Two UCI social sciences initiatives have been recognized as inaugural recipients of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Affirming Multivocal Humanities program grants. Aimed at strengthening and expanding teaching, research and mentorship on topics in race and ethnicity, the winning UCI projects are led by Anita Casavantes Bradford, social sciences associate dean of faculty development and diversity, and professor of Chicano/Latino studies and history, and Ana Elizabeth Rosas, associate professor of Chicano/Latino studies and history; and David John Frank, professor and chair of sociology. Their projects are among 95 that – with more than $18 million in funding - will seek to develop new approaches to scholarship in the humanities and build foundations for a more just and equitable future.

Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x Humanities Pathways
Anita Casavantes Bradford and Ana Elizabeth Rosas

Casavantes Bradford and Rosas will take a multipronged, three-year approach to strengthen and expand the department’s undergraduate curriculum, co-curricular Latinx humanities programs and events for undergraduate and graduates, and professional development and career progression pathways for pre-tenure Latinx faculty. A new Latinx humanities research course sequence will offer undergraduates an alternative to the department’s existing social sciences-focused research courses, and small, competitive grants will be made available to student researchers in the inaugural classes to support their projects. Additional co-curricular programming – including presentations, discussion groups, workshops, film series, reading groups and community museum field trips – will expose non-majors to the department’s Latinx humanities courses and faculty, and create pathways to the department’s major. In order to support professional development and pathways to tenure and promotion for early career Latinx humanities faculty in Chicano/Latino studies, a book manuscript workshop series will be implemented. The department will also host a national Latinx humanities symposium in spring 2026.

Race & Ethnicity Research Cluster
David John Frank

Frank will lead an effort to strengthen the sociology department’s Race & Ethnicity Research Cluster and boost opportunities for undergraduates to develop qualitative, critical, and social-justice perspectives on the sociological study of race and ethnicity. Two new undergraduate courses are already in formation (one on Latinx sociology and the other on the criminalization of immigration) and others are being enhanced with guest speakers and field trips. Additional funding will support undergraduates conducting qualitative research on race & ethnicity for their honors theses and to cover costs associated with presenting their work at the Pacific Sociological Association meetings. The Mellon grant will furthermore underwrite a new mentorship program pairing faculty with underrepresented, first-generation and financial aid-dependent students considering advanced degrees; subsidize talks on race & ethnicity in the department’s colloquium series; buy hardware and software for a new qualitative research lab; and support conference travel for faculty members presenting research in the qualitative sociology of race & ethnicity.