Estevan Flores

David Liban

Robert Damrauer

David Hildebrand

People going places

Centers

The Mexican Consulate announced that Estevan Flores, director of the Latino/a Research & Policy Center, has been elected to the Institute for Mexicans Abroad or IME, Instituto para Mexicanos en el Exterior. He will act as an advisor and offer recommendations to the Mexican government. Flores recently went to Los Angeles for one of five orientations held across the United States as one of 127 advisors elected across the country. He will be asked to advise on a specific area—such as health and immigration. Flores will visit Mexico City and be hosted at the Secretario de Relaciones Exteriores for the first advisory meeting at the end of March.

College of Arts & Media

On Feb. 19, David Liban’s film, Carhenge: Genius or Junk garnered yet another award as Best Short Documentary at the Boulder International Film Festival. The honor comes with $1,000 worth of film stock as well as a trophy.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

John Brett, assistant professor of anthropology, had an article recently published, titled “’We Sacrifice and Eat Less’: The Structural Complexities of Microfinance Participation” in Human Organization. His research was partially funded by a Faculty Grants Award in 2002-2003.
Michael S. Cummings, professor of political science, co-edited a book with Kenneth Dolbeare, called American Political Thought, 5th edition. It was published by Congressional Quarterly Press in 2004. Under Dolbeare's editorship, this book became the best-selling text in its field. The current (5th) edition challenges its post-9/11 readers to examine their own political beliefs in the context of "American fundamentalism," from the Iroquois and European-based Founders to the present.
Robert Damrauer, professor of chemistry, is part of a National Science Foundation Grant, called “Cyberinfrastructure and Research Facilities: Tools for Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics and Simulation Analysis.” The research began in September 2005 and will continue until August 2008.
Leopoldo P. Franca, professor of mathematics, received the honor of being a highly cited author in engineering from the 2005 ISI Thomson Citation Index (http://www.isihighlycited.com/).
Jeffrey Franklin, associate professor of English, has a forthcoming poetry collection book, called For the Lost Boys (Denver: Ghost Road Press, 2006). His article, “The Life of the Buddha in Victorian England” was recently published in the journal English Literary History. He had four poems published in anthologies and national journals in 2005: “My Self My Other” in Diner; “At the Pilar Yacht Club”, “The Mountain Lion at Bear Creek Archery” and “The Seeds of Sorrow” in Open Windows: An Anthology of Poetry, Essays & Fiction.
David Hildebrand, assistant professor of philosophy, will have an article published in the Southern Journal of Philosophy this summer, titled "Does Every Theory Deserve A Hearing? Evolution, Creationism, and the Limits of Democratic Inquiry." He has two other recently published articles: "Academic Are Intellectual Entrepreneurs" in the Association of American Colleges and Universities in Spring 2005 and "Pragmatism, Neopragmatism, and Public Administration” in Administration and Society in July 2005. Hildebrand will be part of a three-person panel on evolution and intelligent design in March for the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy in San Antonio, Texas.
Steve Koester, anthropology professor, published an article with Jason Glanz and Anna Barón from the Health Sciences Center, titled “Drug Sharing Among Heroin Networks: Implications for HIV and Hepatitis B and C Prevention” in the journal Aids and Behavior. It has been well-received because it uses mixed methods (ethnography and epidemiology) to identify and describe drug injecting practices that facilitate hepatitis B and C as well as HIV transmission among injection drug users, and to report the association of these practices with a number of contextual factors that constitute a "risk environment." The implications of this work were highlighted at the CDC sponsored National Viral Hepatitis Prevention Conference in Washington, D.C., in December 2005.
Martin Lockley, geography and environmental sciences professor, published an article, “On the Trail of Dinosaurs,” in the geological magazine Geotimes.
Naci Mocan, professor of economics, has had one of his recent papers, titled “Ugly Criminals,” co-authored with Erdal Tekin of Georgia State University, published as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper. The results of this paper have been cited by international media since last week, ranging from the Washington Post to the German newspaper, Bild. Link to Washington Post article.
Thomas J. Noel, history professor, recently had a Colorado history book published, titled Colorado Ranchers & The First 100 Years of the National Western Stock Show (Golden: Fulcrum Publishing Co., 2005).
Christoph Stefes, political science assistant professor, will have his first book, titled Understanding Post-Soviet Transitions: Corruption, Collusion and Clientelism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) published this summer. Additionally, he and a colleague at the University of Denver, Prof. Frank Laird, received notice from the National Science Foundation that their application for a $90,000 research grant to study renewable energy policies in the United States and Germany has been approved. The research project will begin this year and will last for two years, involving a two-month research trip to Berlin, Germany.

School of Education and Human Development

Phil Strain has the honor of being awarded our first Institute of Educational Sciences (IES) grant for LEAP –USA, a randomized controlled trial designed to assess child and family outcomes that accrue from high-fidelity implementation of the LEAP model of early intervention for young children with autism. The grant is for four years with a total budget of 1.8 million.

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