Jorge Iber, Chair and Associate Professor in History

Bio: I was born in Cuba and raised in Miami. I did my graduate work at the University of Utah; specializing in Mexican American History. Since my arrival at TTU, I have developed another speciality, US sports history. This work, although focusing on Mexican Americans, also includes a great deal of research on other Hispanics who live in the American West.

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Eileen Johnson, Curator of Anthropology and Director of Lubbock Lake Landmark

Bio: Dr. Johnson, working at the Landmark since 1972, has developed the interdisciplinary research program and public programs associated with the Landmark. She has published widely on the research and interpretation of the site, received numerous grants, and given innumerable public talks across the region. The Landmark s regional research program, while focusing on the Southern High Plains, stretches throughout the grasslands of the Americas, including the Northeastern prairie, valley of Mexico, and the pampas of Argentina.

Abstact: Throughout the Holocene, caliche has been a ubiquitous technological resource for the people of the Southern High Plains. Archaeological sites often contain thermal features that appear to utilize caliche in various cultural processes. Thermal alteration variables of caliche are examined from an actualistic perspective, utilizing previously excavated feature geometry and local caliche outcrops. Results indicate that intense heating of caliche causes significant, but variable, structural transformations at the specimen level. The experimental use of shallow basin hearths demonstrates that hearth structures were easily capable of achieving and sustaining temperatures that would result in the physical alteration of individual caliche nodules.

Eileen Johnson, Curator of Anthropology and Director of Lubbock Lake Landmark

Abstract: Bison remains are a common and important component of many North American archaeological and paleontological sites. Interpretations of bison remains, however, often are hampered by the inability to determine sex reliably in this dimorphic taxon. Metapodials are among the most common bison element recovered in archaeological assemblages, but have proven difficult to sex. The methods currently in use to estimate sex range from those using only bivariate plots and ratios of various metapodial measurements to those using discriminant function analysis. Each method has advantages and disadvantages, with no one method producing certain, unambiguous results. The designation of sex in borderline specimens remains uncertain in all current methods and must be determined subjectively. By reducing data through the use of ratios, the current bivariate methods fail to make full use of the size variation present between male and female bison. The requirements of discriminant function analysis likewise limit this method’s utility for sexing metapodials, particularly for assemblages containing small sample sizes. The use of principal component analysis utilizing several of the most dimorphic, commonly measured variables produces a more confident assessment of sex for both complete and partial specimens of modern bison metapodials.

Stephen Jones, Associate Professor in English

Jeff Justice, Visiting Assistant Professor

Bio: I received my Ph.D. degree from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) in 1996. I then had various postdoctoral positions in Canada, the US, and Japan, before coming to Texas Tech as an assistant professor in mathematics in 2002.

Abstact: The book is concerned with a special type of Galois theoretical embedding problems, which is an area of Inverse Galois Theory. Inverse Galois Theory can in turn be loosely described as dealing with the construction of polynomials (or equivalent quantities) with prescribed properties as regards the behavior of their roots (i.e., the points where they assume the value zero). Using embedding problems to attack this question amounts to constructing the quantities stepwise, with each step being (one hopes) relatively easy.

Bio: Dr. Mayer is Professor in Political Science at Texas Tech University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas. His current research interests include party system change, especially in the weakening of mainstream parties of the moderate left and right, and the emergence of populist parties of identity. These include nationalist parties of the extreme right as well as parties of sub-cultural defense and other parties of identity that do not classify on the left to right axis.

Abstact: American Public Policy: An Introduction is an introductory undergraduate text that engages students' interest with its unique emphasis on specific, substantive issues of public policy. This text analyzes American public policies in a historical context that allows students to evaluate, analyze, and debate whether established policies are successful or if alternative policies could better serve the American public. The discussion kindled by American Public Policy educates students on the practical methods of public policy analysis while allowing them to apply their knowledge to real life policies.

Bio: Jacalyn J. McComb is a professor in the Department of Health Exercise, and Sport Sciences at Texas Tech University. She is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Physiology at Texas Tech University Health Science Center. Her research collaborative efforts are with Reid Norman, Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience at TTUHSC and Anna Tacon in the Department of Health Exercise, and Sport Sciences at TTU. Her research focus is stress vulnerability and effective intervention treatments.

Abstact: When energy intake is restricted in mammals, there are neuroendocrine adjustments in the secretion of reproductive and metabolic hormones to reallocate energy for vital functions. In the present study, we investigated whether there were differences in the luteinising hormone (LH), growth hormone (GH) and cortisol responses to a 48-h fast in adult gonad-intact male and female rhesus mazaques.

Bio: Sara McLaughlin, Instructor in English at Texas Tech University, is a contributing editor to the Lamp-Post of the Southern California C.S. Lewis Society. She co-edited A Word Index to the Poetry of C. S. Lewis (Locust Hill Press, 1988). Her book, Meeting God in Silence (Tyndale, 1993), endorsed by Lewis's personal secretary, Walter Hooper, was translated into Korean and published in Seoul (Word of Life, 2000). McLaughlin's thesis was on the Augustinian influence in the fiction of C. S. Lewis.

Abstact: With the release of the movie, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first of a seven book series entitled The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis, a host of people are now interested in these beloved classics. Sara McLaughlin's book, Meeting God in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, correlates biblical themes and symbols, especially some more obscure ones, to Lewis's work. Brought to life in the fictitious land of Narnia are theological concepts such as redemption, atonement, and resurrection. Lewis's lively story telling catches readers off guard, and McLaughlin's book also engages both seasoned readers of Lewis and newcomers to Narnia.

Bio: Dr. Karen S. Meaney is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health, Exercise, and Sport Sciences. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in sport pedagogy. Her research focuses on examining children 's motor skill learning and applying research to enhance pedagogical practices.

Abstact: This investigation examined the effect of model similarity on girls ' acquisition, retention, transfer, and transfer strategies of a novel motor task. Forty girls (mean age = 10 years) were randomly assigned to conditions in a 2 (model skill level) X 2 (model sex) factorial design using four treatment groups: (a) male skilled, (b) male learning, (c) female skilled, and (d) female learning. Quantitative data revelaed that participants observing a female model or a learning model transferred significanlty more learning strategies than did participants observing a male or skilled model. Qualitative results underscored the need to include models of similar sex, as well as learning models when instructing girls in motor skills.