College of Family Home and Social Sciences

Maddie Mehr

New Faculty Members Join the College

This fall, we welcome fresh faces to the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences. Be sure to say hello to our new faculty members and spend a minute to get to know more about them and the expertise they bring. We’re glad they’re here!

Melissa Alcaraz, Assistant Professor of Sociology

Melissa Alcaraz specializes in the intersection between migration and family formation, with a focus on Mexico. She earned her PhD in sociology from The Ohio State University in 2021.

Ruth Kerry, Associate Professor of Geography 

Ruth Kerry grew up in the United Kingdom and did all her studies there, including a PhD in precision agriculture from the University of Reading in 2004. She specializes in soil spatial analysis and land evaluation, and precision agriculture. She was previously an affiliate assistant professor at Auburn University. 

David Simpson, Visiting Teaching Professor of Geography

David Simpson has a passion for making communities better. He has a doctorate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in city and regional planning and has filled many professional roles over his career, much of which was spent with the University of Louisville. Prior to moving to Utah and accepting this position with BYU, he was the chair of the University of Louisville Sustainability Council. 

Ryan Hill, Assistant Professor of Economics 

Ryan Hill earned his PhD in Economics from MIT in 2020 and specializes in labor economics, public finance, economics of innovation, and development of scientific knowledge. He previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher for the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Fun fact about Ryan: he stood at the highest and lowest points of the continental U.S. on the same day — he climbed Mt. Whitney, slept on the summit, hiked down, and then visited Death Valley on the way home.

Richard Patterson, Assistant Professor of Economics 

Richard Patterson was an assistant professor in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point before coming to BYU. He specializes in applied microeconomics, behavioral economics, economics of education, and labor economics and has a PhD in policy analysis and management from Cornell University. In his free time he enjoys mountain biking, rock climbing, and skiing. 

Ashley Fraser, Assistant Professor of Family Life 

Ashley Fraser earned a PhD in family and human development from Arizona State University in 2021. Her research interests include childhood and adolescent development; empathy and prosocial behavior; hope, racism and equity, and media. 

Andrea Kinghorn Busby, Assistant Professor of Family Life

Andrea Kinghorn Busby specializes in developmental psychology and public policy; reducing inequality for young children, with emphasis on fathers and neighborhoods; and inequality in children’s home, school, and neighborhood contexts. Her research interests include the impact of violence on children, how children and families experience poverty in suburban communities, and how parents socialize their children about economic inequality. She earned her PhD in human development and social policy from Northwestern University in 2021.

Ashley LeBaron-Black, Assistant Professor of Family Life

Ashley LeBaron-Black specializes in family finance with a focus on family financial socialization and couple finance. She earned her PhD in family studies and human development from the University of Arizona in 2021. In her free time she enjoys studying art history, particularly French Gothic, Italian Renaissance, and French Impressionism. 

Daniel Frost, Director of the Integrative Writing Program and Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Family Life

Daniel Frost earned his PhD in politics from Princeton University, and his writing interests include marriage, family, sexual morality, personal identity, and moral reasoning, among others. He previously taught political science at Clemson University and BYU.

Liz McGuire, Assistant Professor of Political Science 

Liz McGuire earned her PhD in political science from Yale University in 2021. She uses experimental and quantitative methodologies to study gender politics, changes in gender norms, and comparative gender norms. She is also interested in international development and is currently focusing on East Africa. 

David Romney, Assistant Professor of Political Science 

David Romney has a PhD in government from Harvard University, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs before coming to BYU. He specializes in comparative politics and methods, psychology of intergroup relations, role of social media, misinformation, and conspiracy theories in the Middle East. In his free time he enjoys watching cooking shows and trying out new recipes with his wife. 

Gentry Jenkins, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science

Gentry Jenkins earned his doctorate degree from the University of Chicago, where he was a teaching fellow in the Committee on International Relations. His research interests include the connections between revolution, state-building, civil war, and international conflict.

Sandra Sephton, Professor of Psychology 

Sandra Sephton specializes in developmental, cognitive, and health psychology; biobehavioral oncology; and mindfulness interventions. She earned her PhD in behavioral neuroscience from BYU in 1995 and previously was a professor at the University of Louisville and senior scientist at James Graham Brown Cancer Center. She is the happy owner of three horses.

Kara Duraccio, Assistant Professor of Psychology 

Kara Duraccio earned her PhD in clinical psychology from BYU in 2019. She previously worked held a General Pediatrics Research Fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Her areas of specialty include pediatric psychology with a focus on adolescent sleep and eating behaviors. 

Dawn-Marie Wood, Assistant Teaching Professor of Psychology

Dawn-Marie Wood earned her master’s degree in psychology and behavioral neuroscience at BYU in 1994, and was previously a visiting assistant teaching professor at BYU. She loves to fly fish and is an “honorary member” of the BYU Fly Fishing Club.

Grace Haggard Barrus

New College Controller: Being part of the BYU student experience

Mike B 20 Year PhotoMike Bridenbaugh, FHSS’s new College Controller and Assistant Dean, is quite the big cheese.

As the College Controller, Bridenbaugh oversees how university funds are spent throughout the college. But Bridenbaugh has been a part of the BYU student experience for years.

Bridenbaugh began his career at BYU 30 years ago making cheese and ice cream at the BYU Dairy. After working in the Student Auxiliary Services controller office, he moved to the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences in 2014.

In his current position, Bridenbaugh plays a role in FHSS human resources, endowments, and the hundreds of scholarships that students in the social sciences receive each year to attend conferences and intern around the country and world.

“I love how we all work together towards a common goal of student success and achievement,” says Bridenbaugh. “Being even the smallest part of the BYU experience for our students is my favorite part about working at BYU.”

When he’s not helping the college and its students find academic opportunities, Bridenbaugh is busy with his own adventures. Not only does he enjoy keeping up with his garden–his “Summer Sanctuary”–he also loves to mountain bike, bake bread, read, and dabble in outdoor photography, woodworking, and blacksmithing.

Bridenbaugh replaced Mike Nelson as the College Controller. Nelson retired after an established career at BYU in July 2018.

Fulton Conference 2018: Giving back scholastically

For 14 years, students from the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences have had the opportunity to perform insightful research alongside faculty mentors at the Fulton Mentored Student Research Conference. This not only gives students the chance to vastly expand their research skills, experience preparing and presenting a scholarly poster, and add a notable research project to their resume, it allows them to personally contribute to scholarship in their field of interest.

The Mentored Student Research Conference is hosted by the Mary Lou Fulton Endowed Chair. Mary Lou Fulton had a passion for educating and elevating student aspirations and through this conference, students are able to achieve the skills and experiences to do so.

At this year’s conference, 250 posters were presented by 542 students who researched topics ranging from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to how parents teach teenagers about romantic relationships. Prizes were awarded to students from each department as well as from the Redd Center, the Office of Civic Engagement, and the Gerontology department.

Congratulations to the poster winners and to all the students and faculty who participated!

Undergraduate

Anthropology

1st place: A Closer Look at Nabataean Burials
Student: Anna Nielson
Faculty Mentor: David Johnson

2nd place: Converting Gendered Expectations: Emerging Feminist Discourse among Protestant and Seventh-day Adventist Hmong
Student: Stephanie Parsons
Faculty Mentor: Jacob Hickman

Continue reading

Benjamin Madley to Lecture on an American Genocide

Genocide, according to the United Nations, is “…acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”  Benjamin Madley, an associate professor of history at UCLA, applies the term to describe the treatment of American Indians in mid-19th century California in his book, An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe. In two weeks, Dr. Madley will lecture at an FHSS event to argue that California Indians didn’t fare much better than Armenians, Rwandans, or even European Jews during the Nazi regime.

You’re invited

  • Who: Dr. Benjamin Madley, hosted by the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies
  • What: A presentation on the American Genocide
  • When: Thursday, September 21st, from 11 a.m. to noon
  • Where: B192 JFSB (the Education in Zion auditorium)
  • Why: To discuss important historical events that often lack awareness and understanding

american-genocide
Courtesy of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies.

An American Genocide

An American Genocide, in which Dr. Madley estimates that 9,000 to 16,000 California Indians were killed from 1846 to 1873, has been reviewed by The New York Times, Newsweek, The Nation, and many others. Some of Dr. Madley’s fellow historians have criticized his book for applying the term “genocide” to the conflicts between Americans and California Indians. Gary Clayton Anderson, a history professor at the University of Oklahoma, challenges Dr. Madley’s death toll estimates and characterizes the California massacres as “ethnic cleansing.” The reasoning? Dr. Anderson argues that government policy never supported mass killings, so the genocide label might be inappropriate.

But An American Genocide details murders and massacres carried out by vigilantes, state militias, and the United States Army. Dr. Madley “methodically [gives] examples of each and [tags] the incidents like corpses in a morgue,” according to Richard White of The Nation. A seasoned historian, Dr. Madley also compiles many accounts of the incidents in nearly 200 pages of appendices. Every reader can weigh the evidence and conclude whether or not the incidents were genocidal.

Dr. Madley developed a passion for the interactions between indigenous groups and colonizers during his childhood; he was born in Redding, California, and lived in Karuk Country in northwestern California. Dr. Madley has earned degrees from Yale University and Oxford University, and he has authored many journal articles and book chapters.

bmadley
Courtesy of UCLA’s Department of History.

 

How do you think historians should apply the modern definition of “genocide” to historical events?

Four Benefits to New Students of Attending the New Student Orientation FHSS Breakout Session

It’s that time of year again: Fall, school, and New Student Orientation. The College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences will host its breakout session on Friday September 1st from 3-5pm. The event starts with a presentation by the Advisement Center in B002 of the JFSB that will cover:

  • Information about the Advisement Center
  • Information about advisors and career paths
  • Myths regarding the liberal arts

Following that will be tables manned by representatives of the individual departments, as well as other college entities. in the Southeast Breezeway of the JFSB Courtyard. Those tables will include

  • Economics
  • History
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • The School of Family Life
  • Geography
  • Neuroscience
  • Anthropology
  • FHSS Writing Lab
  • Office of Civic Engagement.

The Dean’s Office will have a table and representatives will be available to answer any questions you have about the college.

If you’re a new student, what are the benefits of attending FHSS’s New Student Orientation?

1. Learn about different majors

Trying to figure out what to study can be daunting. Taking advantage of NSO to ask various department representatives about their department can help you decide what you want to study.

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2. Build connections

Because you are interacting with faculty and department representatives, you will be able to establish a valuable connection early on. The connections you form during your time here will serve you long after you graduate.

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3. Meet people with similar interests

You can never have too many friends! Take this opportunity to meet people who are interested in the same things you are. giphy (1)

 

4. Get a cookie!

The Dean’s Office table will be giving out cookies. Enough said.

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Be sure to stop by the JFSB on September 1st to learn more about the wonderful opportunities offered by the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences!

Students: Five Ways to Stay Sharp This Summer

Summer may be for lazy days and having fun with your friends, but that doesn’t mean you should stop learning! Here are 5 ways to stay sharp and have fun this summer!

Find Your Club!

Even though clubs aren’t very active during the Spring and Summer, you can still sort through them at BYU’s clubs’ website and pick which one you want to join in Fall/Winter! Here are some quick links to more information about clubs within our college:

refugee
Courtesy of BYU Refugee Empowerment Club’s Facebook page

Visit the Museum of Peoples and Cultures!

Learn all about ancient and more modern civilizations at this museum. Current exhibits include Piecing Together Paquimé, which features the remnants of the city from A.D. 1200-1450, and Steps in Style, which features shoes from a plethora of cultures and time periods.

mpc
Courtesy of the MPC Facebook page

Hit up the Library!

Here at BYU, we have one of the best libraries ever! It’s full of cool rooms and exhibits and awesome movies and books. So take time this summer to explore the HBLL and find some great books! Highlights of the HBLL include:

hbll
Courtesy of the HBLL Facebook page

Brush up on your Writing Skills

Whether you’re taking classes this summer or not, you can always improve your writing. FHSS’ Writing Lab offers many tools both on-campus and online to help you with that. Take a few moments to brush up on these skills, so you don’t have to do it in the middle of trying to meet a million assignment deadlines:

  • Formatting a paper Turabian style
  • Structuring your paper
  • Writing a conclusion
  • Citing APA style

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Watch YouTube Videos!

Did you know that FHSS has two YouTube channels? Every other week, we post videos about the intricacies of daily life and how to live within them.

What are your summer plans?

Alumni Spotlight: Stephanie Ashcraft

Stephanie Ashcraft’s career as a successful cookbook author and TV personality began as a mere class assignment for her Family and Consumer Science major almost twenty years ago. She turned in a list of 101 things to do with a cake mix, and then started teaching a cooking class on the subject at the local Macey’s. Because her students wanted the recipes, she decided have them bound in a book. Eventually, demand for book grew so large that Stephanie made the decision to pass it onto Gibbs-Smith, Publisher. Within two months of its release, 101 Things to do with a Cake Mix hit #9 on the New York Times Bestseller List for Paperback Advice. From there, her success only grew.

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101 Things to do with a Cookbook

Just one year out of college, she formed her own company, Stephanie Ashcraft Inc., and has gone on to publish twenty more successful cookbooks, like 101 Things to do with a Slow Cooker, 101 Things to do with a Tortilla, etc.) She has taught hundreds of classes and appeared on hundreds of television and news programs all over the country sharing ways that families can save time and money in the kitchen. While living in Arizona, Stephanie worked as a media contributor doing money saving stories for various local stations. She also assisted in creating, running, writing, and promoting the Arizona Mormon News. Aside from these and spots on the New York Times Bestseller List, she has been honored with an induction into the Self Publishing Hall of Fame.

101-things-to-do-with-a-cake-mix-coverThe food industry, however, is not the only area in which Stephanie has succeeded. She also volunteers for the Marana Middle School PTO, the Marana Police Citizen Advisory Commission, the Media for Southern Arizona, and the District Continuous Improvement Committee in Marana, Arizona, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Two years ago, Stephanie and her family moved back to Utah to live closer to family. Currently she serves on her local elementary school’s community council and on the PTAs for both the junior high and high school in her area. She’s the mother of five children, and lives with her husband Ivan, who has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from BYU, in Salem, Utah. She is an alumni who is truly exemplifies the mission of the school from which she graduated, the School of Family Life,which is to enhance the quality of life of individuals and families within the home and communities worldwide. You can read more about her and her books on her Amazon page.

If you are an alumni of BYU’s School of Family Life, or any of the nine other departments in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences, we’d like to hear your story! Please share with us your accomplishments, your stories of service and inspiration. Share them at Rise.byu.edu.

 

Have you read any of Stephanie’s books?

 

Balancing Work and Family: a Facebook Chat

The question of how to balance family and career responsibilities, if we’re mothers, or if we’re not, how we support those that do, is often deeply personal but also quite common. We also frequently ask ourselves, if we’re parents, how to raise our children so that they are productive and altruistic. The answers to those questions are also quite often both complicated but universal. Various female members of our School of Family Life faculty will talk about what they’ve found works best, in their lives and in their research, and invite you to chat with them in real-time and on-line, in conjunction with the release of their latest magazine.

August Facebook chat

Called Family Connections, the latest issue of the magazine shares the example of alum-turned-professors Laura Padilla-Walker, Chris Moore, and Erin Holmes, as well as those of other alumni who are making a difference in the world today, and discussion of raising “prosocial” children. SFL alumni are invited to request to join the SFL Alumni Page BYU SFL Alumni Connect, if they haven’t already been included. Then get online on

Friday, August 4th

6-7 p.m.

If you’re already a member, comment below with the kinds of questions or topics you’d like to see addressed. There will be a drawing for a $50 VISA gift card at the end of the discussion; all chat participants are eligible.

Panelists:*

Erin Holmes

In 1998, Erin Holmes graduated with honors from BYU and went on to get her masters in 2001 at the University of Delaware, eventually obtaining a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006. While going through her doctorate program, Holmes became pregnant with her first child.

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As you can imagine, she faced the very difficult choice of continuing her studies or being a stay-at-home mom. Unsure of which was the right decision, she turned to the scriptures. In Isaiah 40: 31 Holmes read: “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” After that, the choice was clear: continue with her education.

With aid from family and friends, she was able to complete her degree and was offered a teaching position at BYU. Since then, she has had two more children and continues to balance her work as a professor while being a mother to her three children

Laura Padilla-Walker

Professor Walker obtained her BS in 1999 from Central Michigan University, her MS from University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2001, and her PhD from the same university in 2005. As a working mother, she understands the difficulties of successfully managing both a career and children.

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However, Walker finds the experience enriching; when asking her daughter of her desired career choice, the girl replied, “when I grow up I want to have a job like yours and work part-time and spend most of my time with my kids.” Walker adds, “That is success to me because she is not aware of how much I work; she just knows that I am present when I am home with her.” Through her actions, she shows that balancing work and a family is something that can be accomplished.

 

Chris Moore

Chris Moore knew early in life that obtaining an education was paramount. When she was young, one of her great grandmothers told her: “Christine, you cannot rely on a man to take care you, so I am going to give you some money and you are going to college!”

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By the age of 50, Moore had one Bachelor’s degree, two Masters, and a Ph.D. Before becoming the director of the Family and Consumer Sciences Education program, she taught junior high. Throughout both of these careers, Moore has been a positive example to all who come in contact with her.

 

 

So, be sure to join us on Facebook on August 4th from 6-7 pm to learn just how these ladies do it- and how you can do it too. We hope to “see” you there!

*Panelists may change.

How do you balance the responsibilities in your life?

History Department Acquires Southeast Asian Specialist

Ian Lowman

Visiting professor to the College of FHSS History Department Ian Lowman commands a versatility with Southeast Asian languages, considering he spent his childhood traveling Indonesia and two formative years as a missionary in Cambodia.

“It accounts for why I gravitated towards the study of Southeast Asia specifically,” Lowman says. “I speak the Khmer language and in my research I work with French, Sanskrit, Thai, and Indonesian, all with varying levels of proficiency.”

Research Interests

Lowman’s research is focused on the political and cultural history of Angkorian Cambodia, between the ninth and fifteenth centuries. “This is the culture that produced Angkor Wat and established one of the most powerful territorial states in medieval Asia,” Lowman says. “I’ve had the opportunity to work on editing and interpreting inscriptions written in Sanskrit and Old Khmer.”

Angkor Wat
Photo courtesy of Flickr.

While earning his doctorate degree from the University of California-Berkeley, Lowman’s graduate research, funded by a Fulbright-Hays fellowship and a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, centered around the Angkor Archaeological Park. “I’ve received generous and ongoing support for my research from the Center for Khmer Studies in Siem Reap,” Lowman says.

Before coming to BYU, Lowman worked at Kenyon College, a liberal arts school in rural Ohio, as well as at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Returning more than a decade later to his alma mater, Lowman will teach new courses on Indian Ocean and South Asian history. South Asia is the most populous region in the world and Lowman says its history is central to the chronology of world religions and the age of European imperialism.

“The Indian Ocean region brings together the diverse coastal peoples and cultures of East Africa, Arabia, India, and Southeast Asia. This was the area of the world that beckoned the European explorers, and it remains vital today as the world’s oil continues to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and as China lengthens its “string of pearls” to Africa and beyond.” – Ian Lowman

Teaching Goals

Besides imparting his substantive knowledge of South Asia, Lowman says one of his teaching goals is helping students meet personal academic and career goals. “I also want to create incentives for my students to take advantage of the extraordinary resources at this university, like the library, the museums, and the Writing Fellows Program,” Lowman says.

He has the first-hand experience to relate to students. During spring term of his freshmen year at Brigham Young University, Lowman enrolled in a course on Greek and Roman mythology with professor John Hall from the Classics department. His class involved reading books in translation, such as Ovid, Virgil, Livy, Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus. “It was my closest experience to an old-fashioned Great Works course and it convinced me that I wanted to be a pre-modern historian and/or a philologist,” Lowman explains.

After taking History 200 with associate dean at BYU Paul Kerry, whom Lowman describes as a mentor who possessed a gentle and unique knack for tearing down and rebuilding, he had an experience that has remained with him since.

“One day he pulled out a sloppy last-minute paper I had turned in and read it out loud in front of the class. It was excruciating, but he prefaced it by saying something to the effect of “even brilliant writers can turn in junk like this if they’re being careless.” – Ian Lowman

Lowman says he considers that moment of “public shaming” to be the greatest compliment he received as an undergraduate. “It’s stayed with me as a reminder to respect my audience and to not cheapen my gifts.”

Fairy Great-Great-Great-Godmother: The Genealogy Fairy

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Indexing parties, family history committee callings, and a family history major all make BYU the prime place to get involved with genealogy work. But while these opportunities may bait and hook you, sometimes your dream project is too big a fish for them to hold up. The dream of a fairy godmother to wave her magic wand and fill your empty wallet becomes a prominent one. Family history is about seeking out your roots and putting a name and a face to your lineage. Ultimately, family history is just another form of storytelling, it’s about making your ancestors more than a name on a piece of paper, it’s about making them human again. Don’t let an empty pocket prevent you from doing that.

The College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences does provide a family history major and minor for students who are interested in genealogy but for individual projects a full major may seem too large, and a ward indexing activity too small. However, BYU’s Family History program heavily promotes the Genealogy Fairy as a means to go beyond those limitations.

What is the Genealogy Fairy?

The Genealogy Fairy was created by High-Definition Genealogy’s Thomas MacEntree with the idea to give back to the genealogy community that prospers here in Utah. The grant is sponsored by Genealogy Bargains who, each month, put aside five percent of all revenue to help provide the monetary means for either organizations or individual historians pursuing a substantial project.

This stack of cash that has been set aside is just sitting there waiting to be put into an indexing project, a genealogy conference, or even a publishing project. Any individual can receive up to five hundred dollars in grant money per project, or if desired, can receive an equal amount in consulting advice for genealogy organizations.

How do I Take Advantage of This?

Apply here if you’re interested.

 

What kind of family history projects do you like to do?