April 27, 2017 — Producer/screenwriter/cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan will be the keynote speaker at the 9th Annual SAGE Student Research Conference on May 6 at CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI).
Kaplan, also known as BEK, has worked on NBC’s “Seinfeld,” HBO’s “Six Feet Under” and is currently the executive producer for HBO’s “Girls.”
His trademark single-panel cartoons, known for their ironic humor, frequently appear in The New Yorker and he has written seven books for adults and three for children, his latest, a memoir called “I Was a Child.”
“The SAGE Conference highlights faculty-mentored student research and creative activity,” said Professor of Political Science Sean Kelly, Ph.D., one of the event organizers. “Student research allows students to use their classroom-based skills to complete a research or a creative project under the stewardship of faculty.”
The biggest SAGE Student Research Conference to date is comprised of 250 students from all the CSUCI academic departments. Under the direction of a faculty mentor, the student researchers used a variety of methods to introduce the public to research projects they have been working on all semester.
Robot algorithms on Mars; mercury level in salmon; perceptions of law enforcement; gender roles; plastic pollution; climate change; Japanese-American art; breast feeding and asthma; sex education and pre-revolutionary Cuba are just a handful of subjects covered during two sessions in the Grand Salon featuring more than 150 research posters.
Sociology senior Sandya Sriram, 21, was part of a team who examined whether people of different races, genders and socioeconomic circumstances are viewed differently when it comes to something called family responsibility discrimination, or FRD. Assistant Professor of Sociology Lindsey O’Connor, Ph.D., was her faculty adviser.
Sriram and her research partners designed an experiment that describes an interaction between a fictitious employee and her supervisor. Respondents to the study learn from reading about this interaction that the employee did not receive a promotion—in part—because she recently took maternity leave.
The research team suspected the fictitious characters’ race, class and gender might affect the way others view them, if all other variables were the same.
“We thought that people might be less sympathetic to low-income black women than privileged white women because of stereotypes that low-income black women make irresponsible decisions about having kids,” Sriram said.
The students tested their theory by telling respondents in the study that the employee was either a man or woman, white or black and a professional or retail worker.
Sriram and her team, along with all the other researchers in the conference, will be available to go into more detail and answer questions.
Research will also be shared with oral presentations, art and media installations and an Art Open House in Napa Hall.
The SAGE Student Research Conference will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at various locations around the North Quad of the campus. A barbecue lunch will be served.
Kelly said the University faculty, staff and students are grateful to SAGE Publications, which sponsors the conference.
“It is a terrific way to celebrate our students and faculty and the wonderful work they are doing, and a great way to lead us into graduation ceremonies,” Kelly said.