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Department News / Alumni and Friends

Psychology faculty sign an agreement with Springer to edit the Book Series "Bilingual Mind and Brain"

Professor of Psychology Roberto Heredia and Associate Professor of Psychology Anna Cieslicka

Professor Roberto R. Heredia and Associate Professor Anna Cieslicka, members of TAMIU Psychology faculty had signed an agreement with the prestigious Publishing House Springer to act as editors of a Book Series called "Bilingual Mind and Brain." As editors, both TAMIU professors will be in charge of inviting potential authors from all over the United States and other countries to write books or chapters related to the series topics. Springer is a very well-known publisher in Experimental and Cognitive Psychology and is widely respected by scholars working on bilingualism. Becoming editors of book series is a highly respected position reserved for well-known senior researchers in a field. For doctors Heredia and Cieslicka it is a deserved recognition of their productivity and quality as scholars doing cutting edge research on the topic of bilingualism from a psychological and linguistic perspective. Both scholars have recently published the book "Bilingual Figurative Language Processing" in Cambridge University Press.

German Academic Discusses Study Abroad, Literature, Hip-Hop with TAMIU Students

Dr. Horst Tonn

Dr. Horst Tonn, professor of American Studies at Germany’s prestigious University of Tübingen, recently visited Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) to present several lectures to University students. A renowned specialist in culture and American literature, Dr. Tonn visited TAMIU Nov. 3-4 and gave a lecture entitled, “The American Culture Seen from Europe." TAMIU students from various disciplines who participated in Study Abroad programs or registered for it for next year attended the lectures.

During his visit, Tonn also attended the graduate class, "Rudolfo Anaya and the Chicano(a) Tradition," led by Dr. Manuel Broncano, TAMIU professor and director of English and Spanish programs. As part of his visit, Tonn, who in June hosted 14 students in TAMIU professor Dr. J. Carlos Lozano’s study abroad class in Tübingen, Germany, also lectured on rap and hip- hop culture in Germany.

According to Tonn, the popularity of rap and hip-hop is related to a long tradition in German youths’ use of American music as a pretext to carry out social and political criticism.

Finally, Tonn spoke with students in Marcela Morán, associate professor of communication’s class, "Literature and Cinema." He discussed John Sayles’ film, “Lone Star” and the way in which the movie reflects history and local memory of the border.

Tonn also met with María Eugenia Calderón, TAMIU assistant vice president for global initiatives, and Dr. Lozano to explore options for undergraduate and graduate student exchange between TAMIU and the University of Tübingen, located in Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Psychology and Communication Majors travel to Belgium, Germany and Italy

J. Carlos Lozano and Marcela Moran, members of the Department of Psychology and Communication, led two study abroads to Europe during Summer Sessions 1 and 2. Dr. Lozano took a group of 12 students to Antwerp and Ghent in Belgium, and Tubingen in Germany during SS1.The students, most of them Communication and Psychology majors, met scholars and students from the University of Antwerp, Ghent University and Tubingen University, in addition to their instructor's lectures on Media and Behavior and Communication Theory and Practice.They also visited Amsterdam, Brugges, Brussels, Cologne, Koblenz, Heidelberg, Munich and Stuttgart. MFA Marcela Moran, during SS2, took 8 students to Rome, Italy, where she taught Photography and Film Studies. They also visited several Italian cities.

New Psychology Faculty

Sara Castro Olivo and Elizabeth Terrazas Carrillo joined the Psychology Program on fall 2014. Sara Castro Olivo, the new Director of the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology, got her M.S. in Special Education from the University of Oregon and her Ph.D., also from the University of Oregon, on School Psychology. She worked as Assistant Professor from 2008 to 2014 at the Graduate School of Education, School of Psychology Program, University of California, Riverside. Elizabeth Terrazas Carrillo, on the other hand, got her MA in Psychology from Midwestern State University and her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Oklahoma. She worked as a Predoctoral Psychology Intern at the Texas State University Counseling Center and as Doctoral Practicum Student at the University of Central Oklahoma Student Counseling Center. Both new faculty have joined the Psychology undergraduate and graduate programs in TAMIU, some of the largests in the campus.

Recent Publications by the Department of Psychology and Communication Faculty

Cieślicka, A.B. “Second language learners’ processing of idiomatic expressions: Does compositionality matter?” Pp. 115-137. In K. Droździał-Szelest, and M. Pawlak (Eds.), Psycholinguistic and Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Second Language Learning and Teaching: Studies in Honor of Waldemar Marton. New York/ Heidelberg: Springer.

Cieślicka A. B., O. García, J. Morales, and R.R. Heredia. “Dual-coding theory revisited: Concreteness and picture superiority effects in bilingual incidental memory tasks.” Pp. 23-40. In E. Manczak (Ed.), Exploring the Microcosm and Macrocosm of Language Teaching and Learning - A Festschrift for Professor Anna Nizegorodcew on the Occasion of Her 70th birthday. Kraków,
Poland: Jagiellonian University Press.

Cieślicka, A.B. “Do non-native language speakers chew the fat and spill the beans with different brain hemispheres?: Investigating idiom decomposability with the divided visual field paradigm.”
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 42(6): 475-503.

Heredia, R.R., and J.M. Brown. “Bilingual memory.” Pp. 269-291. In T.K. Bhatia, and W.C. Ritchie (Eds.), The Handbook of Bilingualism, 2nd edition. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.

<strongFlores, M. and F. Subervi. “Assessing the Job Satisfaction of U.S. Latino Journalists.” Journalism Practice, DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2013.849847.

Frankenberg, L. and Lozano, J. C. (2013). “Memories of films and cinema going in Monterrey, Mexico: A critique and review of in-depth interviews as a methodological
strategy in audience studies.” In Angarhad Valdivia (Ed.), Blackwell’s International Companion to Media Studies: Research Methods in Media Studies. Volume Editor: Fabienne Darling-Wolf. Blackwell.

Lozano, J.C., Biltereyst, D., Frankenberg, L., Meers, P. and Hinojosa, L. “Exhibición y programación cinematográfica de 1922 a 1962 en Monterrey, México: un estudio de caso desde la perspectiva de la ‘Nueva historia del cine’ [Film Exhibition from 1922 to 1962 in Monterrey, Mexico: A case study from the perspective of New Cinema History].” Global Media Journal Edición México, 9(18): 73-94.

Lozano, J.C. “La socialización política desde el infoentretenimiento televisivo: el caso de México [Political socialization in televised infotainment: the Mexican case].” In Carmen Ferré (Ed.), Infoentretenimiento. El formato imparable de la era del espectáculo. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.

Sidelinger, R., and P.E. Madlock. “ Hurtful teasing in romantic relationships: Does mate value affect the impact of teasing on satisfaction and commitment in close relationships?” Ohio
Communication Journal 51: 29-52.

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