Stacy Rebich Hespanha has been awarded a President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship which includes a stipend, plus payment of in-state fees, health insurance, and an allowance for research expenses during her final year of study. “This diversity fellowship is funded by the Office of the President and is designed for meritorious students who plan careers in academia. The program is designed to identify doctoral candidates whose research or planned career focuses on problems relating to disadvantaged segments of society, or who have been educationally or economically disadvantaged. The program provides faculty mentorship, information and advice to students as they prepare to become postdoctoral fellows or candidates for faculty positions. Each year, 52 Fellows are selected competitively by the Graduate Divisions of the UC campuses. Students are also required to present their research at another UC campus; travel funds are provided for this purpose” ).
Stacy’s dissertation work focuses on identifying how information about global climate change has been communicated to the public through the news media, and she is giving special attention to how emotion has been used to direct attention to the issue or as a persuasive tool. Her research program involves automated text analysis and visualization, using self-organizing maps (SOMs) of more than 100,000 of the news stories about global climate change that have appeared in major newspapers, television and radio broadcasts, and weblogs since the late 1960s. In addition to identifying topical, temporal, and geographic patterns in the contents of this news coverage, Stacy is seeking to identify patterns in the affective (emotional) content of the news stories and accompanying graphics or images. Results of the affective news analysis will be validated through research studies with human participants.
“It’s an honor to be chosen for this fellowship, especially because my selection is based in part on recognition of the contribution that the UCSB Women in Science and Engineering (www.wise.ucsb.edu) chapter makes to our campus and to the UC’s diversity efforts. As a first-generation college student, I have learned first-hand how incorrect assumptions and lack of information can lead to sub-optimal educational choices, so, when I heard about UCSB’s WiSE chapter early in my degree program, I decided to get involved to take advantage of the resources and support network it offered. I have held a leadership position in WiSE for over 4 years now, and during that time our group has organized and hosted numerous workshops, outreach activities, social events, and formal and informal talks designed to help women at all stages of the educational process learn about and access resources necessary for a successful scientific or technical career.
One of the great things about the President’s Fellowship is the opportunity it provides for fellows from each of the UC campuses to interact with each other and to present their research at another campus. I look forward to participating in these activities in the coming year, and to taking advantage of the chance to focus my full attention on my dissertation work. I greatly appreciate our department’s support in nominating me for this award.”
