UCCS is home to a number of published faculty members. Their wide-ranging research has been featured in books, textbooks and journals. Faculty members across multiple departments shared some of their favorite works with The Scribe.
Department of Anthropology
Later this year, author and professor Minette Church is releasing “‘Sometime Come the Mother. Sometime the Wolf’: Mothering Youth in the Midst of War in Nineteenth-Century Yucatan” a chapter in “Mothering and Archaeology: Past and Present Perspectives.”
Her paper makes arguments for the status of women as the last colonized population. According to Church, “the work makes looking at mothering, and agency of mothers, in chronically violent colonial contexts compelling and necessary.”
Colin D. Wren, associate professor and the chair of the department of anthropology, co-authored “Bad year econometrics: Agent-based modeling of risk management strategies under varying regimes of environmental change.” The article was published in the “Science Advances” journal in January.
According to Wren, the article combines computer models, archaeology of Vikings and Dorset and ethnography to examine how different strategies — mobility, infrastructure investment, social ties and economic diversification — help societies survive environmental challenges.
Department of Criminal Justice
In 2024, Patrick Brady co-authored “The Focal Concerns of Stalking Victims: Examining Victims’ Decisions to Engage Civil and Criminal Legal Systems,” an article featured in “Criminal Justice and Behavior.” Brady is an assistant professor in the department of criminal justice.
The article outlines focal concerns theory as a framework for understanding why crime victims seek out formal help and victim services.
“The findings suggest implications for improving civil and criminal-legal responses to stalking complaints by outlining areas to probe during interviews for further corroboration,” Brady said in a statement over email.
Assistant professor Katherine Bright’s 2023 work, “The role of mental health and delinquent behaviors in the cycle of sexual violence among Croatian adolescents: a longitudinal exploration with replication” was published in the “Archives of Sexual Behavior,” the official publication of the International Academy of Sex Research.
The article establishes the mechanisms involved in perpetuating the cycle of violence, a less-understood area of criminal justice research.
Bright’s research helps inform conversations around designing policies to prevent and address peer sexual violence among Croatian adolescents.
Department of Communication
In 2024, professor Maja Krakowiak published “How it ends: Exploring how narrative closure and character outcomes in series finales relate to viewer responses and coping behaviors” in the Mass Communication & Society journal.
Krakowiak’s article explores the science behind what makes television finales satisfying to audiences. “When characters get satisfying conclusions and the story reaches a natural close, viewers tend to feel more positive, experience less emotional distress and find greater enjoyment and meaning in the finale,” Krakowiak said in a statement over email.
Janice Thorpe is a teaching professor in the department of communication. She co-authored a public speaking textbook. “New Edition: Public Speaking 4.0: AI Enhanced Presentations” was published in 2024.
The textbook addresses how to ethically integrate technology like A.I. into public speeches. Thorpe said that her work was a multimedia, interactive textbook built for today’s students.
Brett Siegel, assistant professor for the department of communication, wrote “One nation, one team? The U.S. Women’s National Team and the politics of failure,” which was featured in “Media, communication, and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.”
The chapter analyzes media reactions to the U.S. Women’s National Team’s early exit from the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Department of Economics
Joseph Craig is an associate professor and chair of the department of economics. Craig channeled his love for football into developing an algorithm that uses college statistics to predict rookie quarterback performance in the NFL.
According to Craig, the model was a success. “We could out-predict top college scouts in projecting future NFL success,” he said.
Craig and his team published their findings in “Predicting the National Football League potential of college quarterbacks.”
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
In 2015, Byeong Kil Lee co-authored a textbook on Verilog, a hardware design language. Lee is an associate professor for the department of ECE.
According to Lee, “Digital Systems Design using Verilog” is meant to help students master the process of designing and testing new hardware configurations. “The book is being used at many universities around the world,” he said in a statement over email.
Department of ECE associate professor M. Scott Trimboli and professor Gregory Plett collaborated to write “Battery Management Systems, Volume III: Physics-Based Methods” in 2023.
“The book is a strong resource for battery engineers, chemists, researchers and educators who are interested in advanced battery management systems and strategies,” said a UCCS Communique released in April 2024.
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies (GES)
Brandon Vogt, associate professor and the chair of the GES department, co-authored “Colorado Lightning Climatology” in 2018.
The article explains lightning distribution patterns in Colorado, and why the Pikes Peak Region experiences more lightning strikes than anywhere in the state.
According to Vogt, this article is his favorite because of its mix of geography and meteorology.
“Most people think that the highest mountain in Colorado, Mt. Elbert, is struck the most, but they are wrong — it is (by far) Pikes Peak!” Vogt said in a statement over email.
“Portraying the Geography of US Airspace with 3-Dimensional GIS-Based Analysis and Visualization” was published in the International Journal of Geo-Information in January. The article is a collaboration between Diep Dao and David Havlick, professors for the department of GES.
Dao and Havlick combined their expertise in geographic science and military geographies to create a publicly accessible 3D geo-visualization platform.
According to Dao and Havlick, the article also serves to spark discussions about U.S. territorial reach and global influence.
Havlick also partnered with Christine Biermann, an associate professor for the department of GES, to write an article on ecological restoration.
“Ecological Restoration, Genetics, Genomics and Environmental Governance” explores how genomic and genetic technologies can be used to conserve and restore wildlife populations. The article was published in “Environment and Society” in 2024.
This article is the first in a two-part series.
Books authored by professors John Harner and Byeong Kil Lee. Photo by Logan Cole.