new faculty

The School of Social Sciences is excited to welcome in our largest group of new faculty in recent history. Fifteen scholars coming in from universities across the U.S., stretching from UC Santa Barbara in the west to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the east, are bolstering our scholarly areas of inquiry in all of the school's departments. Learn more about their research, background and UCI connections below.

Eve Darian-Smith

Professor, Anthropology, Law & Director, International Studies

Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1995; BA (Hons) & LLB, University of Melbourne, Australia, Law School, 1988

Kim Fortun

Professor and Department Chair, Anthropology

Ph.D., Rice University, 1993

Michael Fortun

Associate Professor, Anthropology

Ph.D., Harvard, 1993

Sherine Hamdy

Associate Professor, Anthropology

Ph.D., New York University, 2006

Paul Hanselman

Assistant Professor, Sociology

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2014

Julia Lerch

Assistant Professor, Sociology

Ph.D., Stanford, 2017

Erin Lockwood

Assistant Professor, Political Science

Ph.D., Northwestern University, 2017

Philip McCarty

Lecturer, SOE, Social Sciences

Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara, 2007

Mary McThomas

Associate Professor, Political Science

Ph.D., UCLA, 2007

Zygmunt Pizlo

Professor and Falmagne Endowed Chair, Cognitive Sciences

Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Center for Microelectronics, Warsaw, Poland, 1982; Ph.D., Psychology, University of Maryland at College Park, 1991

Lauren Ross

Assistant Professor, Logic and Philosophy of Science

Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, 2016; M.D., UC Irvine, 2011

Jeffrey Rouder

Professor and Falmagne Endowed Chair, Cognitive Sciences

Ph.D., UC Irvine, 1995

David Schaefer

Associate Professor, Sociology

Ph.D., University of Arizona, 2006

Ian Straughn

Lecturer, PSOE, Anthropology

Ph.D., University of Chicago, 2006

Hector Tobar

Associate Professor, Chicano/Latino Studies and English, Literary Journalism

MFA, UC Irvine, 1995