Regardless of whether you call the West your home or you are just passing through, as a student at CU Boulder you live, breathe, eat, drink and sleep the West. Here's an opportunity to transform your unique perspective on this region into cash, simply by putting it to paper. 

Center of the American West will continue accepting entries through March 20 for its 19th annual Thompson Awards for Western American Writing. The contest is open to all CU Boulder students, graduate and undergraduate. 

Prizes are $500 in each of four categories: fiction, memoir, poetry and creative non-fiction. Students may submit entries in any or all of the four categories. The theme must touch upon some aspect or issue of the American West. To name a few examples: growing up in a Western town; visiting a national park or other place in the West for the first time; immigration; wildfire; the use of myth and stereotype in movies and books about Western people, places and events; ranching and public lands; skiing and ski resorts; prairie dogs and mustangs; water; tourism; energy development.

Please visit our website for details, entry form and to read winning entries from past years. Then contact us with your questions: academics@centerwest.org or 303-735-1399.

Interested in your moods and thoughts? Participate in a paid study on emotion and mood here on campus in the CU Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. 

Earn up to $200 to participate in studies involving answering questions about your feelings and thoughts, watching brief films, playing computer games and keeping a log of your emotions and activities. The study includes two separate visits and pays $10 per hour in cash each (the first visit is 2–3 hours; the second is 4 hours), with an option for paid follow-up phone interviews.

For more information, please complete the screening survey. If you have questions please email us at gruberpeplab@gmail.com or visit our website.

The Center for Asian Studies has funding available for CU Boulder faculty members who would like to develop curricula for new or revised courses about Southeast Asia.

CAS will offer two faculty awards for the creation or significant revision of an undergraduate course on Southeast Asia in any discipline. Funding will be provided to faculty in order to enhance the area studies curriculum and build toward the Southeast Asia track in the Asian Studies major. Two $1,500 stipends will be awarded for a total of $3,000 per year. Proposals for new Global Seminars in Southeast Asia are also welcome.

Awards will be paid as summer salary (subject to taxes and withholding), or as reimbursement for travel or course materials. Recipients will be asked to submit a report and syllabus for the new course during the fall 2018 semester. New or revised courses must be cross-listed with Asian Studies. Failure to do so will result in ineligibility for future CAS faculty awards.

Please complete a Course Development Grant Application and submit, along with appropriate attachments, to cas@colorado.edu. Proposals are due Monday, Feb. 26.

Please direct any questions to CAS Executive Director Danielle Rocheleau Salaz at salaz@colorado.edu or 303-735-5312. To learn more, visit the CAS website.

The Center for Asian Studies invites faculty who would like to add Culture and Language Across the Curriculum (CLAC) techniques to their teaching to apply for course development grants for summer 2018. CAS will offer three types of grants for summer 2018 to be taught in academic year 2018–19:

CLAC Co-Seminar Course Development Grants 

These grants will offer a $1,000 stipend for the development of a supplemental one-credit undergraduate co-seminar, drawing students and content from an existing disciplinary course in any department. Faculty will be responsible for teaching this co-seminar using primary Asian language sources to enhance the content of the main course. CLAC co-seminars will be listed as ASIA 4001 (Arts & Humanities) or ASIA 4002 (Social Sciences).

Japanese CLAC Co-Seminar Course Development Grants

These grants will offer a $500 stipend for the development of a supplemental one-credit undergraduate co-seminar using Japanese language and culture, drawing students and content from an existing disciplinary course in any department. Instruction in co-seminars will be by a paid student language facilitator with supervision by the professor of record. CLAC co-seminars will be listed as ASIA 4001 (Arts & Humanities) or ASIA 4002 (Social Sciences). Funding for these grants is currently pending.

Standard Course CLAC Integration Grants 

These grants will offer a $500 stipend to incorporate Asia-related CLAC assignments into standard classes. Faculty will be responsible for incorporating primary language assignments and CLAC-oriented projects into an existing syllabus in order to enrich the content of the course. Such assignments can be optional or utilize cultural materials for students who don’t have sufficient Asian language skills.

Applications are due Monday, Feb. 26, via email to cas@colorado.edu, with the name of the grant you are applying for in the subject line.
 
If you have questions about these opportunities, please direct them to Danielle Rocheleau Salaz at danielle.salaz@colorado.edu or 303-735-5312. To learn more about CLAC, applications and the process for fall courses, visit the CAS website.

The Dissertation Writing Retreat, sometimes called a boot camp, is a four-day workshop intended to introduce doctoral candidates to foundational concepts and best practices for managing and writing a dissertation. 

The retreat takes place May 29 through June 1, and applications are due March 1. Learn more.

The Cognitive Development Center in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience is looking for children age birth to 12 years old who are interested in playing games that will help teach us about self-control, language and cognitive strategies. 

A visit, scheduled at your convenience, lasts about 60 minutes. Babysitting is available for siblings. Parents are compensated for travel, and kids receive a fun prize.

To sign up, please do one of the following:

• Visit our website.
• Email cogdevctr@colorado.edu with your child’s name, gender, date of birth and parent contact information (address, phone number, email address).
• Call us at 303-492-6389.

For more information, feel free to check out our Facebook page and website. 
 

The Children's Auditory Perception Laboratory (ChAPL) is currently looking for a student with strong programming skills to join our team. 

This lab is under the direction of Angela Bonino and is located in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences Department. Our lab examines how the auditory system develops during childhood by using behavioral tasks. All experiments are controlled by MATLAB scripts that interface with a real-time processor to generate auditory stimuli. 

Preference will be given to applicants with digital-signal processing experience and knowledge of real-time systems. 

If you are interested, please contact Bonino at angela.bonino@colorado.edu. Please include a résumé.

The Cognitive Development Center in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience is looking for children ages birth to 12 years old who are interested in playing games that will help teach us about self-control, language and cognitive strategies. 

A visit, scheduled at your convenience, lasts about 60 minutes. Babysitting is available for siblings. Parents are compensated for travel, and kids receive a fun prize.

To sign up, please do one of the following:

• Visit our website.
• Email cogdevctr@colorado.edu with your child’s name, gender, date of birth and parent contact information (address, phone number, email address).
• Call us at 303-492-6389. 

For more information, feel free to check out our Facebook page and website.
 

The Children’s Auditory Perception Laboratory is currently recruiting children between 2 and 7 years old for a research study to help us learn more about how children hear.

During the course of this study, your child will sit in a soundproof booth with an examiner and will listen to sounds presented over a loudspeaker or over earphones. To find out what your child can hear, we will teach him/her to make a response to a certain sound signal.

These responses will be play activities like putting a toy in a bucket or adding a block to a tower. We may use a mechanical toy whenever he/she responses to the sound. The signals will be presented in quiet and in various background sounds. The sounds we use are not loud. You will be able to sit inside the booth with your child or watch your child through an observation window.

As part of this study, your child will also receive a middle-ear screening at no cost to you. If at any time we discover any important hearing-related findings, we will report those findings to you and provide you with contact information for a complete hearing evaluation.

Two visits to the laboratory are required. Each visit lasts about one hour. You will receive $10 per hour, and we will pay your parking if you drive to the lab.

If you are interested, please email childhear@colorado.edu or call 303-735-6252.

The principal investigator for this research study is Angela Yarnell Bonino, PhD, Department Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. All testing will be completed in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) building on Main Campus.

Reason for this study: The goal of this research is to help researchers identify strategies people can use to change their experience of cardiovascular exercise.

What you will do: 

• One laboratory session including: survey, fitness test, learning a strategy and 30-minute supervised exercise session
• Two weeks of exercise on your own while filling out short daily surveys
• One survey at the end of the study

Compensation:

• $10 for the laboratory session
• $1 per day for filling out daily surveys (up to $14)
• $5 for the follow-up survey

Who can be in the study: 

You should be between the ages of 18 and 40. You should not be doing regular cardiovascular exercise; this study is for people who do not frequently exercise right now. You should be willing to start a cardiovascular exercise program that involves walking, hiking, jogging or running. You should not have any health problems that prevent you from exercising safely.

Please email us at gillmanresearch@gmail.com if you would like to be in the study (please leave your email and a phone number), or you can go directly to our screening form to learn more and see if you are eligible to be in the study. 

The Cognitive Development Center in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience is looking for children age birth to 12 years old who are interested in playing games that will help teach us about self-control, language and cognitive strategies. 

A visit, scheduled at your convenience, lasts about 60 minutes. Babysitting is available for siblings. Parents are compensated for travel, and kids receive a fun prize. 

To sign up, please do one of the following: 

• Visit our website.
• Email  cogdevctr@colorado.edu with your child’s name, gender, date of birth, and parent contact information (address, phone number, email address).
• Call us at 303-492-6389.

For more information, feel free to check out our Facebook page and website.  

If you suffer from chronic back pain, you may be eligible to participate in a paid research study on the benefits of a novel mind-body treatment for chronic pain. Participants will be compensated $200.

The research study consists of two MRI scan sessions 4–6 weeks apart on the CU Boulder campus, before and after treatment. MRI is safe and non-invasive technology for measuring brain function, and participants will be given a photo of their brain to take home.

Eligibility criteria:

• Ages 21–70
• Back pain for the last 3 months or more
• No metal in the body (for MRI safety)
• Not pregnant

For more information about the study and to help determine your eligibility, please complete the screening survey. You may also email canlab@colorado.edu or call 303-492-4299 for further information.

The Children’s Auditory Perception Laboratory is currently recruiting adults between 18 and 30 years old for a research study to help us learn more about how children hear. During the testing, you will sit in a sound-treated room and will listen to sounds presented over a speaker or through headphones. You will be asked to indicate when you hear sounds by selecting a picture on a computer monitor, raising your hand or repeating speech. The sounds we use are not loud. One visit to the laboratory is required. The visit lasts one hour. You will receive $10 per hour. If you are interested please email childhear@colorado.edu or call 303-735-6252. The principal investigator for this research study is Angela Yarnell Bonino, PhD, Department Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. All testing will be completed in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) Building on Main Campus.

The Cognitive Development Center in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience is looking for children age birth to 12 years old who are interested in playing games that will help teach us about self-control, language and cognitive strategies. 

A visit, scheduled at your convenience, lasts about 60 minutes. Babysitting is available for siblings. Parents are compensated for travel, and kids receive a fun prize.

To sign up, please do one of the following:

• Visit our website.
• Email cogdevctr@colorado.edu with your child’s name, gender, date of birth and parent contact information (address, phone number, email address).
• Call us at 303-492-6389.

For more information, feel free to check out our Facebook page and website.

Apply now for an internship next semester at The Nature Conservancy, History Colorado or Colorado Humanities through the Center of the American West Internships Program. Current openings include working as a research assistant or a school-groups tour guide at History Colorado; assisting with conservation science projects at The Nature Conservancy; and serving as assistant editor for Colorado Encyclopedia at Colorado Humanities. Please see our website for details and contact us with questions.