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Cepeda studies social factors of middle-aged Latino men Katie Rowald
A burner that was not properly cleaned in the kitchen of Barron’s restaurant in the UH Hilton Hotel set off a smoke detector and prompted the response of the Houston Fire Department.
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Several fire trucks responded to the incident, which occurred around 10:30 a.m. Normally, the smoke would be absorbed by a vent hood, but there was too much. “It was not a false alarm,” Fire Marshal Bob Bowden said. “There was food that was not properly cleaned off of a burner, and that created the smoke. It wasn’t a false alarm; it worked just how it was supposed to."
Alice Cepeda | Katie Rowald/The Daily Cougar
Conference to feature MexicanAmerican Studies scholars The UH Center for Mexican American Studies is hosting a two-day conference titled “War Along the Border: the Mexican Revolution and its Impact Upon Tejano Communities” from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 23-24 in the Rockwell Pavilion The conference coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution and will feature a number of history professors from UH.
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September 21, 2010
Professor nets research honor
Stove burner causes smoke, sets off fire alarms Monday morning
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EMERGENCY RESPONSE
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Issue 021, Volume 76
Assistant sociology professor Alice Cepeda will be recognized by a national network for her research on drug use on the Latino community. Cepeda will receive the National Award of Excellence in Research by a New Investigator at the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse’s annual conference Sept. 30 in New Orleans. Cepeda is currently studying the influence of social networks among aging MexicanAmerican heroin users.
“Some of the work that I’m currently doing is looking at such things as the social environment and social structural factors that puts a lot of these individuals at risk for engaging in illegal activities,” Cepeda said. She mentioned factors such as poverty, violence and crime in the neighborhoods and the lack of employment opportunities in the community. “The other thing is personal susceptibility factors, which are associated with issues of depression, childhood trauma and stress.” Cepeda has also found that the family is occasionally a protective factor, with some families actually encouraging the user — who in this study are Mexican-American men, all AWARD continues on page 3
COMMUNITY
Program uses 'Iliad' to expand horizons
Visit www.class.uh.edu/cmas for more information and an itinerary of scheduled lectures. Travis Masterson
— Sara Nichols/The Daily Cougar
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ON CAMPUS
IT Training on Desktop Publishing A free class for students and faculty over intermediate Adobe InDesign frames will be held in the Social Work Building in room 110-L. You must register at www. uh.edu/ittraining beforehand. The class will be held from 2 to 4 p.m.
AROUND TOWN
The Smashing Pumpkins with Bad City Accompanying The Smashing Pumpkins’ new album “Teargarden by Kaleidyscope” comes their tour around the world. Grab a few tickets soon for the 9 p.m. show at Warehouse Live! Find more campus and local events or add your own at thedailycougar.com/calendar
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A new program is hoping to show UH students there is more to life than what they know. Scholars in Schools, a UH Honors College program, is giving 15 students from Pasadena's Sam Rayburn High School a college-like experience to show them they have options. “Many of them (Rayburn students) don’t seem to think beyond high school, their horizons don’t extend beyond the oil refineries that ring Pasadena,” French history and Honors College professor Robert Zaretsky said. Zaretsky is working on the program with Rayburn 10th-grade level English teacher Brian Johnston, his brother-in-law. Students will study “The Iliad” and attend seminars on the UH campus. Zaretsky believes this program will give these students a broader outlook on life. “Brian has been trying to make these students see the great works (and show how) they are relevant for these students, too.” Zaretsky credits Honors College Dean Bill Monroe and Rayburn principal Robert Stock with helping get the program off the ground. SCHOLARS continues on page 3
The opening frame of "Snow Angel," the product of one of the partnerships between UH students and professional artists, will be on display Wednesday evening. | Courtesy of Mat Johnson
EXHIBITION
Graphic collaborations revealed Fine art, creative writing students show works created during inaugural course Ashley Evans
THE DAILY COUGAR When most people think of comics, they think of superheroes and caped crusaders, However, there is a new type of comic emerging. The graphic novel has seen a rise in popularity over the past few years, which prompted Mat Johnson, faculty member in UH’s Creative Writing program, to teach a graphic novel workshop in the spring of 2010. Work created by the students will be on display from 7-9 p.m. Wednesday at the Honors College. Special presentations by students Ted Closson, Chuck Ivy, Grant MacManus, Brandon White, Jonathan Niles Gill and James Roberts
will be made. “The basic rules of storytelling apply no matter which format you choose to write in,” Johnson said. “But with graphic novels, you let the pictures carry the weight of the story, as ! ! Johnson well as the words.” Graphic novels are a sophisticated, short story format of comics that usually pertain to more serious subject matter. Johnson says that comics or graphic novels are one of the easier ways for aspiring writers to be published because of the nature of the comic industry as a “boom industry.” Throughout the workshop, Johnson taught the students how to use narrative voice and visual elements to cross over from fiction into graphic novels. The students were given scripts GRAPHICS continues on page 3