Tonyan Gajadhar (Institutional Research) has received $30,000 from the California State University Chancellor’s Office, in support of the project “Building Transformational Cultures of Data Use for Student Success.”

Shu-Sha Guan (Child and Adolescent Development) has received $99,983 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “Establishing an Inter-institutional San Fernando Valley Collaborative to Improve STEM Transfer Student Support, Retention and Graduation.”

Nhut HoAmiel Hartman (Mechanical Engineering), Xunfei Jiang (Computer Science) and Kacie Blackman (Health Sciences) have received $77,596 from the Administration for Community Living, in support of a project entitled “Development of Semi-Autonomous Wheelchair and Socially-Aware Robot Health Aid to Encourage Community Participation for Persons with Low Mobility.”

Bradley Jackson (Electrical and Computer Engineering) has received $25,000 from the Aerospace Corporation, in support of a project entitled “Wideband Array Antenna with Digital Beamforming.”

Xudong Jia (Engineering and Computer Science, Office of the Dean) has received $800,000 from UCLA, in support of the project “Climate Action – Community-Driven Electric Vehicle Charging Solution (CA-CLEAN),” and $25,126 from Cal Poly Pomona, in support of a project entitled “Statewide Collision Data Analysis, Research Studies and Ranking Program.”

Jonathan Kelber (Biology) has received $129,526 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Spatiotemporal mechanisms of eIF5A1/2-mediated metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer.”

Jing Li (Mathematics) has received $90,343 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “Collaborative Research: Structured Population Dynamics Subject to Stoichiometric Constraints.”

Tyler Luchko (Physics and Astronomy), Ravinder Abrol (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Maria-Rita D’Orsogna (Mathematics), Rabia Djellouli (Mathematics) and Rachel Mackelprang (Biology) have received $730,520 from the National Science Foundation, in support of their project, “MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a High-Performance Computer Cluster for Computational Biology.”

Regan Maas (Geospatial Science and Technology) has received $100,000 from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in support of a project entitled “Geological and Geophysical (G&G) Dataset Improvement.”

Rachel Friedman-Narr (Special Education) and Flavia Fleischer (Deaf Studies) have received $249,415 from the U.S. Department of Education, in support of their project, “Project PRISM-Ed (Preparing a Pipeline for Recruitment and Retention of Social Justice and Equity-Minded Deaf Educators).”

Jennifer Pemberton (Strength United) and Merilla Scott have received $204,500 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of a project entitled “Campus Sexual Assault (CT) Program.”

Dianne Philibosian (Community Health and Wellbeing ) has received $67,730 from the San Fernando Community Health Center, in support of her project “Child Development Screening Referral Program with San Fernando Community Health Center and the Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing at California State University, Northridge.”

Bethany Rainisch (Health Sciences) has received $374,960 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), in support of a project entitled “MATAspire: Mental health Awareness Tailored App for Substance Prevention and Integrated Resilience Education.”

S.K. Ramesh (Engineering and Computer Science) has received $599,658 from the U.S. Department of Education, in support of a project entitled “Strengthening Equitable Culturally Responsive Environments (SECURE) for Student Success: Using a Servingness Model to Support Hispanic and Underrepresented Students.”

Nayan Ramirez (Criminology and Justice Studies) has received $45,551 from Northeastern University, in support of a project entitled “The Impact of Longitudinal Social Networks on Young Adult Substance Use and Misuse.”

Luca Ricci (Physics and Astronomy) has received $152,820 from the Space Telescope Science Institute, in support of his project, “Investigating the Disk-Planet Interaction in the HD 163296 System with JWST.”

Cristina Rubino and Loren Naidoo (Management) have received $267,571 from Social Policy Research Associates, Incorporated, in support of a project entitled “Evaluation Services for the Youth Jobs Corps Program in the City of Los Angeles.”

Emily Russell (Child and Adolescent Development) has received $102,857 from Jumpstart Inc., in support of her project, “Jumpstart Northridge,” and $293,037 from Brown University, in support of a project entitled “Scaling Student Support with Conversational Artificial Intelligence.”

Christoph Schaal (Mechanical Engineering) has received $40,000 from the Aerospace Corporation, in support of his project, “Concept Development and Feasibility Study for In-Space Inspection of Bonded Joints.”

Merilla Scott (Strength United) has received $26,265 from the City of Los Angeles, in support of a project entitled “Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Program,” $196,906 from the California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES), in support of a project entitled “Unserved/Underserved Victim Advocacy and Outreach Program,” $90,000 from CalOES, in support of a project entitled “Sexual Assault Response Team (XS) Program,” $3.5 million from Rising Communities, in support of a project entitled “Community Public Health Teams,” $377,804 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of a project entitled “CalOES RAPE CRISIS PROGRAM NW16” and $694,470 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of a project entitled “CalOES RAPE CRISIS PROGRAM VN16.”

Nyssa Silbiger (Biology) has received $29,608 from the Regents of the University of California, in support of the project “Sustaining and Expanding the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (SCCOOS)” and $694,470 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of a project entitled.”

Jolene Swain and Darlene Woo (Social Work) have received $18,004 from the Rancho San Antonio Boys Home Incorporated, in support of a project entitled “Mentored Internship Program (MIP).”

Maryam Tabibzadeh (Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management) has received $51,660 from UCLA, in support of her project “Extending Human Reliability Analysis Methods for Explicit Inclusion of Organizational Factors: Methodology and PRA Implications.”

Joseph Teprovich (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has received $40,099 from Sandia National Laboratories, in support of a project entitled “Synthesis of practical high temperature superconductors in hydrogen-rich materials.”

Samantha Toews and Fatmana Deniz (Special Education) have received $211,856 from the U.S. Department of Education, in support of a project entitled “Reconceptualizing Educator Preparation to Empower All Students through Culturally Sustaining and High Leverage Inclusive Teaching.”

Svetlana Tyutina and Daniela Salcedo Arnaiz (Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures) recently participated in the 2024 MLA Annual Convention in Philadelphia, in a roundtable, “Teaching Beyond University.” Tyutina organized the table and Salcedo Arnaiz presented “A Learning journey: 3 Experiences of Traveling and Studying Languages and Cultures.”

Ivor Weiner (Special Education) has received $385,620 from the California Department of Education, in support of a project entitled “Family Focus Empowerment Center,” and $326,682 from Heluna Health, in support of a project entitled “Community Navigator Program.”

Jenn Wolfe (Secondary Education) has received $25,000 from the Regents of the University of California, in support of a project entitled “CSMP Learning Acceleration Funds.”

Xu Zhang (Physics and Astronomy) has received $128,084 from the National Science Foundation, in support of the project “RUI: Exciton-Phonon Interactions in Solids based on Time-Dependent Density Functional Perturbation Theory.”

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CSUN Prof’s Research Efforts May Solve Solar Mystery in the Sun’s layers https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/media-releases/csun-profs-research-efforts-may-solve-solar-mystery-in-the-suns-layers/ Mon, 22 Jan 2024 18:43:19 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=54763

Using the world’s most powerful ground-based solar telescope, astronomers in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at California State University Northridge are one step closer to understanding one of the most enduring solar mysteries.

Captured images show the highest-resolution representations of the magnetic field of the so-called “quiet” surface of the sun. They reveal a new, complex, snake-like pattern of energy in the magnetic field, in addition to “loops” observed previously. Researchers collected ground-breaking data with the US National Science Foundation’s new Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) in Hawaii.

Small-scale magnetic structures of the ‘quiet sun’ at high resolution. Credit: DKIST

Small-scale magnetic structures of the ‘quiet sun’ at high resolution. Credit: DKIST

The analysis was carried out in partnership with an international group of experts from: the Queen’s University Belfast, UK; the National Space Observatory, USA; the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, USA; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany; Sheffield University, UK; Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary and CSUN.

There is belief among the international team of scientists that includes CSUN solar astronomer Damian J. Christian that the new discovery has implications for how we model energy transfer between the layers of the sun.

It might also help explain why the outermost layer of the sun (‘corona’) is millions of degrees, but the sun’s surface (‘photosphere’) is only about 6000 degrees, even though the opposite would be expected, according to Christian, co-investigator the project.

“Typically, you buy a cup of coffee, and it cools off after a while but here, you have some heating mechanism inside the sun that’s heating this outer atmosphere, and it’s just not important for the sun,” Christian said. “There are billions of stars that have a corona like our sun and they’re being heated by this or some type of magnetic waves.”

Previously, much of the research into the heat variations between the sun’s corona and photosphere has focused on “sunspots” – large, highly magnetic and active regions, often comparable to Earth in size – that can act as conduits for energy between the Sun’s outer layers, Christian said. However, for the new study, the team looked away from sunspots and focused on quieter regions of the sun.

These quiet areas of the photosphere are covered by convective cells called granules that are host to weaker but more dynamic magnetic fields than found around sunspots. Previous observations have indicated that these magnetic fields are organized in small loops, but researchers found a more complicated underlying pattern for the first time, with the orientation of these magnetic fields showing a “serpentine variation,” Christian said.

CSUN solar astronomer Damian J. Christian, left, discusses solar flare data with physics graduate student Menoa Yousefi. Photo by Ruth Saravia.

CSUN solar astronomer Damian J. Christian, left, discusses solar flare data with physics graduate student Menoa Yousefi. Photo by Ruth Saravia.

To measure the sun’s weak magnetic fields, he said, overly sensitive instruments are needed. Since the magnetic fields cannot be directly measured, researchers instead measured the imprint they leave on the light emitted in their presence. The magnetic fields polarize the light, generating signals that are less than half a percent of the size of intensity measurements. High-resolution observations are required to see this, which is where DKIST comes in.A key question, Christian said, is then, “how common serpentine magnetic-field configurations are and how far they can permeate into higher layer?, If we know this, we can assess their contribution to chromospheric heating. To do this, more observations are needed, like those possible with the DKIST.

“The sun is the most important astronomical object for humankind with solar activity driving space weather and having possible devastating effects on our technological grid and infrastructure,” Christian said. “This discovery is huge and will lead us closer to understanding one of the biggest conundrums in solar research.”

The research has been published in Astrophysical Journal Letters and was supported by research funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council which is part of UK Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020 and the NSF.

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Javier Rojas
Faculty and Staff Achievements Summer and Fall 2023 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/faculty-and-staff-news/faculty-and-staff-achievements-summer-and-fall-2023/ Wed, 18 Oct 2023 21:31:27 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=54147 The work of CSUN faculty and staff members is recognized in a variety of ways, including:

  • Funding from outside organizations to support unique programs and cutting-edge research facilitated on campus.
  • Publications of books or articles.
  • Professional awards.
  • Presentations at conferences.
  • Appointments and elections to governing boards.

Please use this link to announce your achievements for publication in CSUN Today.

Below is a list of the individuals whose work was recognized from June to October 2023.

Awards

Kiren Dosanjh Zucker (Accounting) won the American Bar Association’s ABA  Journal/Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction. She received the $5,000 prize for her short story “Memory of a Braid,” which addresses equal-employment opportunity laws and their limits. In 2021, Dosanjh Zucker’s first-person narrative “Lost in a Place Called Home,” was the basis for a Zoom production of the Los Angeles theater The Braid.

Publications

Zhaleh Semnani-Azad (Management) published an article with Academy of Management Proceedings entitled “American and Chinese Facework on tCMC in Organizational Contexts” and an article publication with Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Proceedings entitled “SocialDial: A Benchmark for Socially-Aware Dialogue Systems.”

Research and Sponsored Projects

Eduardo Amorim (Biology) received $342,644 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Characterizing Human-Pathogen Interactions and Natural Selection with Ancient DNA.”

Zhaleh Semnani Azad (Management) received $25,783 from Monash University, in support of a project entitled “Dialogue Assistance for Negotiations in Cross-cultural Settings: A Neuro-Symbolic Computational Approach.”

Annette Besnilian (Marilyn Magaram Center) received $650,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture, in support of a project entitled “Nutrition and Food Workforce Pathways for Underrepresented Students,” $161,210 from the Northeast Valley Health Corporation, in support of a project entitled “CIAO WIC Community Innovation and Outreach.”

Annette Besnilian (Marilyn Magaram Center) and David Boyns (Sociology)$30,000 from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, in support of a project entitled “CSUN CalFresh Healthy Living Program.”

Anna Bezryadina (Physics and Astronomy) received $10,000 from the California State University Office of the Chancellor, in support of a project entitled “Optical Studies of Microplastics with Optical Tweezers and Raman Spectroscopy.”

Kacie Blackman (Health Sciences) received $80,098 from Charles R. Drew University, in support of a project entitled “Augmented Reality Milk Flow.”

Melanie Bocanegra (Student Success), Shu-Sha Guan (Child and Adolescent Development), Dimpal Jain (Education Policy Studies), and Yolanda Salgado (Psychology) received $399,788 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “HSI Planning Project: CSUN START.”

Abdelaziz Boulesbaa (Chemistry and Biochemistry) received $496,562 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “CAREER – Ultrafast Dynamics of Vibrational Energy Transfer and Redistribution in Interfacial Water” and $25,000 from Pasadena City College, in support of a project entitled “Utilization of Undergraduate Research to Promote Equity and Completion in Micro Nano Technology Professional Workforce Education.”

Ana Cadavid (Physics & Astronomy) received $42,985 from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, in support of a project entitled “Participation in Characterizing the Physical and Dynamical Properties of Coronal Holes and Adjacent Quiet-Sun Regions Program.”

Gabriela ChaviraCarrie Saetermoe (Psychology), Patchareeya Kwan (Health Sciences), and Crist Khachikian (Civil Engineering and Construction Management) received $1,003,352 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “BUILD II,” $328,514 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “BUILD II,” and $1,008,236 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “BUILD II.”

Mariano Loza-Coll (Biology) received $147,500 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Genetic Interactions Among Targets of Master Regulator Genes as Drivers of Complex Behavior in Drosophila Intestinal Stem Cells.”

Claudia Toledo-Corral (Health Sciences) received $184,225 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Allostatic Load in Latino Youth (ALLY) study: The Role of Discrimination and Environmental Racism” and $31,829 from the University of Southern California, in support of a project entitled ” Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES).”

Karin Crowhurst (Chemistry and Biochemistry) received $108,750 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Synergy Between Acid Stress Chaperones HdeA and HdeB with Clients and Their Key Sites of Activity.”

Peter Edmunds (Biology) received $99,992 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “Collaborative Research: EAGER: The Next Crisis for Coral Reefs is How to Study Vanishing Coral Species; AUVs Equipped with AI May be the Only Tool for the Job.”

Rafi Efrat (Bookstein Institute) received $200,000 from the United States Department of Treasury, in support of a project entitled “The Bookstein Low Income Taxpayer Clinic” and $304,334 from the United States Department of Treasury, in support of a project entitled “The CSUN VITA Program.”

Maria Elizondo (Student Affairs) received $65,000 from California State University, Chico, in support of a project entitled “ECMC B.E.S.T. Program.”

Gilberto Flores (Biology) received $362,500 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Mechanisms and Consequences of Human Milk Oligosaccharide Growth and Bile Stress Across Diverse Strains of the Potential Therapeutic Bacterium, Akkermansia Muciniphila.”

Brian Foley (Secondary Education) received $114,912 from the Regents of the University of California, in support of a project entitled “SFVSP From Phenomena to Model (Ph2M).”

Myriam Forster (Health Sciences) received $331,875 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Supporting Student Health and Resilience.”

Shu-Sha Guan (Child and Adolescent Development) Yolanda SalgadoCarrie Saetermoe (Psychology), and Cindy Malone (Biology) received $463,576 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Educational Modules to Broaden Academic Research Cultures (EMBARC).”

Richard Heermance (Geological Sciences) received $187,835 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “Collaborative Research: RUI: Glacier Resilience During the Holocene and “Late Pleistocene in Northern California.”

Ray Hong (Biology) received $362,500 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Mapping of Chemosensory Neuron Function to Uncover Changes in Neuronal Fates.”

Daniel Hosken (Arts, Media, and Communication Deans Office), Elizabeth LeisterMark FarquharJoel KrantzNate Thomas, and Martin Jarmick Cinema and Television Arts) received $1,000,000 from the United States Department of Education, in support of a project entitled “Advancing Equity and Innovation in Entertainment and Information Media.”

Bradley Jackson (Electrical and Computer Engineering) received $25,000 from the Aerospace Corporation, in support of a project entitled “Systems, Subsystems, and Components of a Wideband Array Antenna with Digital Beamforming.”

Gregory Knotts (Elementary Education) received $330,000 from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, in support of a project entitled “Integrated Teacher Preparation Program Implementation and Expansion Grants.”

Claire Kravette (Religious Studies) received $85,723 from the Washington University in St. Louis, in support of a project entitled “The Persistence of Wild Religious Traditions: How the Handling of Misfortune Influences the Dynamics of Folk Religions.”

Amy Levin (Research and Sponsored Programs) received $92,000 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.”

Amy Levin (Research and Sponsored Programs) and Charlene Manzueta (Research and Sponsored Programs) received $49,000 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.”

Bingbing Li and Nhut Ho (Autonomy Research Center for STEAHM) have received $48,368 from the University of California, Irvine, in support of a project entitled “The Sustainable Manufacturing Alliances for Research and Training Industry Assessment Center (The SMART IAC)”.

Bingbing Li and Christoph Schaal (Autonomy Research Center for STEAHM) received $250,000 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in support of a project entitled “Consortium for High-volume Additive Manufacturing of Aerospace Heat Exchanger and Talent Development.”

Jacob Hinkel-Lipsker (Kinesiology), Stefanie DrewThomas Chan (Psychology), and Peter Bishay (Mechanical Engineering) received $16,000 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “RUI: Improving Motor Learning and Rehabilitation Via Experimental Bidirectional Dynamic Human-Virtual Reality Interaction System.”

Jason Lo (Mathematics) received $7,000 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “RUI: Symmetries, Stability, and Related Problems.”

Steven Loy (Kinesiology) received $21,274 from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, in support of a project entitled “3 WINS Fitness Physical Activity Classes.”

Gang Lu (W.M. Keck Computational Materials Theory Center) received $150,000.00 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “PREM: Partnership Between CSUN and Princeton for Quantum Materials.”

Tyler Luchko (Physics and Astronomy) received $50,000 from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, in support of a project entitled “Investigating the Effects of Low Ion Concentration on RNA Stability with Hybrid Monte Carlo and the Molecular Theory of Solvation.”

Kathleen Marsaglia (Geological Sciences) received $68,635 from Columbia University, in support of a project entitled “U.S. Science Support Program Office Associated with the International Ocean Discovery Program (USSSP-IODP).”

Jonathan Martinez (Psychology) received $181,250 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Co-Developing a Psychoeducational Mental Health Toolkit for Underserved Families to Navigate the Mental Health System.”

Dena Herman-Mendes (Family and Consumer Sciences) received $116,403.04 from the Office of Farm to Fork, in support of a project entitled “Produce Prescription Project: Ventura County WIC.”

Maosheng Miao (Chemistry and Biochemistry) received $701,943 from the United States Department of Defense, in support of a project entitled “Improving Design of Materials by Exploring and Utilizing Novel Chemistry.”

Majid Mojirsheibani (Mathematics) received $200,000 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “Predictive Models with Incomplete and Fragmented Observations, and New Advances in Virtual Re-Sampling for Big Data.”

Abhijit Mukherjee and Vinicius Maron Sauer (Mechanical Engineering) received $25,000 from the Orange County Sustainability Decathlon, in support of a project entitled “Orange County Sustainability Decathlon.”

Jennifer Pemberton and Kim Goldberg-Roth (Strength United) received $1,174,046 from the California Victim Compensation Board, in support of a project entitled ” Trauma Recovery Center Grant.”

Radha Ranganathan (Physics and Astronomy) received $108,750 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Intrinsic Curvature Induced Packing Heterogeneity and Non-Uniform Distribution of Cholesterol and Abeta Peptide in Lipid Bilayers.”

Kim Goldberg-Roth (Strength United) received $150,000 from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, in support of a project entitled “Master Agreement Work Order for SPA2 RVPC,” $530,198 from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, in support of a project entitled “Family Preservation – San Fernando Valley,” and $310,200 from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, in support of a project entitled “Family Preservation – San Fernando Valley.”

Michelle Rozic (Art and Design) received $15,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts, in support of a project entitled “Remaking the Discarded: Papermaking and Collaborative Installation.”

Yolanda Vasquez-Salgado (Psychology) received $181,250 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Investigating Cultural Mismatch and its Associations to Health and Academic Outcomes Among Latinx Students During the Transition to College: The Moderating Role of Education Context and Resilience.”

Yolanda Vasquez-Salgado (Health Equity Research and Education Center), Claudia Toledo-Corral (Health Sciences), and Shu-Sha Guan (Child and Adolescent Development) received $25,000 from the University of California, Los Angeles, in support of a project entitled “Cultural Mismatch “Gets Under the Skin”: An Investigation of Mismatch, Allostatic Load and Epigenetic Age During the Transition to College.”

Tohid SardarmehniVidya Nandikolla (Mechanical Engineering) and Mohammad Rasoul Narimani (Electrical and Computer Engineering) received $999,807 from the United States Department of Homeland Security, in support of a project entitled “Enhancing Border Security Using Heterogeneous UV Swarm with AI and Graph Theory.”

Vinicius Maron Sauer (Mechanical Engineering) received $199,993 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “ERI: Stretch Effects on Combustion Characteristics of Flames with Non-Uniform Curvature.”

Dong-Ning Sheng (Physics and Astronomy) received $140,000 from the United States Department of Energy, in support of a project entitled “Global Quantum Phase Diagram and Topological Superconductivity in Strongly Interacting Systems.”

Karin StanfordW Gabriel SelassieMarquita Gammage (Africana Studies), Danielle Bram (Geography and Environmental Studies), and Brianne Posey (Criminology and Justice Studies) received $189,186 from the City of Los Angeles, in support of a project entitled “Los Angeles Civil Rights Study on Reparations for African Americans.”

Csaba Toth (Mathematics) received $11,520 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “RUI: Optimization on Geometric Spanner Networks from a Combinatorial Perspective.”

Juana Maria Valdivia and Evelyn Garcia (Student Outreach and Recruitment) received $267,601 from the United States Department of Education, in support of a project entitled “Upward Bound – San Fernando Valley Northeast.”

Ivor Weiner (Special Education) received $113,948.64 from the North Los Angeles County Regional Center, in support of a project entitled “Van Nuys Family Resource Center and Library.”

Hui Xie (Recreation and Tourism Management) received $181,250 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Senior Centers and Older Adults’ Health Outcomes.”

MariaElena Zavala (Biology) received $21,686.00 from the American Society for Cell Biology, in support of a project entitled “Improving Diversity and Career Transitions through Society Support (ASCB IPERT Subaward to MariaElena Zavala, Co-PI).”

MariaElena ZavalaRay Hong, and Cheryl Hogue (Biology) have received $564,133 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, in support of a project entitled “Bridges to the Doctorate Research Training Program at CSUN.”

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CSUN Professors Raise Awareness For Environmental Justice in Chicana/o Communities https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/arts-and-culture/csun-professors-raise-awareness-for-environmental-justice-in-chicanao-communities/ Tue, 17 Oct 2023 18:32:09 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=54128

 The Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA) started in 1985 when a group of women organized to fight a proposal for the construction of a new state prison in their neighborhood. Their efforts were successful and the group has gained national recognition. The Mothers have become known for their advocacy and activism on behalf of issues that include protecting the environment, lead-poison awareness, water conservation, graffiti abatement and various other social issues

The Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA) started in 1985 when a group of women organized to fight a proposal for the construction of a new state prison in their neighborhood. Their efforts were successful and the group has gained national recognition. The Mothers have become known for their advocacy and activism on behalf of issues that include protecting the environment, lead-poison awareness, water conservation, graffiti abatement and various other social issues. Photo credit: Oviatt Library, Urban Archives Center.

Chicana/o communities have been fighting for civil rights for roughly 70 years. That fight has expanded to include environmental justice in the past two decades.

Hoping to spotlight the struggle, California State University, Northridge Chicana/o studies professors Mary Pardo, Rosa RiViera Furumoto and Stevie Ruiz continue to raise awareness to the issues they outlined in an article entitled “Environmental Justice in Chicana/o Communities” that appeared last year in the journal, Resilience: A Journal of Environmental Humanities.

“Our goal was to bring awareness not only to the conditions within Chicana/o communities, but also how those conditions affect society as a collective,” Ruiz said. “These communities have been placed on the front lines of having to fight for environmental justice in addition to their battle for civil rights.”

Ruiz pointed to the Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA) as one of the many Chicana/o groups that have taken on the burden of fighting environmental problems found in their neighborhoods.

“Living in tight quarters in communities with the poorest air quality and being regularly displaced is a never ending cycle for so many members of these communities,” he said.

MELA started in Boyle Heights in the mid 198os when the mothers successfully fought to fight the building of an incarceration center in their neighborhood. Its leaders have evolved the organization into one that takes on issues that bring harm to their communities, whether the construction of jails, freeways or oil refineries.

“The Black community was among the first to align civil rights with environmental justice in North Carolina years ago. The Mothers of East LA were following in their example,” Ruiz said, noting that pollution does not discriminate.

More recently, Ruiz said, Chicana/o communities have taken on increased development in their communities. These efforts have been led, he said, by a younger generation who are following in “their mothers’ footsteps.”

“This the longest standing model of activism,” he said. “Younger people are becoming more inspired by the wins of their elders and are getting involved. It’s similar to the tradition of Black activism, which is passed down through generations.”

While the efforts to fight for environmental justice seem community focused, Ruiz said their impact is felt across society.

“Many in the United States view Chicanos as a liability [to the environment],” he said. “In reality, they come to the United States with a certain level of cultural knowledge, tradition and respect in regards to nature and the environment, and they are applying that knowledge, those traditions, to fight the impacts of climate change and preserve their communities.

“Many of these people don’t consider themselves ‘environmentalists’ or ‘activists’,” he said. “They are just trying to save their neighborhoods, and in the process are passing down traditions to their children and grandchildren and training a new generation of environmental activists.”

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CSUN Psychologists Create Roadmap for Educators Who Strive to be Antiracist https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/education/csun-psychologists-create-roadmap-for-educators-who-strive-to-be-antiracist/ Tue, 12 Sep 2023 18:13:04 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=53755

CSUN psychologists Jose H. Vargas and Carrie L. Saetermoe have developed a “roadmap” for educators that takes them on the journey to become antiracist and play a part in dismantling the systemically racist structures that stand in the way of their students’ success. Image by tupungato, iStock.

CSUN psychologists Jose H. Vargas and Carrie L. Saetermoe have developed a “roadmap” for educators that takes them on the journey to become antiracist and play a part in dismantling the systemically racist structures that stand in the way of their students’ success. Image by tupungato, iStock.


As some states take measures to inhibit discussions about racism and its impact on society, educators across the country are struggling to find ways to create safe spaces where their increasingly diverse students can reach their fullest potential.

California State University, Northridge psychologists Jose H. Vargas and Carrie L. Saetermoe have developed a “roadmap” for educators that takes them on the journey to become antiracist and play a part in dismantling the systemically racist structures that stand in the way of their students’ success.

Jose H. Vargas

Jose H. Vargas

“We’re asking our colleagues across all areas of education, including ourselves, to walk the talk,” Vargas said. “It’s one thing to say you are not racist, but the reality is that we have all grown up and worked in environments that were designed to support and elevate one group of people over all other groups. Generation after generation has accepted exclusive, discriminatory practices ‘because that’s the way things are’ or because we shouldn’t upset the status quo, especially if it benefits us, or because questioning makes people uncomfortable.”

“It’s incumbent on us to understand why things are the way they are—to ask the hard questions of the system and of ourselves,” Saetermoe continued. “It’s important for us, particularly as educators, to do this, or else we are never going to get the society we profess we want for our students—a society where racism in all its forms truly does not stand in their way to success.”

Their recommendations, “The antiracist educator’s journey and the psychology of critical consciousness development: a new roadmap,” are laid out in the most recent edition of the journal Educational Psychologist.

Vargas and Saetermoe, who work in CSUN’s Department of Psychology and Health Equity Research and Education (HERE) Center, acknowledge in their paper that many educators are “unprepared for the daunting but requisite self-transformational actions the underlie the achievement of racial parity.”

“We hope the roadmap we lay out will help them on their journey,” Saetermoe said. “It recognizes the psychological toll the journey may take. It’s not an easy journey, but one, particularly educators, that we all need to take.”

“And it’s one that we are still taking,” Vargas added. “Antiracist education is a life-long commitment, as it ought to be given human history. Racism is insidious and mutates to adapt to the present generation. Educators have a duty to remain vigilant and active at all times.”

Carrie L. Saetermoe sitting outdoors

Carrie L. Saetermoe

In their paper, Vargas and Saetermoe identify 15 interconnected components of the journey across four phases of “self-liberation.” Those phases include awareness, deconstruction, reconstruction and praxis, or action or practice.

The pair based their roadmap on their experiences as social (Vargas) and developmental (Saetermoe) psychologists, as well as their individual efforts toward becoming antiracist educators and persons. They admit the journey can be difficult and involves self-evaluation, interpersonal conflicts, and an examination of systems and policies long taken for granted.

“The quest for antiracist realization parallels the quests of mythical and contemporary ‘heroes’ who achieve system change through self-transformation and reward,” Vargas said. “The reward is an ‘ecosystemic lens’ whose acquisition drives the conversion of racist educational ecosystems into antiracist alternatives.”

Vargas said it will take a lifetime to unlearn many of the crutches people use to excuse or ignore racist behavior, such as “they’re from a different generation,” “you shouldn’t disrespect your elders” or “trust that everything will work out in the end.”

 “Those are just excuses for people not saying or doing something when they hear or see something wrong,” he said. “It’s like the bystander effect. They don’t want to say anything because they are afraid of offending someone. But you can’t make change unless you say or do something.”

Vargas said the “cultural zeitgeist has reinvigorated conversations about systemic racism and it’s longstanding impact on education.”

“Educators confronting racism face challenges that can stifle their antiracism efforts,” he said. “Challenges are unavoidable facts of race consciousness development. Absent antiracist mentors and roadmaps, educators seeking to transform racist institutions are unprepared for the painful journey of self-liberation. Hopefully, our roadmap can provide a guide on their journey.”

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Psicólogos de CSUN Crean Una Hoja de Ruta Para Educadores que se Esfuerzan Por ser Antirracistas https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/education/psicologos-de-csun-crean-una-hoja-de-ruta-para-educadores-que-se-esfuerzan-por-ser-antirracistas/ Tue, 12 Sep 2023 18:12:37 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=53814

Los psicólogos José H. Vargas y Carrie L. Saetermoe de la Universidad Estatal de California, Northridge han desarrollado una “hoja de ruta” para los educadores que los lleva en el camino para convertirse en antiracistas y desempeñar un papel en el desmantelamiento de las estructuras sistémicamente racistas que se interponen en el camino del éxito de sus estudiantes.

Los psicólogos José H. Vargas y Carrie L. Saetermoe han desarrollado una “hoja de ruta” para los educadores que los lleva en el camino para convertirse en antiracistas y desempeñar un papel en el desmantelamiento de las estructuras sistémicamente racistas que se interponen en el camino del éxito de sus estudiantes. Foto de Belitas, iStock.


Mientras algunos estados toman medidas para inhibir los debates sobre el racismo y su impacto en la sociedad, los educadores de todo el país luchan por encontrar formas de crear espacios seguros donde sus estudiantes, cada vez más diversos, puedan alcanzar su máximo potencial.

Los psicólogos José H. Vargas y Carrie L. Saetermoe de la Universidad Estatal de California, Northridge han desarrollado una “hoja de ruta” para los educadores que los lleva en el camino para convertirse en antiracistas y desempeñar un papel en el desmantelamiento de las estructuras sistémicamente racistas que se interponen en el camino del éxito de sus estudiantes.

Jose H. Vargas

Jose H. Vargas

“Estamos pidiendo a nuestros colegas en todas las áreas de la educación, incluidos nosotros mismos, que caminen por la charla,” Vargas said. “Una cosa es decir que no se es racista, pero la realidad es que todos hemos crecido y trabajado en entornos diseñados para apoyar y elevar a un grupo de personas por encima de todos los demás grupos. Generación tras generación hemos aceptado prácticas excluyentes y discriminatorias ‘porque así son las cosas’ o porque no debemos alterar el statu quo, especialmente si nos beneficia, o porque cuestionar incomoda a la gente.”

“Nos corresponde a nosotros entender por qué las cosas son como son, hacer preguntas difíciles al sistema y a nosotros mismos,” continuó Saetermoe. “Es importante para nosotros, particularmente como educadores, hacer esto, o de lo contrario nunca tendremos la sociedad que profesamos que queremos para nuestros estudiantes: una sociedad donde el racismo en todas sus formas realmente no se interponga en el camino del éxito.”

Sus recomendaciones, “El viaje del educador antiracista y la psicología del desarrollo de la conciencia crítica: Una nueva hoja de ruta,” se presentan en la edición más reciente de la revista Educational Psychologist.

Vargas y Saetermoe, que trabajan en el Departamento de Psicología y en el Centro de Investigación y Educación para la Equidad en Salud (HERE) de CSUN, reconocen en su artículo que muchos educadores “no están preparados para las desalentadoras pero necesarias acciones de autotransformación que subyacen a la consecución de la paridad racial.”

“Esperamos que la hoja de ruta que trazamos les ayude en su viaje,” dijo Saetermoe. “Reconoce el costo psicológico que puede tomar el viaje. No es un viaje fácil, pero uno, particularmente los educadores, que todos debemos tomar.”

“Y es uno que todavía estamos tomando,” agregó Vargas. “La educación antirracista es un compromiso de toda la vida, como se le debe dar la historia humana. El racismo es insidioso y muta para adaptarse a la generación actual. Los educadores tienen el deber de permanecer vigilantes y activos en todo momento.”

Carrie L. Saetermoe

Carrie L. Saetermoe

En su artículo, Vargas y Saetermoe identifican 15 componentes interconectados del viaje a través de cuatro fases de “autoliberación”. Estas fases incluyen la concienciación, la deconstrucción, la reconstrucción y la praxis, o acción o práctica.

 La pareja basó su hoja de ruta en sus experiencias como psicólogos sociales (Vargas) y del desarrollo (Saetermoe), así como sus esfuerzos individuales para convertirse en educadores y personas antirracistas. Admiten que el viaje puede ser difícil e implica autoevaluación, conflictos interpersonales y un examen de los sistemas y políticas que se han dado por sentado durante mucho tiempo.

“La búsqueda de la realización antirracista es paralela a las búsquedas de los ‘héroes’ míticos y contemporáneos que logran el cambio del sistema mediante la autotransformación y la recompensa”, dijo Vargas. “La recompensa es una ‘lente ecosistémica’ cuya adquisición impulsa la conversión de ecosistemas educativos racistas en alternativas antirracistas.”

Vargas dijo que tomará toda una vida desaprender muchas de las muletas que la gente usa para excusar o ignorar el comportamiento racista, como “son de una generación diferente”, “no debes faltar el respeto a tus mayores” o “confiar en que todo funcionará al final”.

“Son sólo excusas para que la gente no diga o haga algo cuando oye o ve algo malo,” él dijo. ”Es como el efecto espectador. No quieren decir nada porque temen ofender a alguien. Pero no puedes cambiar las cosas si no dices o haces algo.”

Vargas dijo que el “zeitgeist cultural ha revigorizado las conversaciones sobre el racismo sistémico y su impacto de larga data en la educación.”

“Los educadores que enfrentan el racismo enfrentan desafíos que pueden sofocar sus esfuerzos contra el racismo,” él dijo. “Los desafíos son hechos inevitables en el desarrollo de la conciencia racial. Sin mentores y hojas de ruta antirracistas, los educadores que buscan transformar las instituciones racistas no están preparados para el doloroso viaje de la autoliberación. Con suerte, nuestra hoja de ruta puede brindarles orientación en su viaje.”

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Doubts About the Value of Economists’ Testimony May Have Cost Calif. Consumers $26 Billion, CSUN Prof Asserts https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/csun-leaders/doubts-about-the-value-of-economists-testimony-may-have-cost-calif-consumers-26-billion-csun-prof-asserts/ Wed, 09 Aug 2023 17:44:48 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=53540

CSUN business law professor Melanie Stallings Williams asserts that a judge's doubts about the value of testimony by economic experts may have cost California consumers $26 billion. Photo by Guillem de Balanzo, iStock.

CSUN business law professor Melanie Stallings Williams asserts that a judge’s doubts about the value of testimony by economic experts may have cost California consumers $26 billion. Photo by Guillem de Balanzo, iStock.


In the fall of 2022, a federal judge in San Diego threw out a class-action lawsuit against eight of the state’s major oil companies that alleged they conspired to fix gas prices in California, costing consumers and retailers more than $26 billion.

What stunned California State University, Northridge business law professor Melanie Stallings Williams was that the judge in the case of Persian Gulf Inc. v. BP West Coast Products LLC acknowledged there was evidence of conspiracies to raise prices. However, the judge still dismissed the lawsuit because she did not find testimony from the economists who substantiated the price fixing valid.

Melanie Stallings Williams

Melanie Stallings Williams

“I was shocked,” said Williams, who teaches in CSUN’s David Nazarian College of Business and Economics. “I wanted to get to the bottom of why she made a decision—even after finding that there was evidence of collusive conduct—that cost California consumers $26 billion and disproportionately impacted the poor and communities of color, who often don’t have much choice when it comes to buying gas.

“What it comes down to,” she said, “is that when it comes to testimony in antitrust cases, which this one was, judges are more likely to dismiss testimony by economic experts, even if those experts have won Nobel Prizes for their work in economics, particularly if they are testifying for the plaintiffs.”

Williams’ findings, “Daubert’s Mystery Surcharge: The Heavy Exclusion of Economic Expert Testimony in Antitrust Litigation,” were recently published in the legal journal Competition Policy International Antitrust Chronicle.

Williams said that in antitrust litigation—like the California case involving the oil companies—economic experts are “more likely to be challenged and their testimony is more likely to be excluded than is the testimony of another types of experts or even of economists testifying in other types of cases.”

“Further,” she said, “economic experts testifying for antitrust plaintiffs are far more likely to be challenged—with cases often resultingly dismissed—than are experts testifying for defendants in such cases.”

Defendants’ attorneys and judges often justify their decisions by citing a 1993 U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, designed to ensure that expert testimony is both relevant and reliable.

Williams pointed to a study that showed between 2000 to 2008, researchers found that while antitrust cases accounted for only 0.3 percent of federal civil cases, they accounted for 18 percent of the challenges made to economic experts. A large majority, 85 percent, of these challenges were to plaintiffs’ economic experts. Courts were far more likely to exclude plaintiffs’ economic expert testimony, with 40 percent of such experts having their testimony fully or partially excluded. By contrast, successful Daubert challenges to defendant economic expert testimony in antitrust cases during the same period was only 1 percent.

“The irony is that Daubert was intended to help judges discern between those experts who truly knew their subjects and those who were basically quacks,” Williams said. “Instead, it’s being used to dismiss testimony by some of the nation’s leading economic experts.”

Which is what happened in the Persian Gulf case, she said.

University of California, Berkeley economist Severin Borenstein, one of the nation’s leading experts on oil and gasoline market pricing and competition, identified a “mystery surcharge” in California gas prices in the 2010s that suggested anticompetitive collusion among the oil companies.

“California consumers have long paid higher prices for gasoline than consumers in other states. This is partly attributable to a constellation of factors, including governmental regulation, the lack of a gas pipeline to the state and consumer preferences,” Williams said. “However, even accounting for these and other factors, Borenstein identified a ‘mystery gasoline surcharge,’ an excess fee that could not otherwise be explained.”

Borenstein identified a spike in the surcharge in 2015 that cost California consumers $6.7 billion in that year alone. In the subsequent five years, Borenstein found that the surcharge cost Californians more than $26 billion, which he equated to more than $2,600 for every family of four in the state.

“It was obvious that lawsuits would follow and that there would be a class-action, antitrust lawsuit,” Williams said. “After years of back-and-forth in court, the federal district judge granted a motion for summary judgement dismissing the suit on the basis that Daubert challenges to the plaintiff’s economists left no triable facts. That surprised me, given that some of the top economists had identified the surcharge.”

Williams said she believes the problem was that the judge did not understand the economic testimony.

“The court struggled with how a conspiracy to reduce competition and fix prices could have begun in 2011 but not have resulted in significant priced effects until 2015,” Williams said. “This is a concept that would be viewed by economists as unarguable—collusive conduct and its anticompetitive results are not always, or even typically, synchronous—became a legal basis for dismissal.”

Williams said lawyers for defendants in antitrust cases, such the one involving the oil companies, capitalize on the complexities involved in economic expert testimony and often successfully argue to have such testimony excluded as being irrelevant and unreliable.

“It’s an easy argument to make,” she said. “While a plaintiff’s economic expert must establish a record of sometimes complex concepts and data that would support a judgement, a defendant’s expert must simply be able to cast doubt on the plaintiff’s theory. Muddying the waters is often easier that proving a case.”

Plus, Williams said, the subject matter can be challenging for people who entered a profession in hopes of avoiding dealing with complex math problems.

“It has often been observed that law students—who later become lawyers and judges—are smart people who hate math,” she said. “For a classic law student, one who majored in political science and avoided statistics, this would create predictable problems in analyzing economic issues. The same could be true for other disciplines, of course, but somehow there is a greater inclination to take an intuitive—and, quite possibly, incorrect—approach to economics that one would avoid in evaluating testimony on topics like chemistry, physics or biology. This may increase the risk that a court excludes economic expert testimony because of the court’s own faulty understanding of the topic.

“In this case, I think California consumers paid the cost to the tune of more than $26 billion,” Williams said.

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carmen
Achievements — May 2023 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/faculty-and-staff-news/achievements-may-2023/ Tue, 06 Jun 2023 18:39:43 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=53048 The work of CSUN faculty and staff members is recognized in a variety of ways, including:

  • Funding from outside organizations to support unique programs and cutting-edge research facilitated on campus.
  • Publications of books or articles.
  • Professional awards.
  • Presentations at conferences.
  • Appointments and elections to governing boards.

Please use this link to announce your achievements for publication in CSUN Today.

Below is a list of the individuals whose work was recognized in May 2023.

Research and Sponsored Projects

Alyssa Arentoft (Psychology) received $55,134 from the University of North Texas Health Science Center in support of a project entitled “The Health and Aging Brain Study – Health Disparities.”

Cheryl Van Buskirk (Biology) received $147,375 from the National Institutes of Health in support of a project entitled “Exploring the function and shedding of a potential C. Elegans Neuregulin.”

Nhut Ho (Autonomy Research Center for STEAHM) received $75,000 from Xtensor Systems Inc. in support of a project entitled “Partnership 2.”

Cristina Rubino (Management) has received $238,000 from the City of Los Angeles in support of a project entitled “Program Evaluation and Customer Satisfaction Surveys.”

Joshua Schwartz (Geological Sciences) received $26,000 from the California Department of Conservation in support of a project entitled “Geochronology of Southern California Plutonic Rocks.”

Maria Elena Zavala, Ray Hong, and Cheryl Hogue (Biology) received $655,597 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences in support of a project entitled “U-RISE Training the Next Generation of Basic Biomedical Researchers: A Holistic Approach.”

Awards

Karin Stanford (Africana Studies) received a Harvard University Fellowship at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research for Spring 2024.

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Faculty and Staff Achievements — February 2023 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/faculty-and-staff-news/faculty-and-staff-achievements-february-2023/ Mon, 20 Mar 2023 23:00:24 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=51994 The work of CSUN faculty and staff members is recognized in a variety of ways, including:

  • Funding from outside organizations to support unique programs and cutting-edge research facilitated on campus.
  • Publications of books or articles.
  • Professional awards.
  • Presentations at conferences.
  • Appointments and elections to governing boards.

Please use this link to announce your achievements for publication in CSUN Today.

Below is a list of the individuals whose work was recognized in February 2023.

Publications

George Uba (English), professor emeritus, published a memoir, “Water Thicker Than Blood,” from Temple University Press.

Research and Sponsored Projects

Damian Christian (Physics and Astronomy) received $64,805 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in support of a project entitled “Dunn Solar Telescope Observations in Support of the Parker Solar Probe Perihelia.”

Kyle Dewey (Autonomy Research Center for STEAHM) received $10,000 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in support of a project entitled “Proteus: A Programming Language for Developing, Testing, and Verifying Increasingly Autonomous Systems.”

Brian Foley (Secondary Education), Kellie Evans (Mathematics), and Virginia Oberholzer Vandergon (Biology) received $52,154 from the University of Oregon in support of a project entitled “Geogebra Institute Subaward for University of Oregon Western Regional Noyce Network.”

John GidesAmanda Harrison, and JC Lee received a College of Humanities Innovation Grant to support the Writing Ahead workshop series to support equitable writing pedagogy strategies for our students.

Kim Goldberg-Roth (Strength United) received $257,500 from the California Office of Emergency Services in support of a project entitled “AT – Child Abuse Treatment Program,” and $250,000 from the California Office of Emergency Services in support of a project entitled “CHILD ADVOCACY CENTER (KC) PROGRAM.”

Bradley Jackson (Electrical and Computer Engineering) received $25,000 from the Aerospace Corporation in support of a project entitled “Systems, Subsystems, and Components of a Wideband Array Antenna with Digital Beamforming.”

Regan Maas and Danielle Bram (Geography and Environmental Studies) received $3,000 from Polymath Geo Inc. in support of a project entitled “Earth Station Lab Project.”

Kerry Nickols (Biology) received $29,608 from the Regents of the University of California in support of a project entitled “Sustaining and Expanding the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (SCCOOS).”

Virginia Oberholzer Vandergon (Biology), Li Ye (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Matthew d’Alessio (Geological Sciences), Brian Foley and Norman Herr (Secondary Education) received $45,000 from the Regents of the University of California in support of a project entitled “San Fernando Valley Science Project ESSA.”

Jennifer Wolfe (Secondary Education) received $36,506 from the Regents of the University of California in support of a project entitled “Cal State Northridge Writing Project – CSMP.”

 

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