Tenured & Promoted faculty

Kimberly KellyHuman Development

Dr. Kimberly Kelly, whose research focuses on the intersection of language and cognitive development, has been promoted to full professor.

In her research, Dr. Kelly uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches and combines developmental psychology, education, and linguistics to examine the factors that contribute to the development of linguistic skills in children. Dr. Kelly’s work on narrative story completion methodologies received the Distinguished Research Award in Human Development from the American Educational Research Association.

Dr. Kelly teaches multiple classes in human development, including courses on approaches to childhood and personal narrative and storytelling, and mentors undergraduate students in her Child Language Interactions and Memory lab. She earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in human development and psychology from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA.

Kyoungmi HaAsian & Asian American Studies

Dr. Kyoungmi Ha, the Korean language and culture program coordinator in the Asian & Asian American studies department, has received tenure and been promoted to associate professor.

Dr. Ha studies discourse/conversation analysis, prosody, second-language acquisition, and language pedagogy. Her current research explores the ways in which Korean speakers use sentence-ending suffixes in ordinary conversation and institutional talk to convey specific social actions and knowledge levels. She teaches Korean Fundamentals, as well as various courses in Asian studies.

Before arriving at CSULB, Dr. Ha taught Korean language classes at San Diego State, UC San Diego, UCLA, and Claremont McKenna College. She received her Ph.D. in Asian languages and cultures, with an emphasis in Korean linguistics, at UCLA.

Sandra Arévalo Human Development

Dr. Sandra Arévalo, a medical sociologist who investigates the interrelationships between exposure to chronic stressors, structural inequity, and health disparities, has received tenure and been promoted to associate professor.

Dr. Arévalo teaches courses on health disparities, human development and aging, and research methods. Her current research uses epidemiological methods and molecular stress approaches to examine how stress “gets under the skin,” with a focus on the cognitive function and mental health of minoritized population groups.

Dr. Arévalo earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and her master’s and doctorate in sociology at Northeastern University. Before arriving at CSULB, she did postdoctoral research on nutritional epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and on minority aging at the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging.

Stephanie HartzellCommunication Studies

Dr. Stephanie Hartzell has received tenure and been promoted to associate professor. A product of the CSU system, she holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communication from Fresno State University and a doctorate in rhetoric and culture from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Dr. Hartzell’s research focuses on critical and cultural communication related to race, racism, and antiracism. She teaches Rhetorical Theory, Communication Criticism, and Rhetoric of Social Movements and Protest, as well as graduate courses focusing on rhetoric, power and identity.

She also serves as a mentor in the University Center for Undergraduate Advising’s GenExcel program, which helps firstgeneration, first-time/first-year students make a successful transition to university life and build a network to help support them throughout their years at CSULB.

Madeleine LisebladJournalism and Public Relations

Dr. Madeleine Liseblad, an expert in journalism history, received early tenure and was promoted to associate professor. The chairwoman for the academic journal Journalism History, she teaches courses in media history, media literacy, and global media.

Dr. Liseblad has won top paper awards from the American Journalism Historians Association, the Broadcast Education Association, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and Kappa Tau Alpha and was named a Rising Scholar in the American Journalism Historians Association’s journal, American Journalism. She also received a Fulbright Specialist Program award in 2022, through which she taught media literacy at Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca in Romania.

A member of CSULB’s Committee on Athletics and CLA’s Faculty Council, Dr. Liseblad earned a Ph.D. in journalism and mass communication from Arizona State, an M.A. in communication studies from Cal State Sacramento, and a B.A. in journalism from Point Loma Nazarene University.

Dr. Matthew Mendez Garcia, the executive director of the Long Beach Center for Urban Politics and Policy at CSULB, has received tenure and been promoted to associate professor. A native Californian and firstgeneration college student, Dr. Mendez Garcia received his A.A. from San Jose City College, his B.A. from San Jose State, and his Ph.D. from USC.

Dr. Mendez Garcia studies American politics, with a focus on representation, legislative behavior, race and ethnicity, political behavior, intersectionality, and immigration. His recent article “Doubling Down: Inequality in Responsiveness and the Policy Preferences of Elected Officials,” co-authored with Christian Grose, was featured in Legislative Studies Quarterly.

Dr. Mendez Garcia teaches courses on American government and political parties, campaigns and elections. He was an assistant professor at CSU Channel Islands for four years before coming to CSULB.

Charles MahoneyPolitical Science

Dr. Charles Mahoney has been promoted to full professor.

An expert on international security, Dr. Mahoney’s scholarship focuses on violent extremist organizations, defense contractors and private military companies, and U.S. foreign policy. He examines the strategies extremist groups use to advance their organizational and political objectives; the markets for security services and the interaction between defense contractors, Wall Street, and private-equity firms; and the motivations for U.S. arms sales, as well as U.S. counterterrorism strategy. He has recently published articles in Business and Politics and Studies in Conflict & Terrorism.

Dr. Mahoney teaches Introduction to American Government and oversees the internship program in the political science department. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Williams College and his master’s degree and Ph.D. in political science from UCLA.

Lauren HeidbrinkHuman Development

Dr. Lauren Heidbrink, a cultural anthropologist who focuses on the anthropology of childhood and migration in Central America, has received early promotion to full professor.

Dr. Heidbrink has published two books: “Migrant Youth, Transnational Families, and the State: Care and Contested Interests” and “Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation.” She has received two Fulbright fellowships, the most recent of which she used to further her study of local alternatives to migration for Central American children and youth in the western highlands of Guatemala.

Dr. Heidbrink earned her bachelor’s degree in city planning, Latin American studies, and Spanish literature from the University of Virginia, her master’s degree in international public service management from DePaul University, and an additional master’s degree and Ph.D. in anthropology from Johns Hopkins University.

Kimberly RobertsonAmerican Indian Studies

Dr. Kimberly Robertson, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, has been promoted to full professor.

Dr. Robertson, an expert in Native and women of color feminism, has published in journals such as Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education, and Society and Wicazo Sa Review. Her pieces have also been included in anthologies, including “Otherwise Worlds: Against Settler Colonialism” and “Anti-Blackness and Keetsahnak: Our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Sisters.” Dr. Robertson is also an artist who uses Native practices to create and serves as a mentor for Meztli Projects, where she leads beading circles and other art-making workshops.

Before arriving at CSULB, Dr. Robertson was an associate professor in the women’s gender and sexuality studies department at Cal State L.A. She received her master’s in American Indian studies and her doctorate in women’s studies at UCLA.

Darin DeWittPolitical Science

Dr. Darin DeWitt, whose research looks at how institutions, elites, and ideas shape American politics, has been promoted to full professor.

His recent publications focus on celebrity elites and efforts to combat misinformation. He has published articles in Political Studies Review and The Journal of Legislative Studies and is working on a book project titled “How Lincoln Won.”

Dr. DeWitt teaches Introduction to American Government and a senior seminar in law, politics, and policy. He received his Ph.D. in political science from UCLA.

Itxaso RodriguezLinguistics

Dr. Itxaso Rodriguez received early tenure and has been promoted to associate professor. Having grown up in the Basque Country, Dr. Rodriguez received her bachelor’s degree in English philology at the University of Deusto, Bilbao, and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Hispanic linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Rodriguez’s research focuses on how new speakers of minoritized languages acquire and perceive language variation in situations of language revitalization. She has also explored the ideologies and attitudes held by Spanish-English bilinguals in the U.S. toward bilingual linguistic practices like Spanglish. She is currently embarking on a new project, Perceptual Dialectology in California, in which she examines the ways in which Latinx populations evaluate linguistic variation in the English and Spanish spoken across the state.

Before arriving at CSULB, Dr. Rodriguez was an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. At CSULB, she has taught courses in bilingualism, sociolinguistics, laboratory phonetics, language acquisition, Spanish in the U.S., and the history of Spanish.

Azza BasarudinWomen’s Gender & Sexuality Studies

Dr. Azza Basarudin has received early tenure and been promoted to associate professor. A scholar in gender and sexuality studies, her research focuses on transnational feminisms, Muslim cultures and societies, and justice and rights, emphasizing Southeast Asia.

Dr. Basarudin’s articles have been published in Feminist Studies; Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism; Departures in Critical Qualitative Research; Feminist Formations; Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies; and Scholar and Feminist Online. Her book, “Humanizing the Sacred: Sisters in Islam and the Struggle for Gender Justice in Malaysia,” was published by the University of Washington Press in 2016. Her current book manuscript explores the racial, sexual, and queer dimensions of Muslim sociolegal and sociopolitical life in Malaysia.

She has held visiting positions and fellowships at Harvard Divinity School, Syracuse University, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, and the American University in Cairo. The University of California Humanities Research Institute, Wenner-Gren Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and National Science Foundation, among others, have supported her research.

Dr. Basarudin received her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University Utara Malaysia, a master’s degree in women’s studies from Roosevelt University, and her Ph.D. in women’s studies from UCLA.

Shae Miller Sociology

Dr. Shae Miller, whose current research focuses on the ways that allies understand their positions within social movements, and how allies’ strategies and self-concepts relate to the specific contexts in which they act, has received tenure and has been promoted to associate professor.

Dr. Miller received their A.A. from Cabrillo Community College, their bachelor’s degree in sociology from UC Santa Cruz, and their master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology from UC Santa Barbara. Dr. Miller teaches courses on race, class, and gender, human rights and social justice, and social psychology.

The founder of the campus Queer and Trans Faculty and Staff Association, Dr. Miller chairs the LGBTQIA+ Campus Climate Committee and co-authored CSULB’s Gender-Inclusive Language Resolution. They also led creation of a guide for genderinclusive and gender-neutral language and led the efforts to create the Trans Advocacy Coalition, a campuswide network for trans faculty, staff, and students.

Lori BaraltWomen’s Gender and Sexuality Studies

Dr. Lori Baralt, an expert in feminist theory, social movements, and women’s health, has been promoted to full professor.

Dr. Baralt has published articles in Environmental Health Perspectives, Women’s Health Issues, and the Journal of Religion and Health and has presented papers to the National Women’s Studies Association, the American Public Health Association, Sociologists for Women in Society, and the American Sociological Association. Her current research looks at reproductive justice and environmental justice, as well as the sexual and reproductive health knowledge and behaviors of CSULB students.

Dr. Baralt teaches Gender, Race, Sex, and the Body and Reproductive Justice. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Michigan State University and has completed a specialization in gender, justice and environmental change through the Women and International Development Program.

Giulia TogatoRGRLL

Dr. Giulia Togato has received early tenure and been promoted to associate professor. With a bachelor’s degree in translation, interpreting, and intercultural mediation from the University of Bologna in Italy and a master’s degree in translation and interpreting from the University of Granada in Spain, she teaches multiple classes on interpreting, translation, and psycholinguistics. Dr. Togato received a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience from the University of Granada in Spain.

Dr. Togato’s research in psycholinguistics explores how untrained bilinguals, professional translators, and interpreters diverge or converge from the cognitive point of view due to their different use of the second language.

She also looks at automaticity and cognitive control in trained and untrained bilinguals, embodied cognition and emotionality in the first and second language, figurative language processing in bilinguals, and translation expertise.

Araceli GonzalezPsychology

Dr. Araceli Gonzalez has been promoted to full professor.

Dr. Gonzalez’s research concerns the assessment and treatment of anxiety and depression in children, teens, and young adults. Her recent projects have focused on evaluating predictors of positive response to behavioral treatment of anxiety and depression, understanding the attitudes college students have toward mental health care and the barriers to it, and improving the assessment of anxiety and related disorders in diverse groups of young adults.

Dr. Gonzalez teaches undergraduate courses in abnormal psychology and graduate seminars in clinical psychology. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stanford and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the San Diego State/ UC San Diego joint doctoral program. Before arriving at CSULB in 2014, she was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA’s Semel Institute.