Research

Area Studies, Language Programs Win Almost $11 Million from Education Department
Over the coming four years, the UCLA International Institute's renowned programs on East Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Near East, Southeast Asia and heritage language education anticipate federal support of $6.7 million for language instruction, public programming, outreach to local schools, and more. Five centers will distribute nearly $4.3 million in Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships to UCLA undergraduate and graduate students.

Defenders of World's Mother Tongues (and Signs) Compare Tactics at UCLA
The National Heritage Language Resource Center at UCLA hosts a major, first-of-its-kind conference on how to teach languages that are sidelined and stigmatized around the world, and honors a U.S. authority on bilingualism and teaching methodologies, Guadalupe Valdes of Stanford University.

UCLA Hosts 1st Conference on Afghan Literature
"Afghanistan in Ink: Literatures of Nation, War, and Exile" focused on works written or recorded in the tumult of the past three decades. Audio podcasts of conference presentations are now available.

Toward a Pan-American School of Things Korean
Now in its third year, the Korean Studies in the Americas program brings students to UCLA from four Latin American countries, supports collaboration among faculty, and sends American Koreanist scholars north and south for lectures. Funded by the Seoul-based Academy of Korean Studies, the UCLA-administered program has begun to snowball, attracting interest in the form of travel grants for Latin American students and faculty members visiting Korea and the United States.

10 Questions for Russia Expert Daniel Treisman
Drawing on memoirs, personal interviews and other sources, Professor of Political Science Daniel Treisman, who first traveled to Russia in 1988, has written a sweeping study that covers roughly the period he's spent watching the country. Instead of pondering Russia's dark side or its "soul," Treisman in "The Return: Russia's Journey From Gorbachev to Medvedev" looks at Russia as a typical, though important, country facing everyday 21st-century social, political and economic challenges.

US Interrogator Who Decried Torture Joins Burkle Center
Matthew Alexander, an 18-year Air Force and Air Force Reserves veteran and author of books about effective, non-coercive interrogation methods, is bringing his on-the-ground perspective about counterterrorism policies to UCLA as a Burkle Center fellow.

Food and Survival in Her Books and Her Life
Peek into Judith Carney’s background and you can understand her interests. "In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa's Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World," co-written with her husband, is one of two winners of the most recent Douglass prize, awarded to the best book written in English on slavery or abolition.

Earth Man
It's 2050, and the northern quarter of the planet is more pleasant, prosperous, stable and powerful than it is today. The south? Not so much. This is the provocative conclusion of UCLA Geography Professor Laurence C. Smith in his new book, The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization's Northern Future. Smith traveled the Northern Rim to discover what the future will look like. Here's what he found.

Discovery of His Roots Leads Him to Track History of Chinese in Mexico
Growing up in a predominantly white L.A. suburb, Robert Chao Romero, an assistant professor of Chicana and Chicano studies, hid his Chinese background. But one day his interest in his heritage was awakened and led him to study the tragic history of Chinese immigrants in Mexico.

10 Questions for Sebastián Edwards
UCLA novelist and economist Sebastián Edwards on Venezuela, Brazil, Chile and the false promise of Populism.

UCLA Professor Chronicles Rise of US Border Patrol in New Book
Drawing on long-neglected archival sources in both the U.S. and Mexico, Kelly Lytle Hernandez uncovers the little-known history of how Mexican immigrants slowly became the primary focus of U.S. immigration law enforcement and shows how racial profiling of Mexicans by the Border Patrol developed.

10 Questions with Joyce Appleby
In less than 400 years, capitalism has generated unprecedented wealth and new forms of power, altered prevailing wisdom about human nature, and spread itself far beyond its improbable original setting, a process that the eminent historian Joyce Appleby describes in "The Relentless Revolution: a History of Capitalism" (Norton, 2010). Running all the way to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, the history pauses on the lives of industrialists, adventurers and pamphleteers.

10 Questions for Lauren Robin Derby
Lauren Robin Derby became enchanted with the people, music and popular culture of the Dominican Republic and Haiti while on a research fellowship following her college graduation. This associate professor in history has since devoted her career to studying the history of both nations. Derby's recent book is based on her doctoral dissertation, which focused on the authoritarian regime of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961.

East Meets West in Scholar John Duncan
Director of the UCLA Center for Korean Studies and a leading light on pre-modern Korea, Duncan has lived comfortably in two cultures since the late 1960s. Duncan is receiving the Korea Foundation Award in Seoul for a lifetime of contributions to Korean studies worldwide.

She Travels Sahara to Record History of Caravan Trade
Ghislaine Lydon, the new chair of the African Studies interdepartmental program, will travel to Mauritania in December to collaborate on an article and a documentary film about the last women caravanners in the western Sahara Desert.

Anthropologist Rose From Outcast to Academic
Now a professor of anthropology and co-director of Chinese studies at UCLA, Yan Yunxiang has returned many times to northeastern China to conduct fieldwork in Xiajia, where he lived for seven years as an ordinary farmer.

10 Questions for Kantathi Suphamongkhon on His Diplomatic Career and Lessons Learned from Nixon
Kantathi Suphamongkhon, senior fellow at the Burkle Center for International Relations and visiting professor of law and diplomacy at UCLA, served as Thailand’s equivalent to U.S. secretary of state from March 11, 2005 to Sept. 19, 2006. He was the 39th minister of foreign affairs for Thailand until a military coup d’état forced him out of office. The Thai national, who graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in political science in 1976, has taught here since 2007.

The Good Daughter
UCLA alumna Jasmin Darznik spoke about unraveling her family's history at a reading on Friday, Feb. 18 at the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies.

Urban Planning Student Lets Egyptians' Voices Be Heard
John Scott-Railton, who has done research and studied in Egypt, decided to begin relaying reports from Egyptians via Twitter and Youtube when the government shut down Internet and cell phone service last Thursday.

Rock Bands, Rock Brands of India
On her International Institute dissertation fieldwork grant, ethnomusicology graduate student Chloe Coventry traveled to Bangalore, in the south Indian state of Karnataka, to study the city's local rock music.

'Talking Drums' on Rural and Global Stages
For his dissertation field research, UCLA graduate student Jesse Ruskin went to southwestern Nigeria to understand the local uses and global reach of the Yoruba 'talking drum.' He also performed with local musicians.

Rhodes Scholar Sees the Human Face in Poverty in India
Elizavida Fouksman investigated human rights abuses in rural India during her junior year, then returned after graduation to inspire social activism. She is UCLA's 12th Rhodes Scholar.

UCLA Athlete, World Affairs Enthusiast Receives Marshall Scholarship
Matthew Clawson, a political science and economics major with a minor in public affairs, plans to use the award to complete a master's degree in international relations at Oxford University.

Renewable Energy for Urban Homes
Urban planning graduate student and Fulbright fellow T.H. Culhane introduces handmade solar water heaters in Cairo and thinks about how energy projects can address both poverty and environmental problems.

Finding the Cutting Edge of Fashion in Indonesia
The Graduate Quarterly profiles anthropology graduate student and Fulbright fellow Brent Luvaas.

Venues of Transformation
Damola Osinulu, a doctoral student in the Department of World Arts and Cultures, took his International Fieldwork Fellowship to Lagos, Nigeria, to understand why at least a million Pentecostal worshippers come together just north of the city.

Hip Hop Dreams in Dakar
A whirlwind tour of the Senagalese captial's music scene laid the groundwork for my comparative dissertation.

UCLA Advanced Degrees Put to Work for Education in Afghanistan
Born in Kabul and brought up in Orange County, UCLA Islamic Studies alumna Parisa Popalzai says that war-torn Afghanistan needs the help of those who had to leave it. She applies skills learned at the Anderson School and the International Institute to two issues: giving Afghan kids with special needs a chance and training managers for a new economy.

Seeking 'Spatial Justice' for World's Disabled
Victor Pineda, a doctoral student in urban planning, will return to Dubai on a Fulbright-Hays award in December to monitor the implementation of an ambitious disability rights law. He argues that the built environments we live in largely determine our abilities and who we are.

Domesticating the Harem
A doctoral student in art history reconsiders 'zenana' (female household) imagery in 19th- and early 20th-century India.<br/><br/>

South African Heritages and Their Owners
On a trip to Cape Town, Laura Foster, an attorney and UCLA doctoral student in women's studies, discovers that intellectual property rights are not marginal concerns for marginalized and historically oppressed communities. They're near the center of efforts to reclaim and reaffirm cultures.