Virginia L. Dixon, emerita, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, was invited to Hunan, China, for leadership work in September 2017.  Dr. Dixon visited Chengsha and Changde, where she participated in the Changde International Tourism Festival and reviewed prospective development plans with an agricultural and technology college.

Rodolfo Barniol Duran, Physics and Astronomy, was invited and presented his research work at the Theoretical Astrophysics Center at the University of California at Berkeley on Feb. 5, 2018. The title of his talk was: "Jets in gamma-ray bursts: Structure, breakout and dissipation." This center at UC Berkeley is regarded as one of the leading theoretical astrophysics centers in the nation.

Darryl Omar Freeman, Ethnic Studies, conducted a workshop titled "Making Black Lives Matter More: The Changing Challenge of Mono-Race Social Political Action," at the 17th Annual Public History Conference – Embracing Equity in a Global Society, March 9-11, New York State Museum and Albany Capital Center, Albany, NY.

Mikkel Herholdt Jensen, Physics and Astronomy, presented work at the 62nd Annual Biophysical Society Meeting, the leading international biophysics conference attracting more than 7,000 attendees annually. The work, "Stochastic Simulations of Tropomyosin Binding and Diffusion on Filamentous Actin," was co-authored by NSM students Ashley Luiz (B.S., Physics) and Hai Tran (B.S., Biochemistry).

Jamie Kneitel, Biological Sciences, recently published the article "Occupancy and environmental responses of habitat specialists and generalists depend on dispersal traits" in the journal Ecosphere, a publication of the Ecological Society of America. The paper presents research conducted with many undergraduate students in California vernal pools. The paper is open access and can be found at onlinelibrary.wiley.com.

Jenni Murphy, College of Continuing Education, was invited by the California Workforce Association to serve on a panel discussion at its 2018 Youth@Work conference, which drew more than 550 participants. The session focused on “Advancing Career Technical Education in California.” In addition, Interim Dean Murphy was invited as a presenter at the 2018 University Professional and Continuing Education Association conference in Baltimore for a workshop on CCE’s “Workforce Development Apprenticeship” at Sacramento State, the first non-trade apprenticeship program registered in California. Additional details at cce.csus.edu/post/youthwork-preparing-young-people-workforce.

Andrew E. Stoner, Communication Studies, has released a third, updated edition of his true-crime anthology, Notorious 92: The Most Infamous Murder in Each of Indiana's 92 Counties. The book, first published in 2007, tells the story of incredible true crimes in the history of Stoner's home state. In addition, Professor Stoner appeared Feb. 24 as a guest commentator on Snapped: Killer Couples (Season 9, Episode 6) on the Oxygen Network. The show's broadcast premiere discussed troubling 2007 Northern California spree killings.

Mark Stoner, emeritus, Communication Studies, recently published an essay, “Making Sense of Social Justice: Reclaiming the Subject,” in the National Teaching & Learning Forum (December 2017). Stoner's essay was the first of a series on the topic of social justice in higher education that the NTLF plans; other authors now will take up the topic. Stoner's essay offers a model for teaching and facilitating critical thinking about and discussion of divisive social issues that is critical, but noncompetitive. Copies of the essay are available at goo.gl/VWixqh.

Santos Torres Jr., Division of Social Work, will present “A Knapsack for Student Engagement: Innovative Student Activities” at the Pacific Sociological Association meetings in Long Beach, March 28-31. He and co-presenter Debra Welkley, Sociology, will present useful innovative student activities they have used in the classroom, which students report as having aided their engagement, learning outcome achievement, and commitment to their degree completion.  

Francis Yuen, Social Work, recently published an edited book, Contemporary Perspectives on Social Work in Acquired Brain Injury. It is among the first book to address social work practice in the field of brain injury (BI). Contributions are written by social work authors from around the world, and highlight the diversity of social work practice and theory within this field.