Dozens of California State University, Northridge faculty, staff and students filled the Delmar T. Oviatt Library’s Jack and Florence Ferman Presentation Room ready to learn about compelling research at CSUN’s 6th Annual Research Fellows Colloquium on Oct. 14. Nine faculty members from the Research Fellows Program presented topics ranged from fluid flow in an aneurysm, to masculine man caves.

Some of the presented research focused on learning new ways to solve health problems that many deal with, such as Ben Yaspelkis’ research on seeking nutritional approaches to treatments that may improve Type 2 diabetes. Others’ research took a deeper look into issues in our community, like Susan Auerbach’s critical examination of how parent trigger laws and corporate reform in K-12 schools are being represented in the media.

“The Research Fellows Program is important in that it allows faculty to pursue what they love to do,” said Marianne Afifi, former associate dean of library operations and the moderator for the event. “It lets them take the time and use the funding to contribute to their own research community as well as showcase the variety of academic work to the CSUN campus.”

After each speaker gave their 10- to 12-minute presentations, they all sat on a panel and answered questions from the audience about their research.
The colloquium was created and is funded collaboratively by the Office of the Provost, the colleges and the Oviatt Library.

The Research Fellows program is a competitive program, available to all tenured and tenure-tracked faculty. Selected fellows are given the opportunity to pursue and conduct research or creative works during the school year. The program, founded in 2007, initiates a more vibrant research focus for the campus, spotlighting the diversity of research and mentoring new scholars.

Other faculty who presented their research were: Martha Escobar (Chicana/o Studies), “Criminalization of Latina Migrants and the Construction of Irrecuperability”; Vibhav Durgesh (Mechanical Engineering), “Fluid Flow in an Aneurysm”; Maia Beruchashvili (Marketing), “Mancaves and Masculinity”; Ellen Jarosz (Special Collections and Archives) and Steve Kutay (Digital Services), “Creation of the Guided Resource Inquiry (GRI) Tool”; Alexandra Monchick (Music), “Opera as Film”; and Scott Plunkett (Psychology), “Cross-cultural Comparisons on Parenting Related to Academics and Mental Health.”

Annual Research Fellows Colloquium