Art Svenson awarded second Fulbright
Art Svenson
Art Svenson, in his third decade as a U of R professor of political science, has been awarded his second Fulbright Scholarship in five years. From February through June 2016, Svenson will teach constitutional law at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. In 2011, he taught American government and politics at Renmin University in Beijing. “Redlands faculty are always at work improving their craft of teaching, a tradition that sets us apart from others in the very best of ways,” said Svenson, who holds the David Boies Endowed Chair. “For me, immersing myself into a completely foreign land and into a system of education radically different from ours is an unsettling experience with magical consequences—I’ll come back to Redlands a better teacher.”
Barbara Conboy leads research on babies and language
Babies learn language best by interacting with people rather than passively through a video or audio recording, and Barbara Conboy, a University of Redlands associate professor of communicative disorders, was the lead author of a study by researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences exploring this behavior. The findings demonstrate for the first time that an early social behavior called gaze shifting (when a baby makes eye contact and then looks at the same object that the other person is looking at) is linked to infants’ ability to learn new language sounds.
Managing Dysphagia
Michael Groher, professor of communicative disorders, coauthored a second edition of his textbook in speech language pathology, Dysphagia: Clinical Management in Adults and Children, with Professor Michael Crary of University of Florida. Dysphagia is difficulty in swallowing.
Steve Morics: ‘Best. Professor. Ever’
Steve Morics, professor of mathematics, is Professor of the Year for 2014-15, or as one student labeled him: “Best. Professor. Ever.” Morics helped create a very popular multi-department May Term class on game theory, and for the past three summers, he’s led summer research in areas such as grafts of flips of triangulation. Said another student: “Professor Morics is kind, encouraging, helpful and fun to be around, and I cannot think of anyone who deserves this award as much as he does.”
Professor and student co-author book chapter
Associate Professor of Biology Lei Lani Stelle and geographic information sciences graduate student Melodi King authored the chapter, “Whale mAPP: Engaging Citizen Scientists to Contribute and Map Marine Mammal Sightings” in the book, Ocean Solutions, Earth Solutions.
New director of Vahe Proudian program
Kathleen Feeley
In September 2016, Kathleen Feeley, associate professor of history, will assume the directorship of the Vahe Proudian Interdisciplinary Honors Program. Founded in 1977, the program centers on three cross-disciplinary seminars in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences or mathematics with courses enhanced through field trips, immersive and experiential learning. Proudian students are selected through a competitive process of written and oral interviews.
Developing mobile apps
Trish Cornez and Rick Cornez, faculty in the Mathematics and Computer Science department, have published Android Programming Concepts, a textbook for the development of mobile applications for devices and tablets powered by Android.
