Check out what the experts have to say

To be successful in this admittedly difficult research and writing process, it is crucial to communicate with people knowledgeable about your subject (area of concentration). This part of the assignment forces you to seek out and get input from experts or specialists (individuals willing to give you feedback on your initial research topic in the form of suggestions, contacts, academic sources, insights, etc.). There are several ways to find experts.

Consider areas in which USP has continuing ties to the San Diego Community. For example, USP has for some years worked with Valencia Park Elementary School, which is implementing the Comer Model of educational reform. In addition, USP maintains close contact with various agencies of the City and County of San Diego, Industrial Environmental Association, Regional Technology Alliance, TELESIS, Center on Policy Initiatives, San Diego Fair Housing Commission, among many others. You can contact these organizations and ask to speak with someone knowledgeable about their policies, projects and/or research.

• Urban planning theory and practice (Calavita, Herzog, Pezzoli)
• Health care policy (Brody, Kronick, Kaplan)
• Third World urban and regional development (Pezzoli, Evans)
• Urban politics and urban political history (Bridges, Erie, Parrish)
• Growth Conflicts, New Urbanism (Calavita)
• Urban labor markets; causes of labor market racial and ethnic inequality (White)
• Gender and women's political activism (Nicolaides, Katz, Catanzarite)
• Political Sociology, Sociology of Language, Migration, Globalization, and Development (Linton)
• Urban economics (Engle, White)
• Housing policy, history of suburbanization ( Calavita, Nicolaides)
• Education: inequality; stratification; work-school relations (Mehan)
• Industrial ecology, environmental management systems (Pezzoli)
• Social inequality, poverty and public policy (Nicolaides, Catanzarite, Erie, Bridges)
• Ethnic studies and minority politics (Dexter, Erie, Bridges, Gutierrez, Walcott)
• Water and political economy of California; Federalism-Inter governmental relations; land use issues, environmental law (Parrish)
• Information and communications technology; planning support systems, topic maps and knowledge networking (Marciano, Zaslavsky, Pezzoli).
• Social Movements, Welfare States, Urban Politics, Comparative Political Sociology, Special Interest in Sociology of Taxation (Martin)
• Social and cultural values shaping our understandings of disease and health, especially in regards to how they intersect with race and gender (Molina)
• Asian American Studies, Globalization and Citizenship, Immigrant Health Care, Welfare and Immigaration Policy, Sociology of Work and Labor (Sun-Hee Park)

You can search various faculty expert databases, then track down these professors for a chat during their office hours (send them you abstract prior to meeting with them).

Below is a list of searchable databases containing faculty profiles including their email and other contact information.

UCSD Faculty Experts Database
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/experts/experts.asp
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/facultyExperts/index.asp

University of California Science Experts Database
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/Science_Experts/

COMMUNITY OF SCIENCE (COS) DATABASES

University of California, San Diego database of experts
http://expertise.cos.com/cgi-bin/searchexp?code=111

Search the entire COS (Community of Science) database of experts
http://expertise.cos.com/cgi-bin/searchexp

Key terms used in the Community of Science experts database
http://www.cos.com/reference/keywords.shtml

Calender of UCSD events
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/calendar/AboutCalendar.asp
The purpose of the calendar is to provide the campus and the public with a summary of campus activities.

The UCSD Civic Collaborative, established in 1998, maintains a list of faculty and others who "share in the national concern that research universities renew and enlarge their commitment to improving public life both within and beyond their own walls." The Civic Collaborative is a program that encourages a two-way flow of knowledge between members of UCSD and the San Diego region, with a particular focus on civic and community life. http://ucsd-civic-collaborative.org/

UCSD recently created a site to help you "learn how you can make a difference in the San Diego Community through community service organizations, Volunteer Connection, college based community service clubs, and special service projects." Click here

Students are also a good source of suggestions: click here for advice from the class of 1998-1999

Our most current database of student profiles and their list of resources, click here