UCLA School of Education & Information Studies

Faculty Luncheon and Presentation by Dr. Sepehr Vakil
2026-02-06 11:00 - 12:45 (America/Los_Angeles) | UCLA Moore Hall, Room 3320
Ed&IS Faculty and Graduate Students are invited to our GSAE and Faculty Luncheon and Presentation by Dr. Sepehr Vakil.

11:00 AM: Open Lunch with Faculty and Graduate Students (Moore 3320)

11:45 AM – 12:45 PM: Presentation and Q&A (Garden Level)

Bio:

Dr. Sepehr Vakil is a scholar, writer, educator, speaker, and recognized leader in the field of education. He is an associate professor of Learning Sciences in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, where he is also the faculty director of the Center for Responsible Technology, Policy, and Public Dialogue, and the MTePP program (M.S. in Technology, People, and Policy). He received his PhD in the Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology program at UC Berkeley (2016) and his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA (2007). He is also currently serving as Senior Adviser to the Spencer Foundation on their Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiative and was recently appointed to the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) committee on Developing Competencies for the Future of Data and Computing: The Role of K-12. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Equity for the Center of STEM Education at the University of Texas at Austin.

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To Reframe Or Not To Reframe? Careers in Advocacy
2026-02-11 11:30 - 13:00 | UCLA Moore Hall, Reading Room, 3340, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
This workshop will cover possible career paths for students and the writing genres associated with them. Attendees will also be able to look into careers related to their research, skills, and values.

Led by Erin Brown, PhD, Associate Director, Graduate Career Services

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Bibliotactics: Libraries and the Colonial Public in Vietnam
2026-02-12 14:30 - 16:30 | DataX Impact Forum, Murphy Hall, Room 3312, 410 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, 90095
The Information Studies Colloquium & Center for Southeast Asian Studies invite faculty, staff, and students to a book celebration and reception for Bibliotactics: Libraries and the Colonial Public in Vietnam, written by Dr. Cindy Nguyen.

Libraries in French colonial Vietnam functioned as symbols of Western modernity and infrastructures of colonial knowledge. Yet Vietnamese readers pursued alternative uses of the library that exceeded imperial intentions. Bibliotactics examines the Hanoi and Saigon state libraries from colonial to post colonial Vietnam, uncovering the emergence of a colonial public who reimagined the political meaning and social space of the library through public critique and day-to day-practice.

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Lunar New Year
2026-02-17 00:00 - 23:59 | California

Research, Practice, and Promise in Black Student Achievement: A Black History Month Webinar
2026-02-19 10:00 - 11:30 | Zoom
Join UCLA CTS for a Black History Month celebration that centers research, practice, and possibility in advancing Black student achievement. This 90-minute interactive event will examine what conditions foster Black students’ academic success—shifting the focus from deficits to uplifting strategies that nurture excellence, belonging, and well-being.

This event will highlight CTS studies and partnerships that demonstrate how schools, districts, and communities can better support Black students. Through initiative spotlights, a cross-sector panel discussion, and interactive breakout rooms, participants will gain actionable insights for translating research into practice and policy. The conversation will emphasize how educators, leaders, policymakers, and philanthropic partners can move beyond performative equity toward sustained, transformative change.

Featured Topics:

Positive Outlier Schools and Black Academic Success: What schools where Black students outperform expectations can teach us about instructional coherence, relational trust, and scalable excellence

GENIUS (Genuine Empathy Nurturing Intellect for Underserved Students) Statewide Initiative: How student belonging, relational safety, and trauma-responsive practices shape academic persistence and outcomes

Community-Rooted Supports: Lessons from a Los Angeles school community implementing the Black Student Achievement Program, centering culture, mentorship, and family partnerships

Speakers:

Tyrone Howard, Ph.D., Faculty Co-Director, UCLA CTS

Angela James, Ph.D., Senior Project Scientist, UCLA CTS

Tyisha Noise, Ed.D., Project Director III: Center for the Advancement of Racial Equity, Genuine Empathy Nurturing Intellect for Underserved Students (GENIUS) Initative, Los Angeles County Office of Education

Thomas Jacobson, Ph.D., Research Analyst, UCLA CTS

Gene McAdoo, Doctoral Candidate & Researcher, UCLA CTS

RSVP for Zoom Link.

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Soldiers, Kings, and Storyboards: A Conversation About Writing and Representation on the Migrant Trail
2026-02-19 14:00 - 16:00 | UCLA Moore Hall, Reading Room, 3340, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
In this informal Q&A session, Sydney Triola will discuss her approach to ethnography, narrative nonfiction, and the challenges associated with representing the complex lives of people living on the margins. She will also highlight some of my multimodal approaches to social science data collection and how it can be translated for a diversity of audiences.

No RSVP is required!

I’ll Make Me A World: Book Talk with Jarvis Givens
2026-02-23 14:00 - 15:30 | James West Alumni Center, Collins Conference Room, 325 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095
An engaging discussion with Jarvis R. Givens, Professor of Education and African and African-American Studies, Harvard University, on his latest book, I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month.

In conversation with Eddie R. Cole, Professor of Education and History, UCLA; Associate Dean of EDI, Ed&IS

A limited number of complimentary books will be provided, and a signing will follow the discussion.

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Supporting Democracy, Coexistence, and Cultural Identity in Israeli Education
2026-02-23 16:00 - 17:30 | Bunche Hall Room 10383, 315 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90024
About the Event:

In the midst of a war-torn conflict, Hebrew University professor Mona Khoury and UCLA professor Ron Avi Astor have partnered with Amal Education Network—a large system of Jewish and Arab Schools comprised of over 100,000 educators, students, and parents—and its CEO Karen Tal to research how both Arab and Jewish students can see the humanity in each other through academic curriculum, school-based personal exchanges, dialogue, and a joint mission toward coexistence and social justice.

About the Speakers:

Karen Tal, Director General of Amal Educational Network since August 2022, pursues a mission to redefine the trajectory of Israel’s future generation through transformative education. Previously, Karen spearheaded “Insights in Education,” a pioneering non-profit organization where she served as Executive Director for a decade. The organization champions schools in Israel’s periphery, addressing not only educational but also social and emotional needs. She has also served as Executive Director of the Bialik Rogozin Campus in South Tel Aviv, home to students representing 50 different nationalities, many from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Karen’s work has been recognized with prestigious national education accolades and in the Oscar-winning documentary Strangers No More. She holds degrees in education from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and brings a wealth of expertise and passion to her role at Amal.

Mona Khoury is professor of social work and Vice President for Strategy and Diversity at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the previous Dean of the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University, and also holds the school’s Frances and George Katz Family Chair. First in her family to reach higher education, Mona was voted one of the top 3 most influential women in Israel by Globes magazine and last year received the coveted Israel Presidential Medal of Honor Award. In 2021, Prof. Khoury won the Bruno Memorial Award, presented to young scholars by the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS). In her role as VP for Diversity, she is responsible for determining and implementing overall policies, strategies, and models for promoting diversity and inclusion at the Hebrew University. Specifically, her work aims to increase the accessibility of groups currently underrepresented in Israeli academia—including ultra-Orthodox Jews, Arabs, Jews of Ethiopian descent, first generation to higher education, and people with disabilities.

Ron Avi Astor is professor of social welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs with a joint appointment in the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies. His work examines the role of the physical, social-organizational and cultural contexts in schools related to different kinds of bullying and school violence (e.g., sexual harassment, cyber bullying, discrimination hate acts, school fights, emotional abuse, weapon use, teacher/child violence). This work documents the ecological influences of the family, community, school, and culture on such violence. Over the past 35 years, findings from these studies have been published in approximately 300 scholarly manuscripts. Astor’s work has won numerous international research awards from the Society for Social Work Research, the American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association, the Military Child Educational Coalition and other research organizations. Astor is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.

After registering, you will be emailed an RSVP confirmation. If you do not receive your email confirmation, please check your spam or junk mail folders.

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Coffee, Pastries, and a Book: Winter Quarter Meeting
2026-02-25 12:00 - 13:00 | IS Library and Media Preservation Lab, 290 Charles E Young Dr N, Los Angeles, 90024
The UCLA Ed&IS Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and the IS Library and Media Preservation Lab co-present “Coffee, Pastries and a Book”, a book club that meets both in-person and online during the 2025-2026 academic year.

This year, we will be reading Terry McMillan’s It Was the Way She Said It, a compilation of short stories and essays. Read more about the McMillan’s newest work from the publisher, Ballantine’s Books.

Join us for our Winter Quarter In-Person Meeting! We will host two meetings a quarter, one in-person and one virtual. We encourage you to come to as many as you can, but you do not have to attend all the meetings.

Last, but certainly not least, participants will receive a free copy of the book!

The IS Library and Media Preservation Lab is located at 290 Charles E Young Dr N, Los Angeles, CA 90024, Rooms 102 + 118 on the first floor of the SEIS Building.

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Travels with Authenticity
2026-02-26 14:00 - 16:00 | Zoom
The UCLA Department of Information Studies invites faculty, staff, and students.

“Authenticity has provided a focal point for my research on and off throughout my academic career. Over time the focus of that research has shifted from investigating archival methods for preserving the authenticity of records in analogue and digital worlds to examining what authenticity means and the work it does in other disciplinary fields devoted to the preservation and representation of cultural heritage. In this talk I will revisit some of my recent travels with authenticity in the disciplinary fields of social history, heritage conservation, and literary studies. Those travels take the form of three case studies: the first revolves around the relationship between authenticity and authority in a post-Reformation library; the second tracks authenticity’s association with genuineness in relation to the conservation of heritage monuments and sites; and the third looks at the link between authenticity and sincerity in the context of Virginia Woolf’s literary estate.”

To RSVP, please email Sydney (striola@g.ucla.edu) for the Zoom link.

Where Discipline Meets Behavioral Health: Restorative Approaches to Supporting Students Without Exclusion
2026-02-26 15:00 - 16:15 | Zoom
Exclusionary discipline practices–such as suspension and expulsion–can have lasting impacts on students’ mental and behavioral health, increasing stress, disconnection, and disengagement from school. This webinar explores how centering student behavioral health through a restorative lens can reshape school discipline practices and policies, shifting from removal to connection, and lead to improved academic and wellbeing outcomes. School leaders, behavioral health and student support professionals, and community partners are invited to learn how restorative approaches, aligned with behavioral health supports, can help schools respond differently to student behavior—while also addressing the unintended harms of exclusionary discipline. A moderated panel discussion featuring Dr. Michael Corral (UCLA CTS), Dr. Kathy Do (UCLA SEIS), Dr. Michael Massa (OYCR), and Dr. Sohil Sud (CYBHI) will lift up concrete, state-supported resources, real-world examples, and will emphasize practical, actionable insights for education and health-based practitioners. This webinar is hosted by CalHHS’s Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative and UCLA’s Center for the Transformation of Schools.

Speakers:

Sohil Sud, M.D.Director, Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI)

Michael Massa, Ed.D.Chief of Health Policy Division, Office of Youth and Community Restoration (OYCR)

Michael Corral, Ph.D.Project Director, Center for the Transformation of Schools, UCLA

Kathy Do, Ph.D.Assistant Project Scientist, California Institute for Law, Neuroscience, and Education; UC|CSU Collaborative for Neuroscience, Diversity, and Learning, UCLA

Adriana Jaramillo Castillo, M.A.Research Analyst, Center for the Transformation of Schools, UCLA

Details

Date:February 26

Time:3:00 pm – 4:15 pm UTC+0

Website:https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yS6JdQegS_Kv03NbI41JPg#/registration

Venue

View Venue Website

Zoom

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Winter Webinar Series: Unlocking the High Quality IEP Toolkit: Essential Resources for Special Educators
2026-02-26 15:30 - 16:30 | California
Looking for a comprehensive resource to support the development of high‑quality Individualized Education Programs (IEPs)? The High Quality IEP Toolkit for Special Educators offers practical, free tools to strengthen every phase of the IEP process. In this session, participants will take a guided tour of the toolkit and learn how to apply its supports to key components of a strong IEP, including assessment, present levels, measurable goals, and aligned services. Educators will leave with actionable strategies to create meaningful, individualized, student‑centered IEPs—whether they are new to the process or looking to refine their practice.

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Kenneth Karmiole Lecture in Archival Studies with Dr. Amelia Acker
2026-03-03 16:30 - 18:00 | UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center, 425 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Archiving Machines: From Punch Cards to Platforms

Our world is filled with data we create but cannot access. We generate massive digital archives with every click, swipe, and search—but corporations, not individuals or institutions, control where this data lives and who can use it. When did archiving become something that machines do automatically, rather than a deliberate act of preservation for the public good? And how did we arrive at this arrangement with platforms?

Archiving Machines chronicles the hidden history of how data came to be structured and stored, before it could be streamed and automatically saved to the cloud. This lecture will examine how data archiving, the computational processes of storage, exchange, and transmission, have transformed memory practices and created new regimes of asymmetric access. Drawing on archival fieldwork with historic computing machines, I trace how “archive” became a verb in computing cultures, and how this shift has enabled corporate platforms to assert functional sovereignty over access to collective memory. By examining moments of access in the history of data management, this work offers both a critical genealogy of our current condition and grounds for imagining alternative futures for digital cultural memory.

Amelia Acker is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Her research on data management and digital preservation has been supported with funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the National Science Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the ACM History and Archiving Fellowship. Acker’s projects address the representation and loss of digital traces, the history of data management, and the transmission of information through time. She investigates how infrastructure and organizational practices shape the preservation, accessibility, and governance of data, with a particular focus on the impact of platforms, software, and AI on archives and digital memory. Acker is the author of Archiving Machines: From Punch Cards to Platforms (MIT, 2025).

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UCLA CART Distinguished Lecture Series-Early Communication In Autism: Moving the Needle on Data-Driven Decision Making in Practice
2026-03-06 09:00 - 10:00 | Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience and Genetics Research Center, Room 1357, 695 Charles E Young Drive South, Los Angeles, California, 90095
The UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART) invites you to the next presentation in the CART Distinguished Lecture Series. All are welcome— faculty, clinicians, trainees, students, staff, and community members interested in the latest research on autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Overview:

Communication challenges remain one of the earliest concerns of parents whose children eventually receive an autism diagnosis. Many existing measures in autism only characterize communication differences but are not designed to monitor improvement over time or support clinical decision making. This presentation will describe a new tool, the Early Communication Indicator for Autism (ECI-A), which is based on an existing norm-referenced, validated measure, and can be easily used within clinical practice.

Speaker: Brian Boyd, Ph.D. (William C. Friday Distinguished Professor in Education; Director, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

This is a hybrid event, with options to join in-person and virtually.

In-Person Registration

Zoom Registration

Being in Community: A Personal and Professional Discussion
2026-03-12 14:00 - 16:00 | UCLA Moore Hall, Reading Room, 3340, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
In early 2025 the Special Issue Introduction article, “Community will always matter,” was released. The article also marked a turning point in mindset in the way Dr. Tony Dunbar approaches all aspects of his life. This interactive engagement will unfold in two parts. First, he will offer how over the past year he has made community organizing and building the focal point of his life and career. In the second half of the engagement, Dr. Dunbar will lead a what, why, and how interactive discussion. More specifically, what can community centered strategies offer to information professional, pedagogical, and scholarly discourses. Why in this current moment community as people and process matters more than ever. Then turning to how we all can lean into community centered approaches.

No RSVP Required.

Winter Webinar Series: Strengthening IEP Collaboration: Administrative Designee and General Educator Toolkits
2026-03-26 15:30 - 16:30 | California
This session introduces two free resources designed to support effective IEP teamwork: the Administrative Designee Toolkit and the General Educator Toolkit. Participants will explore key tools that enhance preparation, collaboration, and decision-making throughout the IEP process. Attendees will leave with practical strategies to support compliant, student‑centered meetings and meaningful general education input—empowering all team members to contribute confidently and effectively.

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Redrawing Borders in Education: Geopolitics of Knowledge and the Crisis of the Common School
2026-03-26 17:00 - 18:30 | Moore Hall Room 2016, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095
Join us for a public lecture hosted by the Paulo Freire Institute at UCLA School of Education and Information Studies:

Redrawing Borders in Education: Geopolitics of Knowledge and the Crisis of the Common SchoolSpeaker: Régis Malet, University of Bordeaux, FranceDate: Thursday, March 26Time: 5:00–6:30 PMLocation: Moore Hall 2016, UCLA Ed & ISFree and open to the public

Participants are welcome to join in person or online via the QR code below or on the attached poster.

This lecture examines one of the most urgent questions of our time: who controls what schools teach, and to what ends? Professor Malet will explore how global educational agendas are increasingly shaped by geopolitical rivalry, international policy frameworks, and digital platforms, and what this means for democratic schooling and the future of the common school.

Régis Malet is Professor of Education at the University of Bordeaux and Honorary Senior Fellow of the Institut Universitaire de France. He is a leading scholar in comparative education and international educational policy and serves as adviser to the European Commission, the European Parliament, and UNESCO.

We hope you will join us for this important conversation.

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Spring Quarter Instruction Begins
2026-03-30 00:00 - 23:59 | California

AERA 2026: UCLA Conference Schedule
2026-04-07 08:00 - 2026-04-12 17:00 | California
Explore UCLA School of Education and Information Studies (Ed&IS) participation at the 2026 AERA Annual Meeting through this Google Sheet. This sheet provides a comprehensive overview of sessions, presentations, and events featuring Ed&IS faculty, students, and research centers. Use it to identify when and where our community is contributing, discover topics of interest, and plan your schedule for the conference.

By UCLA Ed&IS Faculty Member

Tuesday, April 7th (Pre-Conference sessions)

Wednesday, April 8th

Thursday, April 9th

Friday, April 10th

Saturday, April 11th

Sunday, April 12th

Colliding Worlds: Restoring Orie Medicinebull's 1980 UCLA Student Film
2026-04-09 11:00 - 12:00 | Zoom
On April 9th, AMIA-UCLA is honored to invite filmmaker, North Fork Mono Rancheria tribal citizen, and UCLA alum Orie Medicinebull for a Zoom conversation on the restoration of her UCLA student film, Colliding Worlds (1980). The event will take place April 9th at 11am on Zoom (link below). Orie was part of the L.A. Rebellion film movement at UCLA. In addition to her filmmaking, she is an educator and community organizer. Her student film Colliding Worlds (1980) emerged from the L.A. Rebellion and this conversation will center around its making, loss, rediscovery, and restoration. Also joining the conversation will be Krista Riggs, the director of Madera County Library, and Willow Germs, the conservation archivist at the California State Archives, a filmmaker, and a California Revealed Advisory Board Member.

Colliding Worlds: Restoring Orie Medicinebull’s 1980 UCLA Student Film

Apr 9, 2026 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Meeting ID: 998 4245 3844

Zoom Link

For some information about the project history see below.

In 2020, Madera County Library participated in the Digitization and Preservation Assistance program at California Revealed, submitting films that had been stored in a wooden shed in a fire-prone area. While performing quality control on the digitized files, Willow Germs was struck by one film in particular: a short, independent documentary that centers on four generations of women’s relationships to their traditions and popular culture, including acorn gathering, powwows, rock ‘n’ roll music, and hand games. This faded 16mm print was Colliding Worlds (1980), a film made by Orie Medicinebull, an educator, community organizer, filmmaker, and tribal citizen of the North Fork Mono Rancheria.

The film documents the “People Who Live Where the Cedar Trees Start to Grow” (Wah-up-weh-tuhneum), also known as the Mono or Western Monache people, and their attempts to maintain cultural traditions such as acorn collecting, food preparation, music, dance, powwows, and games. Filmmaker Orie Medicinebull was the first woman of the Mono tribe to earn an MFA in Motion Pictures and Television Production from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Motion Pictures and Television Production, and the first Native American woman to make a film about the Native American people of California.

Willow was not able to find contact information for Orie at first, but momentum built after sharing an excerpt of the film during AMIA’s Archival Screening Night in 2022. In January 2023, Willow and Orie finally connected, and in collaboration with Krista Riggs, director of the Madera County Library, they began to apply for grants to reintroduce Orie’s film to the public. Over the next two years, they received two grants: a Basic Preservation Grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to restore Colliding Worlds, and a “Humanities for All” grant from California Humanities to support the premiere of the restoration, set for October 2026. The premiere will be in Madera County and will focus on living culture, creating bridges across multiple generations and multiple tribes.

Disabled Desires for Reimagining Archives: Past Experiences toward Future Possibilities
2026-04-09 14:00 - 16:00 | Zoom
The UCLA Department of Information Studies invites faculty, staff, and students to its Information Studies Colloquia.

Presented, Researched, and Written by Dr. Gracen Brilmyer, McGill University

Through historic records that document disabled people in ways that can reinforce ableist, sanist, or medicalized stereotypes to outright absence from other types of records, disabled people can feel erased in history through archives. Alternatively, community-based archives have been shown to offset historical imbalances through communities representing themselves on their own terms. This talk addresses preliminary findings from a new project by the Disability Archives Lab that focuses on the ways that disabled people imagine archives differently. This project— conducted by, with, and for disabled people—uses community-based methods to identify current issues in archives as well as alternative approaches to archiving. Centering the powerful words of disabled people, this research not only aims to understand the needs and desires of disabled people who have worked with archival materials but also demonstrates the critical role of disabled people in building and designing the scaffolding for a new disability digital community archive.

To attend, email striola@g.ucla.edu for the Zoom link.

AERA Reception in Los Angeles
2026-04-09 18:00 - 21:00 | Pez Cantina, 401 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, California, 90071
Join us for our 2026 UCLA Ed&IS AERA Reception in Los Angeles! Don’t miss the perfect opportunity to connect and network with fellow UCLA Alumni, Faculty, Students, and Staff.

Hosted by UCLA Dean Christina Christie and Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, Chair, UCLA Department of Education

For more information, please contact Amy Lassere at alassere@support.ucla.edu or 310.206.0375.

Please note, our reception is being hosted for AERA Conference attendees, Ed&IS Alumni, and Ed&IS Faculty & Staff. All guests must be 21 yrs and over.

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View the UCLA Ed&IS at AERA schedule here.

UCLA Mann Community School Centennial Celebration
2026-04-10 15:00 - 18:00 | Horace Mann UCLA Community School, 7001 S. St. Andrews Place, Los Angeles, California, 90047
Join the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA Center for Community Schooling, & Mann UCLA Community School faculty and students to celebrate Mann’s Centennial and Mural Festival.

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3:00PM:     Registration opens

3:30PM:     Welcome – Opening Remarks

3:40PM:     Student Alumni Panel

4:00PM:     Celebrating LAUSD, Community, and Mann UCLA-CS milestones with UCLA and LAUSD Leadership

4:10PM:     The Power of Community Partnerships: Unveiling of UCLA Banner

4:20PM:     Mural Project Reveal from Branded Arts

4:30-6:00PM: Student Performances, Mural Gallery and tours

About the Mural Project:

In collaboration with Branded Arts, during the week of April 6, Mann UCLA Community School campus will be transformed into a vibrant hub of creativity as twelve new murals are created through deep collaboration between students and internationally recognized and Los Angeles–based artists. Rather than simply observing, students will work alongside artists—sharing ideas, contributing to designs, and participating in the painting process—turning the campus into an active site of learning, expression, and co-creation.

At the heart of the celebration is the powerful role students play in shaping the work itself. Through workshops, conversations, and hands-on experiences, they will gain firsthand insight into the creative process while seeing their identities, cultures, and perspectives reflected in the murals. A student-centered symposium will further connect them with leaders across art, technology, and civic life, opening pathways to future opportunities. Rooted in themes of unity, identity, mental health, and representation, the festival not only honors the school’s 100-year legacy—it elevates student voice, ownership, and imagination as central to its future.

From Code Work to Place Work: Digital Nomads, Infrastructural Others, and the Grammar of Proximate Elsewheres
2026-04-16 14:00 - 15:50 | Zoom
The UCLA Department of Information Studies invites faculty, staff, and students to its Information Studies Colloquia.

Presented, Researched, and Written by Dr. Héctor Beltrán, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico City and San Juan, Dr. Héctor Beltrán will examine how U.S. tech workers construct proximate elsewheres, locations close enough for convenience, yet foreign enough to sustain the nomadic calculus. The talk engages anthropology of technology, platform studies, and relational racialization frameworks to ask: who counts as infrastructure, whose knowledge gets indexed, and what refusal looks like from inside a system that wasn’t built to accommodate it.

Zoom Link

California Early Wealth Account System (CEWAS) Summit: Building Economic Prosperity for Every Child
2026-04-17 08:00 - 17:00 | UCLA University Club, 480 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, California, 90095
Be part of a growing movement to close the wealth gap and expand economic mobility for California’s children and families.

The Second Annual California Early Wealth Account System (CEWAS) Summit brings together leaders from across California and the nation to explore how early wealth accounts are transforming opportunities for families and strengthening pathways to post-secondary education and long-term financial security.

At this year’s Summit, participants will examine the evolution of Child Savings Accounts (CSAs) and Child Development Accounts (CDAs), including the expansion of CalKIDS, HOPE Accounts, and other early wealth-building initiatives. Through new research, real-world case studies, and cross-sector dialogue, attendees will gain practical insights into how these programs can be strengthened, scaled, and sustained statewide.

The Summit convenes leaders from public agencies, education, philanthropy, elected officials, and community organizations to reflect on progress, share lessons from the field, and identify next steps for building a more equitable early wealth infrastructure in California.

Conference highlights include:

New research on the impact of early wealth-building initiatives

Perspectives from leaders implementing CSA and CDA programs

National developments in early wealth-building, including 530A Accounts, also known as Trump Accounts

Strategies to expand access, advance equity, and increase long-term economic mobility

Opportunities to connect with cross-sector partners committed to building prosperity for every child

All registrants are invited to showcase their work in the Summit’s poster gallery, creating space for peer learning and collaboration across programs and regions.

The full Summit agenda, including detailed session descriptions and featured discussions, is now live on Eventbrite.

Early bird registration is encouraged by February 28. Final registration closes March 31.

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Thinking Gender 2026: Feminist and Queer Ecologies
2026-04-17 09:00 - 18:00 | James West Alumni Center, 325 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
The UCLA Department of Information Studies is proud to be co-sponsoring Thinking Gender 2026: Feminist and Queer Ecologies

“Feminist and Queer Ecologies,” explores how environments and ecologies are shaped, understood, and contested through relations of sex, gender, and sexuality. The theme also considers how feminist and queer theorists, artists, and organizers have drawn on ecological processes and environmental knowledge to build new insights, movements, and practices.

Join us for graduate student presentations highlighting innovative research at the intersections of gender, sexuality, environment, and justice. The conference will feature keynote speaker Cutcha Risling Baldy (Cal Poly Humboldt; NAS Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab & Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute), whose work centers Indigenous feminisms, land relations, and food sovereignty.

Gendered and colonial ideas of wilderness, domesticity, and reproduction have historically shaped landscapes and environmental policy. At the same time, feminist and queer methodologies—from place-based storytelling to multimodal practice—offer critical tools for climate resilience, environmental justice, and community well-being. Around the world, social movements resisting environmental injustice—from Standing Rock to Flint, from the Everglades to rural India—have been led by women and gender-expansive people. Climate change and climate justice continue to affect communities differentially along lines of gender, sexuality, race, and class, revealing how struggles for ecological flourishing are inseparable from feminist and queer justice.

Feminist and queer ecologies demand multidisciplinary collaboration. This year’s theme invites environmental scientists, humanists, social scientists, artists, organizers, and practitioners to come together across methods, disciplines, temporalities, species, and geographies. It encourages experimentation with scientific inquiry, ethnography, storytelling, political theory, environmental history, modeling, and other forms of knowledge-making and truth-telling.

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Evidence, Expertise, and Automation in Forensic Reconstruction
2026-04-23 14:00 - 15:50 | UCLA Moore Hall, Reading Room, 3340, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
The UCLA Department of Information Studies invites faculty, staff, and students to its Information Studies Colloquia.

Presented, Researched, and Written by Dr. Stacy Wood, UCLA

3D laser scanning technology has been used in forensic analysis and virtual crime scene reconstruction for at least a decade. While rendering a reconstruction involves a combination of automated tools and expert intervention, the reconstruction collapses and stands in for myriad forms of forensic science, many of which do not represent robust scientific consensus despite their relative ubiquity across the criminal legal system. The models produced shift both the theoretical and practical forms of expertise within the courtroom and present challenges for the long-term ability to revisit evidence. This talk uses this technology as a jumping off point to think about complex media objects that simultaneously function as legal evidence, media spectacle and public record.

Fighting Flames: Information Infrastructures in Trying Times
2026-04-30 14:00 - 15:50 | UCLA Moore Hall, Reading Room, 3340, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, California, 90095, United States
The UCLA Department of Information Studies invites faculty, staff, and students to its Information Studies Colloquia.

Presented, Researched, and Written by Dr. Emily Drabinski, Queens College, City University of New York

Since 2021, efforts to censor materials and programming have compounded ongoing disinvestment in public institutions, leaving libraries struggling to fulfill their missions. As protesters disrupted storytimes and library board meetings, library workers, patrons, supporters, and advocates have organized to fight these assaults on the right to read. This talk asks what gets lost when resources are wholly directed at the fire in front of us, and what our responsibilities are to build boring things at the end of the world.

No RSVP is needed to attend.

Free Webinar: Open Access
2026-05-08 12:00 - 13:30 | California
Join the State of California Resource Lead, Open Access, for an interactive session on Inclusive Instructional Practices, exploring evidence-based strategies and accessible resources designed to support all learners in inclusive environments.

Register Now!

OJEDI 2026 Academic Symposia for the Scholarship for the Research on Black Life
2026-05-14 09:30 - 12:00 | Zoom
Please join OJEDI for its annual research symposium, where recipients of the Scholarship for Research on Black Life present their research. This scholarship is open to all Ed&IS undergraduate and graduate students and highlights individuals whose demonstrated service and research are related to Black life.

Each of the 2025-2026 Scholars will have a research presentation followed by a Q&A. OJEDI will also announce the 2026-2027 scholarship recipients.

This is a virtual event. Register below for the Zoom link.

Register Now
