UCI social sciences is proud to have among its ranks two recipients of recent Celebration of Teaching Awards. The honors, awarded annually by the UCI Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation, recognize faculty, instructors and teaching assistants who have demonstrated excellence in undergraduate teaching at UCI.

Social Sciences Dean’s Honoree
Michael Lee, Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow, Cognitive Sciences

Michael Lee is a professor and Chancellor’s Fellow in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at UCI. His research interests are in computational models of cognition, Bayesian statistics, and cognitive data science. He excels in teaching both large and small-sized courses on topics in human decision making and models of cognition, respectively. He’s an accomplished mentor within the department's honors program, frequently guiding both undergraduate and graduate researchers in his lab. Lee’s work – supported by the U.S. Air Force Office of Research, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Alzheimer’s Association, Cyrus Tang Foundation, Australian Research Council and several private industry partnerships – is the focus of more than 140 journal articles, multiple book chapters, one coauthored book, and two patents. He’s twice earned the Society for Mathematical Psychology R. Duncan Luce Award for best paper in the Journal of Mathematical Society. Currently, Lee is a fellow of the Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at UCI and an honorary visiting research fellow at the School of Psychology, University of Adelaide where he earned his bachelor’s in mathematical sciences and psychology and Ph.D. in cognitive sciences. Lee spent four years working for the Australian Defence Science Technology Organisation before returning to academia as a senior lecturer, then associate professor at the University of Adelaide. In 2006, Lee joined the UCI faculty in the Department of Cognitive Sciences.

Most Promising Future Faculty Member
Jessica Taghvaiee, Graduate Student, Political Science

Jessica S. Taghvaiee is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at UC Irvine. As a first-generation and Mexican-Iranian American student, Jessica is a proud alumnus of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) and McNair Scholar programs. She received an honors B.A. in political science (pre-law) and Spanish-Latin American studies from Westminster University. At UCI, she has obtained a master's in political science and is completing the Race & Justice Studies Emphasis. Her fields of study are U.S. and comparative politics, particularly race/ethnicity & gender and immigration politics. As a scholar-activist, her research centers on how racialized and vulnerable migrant populations in the U.S. navigate and are affected by citizenship, immigration policies, and borders. Her dissertation studies how the leading undocumented immigrant-led organization, United We Dream (UWD), uses conventional and non-conventional methods, including social media, to organize political activism and respond to the political environment surrounding immigration in the U.S. As a teacher, Taghvaiee's pedagogy centers on radical empathy—reflecting daily on the intersectional identities of her students and understanding how they shape their learning experiences. She is passionate about her teaching and ensuring her classroom is a safe and inclusive space reflective of all students' needs. In the future as a professor, Taghvaiee hopes that what she teaches her students can have a lasting impact on how they navigate the political and social aspects of the world they live in—giving them the tools and confidence to not only understand politics, but bring about meaningful change.

Congratulations to all recipients honored for exhibiting excellence inside and outside the classroom!