Hajar Yazdiha, assistant professor of sociology, has been a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholarin CIFAR’s Boundaries, Membership & Belonging program. Yazdiha is among 16 distinguished, early-career researchers joining the prestigious program for the 2023–25 period. The program provides $100,000 of unrestricted research funding over two years to scholars addressing significant and urgent scientific and societal challenges.
Ann Owens, professor of sociology, public policy and spatial sciences, has won the 2022 William Julius Wilson Early Career Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility. Bestowed annually, the award recognizes a scholar who has made major contributions early in their career.
Jacques Hymans, associate professor of international relations, has earned a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship. His project under the fellowship, which takes place from May to December in affiliation with the University of Tokyo, will focus on understanding the uneven success of Japan’s efforts to expand its reliance on a wide range of renewable energies since the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant disaster of March 2011.
Christian Grose, professor of political science and public policy, received the 2023 Joseph L. Bernd JOP Best Paper Award for his article “Social Lobbying” published last year in The Journal of Politics. Grose’s co-authors were Sara Sadhwani, his former PhD student now at Pomona College, Pamela Lopez of K Street Consulting and Antoine Yoshinaka of the University at Buffalo.
On April 2, the Joint Educational Project (JEP) STEM Education Programs hosted a teacher professional development opportunity focused on neurobiology. This workshop was in partnership with neurobiologist Sarah Bottjer, professor of biological sciences and psychology, whose research focuses on brain-behavior relationships in songbirds. The workshop was supported by a National Science Foundation grant titled “The Role of Cortico-Basal Ganglia Circuits in Skill Learning During Development.”
With the reconciliation package stalled in Washington, D.C., progressive champions have lamented their failure to capture the public imagination and secure support for a social safety net that fits our 21st-century economy. This is not a new issue. Progressives have often faced difficulties articulating their agenda, frequently getting caught in a game of telephone in which their plans for full inclusion get garbled into pleas for “special interests” and a laundry list of specific policies.
The food environment in Los Angeles County changed tremendously during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a project convened by Public Exchange at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, USC researchers are working across disciplines to develop a new approach to understanding food systems, food access and food security across L.A. County. They’re mapping the landscape of where food is located and connecting that with individuals’ food habits and behaviors to determine how these issues can be addressed through policy changes.
My book on happiness is due out March 2021. See the flyer for more information.
