Presidential Leadership, Illness, and Decision Making
In her new book "Presidential Leadership, Illness, and Decision Making" (Cambridge University Press, 2008), Rose McDermott, a professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, examines the ways in which processes related to aging, physical and psychological illness, and addiction influence executive decision making. She provides detailed case studies of four American presidents – Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Richard M. Nixon – and discusses how their physical conditions may have influenced foreign policy decisions and altered the course of history.

CNS-UCSB Hosts Conference on Occupational Health and Safety in Nano Labs and Industries
The Center for Nanotechnology in Society (CNS) recently hosted a major conference on health and safety in laboratories and industrial workplaces employing nanotechnology. The conference was being organized jointly by CNS; Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program; UCLA’s Centers for Occupational and Environmental Health and International Science, Technology, and Cultural Policy; NanoBank; UC Lead Campus for NanoToxicology Research and Training; and UC Santa Barbara's California NanoSystems Institute.

This conference, “Nanotechnology and Occupational Health and Safety,” brought together union leaders, human resource managers, social scientists, media, public policy officials, and scientists to examine issues relating to potential risks for nanotechnology researchers and workers, and ways to limit those risks.  A major objective of the conference was to initiate a conversation on these issues between specialists and practitioners.  The unifying theme is that labor and management should pay close attention to the new technology and scientific evidence about its risks; and that the scientific community should be aware of workplace concerns and the history of occupational health and safety issues that have been important with past technologies.  The conference included reports on the experience of previous technologies where this message was not full appreciated.

The three-day conference included six sessions: What is Nanotechnology and What are the Workplace and Laboratory Risks?; Present and Future of Nanoparticle Risk Measurement; Lessons of History and Aspects of Workplace Risks; Current Regulatory Framework; the Global Context; and Benefits Enhancement and Risk Reduction.  The keynote address was delivered by Joan Denton, Director of the State of California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

National Program in Health Games Research To Be Based at UC Santa Barbara
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced the selection of UC Santa Barbara as the home for a new $8.25-million national research program to examine how interactive games can be used to improve health. "Health Games Research was created to advance the innovation, design, and effectiveness of health games and game technologies so that they will help people improve their health-related behaviors and achieve better health," says Debra Lieberman, director of the program. Lieberman is a communication researcher at UC Santa Barbara's Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research (ISBER), where the program will be housed, and also a lecturer in the university's Department of Communication. She is an expert in the research and design of interactive media, especially video games, for learning and health behavior change.

National Survey Explores Race and Gender in 21st -Century Politics
A team of political scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the University of New Mexico, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Notre Dame has completed a groundbreaking survey that explores how race and gender is changing the political landscape of the United States. The scholars presented their findings at a press conference at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. The Gender and Multicultural Leadership Project is, to date, the most comprehensive multiracial, multi-office national survey of Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American elected officials holding position at state and local levels. Principal investigators include Pei-te Lien, a professor of political science at UC Santa Barbara; Christine Marie Sierra, a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico; Carol Hardy-Fanta, director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston; and Dianne M. Pinderhughes, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. They constructed a national database of over 10,000 public officials in federal and selected state and local offices. Survey respondents were drawn from this database and included 1,354 officials, slightly more than half of whom are African American, over one-third are Latino/a, 7 percent are Asian American, and 2 percent are Native American. Among other topics, respondents discussed their positions on issues such as the war in Iraq, the No Child Left Behind education policy, immigration, and the Voting Rights Act.

Race, Place, and Power
The 2007-2008 "Critical Issues in America" series will bring together scholars to discuss issues relating to Race, Place, and Power as they relate to urban issues. George Lipsitz, Professor of Black Studies and Sociology, and Clyde Woods, Professor of Black Studies, will organize the series of classes, forums, presentations, and discussions aimed at evaluating emerging concepts, theories, and policies about race and space. The Critical Issues in America series is an endowed program in the College of Letters & Science at UC Santa Barbara. Events in the series examine relevant social topics from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Previous series have focused on environmental issues and policy reform; media ownership; women; employment and globalization; violence in America; and ethnic studies.

American Economic Association Selects the Department of Economics to Host Minority Scholarship and Summer Program
The Department of Economics was selected by the American Economic Association as the next host institution for its Summer Program and Minority Scholarship Program. The AEA Summer Program is a research- and mathematics- intensive, eight-week course of study that prepares highly motivated undergraduate students from all over the United States for successful Ph.D. study in economics. A scholarship program is also available to students. UCSB is scheduled to host the program for the summers of 2008–2010. Funding for the program comes from a number of sources, including the American Economic Association, National Science Foundation, and the Division of Social Sciences.