UCLA School of Education & Information Studies

Information Studies Colloquium: Book Talk - "Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why it Desperately Needs a Reformation" with Professor Greg Epstein
2025-03-06 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | UCLA Moore Hall, Reading Room, 3340, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
Please join us for our next IS Colloquium on March 6, 2:00-4:00 p.m. in the Reading Room, 3340 Moore Hall. There will be refreshments to follow.

Bio

Greg M. Epstein serves as Humanist Chaplain at Harvard and MIT, where he advises students, faculty and staff members on ethical and existential concerns from a humanist perspective.

UC|CSU Collaborative for Neuroscience, Diversity, and Learning Spring 2025 Webinar Series: Early Literacy Screening in CA
2025-03-06 15:30 - 16:30
​California’s early literacy screening requirement (CA Ed Code 53008) takes effect in the 2025-2026 school year for all California public school students in grades K-2. For students who struggle to learn to read, it’s imperative that they have an educational experience that accelerates their learning, which can include more intensity, frequency, and duration of reading and literacy instruction, all while attending to students’ language, social-emotional, and behavioral needs. This talk features Honorable Senator Anthony Portantino (ret.) and distinguished panelists who provide key insights into what the law requires for K-2 screening, implementation tips to support teachers and administrators, and broad implications for educator preparation programs and professional development.

Register Here!

Thinking Gender 2025: “Gendered Labors and Transnational Solidarities”
2025-03-07 08:30 - 18:00 | James West Alumni Center, 325 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
The Information Studies Department is cosponsoring the Center for the Study of Women|Barbra Streisand Center’s 2025 Thinking Gender Conference. We are thrilled to announce that registration is now open for Thinking Gender 2025: “Gendered Labors and Transnational Solidarities.”

Event Details:

Date: Friday, March 7, 2025

Time: 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM

Location: James West Alumni Center, The Collins Conference Room325 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095

This year, we invite attendees to a day of dynamic student presentations and a keynote address by labor rights organizer Adriana Paz Ramírez of the International Domestic Workers Federation.

We kindly ask you to share our event flier (attached) and registration link with your communities: Thinking Gender 2025 Registration.

The conference, Thinking Gender 2025: “Gendered Labors and Transnational Solidarities,” will explore the rich repertoire of organizing strategies and spotlight contemporary and historical campaigns led by precarious workers worldwide. This event convenes feminist, queer, and BIPOC scholars, artists, and organizers to reflect on labor solidarity and care, imagining a more livable and equitable society.

We look forward to seeing you at the conference!

Celebrating 50 Years of Learning from Coach Wooden
2025-03-08 08:30 - 15:00 | UCLA Moore Hall Reading Room, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
This year marks 50 years since Coach Wooden announced his retirement, just days before his team won UCLA’s 10th basketball championship. This makes it an opportune time to celebrate his long-standing achievements and to be re-inspired by his exemplary coaching practices and philosophy.

Please join us in a special event organized by UCLA’s School of Education and Information Studies honoring and learning from Coach’s accomplishments, on and off the court. The event will bring together Wooden’s former athletes, coaches and associates who will share their experiences with Coach as a teacher and his inspiration for coaching practices. The event also brings together researchers who will present their research on Coach Wooden.

RSVP HERE: https://www.greenvelope.com/card/.public-66a5b5d199a040218655da25568759d537323835333034#card_1

Learning Café: A Community-Engaged Scholarship Series with Priscilla P. Avitia, Blair Black, Ana Elizabeth Lara, Riona Tsai, and Sam Stroud
2025-03-11 12:00 - 13:00 | UCLA Moore Hall, Reading Room, 3340, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
Join us for our monthly Learning Café series highlighting the community engaged work of our faculty and graduate students. Listen, learn and engage with the work of our school.

Featuring Priscilla P. Avitia, Blair Black, Ana Elizabeth Lara, Riona Tsai, and Sam Stroud

As part of Faculty Organizing for Community Archives Support (FOCAS) and with the support of the Mellon Foundation, the UCLA Community Archives Lab administers paid internships for second-year MLIS students at community archives across Los Angeles, including La Historia Historical Society Museum, Visual Communications, the Skid Row History Museum and Archive, the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, and the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives. This program represents a transformation in archival education by centering non-dominant archival traditions and the needs of minoritized students and communities. In this moderated panel discussion, the five current Mellon interns will discuss their experiences in community archives, as well as the impact of their internships on their career trajectories and the future of the archival profession.

Winter Quarter Instruction Ends
2025-03-14 00:00 - 23:59

Early-Career Scholar Series Presenter: Kyle Halle-Erby Ph.D. and Advanced-Career Scholar Facilitator John Rogers Ph.D.
2025-03-14 10:00 - 11:00 | UCLA Moore Hall, Room 3320
In this session, the focus will be a research talk about an in-progress paper from my dissertation study called “New Trouble: The Construction of Newness and the Imperative to Find Solidarity with Insurgency.” Based on an ethnographic study of specialized high school programs for recently-arrived immigrant young people, I argue that the construction of “newness” is a strategy for dominating, structuring, and having authority over Indigenous and Latinx children as part of the ongoing project of U.S. state formation through conquest. This argument relies on in-depth analysis of Gedeón Sacalxot Tepaz’s story, which include his migration from Guatemala to Los Angeles, his experiences with work and immigration court, and with attending, leaving, and returning to school. These arguments draw conceptually on abolition and relationality. Abolition is engaged to think about praxis in this context and to identify students’ goals as a practice of futurity around which solidarity can be forged between educators and immigrant communities.

Kyle Halle-Erby, PhD., is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Education. He studies language policy and planning using critical Black and Indigenous frameworks. His research focuses on educational language policy in public schools for young people who have recently immigrated into the United States.

Refreshments will be served. Please direct questions to Dr. Deborah Southern, desouth@ucla.edu

UCLA Community School Quinceañera
2025-03-27 15:00 - 19:00 | UCLA Community School, 700 S. Mariposa Ave, Los Angeles, California, 90005, United States
Celebrate the “Quinceañera,” or 15th Birthday of the UCLA Community School. In Latin America, this is a joyful rite of passage and transition to adulthood. As a school turning 15, the UCLA Community School will celebrate its journey in creating a powerful and affirming environment for students, families and educators. We hope you join us in celebrating our past and present, while committing to a future where all students thrive. There will be two gatherings on the 27th, a Biliteracy Fair (3-5pm) and a Partner Reception (5-7pm). We will also be unveiling a special documentary photography project entitled, THRIVING, by renowned photographer Isadora Kosofsky.

The Biliteracy Fair (3-5pm) will begin in the Lower School Quad with an Open House that invites guests to visit classrooms and view student’s multilingual projects. Additionally, the event will include family biliteracy workshops, learning stations, and other activities led by students, as well as a special musical performance by the Grammy Award-winning Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band. A Mariachi Band will close out the party, along with refreshments and cake. All members of our community are invited to attend.

The Partner Reception (5-7pm) will start in the Cocoanut Grove with Welcoming Remarks, a panel of founding school members, and a video presentation. During this time, the school will also be presented with the new UCLA Community Partner Banner, with local media present to document the milestone. Guests will then move to the RFK Paul Schrade Library to learn more about the school from students, parents, and educators and enjoy refreshments. This event requires an RSVP and will include leaders from UCLA, LAUSD, local government and philanthropic organizations.

Please RSVP here by March 3rd and reach out to Brenda Benitez (bbenitez1@ucla.edu) with any questions. We are so grateful for your continued support and look forward to celebrating with you!

César Chávez Day
2025-03-28 00:00 - 23:59

Spring Quarter Instruction Begins
2025-03-31 00:00 - 23:59

UC|CSU Collaborative for Neuroscience, Diversity, and Learning Spring 2025 Webinar Series: Recess for All: Promoting Social and Emotional Growth Through Evidence-Based Interventions
2025-04-03 15:30 - 16:30
California’s recent legislation protecting recess for all children marks a crucial step in promoting children’s health and well-being. Recess is more than just a break from academics — it is a vital opportunity for social and emotional development, self-regulation, and peer relations. For children with disabilities, recess is as important as classroom learning, providing a natural setting where targeted interventions can support social, emotional, and behavioral growth. This talk will explore Remaking Recess and other evidence-based social skills interventions that have been successfully implemented in public schools. These interventions not only benefit children with disabilities but also enhance the recess experience for all students.

Register Here!

Free Computer Science Workshops for K-12 Educators
2025-04-09 00:00 - 2025-05-17 23:59
Participate alongside other K-12 California educators and paraprofessionals in free workshops that feature the California K-12 Computer Science Standards. Most educators are eligible to receive a $125 stipend for each 3-hour workshop scheduled in the spring.

Workshops will be held on various dates and times between April 9 – May 17.

California’s Early Wealth Account System Summit: Pathways to Promise
2025-04-09 08:00 - 16:30 | The Sofia, Home of B Street Theatre, 2700 Capitol Avenue, Sacramento, California, 95816, United States
Join the UCLA CalKIDS Institute, California State Treasurer’s Office, and California Child Savings Account Coalition at our April 9th summit in Sacramento.

View full agenda

Media Archival Studies: Media Preservation and Visibility Research
2025-04-09 11:00 - 12:00 | UCLA SEIS Building IS Library
Talk: Media Archival Studies: Media Preservation and Visibility Research

Wednesday, April 9th, 2025, 11:00 am

Location: IS Library, GSEIS Building, UCLA

This presentation examines recent movements in media archives and representational visibility advocacy. I argue that media archival research is subject to social pressures that have historically limited diversity and access, along several line such as what we recognize as an appropriate medium of historical memory, who has been allowed to save memory of their experience, and who has held domain over what became historical. However, when historians and archivists take a coalitional approach to preservation and access, the media archive is capable of revivifying, recirculating, and re-presencing a standing reserve of voices that hold the potential to play a role in political mobilization. This talk discusses case studies in radio and television collection stewardship and curation, and how research and preservation are being influenced by emerging pressures in AI policy and Copyright across federal and regulatory discourses.

Speaker Bio:

Josh Shepperd is Associate Professor and Undergraduate Chair of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also the Director, Library of Congress RPTF. He is the author of Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting (University of Illinois Press), which received the 2024 BEA Book Award and placed as a runner-up or finalist for four other book awards. He is co-writing the official History of Public Broadcasting for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and Current, and is the founding Associate Editor of Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture (University of California Press). Josh directs the Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force and Sound Submissions Project.

For questions or more information, please contact Dr. Noopur Raval, SEIS raval@seis.ucla.edu

Information Studies Colloquium: Virtual Landscape: Simulating Space with Painting & Technology with Emma Webster
2025-04-10 14:00 - 16:00 | UCLA Moore Hall, Reading Room, 3340, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
Please join us for our next IS Colloquium on Thursday, April 10, 2:00-4:00 p.m. in the Reading Room, 3340 Moore Hall. There will be refreshments to follow.

Abstract:

Webster, an artist of fantastical landscapes, will discuss her practice of concretizing the virtual in paint and give an overview of her creative process in the studio. The talk will explore the origins of the virtual, digital space as avatar, and the new frontiers of sculpting with technology.

Bio:

Emma Webster was born in 1989 in Encinitas, California, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. She graduated with her BA from Stanford University in 2011 and received her MFA in Painting from Yale University in 2018.

Webster’s work is part of various public collections around the world, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, California; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, California; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, Florida; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio; Xiao Museum, Rizhao, China; Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China; The Warehouse, Dallas, Texas; and the Groeninghe Art Collection, Bruges, Belgium.

Webster has two current solo exhibitions this spring: That Thought Might Think with Petzel in New York and Vapors with Perrotin in Hong Kong. Other recent solo exhibitions include Perrotin, Hong Kong (2025); Perrotin, Paris (2024); Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles (2023); Perrotin, Dosan Park, Seoul (2022); Stems Gallery, Brussels (2021); and Alexander Berggruen, New York (2021). Group exhibitions include Petzel, New York (2023); Max Hetzler, Berlin (2023); Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2022); Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego (2022) among others.

In 2021, Webster published Lonescape: Green, Painting, & Mourning Reality, a collection of musings on landscape and image-making in an increasingly digital world. Both this artist book and her eponymous monograph, published by Perrotin in 2024, are available online.

Early-Career Scholar Series Presenter: Laura Chávez-Moreno Ph.D. and Advanced-Career Scholar Facilitator Daniel Solorzano Ph.D.
2025-04-11 10:00 - 11:00 | UCLA Moore Hall, Room 3320
In this talk, Prof. Laura Chávez-Moreno will present the different strands of her research agenda, exploring the key questions that guide her work. She will also discuss the broader implications of this research for the education field.

Laura Chávez-Moreno is an award-winning scholar, qualitative social scientist, and assistant professor in the Departments of Chicana/o & Central American Studies and Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. She earned her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education. Dr. Chávez-Moreno’s research has been published in top-tier academic journals and recognized with prestigious awards from organizations such as the American Educational Research Association and the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation. In 2023, she received the Alan C. Purves Award from the National Council of Teachers of English for her article, “The continuum of racial literacies: Teacher practices countering whitestream bilingual education,” published in Research in the Teaching of English. This annual award honors the article deemed most significant in advancing the field. Dr. Chávez-Moreno has taught at all levels of schooling, from elementary and secondary to tertiary and older-adult education. Her five years as a high school Spanish teacher in the School District of Philadelphia included writing district curriculum and serving on boards of community organizations. Dr. Chávez-Moreno’s book, How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization in America, published by Harvard Education Press, won the 2025 American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Early Career Book of the Year Award.

Refreshments will be served. Please direct questions to Dr. Deborah Southern, desouth@ucla.edu

Information Studies Colloquium: The Landscape of Data Reuse in Information Retrieval: Motivations, Sources, and Evaluation of Reusability with Tianji Jiang
2025-04-17 14:00 - 16:00 | UCLA Moore Hall, Reading Room, 3340, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
Abstract:

Sharing and reusing research data can effectively reduce redundant efforts in data collection and curation, especially for small labs and research teams conducting human centered system research, and improve the replicability of evaluation experiments. Building a sustainable data reuse process and culture relies on frameworks that encompass policies, standards, roles, and responsibilities, all of which must address the diverse needs of data providers, curators, and reusers.

Previous studies have found that people’s data sharing and reuse practices differ by the research fields they are in, making it challenging to construct infrastructures that effectively support data sharing in interdisciplinary research communities. As part of his dissertation study, Tianji investigated the data reuse practices of experienced researchers in the field of Information Retrieval (IR), a typically interdisciplinary area where data sharing and reuse are common. This talk will present his preliminary findings from an interview study with 21 researchers from diverse demographic backgrounds, institutions, and career stages, focusing on their motivations, experiences, and concerns regarding data reuse.

Bio:

Tianji Jiang is a doctorate candidate in Information Studies at UCLA, advised by Professor Anne Gilliland. Before joining UCLA, he graduated with his B.M. in Information Management and Information System from Peking University, China in 2019.

Tianji’s research interests focus on research data management, data sharing and reuse, sociometric, academic library services, and digital humanities. He is particularly interested in building community capacity and knowledge infrastructure for data curation, sharing, and reuse through better understanding of people’s data behaviors. Currently he is working on his dissertation “Understanding data reuse practices of IR researchers”. He is also conducting several projects focused on developing tools and methods to identify various data behaviors (e.g., data sharing and data reuse) through bibliographic records.

Tianji Jiang is also working as a research and instruction technology consultant for UCLA Humanities Technology to provide technology support to research and instruction in the division of Humanities.

Info Session – National Board Certification Support
2025-04-19 10:00 - 11:30
A free information session for educators interested in pursuing National Board Certification in 2025-2026. Find out if National Board Certification is right for you and if UCLA can help to support you on your journey, with our online support cohorts.

"New Wave" Documentary Screening, Book Signing, and Panel Discussion
2025-04-19 18:30 - 22:00 | Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024, Los Angeles, California, 90024
Q&A with filmmaker Elizabeth Ai, moderated by UCLA Assistant Professor Thuy Vo Dang. Book signing with Ai for the film’s companion publication, “New Wave: Rebellion and Reinvention in the Vietnamese Diaspora,” will begin at 6:30 p.m.

For a group of young, rebellious Vietnamese Americans in the 1970s and 1980s, the struggle to find identity took root in a community of musicians with big hair, vibrant fashion and synthesized beats. A culture clash was born, playing out in the careers and lives of New Wave musicians, documented in Elizabeth Ai’s kinetic film that skillfully weaves together the challenges of intergenerational understanding in the search for the American dream. The anchor of this mesmerizing film is its use of archival materials, a portal into a changing community grappling with transformation. Ai’s role as filmmaker and subject reveals raw personal questions from the aftermath of the Vietnam War, joining a growing artistic and archival response to retelling a community’s experiences and histories.

Admission is free. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.

6:30 PM Book Signing

7:30 PM Screening

9:00 PM Panel

Structuring College Access: The Market Segment Model and College Board Geomarkets
2025-04-21 16:00 - 17:30 | UCLA Murphy Hall Room 3312
The Structure of College Choice (Zemsky & Oedel, 1983) created “Geomarkets” and the “Market Segment Model.” Geomarkets carve states and metropolitan areas into smaller geographic units, meant to define local recruiting markets. The Market Segment Model predicts how student demand for a particular college varies by Geomarket, based on the socioeconomic characteristics of households. Geomarkets became an input for two College Board products that help colleges recruit students. First, the Enrollment Planning Service (EPS) software recommends specific Geo-markets and high schools from which colleges should recruit. Second, the Student Search Service sells the contact information of prospective students – referred to as “student lists” – and colleges can filter by Geomarket to determine which prospect profiles they purchase. We draw from scholarship on quantification, particularly the discussions of correlation and homophily by Chun (2021), to conceptualize how recruiting products incorporate Geomarkets.

We address two research questions: What is the socioeconomic and racial variation between Geomarkets and how does this variation change over time? How does the socioeconomic and racial composition of included versus excluded prospects vary when student list purchases filter on particular Geomarkets? We answer RQ1 by analyzing Census data from 1980, 2000, and 2020. We answer RQ2 using data on student lists purchased by public universities, which we collected by issuing public records requests. We utilize a quantitative case study design. Metropolitan areas are cases. Analyses consist of descriptive statistics and interactive maps.

Information Studies Colloquium: The Weight of Small Things: Everyday Archiving and the Making of Belonging in Chinese American Families with Jiarui Sun
2025-04-24 14:00 - 16:00 | UCLA Moore Hall, Reading Room, 3340, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
Abstract:

This talk explores the everyday archiving practices of Chinese American families, with particular attention to their transnational and intergenerational dimensions. Drawing on interviews, ethnographic observations, and personal narratives, it examines how family members across different generations and geographies engage with documents, photographs, digital records, and heirlooms—not only as sources of information, but also as emotionally charged objects that carry meaning, memory, and identity. The analysis focuses on how these materials are preserved, interpreted, and at times contested across borders and generations, situating such practices within complex negotiations of belonging, displacement, and cultural continuity. Family archives are framed as sites of emotional labor and diasporic care, highlighting their affective, relational, and infrastructural dimensions. Rather than being solely about safeguarding the past, the talk positions family archiving as a practice through which diasporic futures are imagined, constructed, and sustained.

Bio:

Jiarui Sun is a Ph.D. candidate in Information Studies and a graduate student researcher at the Asia Pacific Center at UCLA. His research interests include archives and migration, personal archiving, and digital recordkeeping. His work has been published in both English- and Chinese-language journals, including Archival Science, and has received support from the Society of American Archivists, the Society of California Archivists, the Beta Phi Mu International Honor Society for Library and Information Science, and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.

AERA Reception 2025
2025-04-25 17:30 - 19:30 | West Saloon and Kitchen, 501 16th St, Denver, Colorado, 80202, United States
Don’t miss the perfect opportunity to connect and network with fellow UCLA Alumni, Faculty, Students, and Staff

Hosted by Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, Ph.D., Chair, UCLA Department of Education

Design-Based Learning Info Session
2025-04-29 16:30 - 17:30
Free online information session to learn about the Design-Based Learning methodology. Teachers, administrators, and specialists are welcome! Hear from David Cameron, a high school science teacher, who uses DBL in his classroom. Learn about how Design-Based Learning supports student engagement, MTSS, expanded learning opportunities, English language learners across the curriculum, and all grade-levels.

POSTPONED: Breslauer Lecture: Indigenous Knowledge and the Limits of Translation: Mexican Manuscripts in Early Modern Collections
2025-05-01 17:00 - 19:00 | UCLA Moore Hall, Reading Room, 3340, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
Abstract:

This talk discusses the circulation and reception of Indigenous manuscripts in Mexico and Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Indigenous authors in pre-contact and early colonial Mexico created pictorial manuscripts that record Native knowledge in image and word. Collectively, these documents constitute an incomparable Indigenous archive. They entered private and institutional collections on both sides of the Atlantic, provoking a great deal of interest. However, their reception in early modern Europe almost without exception reached interpretive dead ends. Poised at the intersection of Indigenous studies, the history of books and libraries, and the history of knowledge production, this talk discusses the trajectories of several Mexican manuscripts to address questions of materiality, mobility, and the possibilities and limits of translation and interpretation. It follows Indigenous manuscripts in movement and stasis, as knowledge inscriptions and as potential sources for knowledge production, to consider the flow and friction of Mesoamerican Indigenous objects and practices in the early modern world.

Speaker: Daniela Bleichmar

Professor of Art History and History; Founding Director, Levan Institute for the Humanities; Director, USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities; University of Southern California

Speaker Bio:

Daniela Bleichmar is Professor of Art History and History at the University of Southern California. Her research and teaching address the history of images, objects, and texts in colonial Latin America and early modern Europe, focusing on the histories of visual and material culture; science and knowledge production; circulation, encounters, and exchanges; collections; and books. Her publications include the books Visible Empire: Botanical Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment (2012) and Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin (2017).

Ed&IS Faculty and Staff Appreciation Event
2025-05-06 11:30 - 13:30
We’re looking forward to celebrating you with a special afternoon featuring:

🍽️ Delicious food

🎶 Music

🎖️Raffles

💬 Great company

💙 Heartfelt recognition and appreciation

If you haven’t had a chance to RSVP, please do so by April 15th at 11:59 PM so we can finalize our preparations.

📅 Tuesday, May 6, 2025🕦 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM📍 Founders’ Room & Patio | James West Alumni Center

🔹 RSVP Here: https://forms.office.com/r/8FXtQUmDTT

Information Studies Colloquium: The Art History of the Storage Unit: Processing the AIDS-Related Stewardship of Family and Friends with Alex Fialho
2025-05-08 14:00 - 16:00 | UCLA Moore Hall, Reading Room, 3340, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
Abstract:

My dissertation Apertures onto AIDS: African American Photography and the Art History of the Storage Unit narrates the intimate stories and archival efforts of families and friends who have cared for AIDS-related artworks, stewarding them in storage units, under beds, and in basements over several decades. In relation to these personal provenances amidst AIDS-related loss, my research develops an analytic I term “the art history of the storage unit.” I want to consider together the stakes of why and how these artworks by African American artists have been stewarded and cared for in personal and familial collections, outside the purview of museums and other archival institutions that due to erasure and white supremacy have often overlooked these objects.

Bio:

Alex Fialho is a PhD candidate in Yale University’s Combined PhD program in the History of Art and African American Studies. As an art historian and curator, Fialho focuses on modern and contemporary art, Black queer and feminist thought, and AIDS cultural studies. His dissertation “Apertures Onto AIDS: African American Photography and the Art History of the Storage Unit” animates AIDS-related histories through the lens of artists Lola Flash, Darrel Ellis, Lyle Ashton Harris, and Kia LaBeija. He was a 2023–2024 Helena Rubinstein Critical Studies Fellow in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. Based in Los Angeles, Fialho is a 2024–2025 Predoctoral Fellow at the Getty Research Institute and the 2025–2026 Luce/ACSL Ellen Holtzman Dissertation Fellow in American Art.

*Fialho worked as Programs Director of the New York-based arts non-profit Visual AIDS from 2014–2019, facilitating projects around the history and immediacy of the ongoing AIDS pandemic, while intervening against the widespread whitewashing of HIV/AIDS cultural narratives. As an Oral Historian for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art’s Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project, he conducted in-depth oral histories with fifteen cultural producers including Ron Athey, Douglas Crimp, Nan Goldin, Lyle Ashton Harris, and Julie Tolentino.

Early-Career Scholar Series Presenter: Deborah Southern Ph.D. and Advanced-Career Scholar Facilitator Ananda Marin Ph.D.
2025-05-09 10:00 - 11:00 | UCLA Moore Hall, Room 3320
In this session, Dr. Southern will workshop a critical examination of whiteness (CEW) methodological framework which can be used to identify empirical evidence of whiteness via qualitative research. Combining critical concepts of whiteness with qualitative methods, the CEW methodological framework informs critical research design and sensitizes researchers to identify and examine whiteness throughout the data collection and data analysis process, even when participants are unaware of whiteness or its manifestations within their organization. Dr. Southern welcomes feedback, questions, and reflections on the clarity and use of the methodological framework.

Dr. Deborah E. Southern (she/her) is a University of California Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow with the Department of Education and Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. As a higher education scholar and qualitative researcher, Dr. Southern examines organizations and change, and how organizational transformation is possibly facilitated or restrained by mechanisms, culture, and leaders. One important contribution of Dr. Southern’s research examines how power like whiteness in institutions via areas like organizational structures, practices, and leaders’ comfort works to obstruct transformative change.

Refreshments will be served. Please direct questions to Dr. Deborah Southern, desouth@ucla.edu

Inaugural UCLA LPPI Latino Policy Day 2025
2025-05-15 12:00 - 17:30 | UCLA Hershey Hall, Hershey Salon, 801 Hilgard Ave, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
Join us at UCLA LPPI’s inaugural Latino Policy Day to introduce the UCLA community (students, faculty, staff, and alumni) to groundbreaking work that LPPI has supported in the areas of housing and homeownership, education, and immigration and health. Panels will feature our faculty experts and issue-specific leaders.

Program Agenda:

12:00 PM Lunch and Alumni Panel

Moderator: Estrella Torres, policy fellow, UCLA LPPI

Panelist: Jose Alvarez, senior associate, Estolano Advisors

Panelist: Heidy Melchor, district office liaison, LA City Council Office of Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez

Panelist: Lupe Renteria Salome, data analyst, USC Equity Research Institute

1:00 PM Welcome Remarks

Dr. Arturo Vargas Bustamante, faculty director of research, UCLA LPPI

1:15 PM Latinos in California’s Community College Bachelor’s Degree Programs: What We Know So Far (45 min.)

Presentation by Dr. Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, professor and associate dean of equity, diversity, and Inclusion, UCLA School of Education and Information Studies

Panel Discussion:

Moderator: Dr. Silvia González, director of research, UCLA Latino Policy and Politics

Panelist: Dr. Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, professor and associate dean of equity, diversity, and inclusion, UCLA School of Education and Information Studies

Panelist: Dr. Patricia Ramos, dean of academic affairs, Santa Monica College

Panelist: Dr. Elizabeth Gonzalez, chief program & strategy officer, College Futures Foundation

2:00 PM Break (15 min.)

2:15 PM House Rich, Access Poor: Refinancing Challenges for Latino and Black Homeowners in Los Angeles County (45 min.)

Presentation by Dr. Jose Loya, assistant professor, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, featuring Gabriella Carmona, senior research analyst, UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute

Panel Discussion:

Moderator/Panelist: Gabriella Carmona, senior research analyst, UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute

Panelist: Dr. Jose Loya, assistant professor, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Panelist: Jonathan Sanabria, program officer, Conrad Hilton Foundation

Panelist: Noerena Limon, chief executive pfficer, Casita Coalition

3:00 PM Break (15 min.)

3:15 PM Expanding Insurance to all Immigrants: Lessons from Illinois’ HBIA/HBIS (45 min.)

Presentation by Dr. Aresha Martinez, assistant professor, University of Chicago Department of Public Health Sciences

Panel Discussion:

Moderator: Dr. Arturo Bustamante, faculty director of research, UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute

Panelist: Dr. Aresha Martinez, assistant professor, University of Chicago Department of Public Health Sciences

Panelist: Dr. Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), assemblymember, California State Legislature

Panelist: Mar Velez, director, Latino Coalition for Healthy California

4:00 PM Closing Remarks

Dr. Amada Armenta, faculty director, UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute

4:15 PM Reception

5:30 PM End

OJEDI Academic Symposia
2025-05-22 09:00 - 11:30 | Zoom
Please join the Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for its annual research symposium. This year’s presenters will be the 2024-25 recipients of the Scholarship for Research on Black Life. This scholarship is open for all Ed&IS undergraduate and graduate students and highlights individuals whose demonstrated service and research is related to Black life. The 2024-25 Scholars will have a research presentation and Q&A, and we will also announce the 2025-2026 scholarship recipients.

A Public Gathering: Reparative Memories - Communities in Crisis & Archival Care
2025-05-22 13:00 - 16:30 | UCLA Botanical Gardens, La Kretz Garden Pavilion & Herbert Plaza, 707 Tiverton Dr, Los Angeles, California, 90024, United States
Please join us for an afternoon of conversation and deep listening as Memory Workers across six University of California campuses share their collaborative work.

Convened by Co-PIs Crystal Mun-hye Baik (UCR) and Thuy Vo Dang (UCLA), this public event is the culmination of a yearlong initiative funded by the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI). Reparative Memories: Communities in Crisis is an interdisciplinary working group of humanities scholars, archivists, librarians, seed stewards, and cultural memory workers. We are committed to working with communities whose histories, memories, and cultural heritage are threatened by systemic violence including war, militarism, and carceral violence.

Light Refreshments will be served.
