University Reports
Spring 2024
Professional Activities
Publications
Honors
Professional Activities
Roberto Cantú
Roberto Cantú (Emeritus, English and Chicano Studies) was selected to deliver the 2024 UCLA Spanish & Portuguese Distinguished Alumni Lecture on Feb. 7, 2024. His lecture was titled “Alfredo Véa’s Gods Go Begging: The War Novel as a Work of Art.” Gods Go Begging is described as a literary detective novel that moves seamlessly between the jungles of Vietnam and the streets of modern-day San Francisco.
Miwako Hisagi
Miwako Hisagi (Communication Disorders) participated in a humanitarian trip to Krakow, Poland, March 22-31, 2024, to conduct hearing evaluations, hearing aid fittings, and hearing aid checks for Ukrainian refugees living in Poland. The group also provided hearing evaluations for more than 400 local school children.
Cynthia McMeekin
Cynthia McMeekin (Political Science) led a team of Cal State LA students to participate in the 2023 Model United Nations Conference in Washington, D.C., Nov. 10-12, 2023. Four students received Position Paper Awards for their outstanding pre-conference preparation. Both the Albanian and Guatemalan delegations received honorable mentions for their collaborative efforts, public speaking, and engagement in the diplomatic processes of the conference.
Chris Bachman
Chris Bachman (Mechanical Engineering) led a group of students from Cal State LA’s Golden Eagle Makers engineering club to build mobility trainers for children with physical challenges at Shriners Children’s in Pasadena, California, on Nov. 18, 2023. The toddler mobility trainer is designed for children ages 6 months to 3 years old who are living with physical challenges and have difficulty moving independently in their homes or schools.
Michele Bleuze
Michele Bleuze (Anthropology) presented a paper coauthored with former student Amy Chan, entitled “An Examination of Vertebral Osteoarthritis in Victims from Midnight Terror Cave, Belize,” during the Bioarchaeology: Development, Biomechanics, and Behavior session, at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists in Los Angeles, California, March 20-23, 2024. Bleuze also presented at the meeting the following coauthored posters with undergraduate student Tania Galvez, “Bone Health Among Ancient Maya Females from Midnight Terror Cave, Belize,” and with Marineh Mousalu, “Dental Wear Indicative of Spinning Found in the Midnight Terror Cave Assemblage.” She also presented the following articles with alumni Youbin An and Daniella M. Sandoval, “A New Method for the Study of Activity Indicator Facets on the Distal Tibia,” and with Jasmine F. Juette, “Sex Ratio Interpretation: An Analysis of Methods to Estimate Biological Sex in a Commingled and Fragmentary Skeletal Assemblage from Midnight Terror Cave, Belize.”
Beth Corzo-Duchardt
Beth Corzo-Duchardt (Television, Film and Media Studies) presented a paper, “Local Histories of Movie Poster Lithographers, 1850–1920,” at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Annual Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 15, 2024.
Joshua Kelly
Joshua Kelly (Geography, Geology, and Environment) delivered a talk, “Board 9 Imaging the Unseen: Using Drone-Mounted Multispectral Sensors to Map Ultra-High Resolution Shallow Water Bathymetry,” at the American Geophysical Union’s Chapman Conference on “Remote Sensing of the Water Cycle: Sensors to Society” in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Feb. 14, 2024. He presented on the progress of his lab’s research using drones to map shallow water bathymetry.
Arezoo Khodayari
Arezoo Khodayari (Civil Engineering) delivered a presentation on “Diversifying the Student Pipeline in the NASA Workforce: Astrobiology Inspired Solutions to Environmental Pollution Reduction,” at the Astrobiology Science Conference, in Providence, Rhode Island, May 5-10, 2024.
Michael Kurland and Sheree Fu
Michael Kurland (Undergraduate Studies) and Sheree Fu (University Library) presented on the topic of “Designing Technology to Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Within the Higher Education Landscape: A Case Study Using VR Chemistry Labs,” at the Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education Conference, held in Oakland, California, on April 5, 2024.
Kittiya Lee
Kittiya Lee (History) presented a talk, “The Tupi Sovereign Body in Sixteenth Century Eastern South America,” at the session panel, “Encounter in Iberian America: Experiments in Ontology and Multiplicity,” at the Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, Oct. 26-28, 2023.
Ji Son
Ji Son (Psychology) was one of the speakers for the webinar series, “The Future of Math: Content Students Need for the 21st Century,” organized by Grantmakers for Education, Feb. 29, 2024.
Petr Vozka
Petr Vozka (Chemistry and Biochemistry) helped to organize the 15th Multidimensional Chromatography Workshop at Cal State LA, Jan. 10-12, 2024. The event brought together leading experts and those new to the field of multidimensional chromatography, focusing on the latest techniques and developments.
Publications
Mathias Brieu
Mathias Brieu (Mechanical Engineering) co-edited the book, Biomechanics of the Female Reproductive System: Breast and Pelvic Organs: From Model to Patient (Biomechanics of Living Organs), published by Academic Press, April 21, 2023. The book discusses the biomechanical aspects related to the breast and female pelvic floor system at each step of development.
Carolyn M. Dunn
Carolyn M. Dunn (Theatre and Dance) co-edited a book, Decentered Playwriting: Alternative Techniques for the Stage, published by Routledge, Dec. 1, 2023. The book investigates new and alternative strategies for dramatic writing that incorporate non-Western, Indigenous, and underrepresented storytelling techniques and traditions while deepening a creative practice that decenters hegemonic methods.
Daniel Lambert
Daniel Lambert (English) coauthored “Chapter 16: ‘The Last Days of the World’: Apocalyptic Visions in the Poetry of W.S. Merwin and William Butler Yeats,” in Reading W.S. Merwin in a New Century: American and European Perspectives, ed., Cheri Colby Langdell, published by Palgrave Macmillan, Jan.1, 2023. Lambert and other contributors to the book delivered presentations on W.S. Merwin’s work at the Beyond Baroque in Venice, California, Nov. 4, 2023.
Okezie Aruoma
Okezie Aruoma (Pan African Studies) authored the following two articles: “Exploring the Potential to Extend Productive Lifespan in Nondiabetics through Maintaining Optimal Insulin Sensitivity: Amelioration of an Abated Version of the Metabolic Syndrome,” in the Global Journal of Medical, Pharmaceutical, and Biomedical Update, vol. 19, no. 1, Jan. 6, 2024, and “The potential seaweed resources assessment: Its cultivation prospect and future biofuel feedstock,” in the American Journal of Biopharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, vol. 4., ,no. 3, Feb. 8, 2024.
David Blekhman
David Blekhman (Technology) coauthored an article, “An Exploration of Safety Measures in Hydrogen Refueling Stations: Delving into Hydrogen Equipment and Technical Performance,” in the Hydrogen journal, vol. 5., no. 1, Feb. 17, 2024.
Stanley Burstein
Stanley Burstein (Emeritus, History) coauthored an article with a specialist in gerontology, “Alzheimer’s Was ‘Exceptionally’ Rare in Ancient Greeks and Romans, Study Suggests,” in Science Alert, Feb. 28, 2024. The article addresses age-related dementia in the ancient Greco-Roman world.
Kathy J. Cooke
Kathy J. Cooke (Honors College) coauthored an article with Deborah Gurt, entitled “Building Archives and Creating Conversation: Under-Represented Voices from North America’s Amazon,” in Building Representative Community Archives: Inclusive Strategies in Practice, eds., H. Crummé and E. Carter, published by American Library Association, Jan. 2, 2024.
Ali R. Jazirehi
Ali R. Jazirehi (Biological Sciences) coauthored an article, “Immunotherapy of Hematological Malignancies of Human B-Cell Origin with CD19 CAR T Lymphocytes,” in Cells journal, vol. 13, no. 8, April 9, 2024.
Joshua Kelly
Joshua Kelly (Geography, Geology, and Environment) coauthored an article, “Chronology and evolution of the world’s largest sand island: K’gari (Fraser Island), South East Queensland, Australia,” in the Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 328, March 15, 2024. This paper describes how the development of the world’s largest sand island is linked to glacial and interglacial stages.
Arezoo Khodayari
Arezoo Khodayari (Civil Engineering) coauthored an article, “Nitrate Reactivity in Iron (Oxy)hydroxide Systems: Effect of pH, Iron Redox State, and Phosphate,” in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, vol. 7, no. 11, Oct. 26, 2023.
Stephen LaDochy
Stephen LaDochy (Emeritus, Geography, Geology, and Environment) had his book, Fire and Rain, featured in the article, “A State of Change,” that was published in the American Meteorological Society bulletin, Readings, March 2024.
Kittiya Lee
Kittiya Lee (History) authored a book review of Shawn Michael Austin’s Colonial Kinship: Guaraní, Spaniards, and Africans in Paraguay (University of New Mexico Press), in The American Historical Review, vol. 129, issue 1, March 2024. In this book, historian Shawn Michael Austin traces the history of conquest and colonization in Paraguay during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Jingjing Li
Jingjing Li (Geography, Geology, and Environment) coauthored an article, “Satellite-observed precipitation and total column water vapor,” in Frontiers in Environmental Science, vol. 12, April 3, 2024.
Michael Locke McLendon
Michael Locke McLendon (Political Science) authored a peer-reviewed chapter in the edited volume, “Rousseau’s Negative Liberty: Themes of Skepticism and Domination in The Social Contract,” in The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau’s Social Contract, eds., Matthew W. MaGuire and David Lay Williams, published by Cambridge University Press, Feb. 22, 2024. He also coauthored an article, “The Philosopher Who Critiqued Effective Altruism More Than 250 Years Ago,” in TIME magazine, March 28, 2024.
Minyoung Noh
Minyoung Noh (Accounting) coauthored an article, “Labor skill and accounting conservatism,” in the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, vol. 43, Jan.-Feb. 2024. She also coauthored an article, “Competition and Annual Report Readability,” in the Business Forum, vol. 29, no. 2023.
Sara Pugach
Sara Pugach (History) had her book, Racism, Study, and Cold War Solidarities – African Students in East Germany, 1949–1975, reviewed in The Journal of African History that was published on the Cambridge University Press website, Jan. 22, 2024.
Eric M. Wood
Eric M. Wood (Biological Sciences) coauthored an article, “Historical racial redlining and contemporary patterns of income inequality negatively affect birds, their habitat, and people in Los Angeles, California,” in Ornithological Applications, vol. 126, issue 1, Feb. 5, 2024.
Honors
Kamran Afary
Kamran Afary (Communication Studies) was presented the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize for his coauthored book, Molla Nasreddin: The Making of a Modern Trickster, 1906-1911, published by Edinburgh University Press, Nov. 28, 2023. The prize is awarded annually to the best scholarly work on the Middle East published in the UK in the previous year.
Jennifer Garrison
Jennifer Garrison (Geography, Geology, and Environment) received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to collaborate with scientists in Ecuador on an exchange program. As a Fulbright Scholar, Garrison is developing a pathway that will offer travel and cross-cultural research experiences for Cal State LA students and students who attend Escuela Politécnica Nacional, a national polytechnic university in Quito, Ecuador. Garrison’s research is focused on studying volcanoes in the Ecuadorian Andes, as well as volcanic rocks in the Mojave Desert of California.
Roger Lee Mendoza
David Blekhman
David Blekhman (Technology) secured a $7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to upgrade the university’s Hydrogen Research and Fueling Facility. Through the federal grant, the university’s Hydrogen Research and Fueling Facility will be transformed into a cutting-edge, high-capacity hydrogen fueling station for multi-modal light- to heavy-duty vehicles. The project will involve redesigning the station, which will highlight the university’s commitment to safety, state-of-the-art hydrogen technology, and performance research that can advance the industry forward.
Barry Hibbs
Barry Hibbs (Geography, Geology, and Environment) has been selected as a recipient of the National Ground Water Association’s Keith E. Anderson Award for 2023. The National Ground Water Association presented the award to Hibbs for outstanding contributions to the association. The award was presented during the association’s 2023 Groundwater Week celebration held in Las Vegas, Nevada, Dec. 6, 2023.
Carly Dierkhising and Denise Herz
Carly Dierkhising and Denise Herz (Criminal Justice and Criminalistics) have secured a $2 million grant from the National Institute of Justice, a research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, for a project on “An Assessment of Dual System Data and Practices Capacity in the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems.” NIJ Director Nancy La Vigne came for a site visit on Feb. 7, 2024, which included a showcase of the innovative work underway at Cal State LA in criminal justice and forensics. The theme for the visit was “Illustrating Cal State LA Evidence to Action Partnerships and their Impact on the Community.”
Kittiya Lee
Kittiya Lee (History) received the 2023-2024 National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship at the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Vatican Film Archives, in St. Louis University, Feb. 12-April 26, 2024.
Taffany Lim
Taffany Lim (Center for Engagement, Service, and the Public Good) has secured a $900,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to establish an educational and employment program that supports individuals during incarceration and throughout the period of reentry into their communities. The grant will help create a Prison to Careers Equity Pathway program at Cal State LA that will link formerly incarcerated college graduates with regional employers and community organizations to work toward achieving an equitable workforce.
Cheryl Ney
Cheryl Ney (Emerita, Education), dean, was selected as a Service Award recipient at the 31st Annual Distinguished Educator Awards Dinner at Cal State LA, Nov. 3, 2023. The awards honor distinguished educators who demonstrate excellence, a high level of commitment, and who have made significant contributions in the community.
Submissions
For comments and submissions, please email paffairs@calstatela.edu.