Faculty Careers Day: California Community College and State University Systems

Barba is a Professor of English and Humanities at Merced College, here in Merced. He completed his Ph.D. from UC Merced in August of 2019. His research interests are in the areas of literature and composition, prison education, ethnic studies and film and society. More specifically, he focuses on how non-traditional and non-canonical texts can shape our understanding of society. He has presented papers on Chicano literature, film, science fiction (namely the many Star Trek texts) and non-traditional education.

 

In 2019, John joined the Department of Human Development and Women’s Studies at California State University, East Bay as an assistant professor. Additionally, he serves as the department’s Online Teaching Liaison and Faculty Advising Fellow. His research uses a variety of methodological approaches to explore language acquisition. First, he uses naturalistic observation to characterize the linguistic input available in the learning environment. Second, he uses experimental methods to identify the mechanisms children possess to learn a word’s meaning. John’s training as a developmental psychologist included a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Manitoba from 2017-2019 and, as a true product of California's higher learning system, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Merced (2017), his B.A. from California State University, Dominguez Hills (2011), and A.A. from Santa Monica College (2009).

 

Houa is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at CSU, Stanislaus. She recently completed her Ph.D. from UC Merced in August of 2022. Her research interests are in the areas of education, race and ethnicity, Asian Americans, and social stratification and inequality. More specifically, she examines how colleges and universities shape various aspects of students’ lives from ethnic-racial identities to their post-baccalaureate pathways. She is also interested in research focusing on the Hmong community as a refugee community as well as the lives of Hmong women.

 

Dr. Anna L. Jacobsen completed her undergraduate studies at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA.  She graduated from Pepperdine University in 2003 with a B. S. Biology with honors.  She spent 2004 living and conducting research in South Africa at Stellenbosch University as a Fulbright Scholar.  Upon returning to the States, she entered graduate school in the Department of Plant Biology at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI and was an NSF GRFP recipient.  Dr. Jacobsen completed a dual Ph. D. in Plant Biology and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, & Behavior (EEBB) in 2008. Following a two-year post-doc supported by a Mellon Foundation grant, she was hired as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at California State University, Bakersfield. She was awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award in 2013 and was part of a team that received an NSF CREST (Center for Research in Excellence in Science and Technology) grant in 2016.  She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014 and to Professor in 2018. She has developed an active research program investigating plant hydraulic structure-function, has published more than 70 scholarly articles, and co-authored a book on mediterranean-type ecosystems with Oxford University Press. She is currently serving as the CSUB Title Vb director of graduate research and mentoring.