University Reports

Charleata Battle

Charleata Battle (Management) was an organizer, moderator, and co-presenter for a paper development workshop, “Deciphering the Relationships of Co-Creation: Author, Reviewer, and Editor Roles in Peer Reviews,” at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management in Chicago, IL, on Aug. 10, 2024. Her abstract, “Unveiling Disparities: Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology Among Black Women in the United States,” was presented at the 2024 World Congress of Epidemiology in Cape Town, South Africa, Sept. 23-27, 2024. In addition, she was a reviewer for the 2024 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Expo in Minneapolis, MN, Oct. 27-30, 2024.

David Blekhman

David Blekhman (Technology) attended the U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen Program’s 2024 Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation Meeting in Arlington, VA, on May 6-9, 2024. At the meeting, Cal State LA was highlighted for teaming up with Southern California Gas Co. to offer development and training opportunities for the emerging and existing workforce in the hydrogen industry through the Hydrogen Education for a Decarbonized Global Economy (H2EDGE) initiative. The university was also mentioned as one of the hydrogen projects funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program.

Michele Bleuze

Michele Bleuze (Anthropology) co-organized a session, Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Subterranean, at the 89th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in New Orleans, LA, April 17-21, 2024, and presented two papers: “An Important Cave Skeletal Assemblage Sees the Light of Day: A Reanalysis of Dos Pilas,” coauthored with James Brady (Anthropology), and “An Examination of Vertebral Osteoarthritis in Victims from Midnight Terror Cave, Belize,” coauthored with former Cal State LA graduate student Amy Chan. Bleuze also presented a poster, “New Observations on Ancient Maya Ceramic/Textile Composites: A Technological, Conceptual and Contextual Re-Appraisal,” coauthored with Melanie Saldaña (Anthropology), at the meeting.

Stanley M. Burstein

Stanley M. Burstein (Emeritus, History) delivered the 2024 Association of Ancient Historians—Mommsen Gesellschaft Lecture online, entitled “A Road Not Taken: Cornelius Gallus and the Failure of Augustus’ African Policy,” on Nov. 2, 2024. 

Choi Chatterjee

Choi Chatterjee (History) was featured on a podcast, New Books Network, about her book, Russia in World History: A Transnational Approach, on May 15, 2024. The New Books Network is a consortium of author-interview podcast channels dedicated to public education.

Carolyn Dunn

Carolyn Dunn (Theatre and Dance) had her play, The Flybread Queen, premiere in New York through the support of the American Indian Artists, Inc. The theatre production, which was presented from April 27 through May 12, 2024, delved into an intergenerational conflict sparked by the death of a man who held significant roles in the lives of four Native American women.

Kenneth R. Herold

Kenneth R. Herold (University Library) presented his work in progress on “Information Heroism,” an invited festschrift chapter dedicated to Professor Emeritus Archie Dick of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division, in San Diego, CA, on June 20, 2024.

Barry Hibbs

Barry Hibbs (Geography, Geology, and Environment) delivered the following presentations: “Underground storm drains in urban watersheds—an important, and often ignored factor in urban watershed hydrogeology”; with C. Bautista and L. Alwood, “Hydrogeologic inputs to emerging wetlands on the shores of the receding Salton Sea, California”; and with A. Camarena and M. Drummond, “Groundwater imprint on the hydrochemistry of the Upper Los Angeles River above Sepulveda Basin,” at the Annual Meeting of National Groundwater Association in Las Vegas, NV, Dec. 10-12, 2023. He also presented with C. Bautista, “Identifying water sources at Bombay Beach wetlands, Coachella Valley, California,” at the 8th Interagency Conference on Research in the Watersheds on the theme of “Adaptive Watershed Science and Ecosystem Management in a Changing Climate” in Corvallis, OR, June 5-8, 2023.

John M. Kennedy

John M. Kennedy (Music) had his EP musical recording, “Equinox,” released on Sound Set Recordings in July 2024. The recording features James Ford (Music) on a solo trumpet composed by Kennedy, entitled “Mnemonic Meditations, Book 1.” These pieces were composed in 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd murder and the subsequent protests worldwide. The movements are dedicated to George Floyd, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Michael Brown.

Steve LaDochy

Steve LaDochy (Emeritus, Geography, Geology, and Environment) presented the following papers: “It Ain’t Necessarily So: Biases in Climatology,” at the annual meeting of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers in Arcata, CA, Oct. 3-5, 2024; “Heatwaves in Southern California,” at the Fall College Workshop for College Meteorological Instructors Organization at the Irvine Valley College, CA, on Oct. 18, 2024; and “Los Angeles’ Urban Heat Island and Its Diminishing Tree Canopy,” at the Pollution Control and Climate Mitigation Conference at Cal State LA on Oct. 24, 2024.

Allison Mattheis

Allison Mattheis (Applied and Advanced Studies in Education) has teamed up with the Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder to develop ADVANCEing FieldSafety, a free online course that provides researchers with tools to promote safe and inclusive field environments. Mattheis is a collaborator on the ADVANCEing FieldSafety program and a co-principal investigator on the NSF-funded ADVANCEGeo Partnership that addresses harassment and exclusionary behaviors in the geosciences.

Sarah Minslow

Sarah Minslow (English) presented a paper, “Playing with Time in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” on the Jewish Literature Panel at the Children’s Literature Association Conference in Madison, WI, May 30-June 1, 2024.

Emilie Royer

Emilie Royer (Physics and Astronomy) delivered a presentation, “Titan Ultraviolet Archive for Airglow Emissions,” at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco, CA, Dec. 11-15, 2023.

Lauri Scheyer

Lauri Scheyer (Emerita, English) presented the following keynote lectures: “Delayed Recognition and African American Ecopoetics,” at the 10th International Symposium on Ethnic Literature in Harbin, China, June 14-16, 2024. She was also invited to present a lecture, “The Responsibilities of the Black Poet: The Example of Calvin C. Hernton,” at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Annual Convention in Kansas City, MI, Feb. 10-14, 2024, and served as a panel chair on Calvin C. Hernton and A.B. Spellman at the Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture After 1900 in the University of Louisville, KY, Feb. 19-24, 2024.

Henry D. (Hank) Schlinger, Jr.

Henry D. (Hank) Schlinger, Jr. (Psychology) delivered a presentation, “A Mediational Theory of Equivalence Relations,” at a proseminar held in the Department of Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, in May 2024.

Lisa Sueki & Tasha Willis

Lisa Sueki and Tasha Willis (Social Work) joined a group of seven graduate students in the School of Social Work in attending an academic conference known as Cuba TIES (Trends in International Education and Sustainability). The group represented Cal State LA as part of an international delegation to Cuba. They convened for five days in October 2024 for this people-to-people intercultural program, which fosters relationships between people and institutions.

Katherine Weiss

Katherine Weiss (Arts and Letters) presented a discussion about playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett prior to the Beckett’s HAUNTINGS film screening event at the Libros Schmibros Lending Library in Boyle Heights on Oct. 30, 2024.

Gabriela Fried Amilivia

Gabriela Fried Amilivia (Sociology/Latin American Studies) coauthored a research article, “Fifty Years of Secrecy: The Politics of Oblivion and Perpetuation of the Dictatorship’s Impunity in Contemporary Uruguay,” in the special edition of American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 68, no. 12, 2024. The special edition is part of a collection about the tools contemporary autocrats use around the world to usurp power within democracies, which was also featured in Scientific American on Sept. 23, 2024.

Charleata Battle

Charleata Battle (Management) coauthored an article with P. Howell and A. Aryal, “Examining the Impact of a Quasi-Virtual Internship on Undergraduate Career Preparedness and Team Dynamics,” in the Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching & Learning, July 8, 2024.

Roberto Cantú

Roberto Cantú (Emeritus, English/Chicano Studies) authored an article, “An Interview with Novelist Joe Rodríguez: The Vietnam War Beyond the Wire,” in the TRANSMODERNITY: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, vol. 11, no. 2, spring 2024.

Raul Diaz Jr.

Raul Diaz Jr. (Biological Sciences) coauthored an article, “The respiratory system influences flight mechanics in soaring birds,” in the Nature journal, no. 630, June 12, 2024.

Tiffanie Ford-Baxter & Kendall J. Faulkner

Tiffanie Ford-Baxter and Kendall J. Faulkner (University Library) coauthored an article, “Teaching undergraduates to develop concise and compelling scholarly communication through storytelling,” in the Reference Services Review, vol. 51, no. 1, 2023. This past spring, it was selected as one of the top 20 best library instruction articles for 2023 by the American Library Association’s Library Instruction Roundtable.

Alice Marianne Fritz

Alice Marianne Fritz (Communication Studies) coauthored an article with A.M. Smith, entitled “Marketing higher education on YouTube: A content analysis of college promotional videos,” in the Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Sept. 10, 2024.

Barry Hibbs

Barry Hibbs (Geography, Geology, and Environment) coauthored an article with C. Bautista, L. Alwood, and M. Drummond, entitled “Hydrogeologic and Hydrochemical Inputs to Emerging Wetlands on the Shores of the Receding Salton Sea, California,” in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association, vol. 60, no. 3, 2024. He also coauthored an article with C.J. Eastoe and M. Merino, “Issues of bias in groundwater quality data sets in an irrigated floodplain aquifer of variable salinity,” in the Geosciences Journal, vol. 14, no. 66, 2024. He also coauthored with J. Sharp and R. Green, “Biases in hydrogeological data and effects on hydrogeologic system conceptualization,” in the Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, vol. 55, no. 6, Oct. 17, 2023.

Manisha Javeri & Zarka Ali

Manisha Javeri and Zarka Ali (Applied and Advanced Studies in Education) coauthored the following articles: “Design Thinking as an Instructional Design Approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI) Course Development” and “Canvas Learning Analytics: Assessing a Service-Learning Course in Educational Technology,” in the Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning, Brussels, Belgium: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, Sept. 4, 2024.

Minas Michikyan

Minas Michikyan (Child and Family Studies) coauthored the following articles: with K. Subrahmanyam, P. Regan, M. Bessaha, J. Bartholomew, M.A. Cano, A. Meca, and S.J. Schwartz, “Identity distress, confusion, synthesis, and social media use for coping: Implications for identity development,” in Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, Aug. 18, 2024; with B.L. Zamboanga, B. Ramarushton, H. Blumenthal, L. Thompson, L.S. Ham, J.B. Bartholomew, S.J. Schwartz, A. Harkness, K. Subrahmanyam, P. McClain, and P. Regan, “Business as usual? Drinking games participation before and during an academic pandemic (COVID-19) year among university students,” in the Journal of American College Health, Jan. 29, 2024; and with B. Ramarushton, B.L. Zamboanga, K. Walukevich-Dienst, L. Thompson, E.L. Griffith, H. Blumenthal, P. McClain, J.B. Bartholomew, P. Regan, A. Harkness, and M.A. Cano, “The more, the merrier! A multilevel latent class analysis of college students’ drinking game behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic,” in the Translational Issues in Psychological Science, Aug. 22, 2024.

Sarah Minslow

Sarah Minslow (English) authored two book chapters: “Double Consciousness and Liminality in Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter” in the volume, Liminal Spaces in Children’s and Young Adult Literature, eds., Mark I. West and Kathy Merlock Jackson, Lexington Books, March 29, 2024; and “Exploring the Effects of Asian Stereotypes and Exclusion in the Multiethnic Literature Classroom” in Race in the Multiethnic Literature Classroom, eds., Cristina Stanciu and Gary Totten, University of Illinois Press, Sept. 10, 2024.

Henry D. (Hank) Schlinger, Jr.

Henry D. (Hank) Schlinger, Jr. (Psychology) coauthored an article with E. Blakely, “A mediational theory of equivalence relations and transformation of function,” in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, vol. 122, no. 2, Aug. 8, 2024.

William C. Wong

William C. Wong (Social Work) authored a research chapter, “Critical Praxis Using A Foundational Model: An Ecological Synthesis of Research of Organizational Factors on Public Child Welfare Workforce Retention and Turnover,” in the recently-published fifth volume of Child and Family-Service Systems: Compendium of Policy and Practice, 2024.

Kathy Cooke

Kathy Cooke (Honors College) secured a $195,161 Institutional Impact Grant from the Educating Character Initiative, as part of Wake Forest University’s Program for Leadership and Character and with support from Lilly Endowment Inc. Through the grant, the Honors College at Cal State LA will partner with Tuskegee University to enhance the understanding, integration, and education of character within both institutions’ undergraduate curricula and programs.

Patrick K. Day

Patrick K. Day (Student Affairs and Enrollment Management) was reappointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to serve on the California Student Aid Commission. Since 2022, Day has served as vice chair on the commission, which is the principal state agency responsible for administering financial aid programs for students attending public and private universities, colleges, and vocational schools in California. The announcement was made on Nov. 15, 2024. 

Berenecea Johnson Eanes

Berenecea Johnson Eanes (President) has been elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) for the 2024-2026 term. CUMU is an international organization of universities in large metropolitan areas that share common understandings of their institutional missions and values and commitments to improving the social, economic, and cultural well-being of their surrounding communities. Eanes’ board appointment was announced during the CUMU presidents’ council meeting at the annual CUMU Conference on Oct. 22, 2024.

Andre Ellis

Andre Ellis (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) secured a $370,000 state grant to develop a new program focused on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander student achievement efforts. The award is part of a $8 million appropriation directed by Assembly Bill 190 to the California State University to enhance culturally responsive support for underserved students, including Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations across the CSU campuses.

Barry Hibbs

Barry Hibbs (Geography, Geology, and Environment) secured a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to increase the number and diversity of students entering food and agriculture-related science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Through the three-year grant, Cal State LA will partner with CSU Sacramento, the California Department of Water Resources, and the Salton Audubon Society to investigate scarce water resources in the Salton Sea area and recommend how to distribute water.

Margaret Lazzarini, Karine Le Bris, Emilie Royer & Susan Terebey

Margaret Lazzarini, Karine Le Bris, Emilie Royer and Susan Terebey (Physics and Astronomy) secured a $375,000 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Mentorship and Opportunities in STEM with the Academic Institutions for Community Success program to support projects that offer career development opportunities for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics students. The two-year grant will help create the Advancing Students Through Research Opportunities in Los Angeles Program, a sustainable partnership between Cal State LA and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Working with Cal State LA faculty, students will be provided research opportunities in the areas of astrophysics, planetary sciences, and atmospheric physics at JPL.

Jingjing Li & Alireza Farahmand

Jingjing Li and Alireza Farahmand (Geography, Geology, and Environment) secured a $300,000 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to assist students from underprivileged communities in the greater Los Angeles area to succeed in their pursuit of careers as NASA scientists and researchers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Through the two-year grant, Cal State LA will partner with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a project to strengthen the research capacity of its faculty and students in the field of remote sensing.

Sarah Minslow

Sarah Minslow (English) is a co-principal investigator on a grant project titled “Art of Peace: New Perspectives in Visual Art on Peacekeeping from the 1990s.” As part of the grant, she is collaborating on an upcoming Art of Peace exhibition that will feature works by artists from former conflict zones where western peacekeepers were deployed in the 1990s, such as Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Timor-Leste. The exhibit is a component of the project, which is funded by the largest grant ever given to a humanities and arts project by the Australian Research Council.

Emilie Royer

Emilie Royer (Physics and Astronomy) secured a $820,000 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for a project titled “Titan UVIS Airglow Observations: UV Spectral Analysis to Study Upper Atmosphere Chemistry.” The project, funded by NASA’s Cassini Data and Analysis Program, will focus on investigating glowing patterns in the atmosphere of the biggest satellite of Saturn.

Henry D. (Hank) Schlinger, Jr.

Henry D. (Hank) Schlinger, Jr. (Psychology) was presented the Exceptional Levels of Service to Students Award by the Provost Office at Cal State LA for the 2024-25 academic term.

Howard Xu

Howard Xu (Biological Sciences), director of the LA BioSpace incubator at Cal State LA, was appointed by the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity to serve on the L.A. County Bioscience Advisory Board, fall 2024. The advisory board, consisting of about 15 leaders from key stakeholder groups across the biosciences sector in Los Angeles County, will work to develop a strategy to advance a more dynamic and inclusive biosciences industry in L.A. County.