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maurer featured


Message from the Dean

Bill Maurer


Earlier this week, I had the privilege of welcoming our new social sciences undergraduates to campus. They number 1,661 strong – 18% of the campus total – and the energy was terrific! They are among the most economically and ethnically diverse class ever admitted, and they come from a pool of over 98,000 UCI applicants. We truly got the best of the best and it’s looking to be a great year! I also greeted our 105 incoming graduate students – M.A. and Ph.D. – who join our outstanding community of intellect and investigation. We have a number of new faculty members joining us for fall quarter, coming from institutions ranging from UC Santa Barbara to Duke - and you can learn more about them here. And with the start of the fall quarter, our “First Gen, First Quarter Challenge” has officially begun. Led by professors Anita Casavantes-Bradford (Chicano/Latino studies) and Davin Phoenix (political science), the program is designed to help our large number of students who are the first in their family to attend college transition to campus life.

With all of the newness the academic year brings, it’s a perfect time to reflect on our accomplishments this past year...and we have a lot to celebrate.

More...




news

Sacramento or bust

Recipient of new Presidential Public Service Fellowship heads to Sacramento for a coveted government internship

Democracy in action

UCI's Louis DeSipio and David Meyer put presidential politics into perspective

Today's parents spend more time with their kids than moms and dads did 50 years ago

Trend is most pronounced among the better-educated, UCI study finds

Meet the mentors

UCI professors who were also first-generation students form support system

Uninfected but still affected

UCI researcher focuses attention on under-studied and highly vulnerable population in sub-Saharan Africa: children living with adults who are HIV-positive or AIDS-ill

Spillover effects of U.S. immigration laws

Award-winning study explains how immigration policy punishes U.S.-born children, families of undocumented immigrants

Intergenerational health

UCI-UNC Chapel Hill research team receives NIH funding to create database linking mother/baby health outcomes with socioeconomic, geographic and biological factors

UCI's Michael Tesler named one of top 50 thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics

Poli sci prof makes Politico Magazine's top list for 2016

Gender diversity in graduate education

Political scientist receives NSF grant to study gender representation in the training of political science graduate students

Snow receives lifetime achievement award

Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction recognizes sociologist's contributions in symbolic interactionism

UCI ranked 9th among nation's public universities by U.S. News and World Report

Campus also receives high marks for low student debt, serving veterans

Lanuza awarded two fellowships

Sociology's Yader Lanuza receives fellowships from American Sociological Association and National Research Council





new faculty

New professors bring diverse expertise and experience to social sciences


The School of Social Sciences is happy to welcome seven new professors to its fall 2016 faculty lineup. With research interests ranging from big data to public health, their scholarly contributions will further expand the diversity and interdisciplinary research strengths for which the School of Social Sciences is known. Learn more about the school's new faculty via video or click on individual faculty below for more detailed features.





up-coming events

Expectations Lost: What's Next for the 2016 Election? Part Two

Oct 5

Digital Media and Learning Conference

Oct 5-7

Digital Dreamers

Oct 7

Economics of Governance Lecture: America's Neglected Debt to the Dutch

Oct 21

How Did We Get So Afraid For Our Kids?

Oct 26

What Should the Next President Do to Increase Economic Opportunity?

Oct 27

Strong Reductions Between Combinatorial Problems
October 3

Longitudinal Associations between Executive Function and Mathematics in Early Childhood
October 4

Expectations Lost: What's Next for the 2016 Election? Part Two
October 5

Digital Media and Learning Conference
October 5-7

Digital Dreamers
October 7

Social Entrepreneurship: Microfinance, Education, and Poverty Elimination
October 13

Haunted: An Ethnography of the Hollywood and Hong Kong Media Industries
October 13

Jerusalem: Urban Spatial Changes During Political Uncertainty 1994-2016
October 13

A Semantic Hierarchy for Intuitionistic Logic
October 14

Can a War Fought with Private Military Companies be Just?
October 20

Information Geometry: From Divergence Functions to Geometric Structures
October 20

Across the Lines: Science in Times of War and Peace
October 20

Economics of Governance Lecture: America's Neglected Debt to the Dutch
October 21

How Did We Get So Afraid for Our Kids?
October 26

Nation Building. Why Some Countries Came Together While Others Fell Apart
October 27

Urban Interventions in a Transitioning Society: The Case of 'Post-Peace' Belfast, Northern Ireland
October 27

What Should the Next President Do to Increase Economic Opportunity?
October 27





in the media

Why Asians have become the dominant group in Irvine - and what that means for the city

Lee, OC Register


What if evolution bred reality out of us?

Hoffman, NPR


Don't leave your kids near judgmental strangers

Thomas, Sarnecka, Stanford, Bloomberg


Forget Trump’s temperament and Clinton’s stamina. Voters care less and less about candidates’ personalities
Wattenberg, The Washington Post

What ‘stranger things’ can teach us about parenting
Thomas, Sarnecka, Stanford, Psych Central

California’s moral superiority complex
Thomas, Sarnecka, Stanford, American Spectator

Trump's rise draws white supremacists into political mainstream: 'I am winning,' says David Duke
Tesler, Los Angeles Times

Fact-checking is largely irrelevant because deceit is not what’s causing moral outrage, Clinton’s gender is (Contributor)
Thomas, Sarnecka, Stanford, The Huffington Post

Rep. Steve King is hanging out with the German far right and tweeting racist buzzwords
Tesler, Vox

At a border fence, families are so close and yet so far
DeSipio, MSN

Japanese law impedes a U.S. family's plan to donate newborn's organs should she die
Jenks, Orange County Register

Deportations of Haitians resume as more arrive at California-Mexico border (Audio)
DeSipio, Southern California Public Radio

Why the Republicans will retain the House in 2016...and 2018...and 2020
Smith, London School of Economics USAPP

Words of wisdom for this year's college freshmen
Maurer, The Huffington Post

Breakthrough study explains why we arrest moms for putting kids in nearly non-existent 'danger'
Thomas, Sarnecka, Stanford, Reason

Alzheimer's updates and annual conference and international relations are our affair (Audio)
Garb, Ask A Leader

White riot
Tesler, Vox

Why Asians have become the dominant group in Irvine - and what that means for the city
Lee, Orange County Register

This border fence has become a magnet for family reunions. Just don't try to hug
DeSipio, Los Angeles Times, MSN

Census: O.C. continuing steady economic recovery, drawing more foreign-born residents
Brown, Orange County Register

7 commonly held beliefs about U.S. immigration that the media (and most Americans) have totally wrong
Rumbaut, Matador Network

America would happily pay Uber an extra $7 billion
Roth, City Lab from The Atlantic

Former latch-key kids who are now parents, unite
Thomas, Sarnecka, Stanford, Reason.com

Women are spending less time doing chores - what that means for gender equality (Audio)
Treas, Southern California Public Radio

Don't leave your kids near judgmental strangers
Thomas, Sarnecka, Stanford, Bloomberg

Report: Hillary Clinton talks like a man
Jones, Fast Company

A guide to borderland education programs
Center for Research on Migration, High Country News

Study: Hillary Clinton talks more 'like a man' as her stature rises
Jones, Vocativ

Birtherism was why so many Republicans liked Trump in the first place
Tesler, The Washington Post

Trump goes hard-line on immigration
DeSipio, Kare 11

Column: Why a $15 minimum wage should scare us
Neumark, PBS Newshour

Why parents need to judge other parents
Thomas, Sarnecka, Stanford, New York Post

Older American workers are still struggling to find jobs
Neumark, Fortune and Reuters

Viral video of young mom committing unspeakable crime: Leaving baby in car for 3 minutes
Thomas, Sarnecka, Stanford, Reason.com

Parents' judginess of other parents is making their kids less able to deal with life
Thomas, Sarnecka, Stanford, Quartz

Episode 515
Sarnecka, Savage Lovecast

What if evolution bred reality out of us?
Hoffman, NPR

Can the Democrats win back white working-class voters?
Tesler, The Nation

Is Trump building wallmentum?
Tesler, Washington Examiner

How Beijing's new residency system reinforces rural-urban inequality
Wang Feng, The Atlantic - CityLab

How judging other parents can equal class warfare
Thomas, Sarnecka, Stanford, The Federalist

Study: People think working moms are 'immoral'
Thomas, Sarnecka, Stanford, Downtown Express

We're all living in a 'conceptual prison': Our brains perceive a fraction of reality to keep us alive
Hoffman, Wired

Trump's immigration speech puts him on collision course with Bay Area cities, counties
DeSipio, East Bay Times, The Mercury News

In this Orange County congressional race, an unusually difficult choice for voters in Little Saigon
Nguyen, Los Angeles Times


See past issues of the social sciences monthly enews.

School of Social Sciences
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-5100