UC Santa Cruz Social Sciences

UC Santa Cruz Social Sciences 💡Studying human relationships in society
📍Home of the Institute for Social Transformation

Congratulations to Professor of Anthropology Anna Tsing, who has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences...
06/01/2026

Congratulations to Professor of Anthropology Anna Tsing, who has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies that honors groundbreaking contributions to scholarship and public knowledge.

A leading scholar of the Anthropocene, Tsing's interdisciplinary research explores how human activity transforms ecosystems, biodiversity, and social life. Her work bridges anthropology, feminist theory, environmental humanities, and ethnography to examine life and survival amid ecological change.

Here on campus, Tsing has been the founding faculty director of the Center for Southeast Asian Coastal Interactions (SEACoast), bringing together social and natural scientists to address complex environmental challenges through collaboration. Her books include In the Realm of the Diamond Queen: Marginality in an Out-of-the-Way Place, Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection, and The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins.

Read more about this accomplishment: https://news.ucsc.edu/2026/04/american-academy-of-arts-sciences-2026/

💬 Distinguished Professor Jean E. Fox Tree is researching how the words we use when we text shape others' perceptions of...
05/28/2026

💬 Distinguished Professor Jean E. Fox Tree is researching how the words we use when we text shape others' perceptions of us. She recently co-authored a new study exploring how language influences perception in digital communication between students and instructors. The study finds that word choices can shape assumptions about identity and credibility, and even reinforcing gender biases.

Another study she carried out introduces a model explaining how expectations influence how we evaluate and remember conversations. For example, during a conversation, individuals must assess what is said, how it is said, and whether expectations about the conversation were met. These components influence our interpersonal experiences and memory formation of those experiences. The study highlights how small linguistic choices can have a big impact on how we're remembered online, or how we explain misunderstandings in conversations.

Read the first study in Language@Internet: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/li/article/view/41320

Read the second study in New Ideas in Psychology: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0732118X26000036

Madeleine Fairbairn, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz, has co-authored a timely op-ed in Ci...
05/26/2026

Madeleine Fairbairn, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz, has co-authored a timely op-ed in Civil Eats titled "The USDA Wants California to Abandon Farmland Equity. It Shouldn't."

The article engages with newly released findings from California's Agricultural Land Equity Task Force, which documents the state's historical role in shaping highly concentrated farmland ownership. It also outlines policy recommendations aimed at improving equity in land access and ownership.

This work contributes to ongoing national conversations about agricultural policy, land justice, and the structural barriers facing farmers, particularly those from historically marginalized communities. Read the article: https://civileats.com/2026/03/03/the-usda-wants-california-to-abandon-farmland-equity-it-shouldnt/

Our Education, Democracy, and Justice majors weave intersectionality and diverse perspectives into every step of their c...
05/25/2026

Our Education, Democracy, and Justice majors weave intersectionality and diverse perspectives into every step of their coursework and research! This was especially evident this past quarter, when Assistant Professor of Critical Studies in Education Rekia Jibrin hosted the annual undergraduate research symposium, where students presented research on the intellectual tradition of Black educational thought.

Over 100 attendees engaged in a collective exercise of scholarly synthesis and discussion. Students presented original research, theoretical assertions, and contemporary connections in courageous ways. In response to bans on Black Studies and the institutional erasure of Black history, this event centered Black thinkers, Black struggles, and the intellectual tradition of Black thought that has, and continues to, conceptualize schooling as a project of liberation✊🏿

05/22/2026

Professor of Anthropology and director of the Archaeological Research Center at UC Santa Cruz Lars Fehren-Schmitz is helping to rewrite the history of disease 🧬

Fehren-Schmitz was recently part of an international research team that recovered a 5,500-year-old genome of Treponema pallidum, a bacterium with a subspecies that causes syphilis, from human remains in Colombia.

Published in Science this past January, the study pushes the known genetic history of this pathogen back more than 3,000 years. The findings reveal a previously unknown lineage that diverged around 13,700 years ago, which suggests far greater diversity and a much deeper evolutionary history than previously understood.

This breakthrough offers new insight into how infectious diseases evolved long before recorded history. Read more: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adw3020

Video description: Multicolor DNA on a blue background that says: Ancient DNA reveals new insights into our evolutionary history. Researcher have traced the evolution of disease-causing bacteria through the discovery of 5,500 year old pathgen genome in Colombia.

How reliable is scientific research? 🔬 Associate Professor of Psychology Jason Samaha contributed to the large-scale Sys...
05/20/2026

How reliable is scientific research? 🔬 Associate Professor of Psychology Jason Samaha contributed to the large-scale Systematizing Confidence in Open Research and Evidence (SCORE) project, an international effort involving 300+ researchers to replicate findings across the behavioral and social sciences.

The results? About 55% of published claims were successfully replicated, offering important insight into how science can strengthen transparency and reliability.UC Santa Cruz faculty and undergraduate and graduate researchers played a hands-on role, running replication studies right here on campus.

The findings were published in Nature in April: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-10078-y

We're building the future of geospatial innovation 📡 Under the leadership of Professor of Environmental Studies Bo Yang,...
05/18/2026

We're building the future of geospatial innovation 📡 Under the leadership of Professor of Environmental Studies Bo Yang, UC Santa Cruz's new M.A. in Geographic Information Systems, Spatial Technologies, Applications, and Research program is already making waves!

This past quarter, the program hosted a packed GIS Day 2025, bringing together speakers from across academia, industry, and organizations like NASA and the Elkhorn Slough Foundation. Highlights included keynote talks, a Student Map Competition awards presentation, GIS and drone demos, and lively rounds of GeoTrivia.

The momentum continued at the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting 2026 in San Francisco, where GISTAR master's students showcased their work, connected with peers, and introduced prospective students to the program.

Want to be a part of the next generation of GIS leaders? Check out the program requirements + learn how to apply for admission this fall at envs.ucsc.edu

💤 💭 In April, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Psychology G. William Domhoff published the book Dreams,...
05/14/2026

💤 💭 In April, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Psychology G. William Domhoff published the book Dreams, Sleep, and Consciousness: Interweaving the Neurocognitive Theory of Dreaming with New Theories of Sleep and Consciousness with Routledge.

This is the first book since the beginning of the neuroimaging era in the mid-1990s that provides a scientifically based explanation of how dreams, sleep, and consciousness relate to each other, and the only one with a full chapter on the sleep-onset process. Through 10 chapters, Domhoff explores key supporting theories, the neurocognitive network, dream contents, neurophysiological aspects, and consciousness itself.

Domhoff was one of the first pioneer faculty members in the Sociology and Psychology Departments. His 2022 book, The Neurocognitive Theory of Dreaming from MIT Press, won the American Association of Publishers' 2023 PROSE Award for the best book relevant to the "Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry" category. Four of his political sociology books were among the top 50 best-sellers in sociology from 1950 to 1995, including Who Rules America?, The Higher Circles, The Powers That Be, and Who Rules America Now?.

Catherine Ramírez, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, is serving as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, visi...
05/13/2026

Catherine Ramírez, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, is serving as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, visiting six universities across the U.S. over the past year, including Ursinus College, University of South Carolina, University at Albany, Binghamton University, Saint Katherine University, and University of New Mexico.

During her visits, she delivered talks exploring migration, labor, and Latinx cultural histories, including discussions of alternative histories of assimilation, labor futures for undocumented communities, the postmigrant experience, and the cultural politics of Pachuca style in the zoot suit era.

Reflecting on her experience of the past year, Ramírez shared: "Everywhere I went, I was welcomed by smart, curious, generous, and reasonable people. I spoke about charged subjects, like the impact of AI and automation on labor and undocumentedness in the US, the plight of unaccompanied child migrants, state-sanctioned violence against communities of color, and fascist fashion. My exchanges with my hosts were especially reassuring and refreshing during this time of polarization, extremism, and tribalism in the US."

New book alert 🚨 Associate Professor of Anthropology Carla Hernandez Garavito has published Reinvention and History Maki...
05/12/2026

New book alert 🚨 Associate Professor of Anthropology Carla Hernandez Garavito has published Reinvention and History Making in Huarochirí, which examines communities in the 15th-century Peruvian Andes who experienced the invasion of the Indigenous Inka Empire and the European Spanish, leading to centuries of colonial subjugation.

Drawing on archaeological and historical data and spatial modeling, this book centers on local memory and experience of the people of Huarochirí (Lima, Peru) across colonized landscapes as the thread connecting the long history of Indigenous engagement with colonial empires and the Peruvian nation.

Purchase the book from University of Arizona Press: https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/reinvention-and-history-making-in-huarochiri

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