The First Year

UCB LECTURERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND
GRANT WINNERS AND THEIR PROJECTS, 2003-2004

Terry D. Johnson, Bioengineering

I am incorporating wireless and web-based teaching in my lab course, Bioengineering 115, and my summer course, Bioengineering 190. I used the grant to pay for a laptop and a MATLAB software license. My lectures for the current semester are available on my webpage, along with web links to animations, videos, etc.; all of which assist me in the classroom.

Christine Diehl, School of Education

I used the UC-AFT Professional Development Funds to attend the Cognitive Science Society Annual Conference in Chicago in August of 2004. My goals were to participate in a day of tutorials introducing new modeling techniques in cognitive science, to attend talks focusing on intellectual debates and emerging methodologies in the field, and to network with other cognitive science researchers and instructors. I have drawn on my experiences in the re-design of the Introduction to Cognitive Science course that I will be teaching in Spring 2005.

Will Seng, Technical Communications Program, School of Engineering

Attendance at the IEEE International Professional Communication Society Conference in Minneapolis. New to the field of teaching technical communication to engineers, I participated in workshops with engineers, technical writers and those who teach technical communication, particularly to engineering students. Discussions of present and future directions for technical writers and engineers called upon to write in the workplace will help me update my course in the College of Engineering at Berkeley.

Janet Delaney, Visual Studies, Architecture Department, College of Environmental Design

I requested funds for a one week intensive course in Photoshop which was offered at the International Center for Photography in New York City during the month of July. The intensive format was ideal for me to be able to be totally immersed in a very complicated computer program. I also took some time to visit galleries and museums so that I could stay up with current fine art photography exhibitions. Armed with the information from the workshop I approached my dean and requested the purchase of a computer station for digital photography to add to our wet darkroom. He was very receptive and I am currently researching new equipment.

Diane Pearson, Native American Studies, Ethnic Studies

I'm completing the third stage of research for the book, Niimiipu Narratives: The Essence of survival in the Indian Territory. The PDF award is being used to complete archival research in Kansas and Oklahoma that furnishes information about the 431 Niimiipu [Nez Perce] captives deported to the Indian Territory at the end of the Nez Perce War of 1877. The award is funding essential travel and meals, costs for copies, duplications, and to purchase, for publication, copies of rare photographs of the Niimiipu captives. Three major articles from the project have already been published in peer-reviewed journals, and materials gathered through the PDF grant are being prepared for the book manuscript and for presentation at the 2005 meeting of The Western Social Sciences Association, and have been included in a major article for volume 18, The Journal of Self Employment and Entrepreneurship.

Anna Livia Brawn, French Department

My project is to prepare myself to coordinate a Minor in Translation Studies. This entails broadening my knowledge of technical translation since I already have considerable expertise and experience in literary translation. Specifically, I have attended conferences, workshops and training sessions on different aspects of translation; joined the American Translators Association; taken practice translation tests; attended events organized by the Center for Literary Translation. In the next few weeks, I intend to purchase the technical dictionaries needed in medical, legal and business French.

Randy Hussong, Department of Art Practice

I received a PDF to attend the Mid-America Print Conference in Lincoln Nebraska. As the Printmaking Instructor for the Department of Art Practice at the University of California, Berkeley I was the only UC representative in attendance and one of only a half a dozen participants from the West Coast. The conference, titled Relevance/Resonance was held at the Embassy Suites in Lincoln in conjunction with the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The conference was attended by over 900 educators, print artists and experts. There were four days of seminars, lectures, discussion groups and demonstrations as well as a product fair. The keynote speaker for the conference was Judy Pfaff, a sculptor and print artist, who recently received a McArthur Genius Award. As a post six year Unit 18 Lecturer I was thrilled to finally have the opportunity to apply for professional development funds.

Marcia Parker, Graduate School of Journalism

Over the past year while I have been working here as development director, I have launched two new magazines, Tri-Valley Magazine and Nirvana Woman, tapping our Journalism School students and alumni as interns and writers. I used my CDOP grant to attend the 9 day Stanford Professional Publishing Program in July, which I had to apply for and be accepted into. The Stanford Professional Publishing Course is one of the industry’s most respected programs, offering cutting-edge information about today's most advanced publishing processes--from editorial development through layout, design, production, marketing, finance, and brand extensions. For nine intense days, you participate in lectures, seminars, study groups, and workshops designed and led by the most experienced and capable working professionals in U.S. publishing today.

Mary Louise Frampton Center for Social Justice, Boalt School of Law

I presented a paper to the Oxford Roundtable on “How America’s Collective Denial of Racial Prejudice Thwarts the Enforcement of Anti-Discrimination Laws in Education” at the Oxford University, Oxford, England, on March 22, 2004 and participated in the Oxford Roundtable symposium on the education of at-risk children at Pembroke College, Oxford University, from March 21-26, 2004.

Marsha Saxton, UGIS

I am using the PDF grant to expand two courses, "Introduction to Disability Studies" (public policy issues, personal narratives of disability, the disability rights movement) and "Women and Disability" (intersection of gender and disability, feminist perspectives on disability, both in UGIS.) With the development of genetic testing for breast cancer, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's Disease, prenatal screening for conditions such as Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, Sickle Cell, and hundreds of other conditions, the new reproductive technologies have been applauded by the public and also critiqued by the disability community as "the new eugenics." These courses will explore current and historical genetics issues as they interact with disability, gender and other social and political forces.

Martha Saavedra, African American Studies

My award was for attending two meetings: one a meeting in May on Sudan and the second in November, the African Studies meeting in New Orleans. At the New Orleans meeting, I presented a paper on gender, Islam and sport in Africa.

Bill Dohar, History Department

I attended the national conference of the American Academy of Religion in San Antonio, TX. My original intention in seeking the Professional Development funding was to engage with other scholars and teachers in developing creative pedagogies for teaching the history of religion. My more specific concerns are in the areas of marginalization in religious traditions and the creation of religious minorities. Most of the sessions I attended had to do with teaching religion in secular environments, women and religion, interdisciplinary and cross-cultural methods in teaching the histories of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and religious issues in Queer Studies.

Darren Zook, Political Science Department

Finland is generally considered by governmental and non-governmental observers to be one of, if not the, least corrupt countries in the world. In my research project, I will travel to Finland to determine precisely which elements (cultural, social, political) contribute to the extraordinally "clean" system of governance in Finland. I will also try to determine if any of the these elements might be transferable to or might offer lessons for other countries that are struggling to curtail high levels of corruption.

Vicki Elmer, City and Regional Planning

I teach graduate level courses in housing at the Department of City and Regional Planning and received an award to attend two training sessions on data management and macro development for the SAS software language. Up to date methods of managing and manipulating the data base used for housing research will make me more productive in my own research and more effective in the classroom as I teach future municipal housing planners how to analyze housing data.

Gary Yabrove, School Psychology Program, Graduate School of Education

As a lecturer in the School Psychology Program, I am responsible for the professional training of doctoral students who are preparing for practice as school-based psychologists. With the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), there is a need to identify and implement at the classroom level educational practices that are supported by rigorous scientific evidence. I plan to use these funds for professional development activities in my effort to develop a new curriculum standards organized around educational requirements under NCLB.

Kathleen Moran, American Studies

I applied for Professional Development Funds for two projects. The first request was for money to attend the Western Literature Association meeting in October 2004. I attended the conference and gave a paper entitled "John Ford's American Depression." The paper is part of a project on New Deal Hollywood that Michael Rogin and I began writing two years ago. Since Michael's death, I have published three chapters of that project. The paper on Ford is the fourth. I also plan to use funds to convert part of my slide library into a digital format.

Luis Gonsalez-Reimann, Religious Studies and South/Southeast Asian Studies

The award allowed me to pay for my participation in two professional conferences in my field, in both of which I presented papers (which were, if I may add, well received). The meetings were the following: The 32nd Annual Conference on South Asia, in Madison, Wisconsin; and the 214th Meeting of the American Oriental Society, held in San Diego. The papers presented were, respectively, "Time in the Mahabharata and the Time of the Mahabharata" and "The Divinity of Rama in the Ramayana of Valmiki."