More Safety Net Programs Could Aid Escape from Deep Poverty

With assistance such as food stamps, tax credits and utility and housing discounts, more than two-thirds of those in “deep poverty” escape within a year, but nearly a quarter return to poverty at some point, half of those in five years. The findings point to the effectiveness and further need for safety net programs that provide a boost out of poverty.

Linguistics Department Hosts Prestigious Summer Institute

Close to 400 noted and emerging linguists from around the world will converge at UC Davis on June 24 for a month of intensive instruction, professional development and informal networking that will help shape the future of their field. The theme of the 2019 Linguistic Society of America institute is Linguistics in the Digital Era.

Q&A: Psychology Alum/Professor on the Importance of Undergraduate Research

Jonathan Helm got his first taste of psychology research during his second year as a UC Davis undergraduate. After earning three UC Davis psychology degrees, Helm is now an assistant professor of quantitative psychology at San Diego State University. He recently collaborated with one of his former UC Davis professors on a study that found growing up in impoverished urban neighborhoods more than doubles your chances of developing a psychosis-spectrum disorder by middle adulthood. We asked him some questions about his journey from student to faculty researcher:

Read and Repeat: Can repetition and text enhancement improve language learning?

Does repeating a word in a text improve the comprehension and spelling of college students studying Spanish? How many repetitions is enough? How many is more than enough? Does making some words bold, italicized or underlined help with definitions and spelling? Those are some of the questions UC Davis Spanish professor Claudia Sanchez-Gutiérrez, graduate student Pablo Robles-García, and Mercedes Pérez-Serrano, a language professor in Spain, asked in a recent study.

Faculty in History and English Named Guggenheim Fellows

Two UC Davis College of Letters and Science faculty members have been awarded 2019 Guggenheim Fellowships. History professor Ari Kelman and English professor Elizbeth Carolyn Miller will receive the prestigious awards. They are among 173 winners in the U.S. and Canada selected from 3,000 applicants.

Some US Muslims identify less as Americans due to negative media coverage

Negative media portrayals of Muslim Americans can have adverse effects on how they view themselves as citizens and their trust in the U.S. government. In fact, these effects may be stronger than the impact caused by personal discrimination, according to a new study co-authored by Magdalena Wojcieszak, a UC Davis associate professor of communication who researches the effects of media on tolerance, perceptions and polarization.