November 2022

Multicampus CO2 Center Launched

Chemistry professors Jesús Velázquez and Louise Berben are part of a new multi-campus center aimed at developing basic science for converting carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals. The Center for Closing the Carbon Cycle, 4C, involves investigators from 12 universities along with three U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories.

A Deep Dive Into Indonesian Music

As part of an ongoing study stretching from Davis to Germany and across the many islands of Indonesia, the UC Davis Department of Music is holding an all-day conference (that will be livestreamed) titled “Rethinking The History of Indonesian Music” on Nov. 5. Scholars from around the world will attend and present. The project is funded by the Henry Luce Foundation.

Diné Weaving Stories of Survivance 

Shawna Yazzie, a doctoral candidate in Native American studies, spent a summer fellowship looking at and learning the ongoing rug weaving practices at a Body of Water in a Sunken Area, also known as Piñon, Arizona, her family’s homeland. Through community-based, Native feminism-centered research, her work seeks to understand how women of the Navajo Nation continue to reclaim and heal their identities through rug weaving.

Preparing for 'Unknown Unknowns'

Twenty years after then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made a now-famous statement distinguishing "known knowns," "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns," a UC Davis economist is developing a logic for analyzing the most unpredictable category — the “unknown unknowns.”

HONORS



The Linguistics Society of America recently selected Robert Bayley, research professor in the Department of Linguistics, as the recipient of its 2023 Mentoring Award.

In a recent international design competition, Gozde Goncu-Berk, associate professor of design, won a best of category award for her “novel reactive smart clothing” called CalmWear, which provides tactile stimulation to relieve the symptoms of anxiety disorder.

Mike Henderson, professor emeritus of art, was awarded the Margrit Mondavi Arts Medallion in recognition of his many contributions over decades of teaching at UC Davis.

The laboratory led by Leah Krubitzer, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, received the College of Letters and Science 2022 Lab Safety Award.

India’s Aligarh Muslim University presented its 2022 Sir Syed Excellence International Award to Barbara D. Metcalf, professor emerita of history and the first dean of the former Division of Social Sciences in the College of Letters and Science.

Joanna Regulska, professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies and vice provost and dean of UC Davis Global Affairs, is the recipient of the 2022 Outstanding Achievement Award from the Association for Women in Slavic Studies.

UC Davis Graduate Studies recently named nine College of Letters and Science faculty as recipients of 2022 Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Awards:

• Kyle Crabtree, chemistry
• Frances Dolan, English
• Bo Feng, communication
• Eugene Gorsky, mathematics 
• James Griesemer, philosophy
• Thomas Lee, statistics
• Meaghan O’Keefe, religion
• Andrew Wetzel, physics and astronomy
• Georgia Zellou, linguistics

Nine assistant professors in the College of Letters and Science were recently named to UC Davis’ 15th annual class of Hellman Fellows:

• Rachel Bernhard, political science 
• Erin Gray, English 
• Wang Liao, communication
• Fatima Mojaddedi, anthropology
• Emily Morgan, linguistics
• José Juan Pérez Meléndez, history
• Michael Singh, Chicano and Chicano studies
• Hannah Tierney, philosophy
• Ben Weber, African American and African studies

Four College of Letters and Science faculty joined the UC Davis Public Scholarship Faculty Fellows program:

• Greg Downs, professor of history
• Katie Graf Estes, associate professor of psychology
• Andy Jones, continuing lecturer, University Writing Program, and academic associate director of Academic Technology Services
• Heghnar Watenpaugh, professor of art history 

MEDIA MENTIONS

California is awash in renewable energy — except when it’s most needed

The Washington Post

James Bushnell, professor of economics

Marjorie Taylor Greene's Confederacy Remark Trashed by Civil War Historians

Newsweek

Gregory Downs, professor of history

‘Monumental’ Math Proof Solves Triple Bubble Problem and More

Quanta Magazine

Joel Hass, professor of mathematics

Counter the weaponization of genetics research by extremists

Nature

Brenna Henn, associate professor of anthropology, and Dana Al-Hindi, doctoral student in anthropology

‘Claiming Space’ brings diverse art to a Bay Area institution with a racist history

San Francisco Chronicle

Margaret Laurena Kemp, professor and chair of theatre and dance 

Silly though they seem, campaigns know that political ads serve a purpose

KGW8 (Portland, Oregon)

Alison Ledgerwood, professor of psychology

Momentum builds for helping students adapt to college by nixing freshman grades

The Hechinger Report

Tim Lewis, professor of mathematics

In Trump embrace of QAnon, election experts see potential for midterm 'chaos' and more election denying

USA Today

Kathryn Olmsted, professor of history

Taking the tripping out of psychedelic medicine

Nature

David Olson, associate professor of chemistry

Jobs report shows economy, employment market cooling as questions of recession remain

PBS

Giovanni Peri, professor of economics and director of the UC Davis Global Migration Center

WHEN IT RAINS: To stay or to go: Increased flooding forces towns to make hard choice

Investigate Midwest

Nicholas Pinter, the Roy J. Shlemon Chair in Applied Geosciences and associate director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

Insight With Vicki Gonzalez: Azerbaijan invades Armenia

Capitol Public Radio

Keith David Watenpaugh, professor and director of Human Rights Studies

Most people on Twitter don’t live in political echo chambers — but mostly because they don’t care enough to bother building one

Nieman Lab

Magdalena Wojcieszak, professor of communication

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