ASU News - Social Science + Social Science

New College offers wide variety of Winter Session classes

mattcrum — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:35:20 -0700

World politics, abnormal psychology and leadership in group communication are just a few of the courses that will be offered in the Winter Session from Dec. 2 to Jan. 14 by Arizona State University’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. Other classes focus on writing for the professions, popular music, religions around the world and more.

Twenty classes total are scheduled. Three are in-person classes to be held at ASU’s West campus in northwest Phoenix, while the other 17 will be taught online.

“These course offerings provide an excellent opportunity for students to complete a three-credit course in a short time period,” says Rob Taylor, director of graduate studies and special programs in New College. “Doing so can help lessen a student’s course load during the upcoming spring semester.”

Taylor says students planning to take a Winter Session course should be prepared for a demanding, fast-paced academic experience. “These are not ‘watered down’ courses – they are taught by full-time faculty and cover the same breadth and depth of material as courses taught during a regular semester,” he says.

The 17 online courses offer time flexibility while still providing plenty of interaction with one’s professor and fellow students, Taylor says.

Freshman through senior-level courses are among the offerings. Many of the courses fulfill ASU General Studies graduation requirements.

Registration for the Winter Session is now under way. A full listing of the 20 courses offered through New College is available at http://newcollege.asu.edu/classes/. Academic advisers may be reached at (602) 543-7000.

Headquartered at ASU’s West campus, the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences offers 18 bachelor’s and five master’s degrees. Academic programs blend theory with experiential learning to prepare students for the social, economic, political and cultural challenges they will face in a diverse and rapidly expanding global marketplace.

Exonerated men discuss wrongful convictions

rschube1 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:48:13 -0700

Two exonerated men who spent a total of 35 years in prison will discuss their journey to justice during a presentation, "Do False Confessions Cause Wrongful Convictions?" at 6 p.m., Nov. 19, at ASU's College of Nursing & Health Innovation auditorium.

Dennis Fritz, who was featured in John Grisham's book, "The Innocent Man," and Darryl Burton will discuss their experiences being wrongfully convicted and eventually exonerated.

The event is hosted by ASU's Criminology and Criminal Justice Graduate Student Association, in cooperation with ASU's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and the Arizona Justice Project.

Fritz was exonerated in 1999 after spending 11 years in prison as an innocent man. He is the author of the biography, "Journey Toward Justice." Burton was exonerated in 2008 after spending 24 years in prison.

Gary Stuart, policy adviser to the dean of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, will discuss a case on which he based his forthcoming book, "Innocent Until Interrogated: The Story of the Buddhist Temple Massacre and The Tucson Four."

"It is the true story of how and why the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office coerced five men into giving false confessions in two seemingly unrelated 1991 murder cases," Stuart says. "The killers executed 10 victims. The government spent millions of dollars investigating and trying the criminal cases, and millions more to settle the wrongful arrest cases. At the end of it all, the prosecutors may have to do it all over again, if the recent reversal of the only man taken to trial stands up to further appellate scrutiny."

According to the Innocence Project, in 25 percent of the wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing nationwide, innocent people confessed or admitted to crimes they did not commit. In 5 percent of all cases that resulted in DNA exonerations, innocent people actually pled guilty to crimes they didn't commit.

Admission is free for all ASU students, but seating is limited. Pre-registration is required.

This event may qualify for 2.0 hours of Continuing Legal Education credit. For information or to register, visit http://www.azjusticeproject.org.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Katie Puzauskas, katherine.puzauskas@asu.edu
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
(480) 965-7695

Professors receive awards for Hispanic cultural contribution

chughes3 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:30:18 -0700

Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez and Paul Espinosa, professors in ASU's Department of Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, are recipients of awards from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education. The awards recognize energy, expertise and remarkable contributions to the Hispanic community.

Vélez-Ibáñez is the recipient of the Outstanding Support of Hispanic Issues in Higher Education Award. The award distinguishes someone who demonstrates exceptional accomplishment in the academic community and support of Hispanic issues.

Vélez-Ibáñez, who chairs the Department of Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, conducts transnational field research in two rural valleys in California and New Mexico and their sending communities in Mexico. His area of study focuses on applied anthropology, complex social organizations, culture and education, ethno-class relations in complex social systems, migration and adaptation of human populations, political ecology, qualitative methodology and urban anthropology. Vélez-Ibáñez has written five books, three of which are based in original field research.

Espinosa is the recipient of the Outstanding Latino/a Cultural Award in Fine or Performing Arts Award. The award recognizes Latinos/as who have contributed significantly to understanding of the Hispanic community and culture through a medium in the arts.

Espinosa is the winner of seven Emmy awards. He has written, directed and produced numerous dramatic and documentary films focused on the U.S.-Mexico border region. His work includes "Taco Shop Poets" (2002), "The Border" (1999), "... And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him" (1996) and "The Hunt for Pancho Villa" (1993).

Vélez-Ibáñez and Espinosa will be honored in March at the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education National Conference, "Raíces y Alas/Roots and Wings: A Mal Tiempo/Buena Cara."

The association each year honors people in six categories concerning the improvement of the conditions of Latinos/as pursuing a degree in higher education. The recipients are selected from open nominations by a subcommittee of the association.

Written by Danielle Kuffler (dkuffler@asu.edu).

MEDIA CONTACT
Carol Hughes, carol.hughes@asu.edu
(480) 965-6375

ASU doctoral candidate Thompson pays tribute to Levi-Strauss

rhowe — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:13:08 -0700

Claude Levi-Strauss, who died at the age of 100 on Oct. 30, 2009, is being remembered as a pioneering social scientist, whose work was imparted as foundational in anthropology classrooms around the world.

Archaeologist M. Scott Thompson, an Arizona State University doctoral candidate in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was one of many inspired by Levi-Strauss’ work.

He is quoted in a Nov. 4 CNN article about the influential anthropologist.

In the piece, Thompson—whose research interests include complex societies, Mississippian archaeology and chiefdoms—provides his take on Levi-Strauss’ contributions to the field of anthropology and stresses the importance of his ideas in understanding the formation of cultures.

'Canalscape Exhibition' unveils bold plans for Valley's canal system

chughes3 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:18:39 -0700

As builders, designers and architects from around the world arrive in Phoenix for the 2009 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, the Arizona State University Art Museum is unveiling a radical rethinking of the Valley's canal system. The Sonoran Desert metropolis, better known for freeways and mountain ranges, is also home to 181 miles of canals.

Beginning Nov. 9, visitors to the ASU Art Museum in Tempe can discover a host of ideas intended to transform underutilized pathways alongside the ribbons of water stretching across the city. The "Canalscape Exhibition" showcases ideas from students and professionals to create park space, community gardens, bike paths, public art and prime spots for mixed-use development including housing, shops, cafés and other businesses.

Canalscape is a project developed by the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. It focuses on creating vital urban hubs where canals meet major streets throughout the Phoenix metropolitan region. Each hub will be unique, responding to the needs of surrounding neighborhoods, while forming part of a larger network along the canals that adds to metro Phoenix's quality of life. The goal is to transform canals into amenities, making Phoenix a more interesting and sustainable city, according to Nan Ellin, associate professor and planning program director in the school.

Phoenix's vast network of canals, initially constructed by American Indians almost two millennia ago, attracted the first settlers to the area and inspired the name Phoenix. These canals are the Valley's lifeline, supporting agriculture and providing drinking water.

"Canalscape builds on this legacy by envisioning the canals as shady linear parks, corridors for biking and running, vital urban hubs and an opportunity for alternative-energy generation," Ellin says.

The "Canalscape Exhibition" is at the ASU Art Museum from Nov. 9-Dec. 1, with an opening event on Nov. 10 from 6-8 p.m. The ASU Art Museum is located in the Nelson Fine Arts Center, Tempe campus, on the southeast corner of Mill Avenue and 10th Street. For hours and additional information, visit http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu. For more information about Canalscape, visit http://canalscape.asu.edu or contact Ellin at (480) 965-6160, nan.ellin@asu.edu.

Report addresses Arizona’s public mental health system

nhaas — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:51:01 -0700

Arizona’s billion-dollar public behavioral health system, which serves 150,000 ill residents and their families, is inadequately staffed and struggling under budget cuts and the demands of a 28-year-old class-action law suit.

These were among the opinions recounted in a new report, “Arizona’s Public Behavioral Health Care System: Critical Issues in Critical Times,” which summarizes the views of a panel of leading behavioral health professionals. The report’s release comes just weeks after Gov. Jan Brewer’s call for a major reorganization of the statewide system.

The report was prepared jointly by Arizona State University’s Center for Applied Behavior Health Policy (CABHP) and Morrison Institute for Public Policy. It draws from a discussion among policy experts held at the July Summer Institute conference hosted annually by CABHP, and offers insights into key system strengths, vulnerabilities and potential solutions

The panelists, all professionals in behavioral mental health policy, agreed that Arizona’s system has a commitment to community-based care that keeps most patients out of institutions. They also applauded the system’s commitment to patient recovery. Among the vulnerabilities cited by some panelists were:

• 35 percent of Arizona adults with serious mental illness do not qualify for AHCCCS/Medicaid, primarily because they are working poor and uninsured, and thus are at risk for inadequate treatment

• Funds for housing and food to support patients’ recovery are essential, yet are not provided to even patients covered by AHCCCS/Medicaid because they are not considered "medically necessary."

• Budget pressures put Arizonans at risk through cuts to crisis services, which not only avert suicides and drug overdoses, but provide vital assistance to local hospitals and local law enforcement officials.

The report concludes by calling attention to what most panelists said is a fundamental misalignment between Arizona’s behavioral health statutes, its executive decision-making and its state funding – particularly for non-Medicaid/AHCCCS-eligible individuals and families. Positive system change is unlikely without a resolution to the decades-old Arnold v. Sarn lawsuit, panelists said, but it is vital to preserve funding levels for mentally troubled Arizonans in order to avert a human and fiscal crisis of major proportions.

Read the report and comment on its findings at morrisoninstitute.asu.edu.

'Trauma and Compassion' at ASU's West campus Nov. 4

sdesgeor — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:11:39 -0600

Arizona State University’s West campus is the site of a Nov. 4 day-long discussion and exploration of social justice and human rights issues in Arizona. The event gets underway at 9:30 a.m. and concludes at 4:30.

Sponsored by the M.A. degree program in social justice and human rights, the Light of Hope Institute, and the West campus chapter of Amnesty International, “Trauma and Compassion” is free and open to the community. All of the events take place in La Sala B, in the University Center Building (UCB).

Included on the schedule of events:

... Opening ceremony at 9:30 a.m.;

... Discussion panel on trauma, 10-11 a.m., featuring Peggy Bilsten, former Phoenix City Council member; Kuol Awan, Arizona Lost Boys Center; Reverend Ken Heintzelman, Shadow Rock United Church of Christ; and Rachel Aherin, International Rescue Committee;

... Workshops on social justice and trauma, 11-noon;

... Film showing, noon-1 p.m., featuring “Miracles in Mexico,” a documentary that follows an amazing group of people from St. Christopher’s Church in Marana, Ariz., as they help to bring a culture of life and hope to the U.S.-Mexico border at Nogales. Following the film, a Q&A session with Deacon Joe Bogushefsky of Poverty 24/6 will take place. A canned food donation to Poverty 24/6 at this event is encouraged;

... Legislative town hall: The Arizona State Budget Crisis and Social Justice Issue, 1-2 p.m., featuring John Kavanagh, State Representative and chair of the House Appropriations Committee, and Kyrsten Sinema, State Representative. Following the town hall, Rep. Sinema will sign copies of her book, “Unite and Conquer”;

... Panel on humanitarian aid, 2-3 p.m., featuring Dan Abbott, Humane Borders; Katie Resendiz, Arizona League to End Human Trafficking; and Kit Danley, Neighborhood Ministries;

... Workshops on issues of humanitarian aid and compassion, 3-4 p.m.;

... Closing comments, 4-4:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Williams Simmons, director of the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences’ master’s program in social justice and human rights, at 602-543-6089 or via email at William.simmons@asu.edu.

ASU’s West campus is located at 4701 West Thunderbird Road in Phoenix.

ASU anthropologist helps shape study of small-scale economies

rhowe — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:55:58 -0600

How forms of wealth perpetuate economic inequality over generations is at the heart of a new study by 26 anthropologists, statisticians and economists, including an Arizona State University professor. Their research findings of wealth inheritance and inequality in small-scale societies appear in the Oct. 30 issue of the journal Science.

Led by evolutionary anthropologist Monique Borgerhoff Mulder and economist Sam Bowles, the transdisciplinary endeavor is part of the Santa Fe Institute’s ongoing Persistent Inequality Project of the Behavioral Sciences Program.

The results of the study look at a variety of populations in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Chief among the findings is that the means of a group’s livelihood influence wealth inheritance and inequality.

For example, in herding- and farming-based societies, the offspring of landholders and owners of livestock inherit materialistically, keeping the wealth in the family. In these groups, wealth inheritance and inequality are similar to the world’s most unbalanced economies.

On the other hand, societies of hunter-gatherers prize non-material wealth that includes strength, skills, intelligence and social connections – facets that are not necessarily inherited by offspring. These populations display modest wealth inheritance with inequality akin to the democratic economies of Scandinavia, the most egalitarian at present.

Institutions also play a large role. Sharing resources, including information, and level of personal property ownership are defining factors. The researchers note that while our current knowledge-based economy is similar to that of hunter-gatherers, ultimately societal norms and institutions will determine whether the economy becomes more equitable.

Kim Hill, a physical anthropology professor in the ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, contributed the data and analyses on hunter-gatherers, as well as theoretical insights into the meaning of the patterns reported.

He says the research is aimed at a general explanation of wealth transmission that applies to all human societies across spans of time since the Pleistocene.

“Since a huge array of other human experiences are determined by different levels of wealth access, it is critical that we formulate a general understanding of the persistence of wealth differentials,” he says. “The research also ties transmission in human societies to a larger body of general theory about the importance of epigenetic transmission in determining phenotypes in all living organisms.

The coauthors gathered a huge comparative data set allowing 43 estimates of the scope of inheritance and wealth within families and the degree of wealth inequality in small-scale societies. The sweeping study is unusual not only because it applies economics to traditional societies but also because it brings extensive quantification to the typically qualitative field of sociocultural anthropology.

Conference to explore Barry Goldwater’s politics, legacy

msjps — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:50:29 -0600

A two-day conference, “Goldwater at 100: His Politics, Ideology, and Legacy,” will bring more than a dozen noted scholars to the Arizona State University campus Nov. 12 and 13.

The conference, being held in celebration of Sen. Barry Goldwater’s 100th birthday, will look at the life and times of Goldwater, one of the towering figures in the history of Phoenix, modern conservatism and 20th century U.S. history.

The conference begins with a free lecture, “The Emerging Republican Minority,” by Rick Perlstein, at 5 p.m. Nov. 12, in Life Sciences Center, E-104, on ASU’s Tempe campus. Perlstein is the author of “Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus,” and “Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America.”

On Nov. 13, Pulitzer-Prize nominee Robert Goldberg will speak about the writing of “Barry Goldwater” and the book’s afterlife, beginning at 8:45 a.m. at the ASU University Club, South Room, on the Tempe campus.

Following that presentation, the assembled scholars will discuss many of the groups, political movements and legislative reform initiatives that Goldwater inspired and, in turn, motivated him and shaped his political career.

They will explore Goldwater’s relationship with Mexican Americans, Arizona Republicans, conservationists, seniors, Southern politicians, journalists, women Party activists and other figures within the Republican Party.

Guest scholars and panelists representing institutions nationwide include Michael Bowen, Bob Graham Center for Public Service, University of Florida; Joseph Crespino, Emory University; Brian Allen Drake, University of Georgia; Laura Jane Gifford, George Fox University; Robert Alan Goldberg, University of Utah; Nicole R. Hemmer, Columbia University; Jason LaBau, University of Southern California; Micaela Anne Larkin, Yale University; Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California, Santa Barbara; William Link, University of Florida; Drew T. Meyers, University of Michigan; Andrew Needham, New York University; Michelle Nickerson, University of Texas at Dallas; Jeff Roche, College of Wooster; Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, Claremont McKenna College; and Perlstein.

According to organizers of the conference, “Goldwater's 100th birthday marks the ideal moment for a broad interrogation of the Arizonan. In the last five years, the Arizona Historical Foundation's policy to open Goldwater’s political and personal papers during processing and cataloging combined with seismic shifts in American politics and the broad conservative movement have made a reassessment of Goldwater’s life, political career and impact on 20th century American history not only possible, but imperative.”

They add, “This conference does not seek to memorialize Goldwater per se, or to focus on his 1964 run for president. Rather, it is a unique forum featuring young scholars drawn to a man and an era that deserve further academic inquiry. The conference features new scholarship and new perspectives on U.S. cultural, political, economic and social history.”

Conference registration is required. Students with ID are admitted free. Charge to the general public is $25. For more information, call the Arizona Historical Foundation, (480) 965-3283, or go to www.ahfweb.org/index.htm .

Further information is available by e-mailing Linda Whitaker, linda.whitaker@ahfweb.org ; Susan Irwin, susan.irwin@ahfweb.org; or Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, eshermer@claremontmckenna.edu .

ASU hosts Navajo Nation forum Oct. 28

sjkeele1 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:22:12 -0600

Arizona State University will be hosting a Navajo Nation Government Forum, Oct. 28, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The forum takes place at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in the Great Room on the Tempe Campus. Free parking is limited in the surface lot on McAllister Ave. and Terrace Road west of the Rural Road Parking Structure. Additional paid parking is available in the parking structure.

The topics of the forum, organized at the request of students, are:

• Navajo Council reduction from 88 to 24 initiative
• Presidential line-item veto power initiative
• Education
• Economic Development

The voter registration deadline for the referendum is Nov. 6 and the Navajo Nation vote will be in mid-December. A Navajo Nation voter registration booth also will be onsite.

ASU sponsors include the Indian Legal Program, American Indian Policy Institute, American Indian Student Support Services, Multicultural Student Services, ASU Navajo Students for Politics Committee, Phoenix Indian Center and the American Indian Council.

For more information contact Kate Rosier at 480.965.6204.