Dear social sciences community,

I’m delighted to kick off the 2024-25 school year in the UCI School of Social Sciences. To those of you who are returning for another great year, welcome back - and to those of you who are new to the social sciences, we’re so glad you’re here!

On Monday the 23rd, I had the privilege of meeting our more than 1,500 new social sciences Anteaters at UCI’s all campus convocation. Their energy was palpable and only amplified as they walked through Aldrich Park to Social Sciences Plaza for our second annual welcome BBQ, sponsored by our alumni donors. This year’s in-coming first-years and transfers represent a record number of students who call the Golden State home, emphasizing UC Irvine’s critical role in helping the UC meet its mission to improve the lives of people in California and around the world. And in social sciences, we are proud to support more than 5,800 Anteaters among our undergraduate and graduate programs who are pursuing a bold future with boundaryless possibilities.

Also among this year’s new faces are six professors coming from top-tier university and industry posts. Their research interests span topics in AI, finance, economics, education, health, politics, cultural studies, and more. Learn more about their expertise and experience online where you can hear from each their passion for research, teaching and mentorship that makes a difference and their enthusiasm about connecting and collaborating with their new colleagues at UCI.

We’re looking ahead to a busy year with a full slate of activities offering alumni and community members as well as our campus constituents an opportunity to engage with the rich expertise that defines the social sciences. On Oct. 21, we’re hosting the American Women Quarters Program: Celia Cruz, our third discussion in a series of events recognizing the American Women Quarters program and the impactful women it honors. Leaders from the U.S. Mint and UCSD will join UCI professors Génesis Lara and Raúl Fernandez from the Department of Chicano/Latino Studies to learn more about the American Women Quarters program and the life and work of Celia Cruz, a Cuban-American singer, cultural icon, and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century who is featured on the U.S. Mint program’s 14th coin. And then on Oct. 30, we’re hosting The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election: The Polls, Prospects for Another Unprecedented Presidency, and Rise of Gen Z and Alpha, a panel discussion with UCI political scientists about the 2024 election - an unprecedented high-stakes matchup with global implications. The panelists will talk about the institution of the presidency itself, and what this election may portend for it; the state of the polls; and the rise of new demographic segments of the American electorate. Both events offer opportunities to join us online or in person, so make plans to join us. We’re also continuing our community-facing Economic Forum, with dates to be announced soon, so be sure to follow our calendar online or add us to your smartphone so you don’t miss out on exciting opportunities to come. And definitely mark your calendars for our annual Lunar New Year Celebration on Jan. 21 as we celebrate the in-coming year of the snake.

Creating positive change in societies, economies and for human well-being remains the focus of all that we do in social sciences, and each year, I enjoy using this opportunity to highlight a few examples of this mission in action. So here we go (with a reminder this is only a sampling – check out our news feed for a full rundown on what transpired this past year):

• Isabel Almeida, Chicano/Latino studies, led a study that discovered a placental hormone spike in late pregnancy is linked to postpartum depressive symptoms. Findings - published in Psychoneuroendocrinology - could aid in early identification of at-risk mothers.
• Asia Bento, sociology, led a study that found Black-owned banks support protective credit markets, but are not a vehicle for equity. Findings, published in Social Science Research, suggest these financial institutions served as cultural assets during a period of intense racial targeting by subprime lenders, and, given their community embeddedness, could be sources tapped to increase future economic resilience and development in predominantly black neighborhoods.
• Research by Jack Liebersohn, UCI economics, and Jesse Rothstein, UC Berkeley public policy and economics, explored why millions of homeowners with mortgage interest rates at 3% or lower are reluctant to move. The economic disturbance known as mortgage rate “lock-in” cost the US economy $20 billion over a one-year period starting in 2022, according to their working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. That tallies to about $296 of economic cost per household. The authors refer to those costs as “deadweight loss.”
• Novel work by researchers in the UC Irvine Sleep and Cognition Lab examined how dream recall and mood affected next-day memory consolidation and emotion regulation. The findings, published recently in Scientific Reports, indicate a trade-off in which emotionally charged memories are prioritized, but their severity is diminished, meaning: a night spent dreaming can help you forget the mundane and better process the extreme.
• UCI political scientists offered expert insight on some of 2023's hottest topics - inflation, activism, global conflict, Donald Trump, party politics, reproductive rights, and more, while faculty from anthropology, cognitive sciences, language science and LPS offered expert insight on AI’s potential and pitfalls in fields as diverse as healthcare, technology, climate change, digital culture and more.
• On June 20, the 23 graduates of the inaugural LIFTED (Leveraging Inspiring Futures Through Educational Degrees) cohort received their bachelor’s degrees in sociology at a ceremony held inside the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego, CA. Launched in 2020, LIFTED is the first in-prison bachelor’s degree program offered by the University of California system.
• We also launched our pilot LeadHER program through which students engaged in a structured 10-week mentorship program aimed at setting women up to become successful leaders and fostering connections that will support them professionally for years to come. 
• We celebrated our first graduates of the UC PRIME Pre-Health Pathways program (UC3P). Launched in summer 2023 with a five-year, $3.6 million grant from the California Department of Health Care Access and Information, the program is a critical resource for undergraduates from underserved communities who are interested in pursuing careers in healthcare.
• And we wrapped completion of the school's multi-year Pathways Project that was designed to bring greater transparency and equity to faculty tenure and promotion process.
• This past year, the newly launched Center for Racial Justice at UC Irvine received a $684,000 grant to support student-focused programming aimed at reducing hate and extremism. As the campus hub for award-winning programs including the Center for Truth & Racial Healing, the Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Healing Ambassador program, and the Deconstructing Diversity Initiative, the center supports a community-based, intergenerational approach to social justice. Funding received is supporting program operations for the next two years and will allow for new, expanded lessons on using multimedia to combat hate and extremism.
• We established a collaboration with the UC Irvine School of Law to offer social sciences students access to an accelerated Bachelor’s/Juris Doctor degree pathway at UCI Law, along with substantial scholarship funds. Qualified recipients will receive $90,000 over three years, and if enrolled in the 3+3 pathway, could earn their Bachelor’s and Juris Doctor degrees in six years, as opposed to the traditional seven.
• In partnership with the Division of Continuing Education, we launched a post-baccalaureate program in computational language science. Housed in the Department of Language Science, the program aims to fill a gap in methods training for students interested in careers and/or graduate studies in computational linguistics.
• Wang Feng, sociology, was awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship to complete a new book on the politics of policymaking, using the case of China’s one-child policy; Alexander Huezo, global and international studies, was named as a 2024-25 Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Colombia, supporting his efforts toward development of global environmental justice studies; and Kristin Turney, sociology, was named the 2024 recipient of the UCI Academic Senate Distinguished Mid-Career Faculty Award for Research, honoring her work to illuminate social inequality.
• Two UCI social sciences initiatives were 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, former UCI 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.
• Laura Enriquez, Chicano/Latino studies, helped curate Healing and (Re)Building Connection Through Art, a student art exhibit featuring works inspired by travel to Mexico as part of her fall course on undocumented immigrant experiences.
• Sarah Whitt, global and international studies, received a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship in support of her second book project, Prisoners of War: An Indigenous History of Captivity, Memory, and Freedom, 1880-2023, which examines diverse experiences, stories, and landscapes of Indigenous captivity in the United States from the standpoint of the Indigenous peoples who endured them.
• Marion Aouad, economics, was named a faculty research fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research via recommendation from leading scholars in NBER’s programs in the economics of health and economics of aging; and Irene Vega, sociology, was named a Hellman Fellow, supporting her new project, “Racialized Social Ladders,” which bridges her interests in immigration, race/ethnicity and social mobility.
• A team of researchers from UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara has been awarded a $192,869 grant from the National Science Foundation to study wildfire mitigation and management at a regional level, bringing together diverse communities working and living in high-risk areas. Led by Justin Richland, UCI professor and chair of anthropology, the team is particularly focused on bringing Indigenous communities into conversations they have been previously omitted from.
• Lauren Ross, logic & philosophy of science associate professor, received a three-year $269,528 John Templeton Foundation grant to addresses challenges associated with causal complexity in the biological sciences. You can read more about her grant funded work here, and you can watch and listen as she takes a deep dive into her causation work here.

Our faculty also published more than a dozen books on topics ranging from global relations during COVID, the erosion of modern government institutions, and roles schools play in creating inequality to the impact of CPS on motherhood, moral courage, and the war on critical race theory. Check out our faculty bookshelf online for a full recount including Q&As, podcasts and videos. While you’re there, also check out our Experts On video series for some engaging deep dives into current social sciences research projects.   

In terms of external grants, social scientists received $8,023,000 to pursue research on topics including everything from environmental injustice to aphasia recovery. Projects in the Department of Cognitive Sciences account for more than half – $4.65m – of this important work. In addition to the shoutouts above, you can learn more on our site about funded projects and ongoing research.

The UCI School of Social Sciences is the largest bachelor’s degree-serving unit on campus, and critical to the exceptional educational experience of this large student body are the school’s award-winning student programs which span mentorship and career readiness opportunities, leadership development training, and graduate school guidance and preparation. To oversee these student-facing programs, we created a new leadership position this year. Beginning July 1, Matt Huffman, sociology professor, became the inaugural associate dean of student programs in social sciences. He’s working alongside Jeanett Castellanos, associate dean of undergraduate affairs, who oversees the school’s undergraduate advising, general social science courses and leads the social policy and public service major while also serving as point person for curricula and pedagogical approaches and planning and enrollment management activities in social sciences.

We also had a few departmental leadership shifts this past year that I’m delighted to share. Mark Steyvers is our newly named chair of cognitive sciences, and Sara Goodman is our newly named chair of political science. They follow outgoing chairs Ginny Richards (cognitive sciences) and Simone Chambers (political science). I want to thank our former chairs for helping lead our top-ranked departments during their chairships, and we’re looking forward to continued and new innovative programming from all to serve our students and faculty.

With more than 62,000 living alumni, social sciences offers a number of opportunities through which our active Anteaters continue to engage with the school and university long past the receipt of their degrees. Working together over the past few years, we’ve elevated the School of Social Sciences to new heights of excellence and impact, raising over $27 million for the Brilliant Future Campaign. The Dean’s Leadership Society and Women of the Dean’s Leadership Society (WDLS) have contributed $1,350,930 to this success. Social sciences efforts have engaged 22% of the campus’ 72,157 Anteaters reached in this campaign, moving us closer to the campus-wide goal of 75,000.

2023-24 was an amazing academic year. I invite you to check out our featured news feed showcasing all of our outstanding award winners, grant recipients, researchers, featured colleagues, ground breaking studies and other shoutouts from the last year. You’ll also find listed there a number of undergraduate, graduate and alumni stories highlighting outstanding achievements and awards including our Lauds and Laurels recipients, alumni and community partners making their mark, and outstanding staff honored for service both on and off campus. Kudos to all of our dedicated and hardworking faculty, staff and students who help us each day in achieving our research, teaching and service successes!

As always, you can keep up with our never-ending cycle of excellent news online and via our enews (email communications@socsci.uci.edu or sign up here to be added to our distribution list). And while you’re on our site, check out our running list of soc sci in the news. Over the past year, 127 faculty, students and programs were featured in more than 500 stories that ran in 213 different media outlets including The New York Times, MSN, Yahoo News, The Orange County Register, Los Angeles Times, US News & World Report, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Marketplace, NBC News, NPR, The Guardian, ABC News, CNN, Science, USA Today, National Geographic, FiveThirtyEight, and more.

Once again, welcome to all – we look forward to seeing you on campus and we thank you in advance for the wonderful contributions you will make in the coming year!

Bill Maurer, Dean

-pictured: New social sciences students celebrating at our annual welcome BBQ Sept. 23.