Sabbaticals and Leaves

Forty-three faculty members will be taking sabbaticals and leaves for projects ranging from research and writing books to creating artwork and furthering technical skills. Among the leaves approved by President Milton A. Gordon, were four yearlong leaves. The following is a list of those awarded, according to Faculty Affairs and Records.

2011-12 Yearlong Leaves 

Rebecca Dolhinow, Women’s Studies, has planned to write a book on civic engagement of students in Southern California, focusing on CSUF student activism as seen in the Volunteer and Service Center.

Dana Rutledge, Nursing, has planned to use the sabbatical to update lectures for an online nursing course, as well as write and submit manuscripts based on ongoing and completed research projects. 

Jie Weiss, Health Science, intends to extend her competition of mobile health technology and to enhance her collaboration with researchers in computer science and to prepare a grant proposal for a “Smart Health and Wellbeing” program.

Caption: Eliza Noh will be taking a yearlong leave in 2011

2012 Yearlong Leave

Eliza Noh, Asian American Studies, proposes to complete a manuscript based on her research study of suicide among Asian American women.

Fall 2011 Sabbaticals 

Genelle Belmas, Communications, intends to spend her sabbatical not only updating the textbook “Major Principles of Media Law” but creating supplemental materials, such as an instructional guide or PowerPoint presentation.

Joseph Biel, Art, will spend part of his sabbatical living and working in a New York City studio, established as a base for artists to work and forge professional connections in the art world. Lodging is provided in return for a finished piece of art. 

Leah Brew, Counseling, plans on using her leave to improve teaching and accomplish research objectives toward presentations at national conferences and journal articles.

Marc Dickey, Music, seeks to complete a book on teaching strategies in instrumental music education.

Heidi Fearn, Physics, will expand her current research on the speed of light in non-trivial vacua to prove that a signal can’t be sent faster-than-light in the vacuum of free space even when a strong gravitational source present.

Caption: Volker Janssen will be studying the history of biomedical diagnostics during his fall sabbatical.

Anthony Fellow, Communications, will be working to complete the third edition of the textbook “American Media History” as well as new text “The Dream Factory: American Motion Picture History.”

Adrian Fleissig, Economics, intends to spend his leave on developing a new nonparametric procedure to estimate how quickly consumers change their expenditure in response to monetary policy.

A. Scott Hewitt, Chemistry and Biochemistry, seeks to complete manuscripts for publication on recent atmospheric, combustion and archaeological chemistry; assist his research students in the lab; and explore two new areas of research in atmospheric aerosol and green chemistry.

Volker Janssen, History, will begin research on the history of the biomedical diagnostics industry in California and the global market in healthcare technologies. He also plans to complete a journal submission, a book proposal, create a new course and develop undergraduate research opportunities. 

Pawel Kalczynski, Information Systems and Decision Sciences, will focus on developing a new model to automate and optimize bidding decisions made by thermal generators of electricity participating in a deregulated electricity market.

Matthew Lancellotti, Marketing, will be working on a senior seminar course and a scholarly manuscript, both focused on key ethical questions within marketing.

Gail Love, Communications, will work to develop and evaluate a culturally sensitive, user-centered online health information resources/services page to promote breast and cervical cancer knowledge and screening among English-speaking Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women in Southern California.

Weili Lu, Finance, intends to conduct research on enterprise risk management, ultimately developing a book and a research paper on her findings.

Timothy Maloney, Radio-TV-Film, will use his leave to work on an independent documentary film about the artist Tony Millionaire.

Caption: Eric Reyes will spend the fall semester exploring how populations create a sense of place.

John Patton, Anthropology, plans to study the evolutionary foundations of human cooperation, including the analysis of network and experimental economic game data collected in the Ecualorian Amazon.

John Reinard, Human Communication Studies, intends on traveling and studying persuasive rhetorical strategies used to mobilize an entire nation to end the scourge of polio.

Eric Reyes, Asian American Studies, will study Filipino American communities to answer the question of how populations can create a sense of place, belonging and community within a global context. 

Christina Smith, Art, is slated to create a website that chronicles the contemporary world of craft by her students and create a series of wearable sterling silver objects. 

Lisa Tran, History, seeks to use new material she has collected to write two new chapters and revise four additional chapters in her book manuscript “Concubines in Early Twentieth-Century China.”

Jennifer Trevitt, Psychology, plans on analyzing data gathered during the last year and prepare it for publication; update laboratory experiments conducted in her “Physiological Psychology Laboratory” course; and organize and establish a series of “Ask a Scientist Night” workshops for junior high school students.

Adam Woods, Geological Sciences, intends on studying the Permian-Triassic mass extinction to find out what effect post-extinction environmental conditions had in shaping the recovery.

Jing Yang, Finance, seeks to study the contracting issues associated with presales, including how presale prices and default/abandonment decisions are associated with spot market price, construction cost and contract constraints.

Spring 2012 Sabbaticals

Jesse Battan, American Studies, will be studying the multiple meanings of the term “sexual revolution” in 20th-century America.

Caption: During a spring leave, Kristin Beals will analyze data and write two papers about HIV family and caregivers.

Kristin Beals, Psychology, has planned to analyze data and write two papers about how the stigma placed on persons with HIV affects the loved ones and caregivers.

Jon Bruschke, Human Communication Studies, will be conducting experimental studies on pretrial publicity and anti-defendant bias.

Loretta Donovan, Elementary and Bilingual Education, will continue research for manuscripts and book publications on 21st-century skills by observing high tech schools and schools that promote such skills. 

Mark Drayse, Geography, is slated to travel to Zambia where he plans to interview government officials, business owners, community leaders and other individuals on local and regional economic development.

Robert Gass, Human Communication Studies, will be writing the last three chapters of a co-authored text “Arguing, Reasoning and Thinking Well.”

John Ibson, American Studies, seeks to conclude research and write a substantial amount of the book “The Mourning After: Putting Space Between Males in 1950s America,” a study of World War II’s effects on male relationships. 

Juan Ishikawa, Modern Languages and Literatures, intends to spend his sabbatical translating Argentine Andrés Neuman’s “El Viajero del Siglo” from Spanish to Japanese.

Caption: Belinda Karge will spend the spring 2012 semester writing articles based on the federally funded On Track Scholars Program.

Belinda Karge, Special Education, plans to write three journal articles based on research gathered on strategies used to teach in prekindergarten through 12th-grade classrooms in high poverty schools. The data was collected through the federally funded On Track Scholars program. 

Chandrasekhar Putcha, Civil and Environmental Engineering, is slated to conduct an engineering analysis of key parameters connected with human thermal models, as well as a comparison of poverty indices, toward development of a mathematical-based method.

Angeles Sancho-Velazquez, Liberal Studies, proposes to complete research on the causes for the decline and disappearance of improvisation in western classical music. He also seeks to rewrite two chapters of a manuscript. 

Jule Selbo, Radio-TV-Film, will be co-writing a book on the history of women screenwriters from 1890 to today.

Caption: Development of a model that characterizes the distribution of future inflation is the goal of Dawit Zerom during his spring leave.

Susan Tschabrun, Pollak Library, plans on studying political posters and their use in historical and contemporary political movements for a book project titled “Political Regimes, Visual Regimes: The Political Poster in the African Landscape.” 

Allison Varzally, History, seeks to create a set of oral histories on Vietnamese children adopted by Americans since 1965 and completing a book manuscript. 

Carl Wendt, Anthropology, will be working to complete a book titled “Daily Life in the Olmec World” in Veracruz, Mexico.

Diane Witmer, Communications, will be working to complete new text for the book “Public Relations Management.” 

Dawit Zerom, Information Systems and Decision Sciences, will attempt to come up with a model that accurately characterizes the distribution of future inflation beyond the conditional mean.

June 28, 2011