graduate student researcher ucsd

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Graduate Student Researcher (GSR)

A Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) performs research related to the student’s degree program in an academic department or research unit under the direction of a faculty member or authorized Principal Investigator. GSR positions are awarded by the professor who is the holder of the research grant. ECE students are encouraged to read about our  faculty’s research  and contact faculty directly to inquire about GSR opportunities.

Most GSR positions are for work to be conducted 25 percent time (10 hours per week) to 49.99 percent time (20 hours per week). Appointments typically cover fees and tuition (if applicable), and include a salary. Positions are available throughout the academic year and summer months, depending on the terms of the grant.

NOTE: If domestic students do not establish residency by the end of their first year of study, Nonresident Supplemental tuition will not be covered under any circumstances. This means that even if a domestic student holds a Graduate Student Researcher position after their first year of study, the student will be responsible for paying the non-resident tuition supplement. 

System Status: 

Student Research

Learn about research opportunities, funding sources, conferences, and more in a variety of disciplines.

UC San Diego is a student-centered, research-focused, service-oriented public university. Research assignments can provide you with valuable hands-on experience and training, no matter what your field of study or major.

Check out the links below as well as the University's student research opportunities page .

For undergraduate students

Real portal.

The Research Experience and Applied Learning (REAL) Portal is a resource for undergraduates who wish to contribute original intellectual or creative knowledge and solutions to an area of study through exploration, inquiry, or investigation.

REAL is designed to:

• Help students to recognize the importance of research
• Provide student support for finding on- and off-campus research opportunities
• Highlight student research achievements

Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate Research (UR) empowers undergraduates seeking to become integrated in the UC San Diego research community with the skills to be successful in a post-baccalaureate career. Meet with UR to learn how you can get involved with one or more undergrad research opportunities.

Individual research programs

To get involved in undergraduate research, explore the REAL and UR websites, or visit these other individual program pages:

• UCSD's Annual Undergraduate Research Conference and Conference for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH)
• Academic Internship Program
• California Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (CAMP)
• Faculty Mentor Program
• McNair Program
• STARS: Summer Training Academy for Research Success
• Summer Research Conference
• Summer Research Program
• Triton Research & Experimental Learning Scholars (TRELS)
• UC Scholars Program
• Undergraduate Research Conference
• Undergraduate Research Scholarships

For graduate students

• For research opportunities and other information, contact the Division of Graduate Education & Postdoctoral Affairs
• Visit the Office of Research Affairs website
• See links and information on research funding opportunities

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For Grad Students

Resources for research.

• Getting Started Guides Provides starting points for your research and handouts with discipline-specific links and contacts
• Subject & Course Guides Locate customized guides of research resources by topic or course
• Databases A-Z Link directly to specialized databases by name
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• Your Subject Librarian Find the librarian who covers a specific subject area and links for resources and contact information

Managing Your Research

Browzine: Keeping Current on Scholarly Journals Keep up with the latest articles from your favorite academic journals, easily receive alerts for new content, and save or manage article content, all from a web browser or your mobile device

Citation Management software programs and comparisons Contains side-by-side comparisons of EndNote, Mendeley, & Zotero features

Copyright and Fair Use Answers your questions about Library policy regarding copyright, your intellectual property rights, and related topics

Creating Scholarly Posters in PowerPoint Gain tips on visual communication concepts and technical production, so you can summarize and display your research effectively

Dissertations & Theses Locate doctoral dissertations and master's these from UC San Diego, and at other institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Most UC dissertations available online from 1996-

eScholarship: upload your articles to UC’s open access repository Describes our one-stop platform for UC-wide Open Access browsing & depositing of your scholarly publications

Research Data Management Learn basic data management and curation concepts, and about the Library's services for planning, preparing and preserving your research data

Special Services for Graduate Students

• Digital Media Lab Visit the Lab for assistance with media creation & editing. Services include 3D printing, video & audio editing, image manipulations, and website creation. Use the reservation system for specialized equipment access or consultations with experts
• Online Course Guides Locate customized guides for classes you may be taking. Contact your subject librarian for help finding course guides in your field
• Library Workshops Attend Library offered workshops on citation management tools, databases, and research data curation
• Graduate Student Lockers Details on Library lockers with links to policies and form to reserve a locker
• Graduate Study Lounge Learn about this quiet, individual, study space located at the Biomedical Library Building

Special Services for Teaching Assistants (TAs)

• TA/Instructor Consulting Space Use Library locations for small group instruction or office hours
• Request Library Instruction for your class Librarians are available to help augment instruction for your students' assignment. Contact us to find out how we can help
• Instructional Design Consultation Request Get help with designing a library session for your students and their research
• Online Course Guides Get customized library assistance for your student assignments. Contact your subject librarian to create an online guide just for your class
• Course Reserves Add physical and digital course materials for your students to use at no cost to them
• Connect from Off Campus
• Access Your Library Account
• Academic Computing & Media Services - Student Information
• Interlibrary Loan - Requesting Books & Articles

Student Opportunities

Calling all disrupters and innovators.

Dive into boundary-breaking research or cultivate your entrepreneurial ambitions. UC San Diego offers opportunities for students to gain hands-on research experience and training to lead in a new world.

Undergraduate Research

Address real-world problems and develop your research skills while working alongside renowned faculty.

REAL Portal

Find a research experience that matches your interests. The Research Experience and Applied Learning Portal allows students to create an online profile and search for opportunities.

Faculty Mentor Program

Get to know your professor. Students in the program undertake faculty-mentored research projects and gain insight into potential career paths.

UC Scholars Program

Be a researcher for a summer. UC Scholars is an eight-week research experience that culminates in a campus conference, offering students an opportunity to present their original papers.

Academic Internship Program

Merge academic theory and real-world practice. The Academic Internship Program helps students explore careers and enrich their education through hands-on experience.

Incubating Innovation

UC San Diego students have access to resources to help you translate your discoveries into real-world applications.

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Ahead of the Curve

Explore current UC San Diego research aimed at tackling some of the biggest challenges of our time.

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Computer Science & Engineering

Graduate Student Researcher Positions

Updated September 21, 2015

Research Assistantships (RA) position are "officially" called Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) positions at UCSD.  RAs are typically awarded by the professor who is the holder of the research grant. Students typically are paid at 25% (10 hours/week) to 50% (20 hours/week). These appointments usually pay full fees and non-resident tuition (if applicable).  GSR positions are available throughout the academic and summer months. Students are encouraged to read about faculty research and to contact faculty to arrange for a GSR position.

For the current payrate for GSRs see the Graduate Student Academic Title Pay Rates page.  As of October 1, 2015, CSE is at the Step 8 rate.

Back to  Financial Opportunities

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GLI Graduate Student Researcher Program Application

Depending on a faculty advisor’s grant funding, there are limited opportunities for appointments as a Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) during the academic year or summer.

During the academic year a GSR appointment can be held at anywhere from 25% to 49.99% time. Or, a GSR could be a joint appointment as a 25% GSR and a 25% Teaching Assistant (TA).

Summer GSR appointment can be held up to 100% time.

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Graduate Programs

• Biochem & MolBiophysics PhD

Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics PhD

The Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics PhD Program ranks in the top 10 nationally and represents a traditional strength in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at UCSD. The goal of the program is to prepare students for careers in the biochemical sciences as researchers and educators by expanding their knowledge of structural biology, protein, RNA, and lipid biochemistry, experimental and computational biophysics, and systems biology while developing their ability for critical analysis, creativity, and independent study. A high graduation rate in an average of just over five years can be attributed to the quality of applicants admitted, the flexibility of our program of study, the opportunity for students to begin research in the first year, and the affordability of education made possible by our generous financial support policies.

Program Overview

Programs of study are tailored to the needs of individual students, based on their prior training and research interests. However, progress to degree is generally similar for all students. During the first year, students take courses, begin their teaching apprenticeships, choose research advisors, and embark on their thesis research; students whose native language is not English must pass an English proficiency examination. Beginning the first summer, the emphasis is on research, although courses of special interest may be taken throughout a student's residency. At the end of their first year, students choose the departmental members of their thesis committee and begin to prepare a written research proposal. During their second year, they complete their research proposal and defend it orally. In the third year, students advance to candidacy for the doctorate by defending the topic, preliminary findings, and future research plans for their dissertation. Subsequent years focus on thesis research and writing the dissertation. Most students graduate during their fifth year.

Research Opportunities

Research opportunities for graduate students are comprehensive and interdisciplinary, spanning biochemistry; biophysics; structural biology, protein, RNA, and lipid biochemistry, experimental and computational biophysics, and systems biology. Please refer to the faculty pages for full descriptions of the on-going research of faculty in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics PhD Program. State-of-the-art facilities and laboratories support these research programs.

UCSD is a thriving community that stretches across campus with opportunities for research and collaborations among a large number of faculty in the Division of Biology, the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the School of Medicine, the La Jolla Institute of Immunology, the Salk Institute, and many others.

Special Training Programs

Interdisciplinary research and collaboration at UCSD is enhanced through a variety of training grants. These programs provide financial support for exceptional graduate and postdoctoral scholars and also unite researchers from across campus and throughout the La Jolla research community in special seminars, retreats, and courses. Doctoral students usually apply for training grants in their second year.

• Molecular Biophysics Training Grant
• Contemporary Approaches to Cancer Cell Signaling and Communication
• Interfaces Graduate Training Program
• Molecular Pharmacology Training Program

Teaching apprenticeships are a vital and integral part of graduate student training, and four quarters of teaching are normally required. See the Teaching Assistants page to apply. Students can gain experience teaching both discussion and laboratory sections. Excellence in teaching is stressed, and the department provides a thorough training program covering both fundamentals and special techniques for effective instruction. Further training is provided by the Teaching and Learning Commons on campus. Performance is evaluated every quarter, and awards are bestowed quarterly for outstanding teaching performance.

Financial Support

Students in good academic standing receive a 12-month stipend; fees and tuition are also provided. Support packages come from a variety of sources, including teaching and research assistantships, training grants, fellowships, and awards. Special fellowships are awarded to outstanding students based on their admission files. See Ph.D. Program Support Policy for more information.

Health and Dental Plan

A primary health care program, major medical plan, and dental plan are among the benefits provided by the University's registration fee (see Graduate Student Health Insurance Program, GSHIP) . Minor illnesses and injuries can usually be treated at the Student Health Center . Counseling is provided free of charge through Counseling and Psychological Services .

Creative, bright, and motivated students from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. We admit for Fall quarter entrance only. The application deadline is in mid-December. The Admissions Committee reviews files individually and in comparison to others, and offers are made beginning mid-January. Admitted applicants are invited to visit the campus. Application information is available here . See UCSD Ph.D. Admissions FAQ page for general information.

PostGraduate Placement

Graduates typically obtain jobs in academia or in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry. La Jolla is home to the third largest Biotech/Pharmaceutical industry mecca. Many of our alumni stay in San Diego and obtain positions in one of the over 300 companies that are located near UCSD. During their PhD, students can take advantage of the many internships that are available at these companies. A large proportion of our graduates attain postdoctoral research positions in leading academic institutions. The Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Program provides career advising throughout the PhD. UCSD's Career Services Center and the Physical Sciences Student Success Center provides many resources for students, including the chance to videotape yourself in a mock interview!

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Research Opportunities

Research develops your practical skills while providing you with the ideal venue to prove your mastery of what you've learned in class. Regardless of if you plan to attend graduate school, wish to become a doctor, or are transitioning directly to the workforce, engaging with research opportunities will enhance your resume and provide you with contacts who can write powerful letters of recommendation. Similar to internships and full-time outcomes, students get selected when they can clearly explain what they will bring to the new role and how it will impact the organization. Have you set a meeting with you professor to learn about their lab? Where did your friends spend their summer research experience? Have you considered writing a short research report to highlight your interests?

Research is available on and off campus, in every field imaginable – from biology, chemistry, engineering and physics to sociology, music, economics and history. Check with each program for eligibility and hours requirements.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of some opportunities to gain this type of experience. Contact professionals and professors, and talk to your network of friends, family, and colleagues for insight on other ways to observe, volunteer, intern and train in your intended field.

• UC San Diego provides a wealth of opportunities for students to gain hands-on research experience on its Research and Innovation page . 
• The Academic Enrichment Program (AEP) offers a huge variety of opportunities to obtain research experience during the school year and during the summer under the guidance of UC San Diego faculty mentors and to present research findings at noted undergraduate research conferences in any academic major in preparation for pursuing a Ph.D., health or other advanced degree. For some programs, funding is available
• The Career Center's online portal, Handshake , has thousands of job and internship postings specifically for UC San Diego students, and many involve research. On campus academic departments, major UC San Diego labs, and local/state/national companies post paid and unpaid research positions daily. Check back often for one that’s right for you.
• And don't overlook the UC San Diego LinkedIn Alumni Network . Searching by keyword like lab research, PhD, etc. can provide the seeds for connections that may lead to research opportunities.

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Click here for a list of dissertation titles from the past decade.

Grad Student Publications 2022

Grad student publications 2021, grad student publications 2020.

Burke, Colin  and Cinnamon Bloss. 2020. “Social Media Surveillance in Schools: Rethinking Public Health Interventions in the Digital Age.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 22(11): e22612.

Driscoll, Daniel. 2020. “Do Carbon Prices Limit Economic Growth?” Socius 6:1-3. 

Driscoll, Daniel. 2020. “When Ignoring the News and Going Hiking Can Help You Save the World: Environmental Activist Strategies for Persistence.” Sociological Forum 35(1):189–206.

Catherine M. Hammack-Aviran, Kathleen M. Brelsford, Kevin C. McKenna, Ross D. Graham , Zachary M. Lampron & Laura M. Beskow (2020): Research Use of Electronic Health Records: Patients’ Views on Alternative Approaches to Permission, AJOB Empirical Bioethics, DOI: 10.1080/23294515.2020.1755383

Gutierrez, Armand. 2020. “The Dynamics of Brokering in Second-Generation Transnationalism.” Social Problems. Forthcoming.

Liu, Chuncheng *, Ye Zhang*, Stephen W. Pan, et al. 2020.  Anticipated HIV Stigma Among HIV Negative Men Who Have Sex with Men in China: A Cross-Sectional Study   BMC Infectious Diseases . 20: 44.

Liu, Chuncheng. 2020. “Red is not the only color of a rainbow”: The making and resistance of the “MSM” subject among gay men in China .  Social Science & Medicine. 112947.

Grad Student Publications 2019

Burke, Colin . 2019. “Digital Sousveillance: A Network Analysis of the US Surveillant Assemblage.” Surveillance and Society .

Driscoll, Daniel. 2019. “Research Note: Assessing Sociodemographic Predictors of Climate Change Concern, 1994-2016.” Social Science Quarterly . 100(5):1699–1708.

Liu, Chuncheng . Multiple Social Credit Systems in China . Economic Sociology: the European Electronic Newsletter . 21(1): 22-32.

Liu, Chuncheng and Kathrine Meyers. 2019. Beyond Clinical Trials: Social Outcomes of Structured Stakeholder Engagement in Biomedical HIV Prevention Trials in China . Culture, Health, and Sexuality . 

Smith, M. Kumi, Chongyi Wei, Chuncheng Liu , et al. 2019. Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation in Chinese Men who have Sex with Men: A Latent Class Analysis .  Archives of Sexual Behaviors .

FitzGerald, David, Gustavo López, and Angela Y. McClean . 2019. “ Civil Rights of Mexican Immigrants Are Under Threat. ”  Center for Comparative Immigration Studies Report for Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos (CNDH). 

Grad Student Publications 2018

Burke, Colin and Lynn Jones. 2018. “Political Action Committees.” The SAGE Encyclopedia of Surveillance, Security and Privacy. Bruce A. Arrigo, eds. Routledge.

Carvalho, Tito. (forthcoming, 2018). “A Most Bountiful Source of Inspiration: Evolution in the Tropics, and the Science and Politics of Genetic Variation.”  História, Ciências, Saúde –Manguinhos .

Carvalho, Tito. (forthcoming, 2018). “Truth to Power: Population Genetics in World War Two Brazil.” Perspectives on Science.

Driscoll, Daniel. 2018. “Beyond Organizational Ties: Foundations of Persistent Commitment in Environmental Activism.” Social Movement Studies 17(6):697–715.

Everhart, Donald. 2018. “Ethnomethodology and a Worldly Semiotics of Action” in Donald Favareau, ed. Co-operative Engagements of Intertwined Semiosis: Essays in Honour of Charles Goodwin. Tartu, EE: University of Tartu Press.

Graham, Ross , Compton, J., & Meador, K. (2018). A systematic review of peer-reviewed literature authored by medical professionals regarding US biomedicine's role in responding to climate change.  Preventive medicine reports ,  13 , 132–138. doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.11.014

Gutierrez, Armand. 2018. “Mediated Remittances: Transnational Economic Contributions from Second-Generation Filipino-Americans.” Global Networks.

Gutierrez, Armand . 2018. “The Determinants of Remittances among Second-Generation Mexican- and Filipino-Americans.” Ethnic and Racial Studies . Forthcoming.

Jacobson, Brynna. 2018. “Constructing Legitimacy in Geoengineering Discourse: The Politics of Representation in Science Policy Literature.” Science as Culture.

Liu, Chuncheng, Rong Fu, Weiming Tang, et al. 2018. "Transplantation or rurality? Migration and HIV risk among Chinese men who have sex with men in the urban areas."  Journal of the International AIDS Society  21, no. 1 (2018): e25039.

Mao, Jessica, Weiming Tang, Chuncheng Liu, et al. 2018. "Sex tourism among Chinese men who have sex with men: a cross-sectional observational study."  BMC public health  18, no. 1 (2018): 306. 

Tang, Weiming, Chuncheng Liu, Bolin Cao, et al. 2018. "Receiving HIV Serostatus Disclosure from Partners Before Sex: Results from an Online Survey of Chinese Men Who Have Sex with Men."  AIDS and Behavior  (2018): 1-10.  

Tang, Weiming, Jessica Mao, Chuncheng Liu , et al. "Reimagining Health Communication: A Non-Inferiority Randomized Controlled Trial of Crowdsourced intervention in China". Sexually Transmitted Diseases .

Wang, Cheng, Joseph D. Tucker, Chuncheng Liu , et al. "Condom use social norms and self-efficacy with different kinds of male partners among Chinese men who have sex with men: results from an online survey." BMC Public Health 18, no. 1 (2018): 1175.

McClean, Angela Y . 2018. “Universalising the particular: strategic framing in immigrant cross-border activism.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies . doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2018.1504675

Zimmerman-Liu, Teresa. 2018. “Propagating the Bodhisattva Ethic of Compassion for People and the Planet: A Comparative Analysis of the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation and Dharma Drum Mountain’s Environmental Work in Taiwan.” 2017 MOFA Taiwan Fellowship Scholars’ Research Reports . National Taiwan Central Library Center for Chinese Studies Database. Posted 2/1/2018. http://ccs.ncl.edu.tw/ccs2/research_info.aspx?sn=76

Grad Student Publications 2017

Arar, Rawan. 2017. “International Solidarity and Ethnic Boundaries: Using the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict to Strengthen Ethno-National Claims in Northern Ireland.” Nations and Nationalism.

FitzGerald, David S., David-Cook Martín, Angela Garcia, and Rawan Arar . (2017).  “Can You Become One of Us? The Legal Selection of ‘Assimilable’ Immigrants.”  Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies  DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2017.1313106

Garcia, Angela. 2017. “Labour Market Limbo: The Uneven Integration of Co-Ethnic Argentine Immigrants in Spain.” International Migration.

Gutierrez, Armand. 2017. “A Family Affair: How and Why Second-Generation Filipino-Americans Engage in Transnational Social and Economic Connections.” Ethnic and Racial Studies .

Gutierrez, Armand. 2017. “Mediated Remittances: Transnational Economic Contributions from   Second-Generation Filipino-Americans.” Forthcoming, Global Networks .

Li, Yao-Tai. 2017. “ Constituting Co-Ethnic Exploitation: The Economic and Cultural Meanings of Cash-In-Hand Jobs for Ethnic Chinese Migrants in Australia. ”  Critical Sociology  43(6): 919–932.

Ng, Kwai Hang and Jacobson, Brynna. 2017. “ "How Global Is The Common Law? A Comparative Study of Asian Common Law Systems – Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore." ” Asian Journal of Comparative Law 12(2): 209-232.

Zimmerman-Liu, Teresa. 2017. “From ‘Children of the Devil’ to ‘Sons of God’: The Reconfiguration of Guanxi in a 20 th Century Indigenous Chinese Protestant Group.” Review of Religion and Chinese Society , 4:1 (2017: 59-86).

Grad Student Publications 2016

Arar, Rawan. (2016).  “How Political Migrant Networks Differ from those of Economic Migrants: ‘Strategic Anonymity’ among Iraqi Refugees in Jordan.”  Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 42(3), pp. 519-535.

Li, Yao-Tai  and Katherine Whitworth. 2016. “ When the State Becomes Part of the Exploitation: Migrants’ Agency within the Institutional Constraints in Australia. ”  International Migration  54(6): 138–150.

Li, Yao-Tai. 2016. “ ‘Playing’ at the Ethnic Boundary: The Boundary Making/Unmaking among Ethnic Chinese Groups in Australia. ”  Ethnic and Racial Studies  39(4): 671–689.

Soper, Rachel.  2016. "Local is Not Fair: Indigenous Peasant Farmer Preference for Export Markets."  Agriculture and Human Values  33: 537. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9620-0.

Grad Student Publications 2015

Aviles, Natalie B. and Isaac Ariail Reed.  2015. “Ratio via machina: Three standards of mechanistic explanation in sociology.”  Sociological Methods & Research.

Soper, Rachel.  2015. "Local is Not Fair: Indigenous Peasant Farmer Preference for Export Markets."  Agriculture and Human Values.

Soper, Rachel.  (forthcoming). "Globalization and the Agrarian Question: Divergent Development of Two Export-Oriented Farming Communities." Current Perspectives in Social Theory.

Arar, Rawan.  2015.  “How political migrant networks differ from those of economic migrants: ‘strategic anonymity’ among Iraqi refugees in Jordan.”   Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

Aviles, Natalie B.  2015.  “The little death: Rigoni-Stern and the problem of sex and cancer in twentieth century biomedical research.”   Social Studies of Science  45(3): 394-415.

Lee, Jack Jin Gary.  2015.  "Plural Society and the Colonial State: English Law and the Making of Crown Colony Government in the Straits Settlements."   Asian Journal of Law and Society  2(2):229-249. Link:

Lee, Jack Jin Gary and John D. Skrentny . 2015. "Korean Multiculturalism in Comparative Perspective.” In  Multiethnic Korea? Multiculturalism, Migration, and Peoplehood Diversity in Contemporary South Korea , edited by John Lie. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies (IEAS) Publication Series.

Skrentny, John D. and Jack Jin Gary Lee.  2015.“Immigration, Nationhood, and Transnationalization in Industrialized East Asia.” In  Transnational Trajectories: Nation, Citizenship, and Region in East Asia , edited by Yasemin Soysal. New York: Routledge .

Li, Yao-Tai. 2015. “ Shaping A Stranger: City Culture and Its Effects on Taiwanese Sojourners in China. ”  City, Culture, and Architecture  1(1): 51–62.

Li, Yao-Tai. 2015. “ Regulating the Market Risks: The Coalitions between Occupational Unions and CSOs in Taiwan .”  Development and Society  44(2): 295-317.

López, Jane Lilly.  2015. "'Impossible Families': Mixed-Citizenship Status Couples and the Law."Law & Policy 37(1-2): 93-118.

Nielsen, Kelly . 2015.  "'Fake It 'Til You Make It': Why Community College Students' Aspirations 'Hold Steady.'"   Sociology of Education.

Nielsen, Kelly.  2015. "Beyond 'Warming Up' and 'Cooling Out': The Effects of Community College on a Diverse Group of Disadvantaged Young Women." Pp. 111-133 in  Inequality, Power, and School Success :  Case Studies on Racial Disparity and Opportunity in Education  edited by G. Conchas and M. Gottfried. New York: Routledge.

Pérez-Ahumada, P.  2015.  The end of a Traditional Class Distinction in Neoliberal Society: “White-collar” and “Blue-collar” Work and its Impact on Chilean Workers’ Class Consciousness.  Critical Sociology.

Williams, Stacy J.  2015 (online first). “Hiding Spinach in the Brownies: Frame Alignment in Suffrage Community Cookbooks, 1886-1916.” Social Movement Studies. DOI: 10.1080/14742837.2015.1027764

Zimmerman-Liu, Teresa and Teresa Wright . 2015. “What is in a Name? A Comparison of Being Branded a Religious Cult in the United States and the People’s Republic of China: Witness Lee and the Local Churches.”   Journal of Church and State  (Advance Online Access) DOI: 10.1093/jcs/csv006.

Zimmerman-Liu, Teresa and Teresa Wrigh t. 2015. “Protestant Christianity in China, Urban and Rural: Negotiating the State, Propagating the Faith,” in Stan Brunn, ed.,  The Changing World Religion Map  (Springer, pp. 2059-2074).

Grad Student Publications 2014

Meyers, Stephen . 2014 “The Social Model under the Shadow of the Revolution: Ex-combatants negotiating disability identity in Nicaragua.”  Qualitative Sociology.  Vol. 37:4.

Murphy, Marie.  2014. "Hiding in Plain Sight: The Production of Heteronormativity in Medical Education."  Journal of Contemporary Ethnography .

Davis, Alexander K., Rogers, Laura E., Bryson, Bethany.  2014. “Own It! Constructions of Masculinity and Heterosexuality on Reality Makeover Television,”  Cultural Sociology  8 (3): 258-274

García, Angela S . 2014. “Hidden in Plain Sight: How Unauthorized Migrants Strategically Assimilate in Restrictive Localities.”  Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

Meyers, Stephen  2014. “Global Civil Society as Megaphone or Echo Chamber?: Formalizing voice in the international disability rights movement.”  International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society.

Meyers, Stephen  and E. Lockwood. 2014. “A Tale of Two Civil Societies: Expectations regarding public resources and disabled persons organizations in Nicaragua and Uruguay.”  Disability Studies Quarterly.  34(4).

Meyers, Stephen.  2014. “Disabled persons associations at the crossroads of two organizational environments: Grassroots groups as part of an international movement and a local civil society.” Research in Social Science and Disability: Environmental Contexts and Disability.  8: 3-31.

Meyers, Stephen,  V. Karr, and V. Pineda. 2014. “Youth with Disabilities in Law and Civil Society: Exclusion and inclusion in public policy and NGO networks in Cambodia and Indonesia.”  Disability and the Global South Journal.  1(1): 5-28.

Pérez-Ahumada, Pablo.  2014. Class consciousness in a mature neoliberal society: Evidence from Chile.  Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 38 , 57-75.

Poulson, Stephen C., Cory P. Caswell, and Latasha R. Grey.  2014. “Institutional Parochialism and the Study of Social Movements.” Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest 13.2 :  222-242.

Williams, Stacy J.  2014. “A Feminist Guide to Cooking.”  Contexts  13:59-61.

Zimmerman-Liu, Teresa,  trans . The Thunder of Deep Thought—House of the Sun Notebooks, Number Two . English translation of book on poetic philosophy by dissident Chinese poet and 1987 Chinese Democracy Wall Movement activist, Huang Xiang, for City of Asylum/Pittsburgh tenth anniversary celebration (Sampsonia Way, City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, 2014).  Zimmerman-Liu, Teresa.  2014.  "The Divine and Mystical Realm: Removing Chinese Christianity from the Fixed Structures of Mission Church and Clergy.”  Social Sciences and Missions  27 239-266, DOI: 10.1163/18748945-02017.

Grad Student Publications 2013

Binder, Amy and Kate Wood.  2013.  Becoming Right: How Campuses Shape Young Conservatives.  Princeton University Press.

Blair-Loy, Mary and Stacy J. Williams.  2013. “The Male Career Model.” Pp. 549-552 in  Sociology of Work: an Encyclopedia,  ed. Vicki Smith. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Cech, Erin A.  2013. "Ideological Wage Inequalities? The Technical/Social Dualism and the Gender Wage Gap in Engineering." Social Forces.  91 (4): 1147-1182.

Evans, Michael S.  2013. "Faith Based: Religious Neoliberalism and the Politics of Welfare in the United States.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 52 (1): 234-235.

Evans, Michael S.  2013. "Supporting Science Reasons, Restrictions, and the Role of Religion." Science Communication. 34 (3): 334-362.

Everhart, Donald and Salman Hameed.  2013.  “Muslims and evolution: a study of Pakistani physicians in the United States.”   Evolution: Education and Outreach.  6 (2).

Karr, Valerie and Stephen Meyers.  2013. “Acceptance or acceptability: Youth inclusion in today’s schools.”  Youth: Responding to Lives.  Andrew Azzopardi, ed. Sense Publishers.

Karr, Valerie and Stephen Meyers.  2013. “Reactions to the Rights-Based Approach: Contextualizing the CRPD in Cambodia.”  Journal of Disability and International Development.  6 (3).

Meyers,   Stephen.  2013. “The Past Dividing the Present: Nicaragua’s Legacy of War Shaping Disability Rights Today.”  Conflict, Disaster, and Disability.  David Mitchell and Valerie Karr, eds. Routeledge.

Meyers, Stephen.  2013. “Wounded Warriors or One of the Crowd?: Civil War, Citizenship, and Disability in Nicaragua.”  Peace Studies Journal.  6(4): 22-36.

Skrentny, John D. and Jane Lilly López.  2013. "Obama's Immigration Reform: The Triumph of Executive Action."  Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality ,  2 (1): 62-79.

Skrentny, John and René Patnode.  2013. “Rights and Right Movements.”  The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements.   David A. Snow, Donatella Della Porta, Bert Klandermans, and Douglas McAdam, eds. Blackwell.

Soper, Rachel . 2013. “Reclaiming Development: Indigenous Community Organizations and the Flower Export Industry in the Ecuadorian Highlands.”  Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorians Facing the Twenty-First Century .  Marc Becker, ed. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.  Pp. 128-149.

Tannenbaum, David, Chad J. Valasek, Eric D. Knowles, and Peter H. Ditto.  2013. "Incentivizing Wellness in the Workplace Sticks (Not Carrots) Send Stigmatizing Signals." Psychological Science . Pp. 1-11.

Thorpe, Charles and Brynna Jacobson.  2013. "Life politics, nature and the state: Giddens' sociological theory and The Politics of Climate Change." The British Journal of Sociology. 64 (1): 99-122.

Walshok, Mary L., Josh D. Shapiro, and Nathan Owens.  2013. "Transnational innovation networks aren’t all created equal: Towards a classification system." The Journal of Technology Transfer . Pp. 1-13.

Wright, Teresa and Teresa Zimmerman-Liu.  2013. "Atheist Political Activists Turned Protestants: Religious Conversion among Chinese Dissidents.”  Journal of Church and State DOI:10.1093/jcs/cst096.

Grad Student Publications 2012

Blair-Loy, Mary, and Melissann L. Herron.  2012. "The Resilience of Gender and Gender Inequality in the Contemporary United States." Sex Roles. 68 (9): 623-625.

Cayleff, Susan, Melissann Herron, Chelsea Cormier, Sarah Wheeler, Alicia Chávez-Arteaga, Jessica Spain, and Cristina Dominguez . 2012. "Oral History and ‘Girls’ Voices’: The Young Women’s Studies Club as a Site of Empowerment."  Journal of International Women's Studies. 12 (4): 22-44.

Davis, Daniel.  2012."Syllabus and Instructors Guide- SOC 382: Intro to Social Research."  TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology . Washington DC: American Sociological Association.

Evans, Michael S.  2012. "Who Wants a Deliberative Public Sphere?"  Sociological Forum . 27 (4): 872-895.

Garcia, Angela.  2012. “Return to Sender? A Comparative Analysis of Immigrant Communities in ‘Attrition through Enforcement’ Destinations.”  Ethnic and Racial Studies .  Pp. 1-22.

Kenny, Katherine E.  2012. "Golden holocaust: Origins of the cigarette catastrophe and the case for abolition." Global Public Health.  7 (9): 1027-1029.

Lindseth, Brian, and Karen Baker.  2012. "Collaborative design of an oceanographic event logger."  Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work . Pp.1195-1198.

Skrentny, John and René Patnode.  2012. “Race and Politics.”  The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology.   Edwin Amenta, Kate Nash and Alan Scott, eds.  Blackwell.  Pp. 315-324.

Skrentny, John D., Micah Gell-Redman, and Jack Jin Gary Lee.  2012. "Japan, the United States, and the Philosophical Bases of Immigration Policy." American Behavioral Scientist. 56 (8): 995-1007.

Shafir, Gershon, and Cynthia E. Schairer.  2012. "The war on terror as political moral panic." Lessons and Legacies of the War on Terror: From Moral Panic to Permanent War.  Gershon Shafir, Everard Meade, William J. Aceves, eds.  New York: Routlege.Pp. 9-47.

Grad Student Publications 2011

Binder, Amy and Kate Wood . 2011. “Conservative Critics and Conservative College Students: Variations in Discourses of Exclusion” in  Diversity in American Education: Toward a More Comprehensive Approach ; Lisa Stulberg and Sharon Weinberg (eds.), New York: Routledge.

Carvalho, Tito B., Mohamed Y. Rady, Joseph L. Verheidje, and Jason S. Robert.   2011. “Continuous Deep Sedation in End-of-Life- Care: Disentangling Palliation from Physician-Assisted Death.”   The American Journal of Bioethics.   11 (6): 60-62.

Cech, Erin A., and Tom J. Waidzunas.  2011.  "Navigating the heteronormativity of engineering: The experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students."  Engineering Studies. 3 (1): 1-24.

Donovan, Joan M., and Karen S. Baker.  2011.  "The Shape of Information Management: Fostering Collaboration across Data, Science, and Technology in a Design Studio."  Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

FitzGerald, David, Rafael Alarcón, and Leah Muse-Orlinoff, eds.  2011.  Recession Without Borders: Mexican Migrants Confront the Economic Downturn . Center for Comparative Immigration Studies. University of California.

Schairer, Cynthia E.  2011. "Communities of Prosthesis Users and Possibilities for Personal Innovation." Research in Social Science and Disability. 6: 113-133.

Grad Student Publications 2010

Cech, Erin A., and Mary Blair-Loy .  2010. "Perceiving glass ceilings? Meritocratic versus structural explanations of gender inequality among women in science and technology." Social Problems. 57 (3): 371-397.

Charles, Maria and Erin Cech.  2010. “Beliefs about Maternal Employment.”  Dividing the Domestic: Men, Women, and Household Work in Cross-National Perspective.   Judith Treas and Sonja Drobniè, eds. Stanford University Press.  Pp. 147-174.

Cheyne, Andrew and Amy Binder . 2010. “Cosmopolitan Preferences: The Constitutive Role of Place in American Elite Taste for Hip-Hop Music 1991-2005.”  Poetics  38:336-64.

Cornelius, Wayne A., David Fitzgerald, Pedro Lewin Fischer, and Leah Muse-Orlinoff, eds. 2010.   Mexican migration and the US economic crisis: a transnational perspective . Center for Comparative Immigration Studies.   Economic crisis: a transnational perspective

Duffy, Meghan, Amy Binder and John Skrentny.  2010. “Elite Status and Social Change: Using Field Analysis to Explain Policy Formation and Implementation.”  Social Problems  57:49-73.

Epstein, Steve and April N. Huff.  2010. "Sex, Science, and the Politics of Biomedicine"  Three Shots at Prevention: The HPV Vaccine and the Politics of Medicine's Simple Solutions.  Keith Wailoo, Julie Livingston, Steven Epstein, and Robert Aronowitz, eds. Johns Hopkins University Press.  Pp. 213-230.

Evans, Michael S.  2010. "Human Dignity and Bioethics." Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews. 39 (2): 191-192.

Evans, Michael S.  2009. "Zelizer's theory of money and the case of local currencies."  Environment and Planning.  41 (5): 1026-1041.

Evans, Michael S. and John H. Evans . 2010. "Arguing against Darwinism: Religion, Science, and Public Morality."   The New Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion.  Bryan S. Turner, ed. Pp. 286-308.

Haydu, Jeffrey and David Kadanoff.  2010.“Casing Political Consumerism.”  Mobilization.  15 (2): 159-177.

Grad Student Working Paper Series

The sociology department showcases current research by our graduate students. 

Author : Jennifer Nations

Working paper number 2016-2

Title : Market University or University Family? Challenges to the Locus of Authority in Public  University Tuition Policy  

Abstract : State higher education systems have played an important role in increasing college participation among disadvantaged student populations, partly because they have been students’ most affordable option. Since the 1980s, nearly every state legislature with power to set public sector tuition has transferred tuition setting authority to unelected university governing boards, making way for substantial increases in tuition costs. I use a comparative case study method to show how institutionalized ideologies about public postsecondary education led policymakers in New York to resist this national trend while in Texas they abdicated control over tuition. I demonstrate that the organizational arrangement of postsecondary institutions placed different types of normative constraints on political actors as they weighed the merits of devolved tuition authority, leading to divergent outcomes. My research advances sociological understandings of the politics of higher education and education policymaking in general.

Author:   Teresa Zimmerman-Liu

Working paper number  2015-4

Title : “Children of the Devil” to “Sons of God”: The Reconfiguration of  Guanxi in a 20 th Century Indigenous Chinese Protestant Group”.

Abstract: Guanxi is the Chinese system of ideas and practices constituting social relationships and can be considered the foundation ofChinese societies. Protestant Christianity spread over guanxi networks from its first introduction to China, changing both guanxi and Christianity in the process. This paper proposes a causal model of guanxi and then analyzes how it was reconstituted in the indigenous Chinese Protestant group, the Local Churches. It is based on published writings by Local Church founders and members and on the author’s thirty years of experience with the group. This case contributes to academic understanding of guanxi and Chinese Christianity, finding thatextension of family, supply of resources, and social interaction are the most critical aspects of guanxi , but that specific practices change in the Christian context to preserve Biblical commandments. Because guanxi networks are bonding rather than bridging, Chinese Christian groups will tend to diverge more than converge.

Author:   Tad Skotnicki

Working paper number  2015-3

Title:   Ethical Visions and Commodity Fetishism: Turn of the Twentieth-Century Consumer Activism in the United States and England

Abstract:  At the turn of the twentieth century, the National Consumers’ League, the Co-operative Wholesale Society, and the Women’s Co-operative Guild encouraged people to become ethical consumers. I argue that we can explain their attempts to do so in terms of commodity fetishism. By casting their consumer activism as an engagement with commodity fetishism, we explain: 1) the use of sensory techniques—both metaphorical and physical—to connect producers, commodities, and consumers and 2) a commitment to the ethical power of the senses. This account reveals the virtues of commodity fetishism as a tool for understanding the dynamics of consumer activism.

Published as: Skotnicki, Tad. 2015. “Commodity Fetishism and Consumer Senses: Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century Consumer Activism in the United States and England.” Journal of Historical Sociology, published online before print November 11, 2015.

Author:  Laura Pecenco

Working paper number  2015-2

Title:  "Undoing Gender While Doing Time: Men in Prison Arts Programs"

Abstract:  Although there is a scholarly and institutional assumption that imprisoned men must maintain a hypermasculine image, this performance of gender does not extend to the prison art studio. Rather than buttressing the hypermasculine traits that are rewarded on the prison yard, incarcerated artists are rewarded for devotion to the art program itself. In this paper, I examine the experiences of male prisoner-artists through more than 250 hours of participant observation in a prison art program that I created, as well as 55 interviews with currently and formerly incarcerated artists and prison art program staff. Respondents consider the art studio to be a "safe" space, a sanctuary within a dangerous environment. In the studio, these men are allowed, and even encouraged, to transcend rigid gender expressions and racial divisions in order to become true artists.

They regularly socialize across racial lines, sharing supplies and offering encouragement. The men generally agree that they should protect the art program, thereby safeguarding a "freer culture" that does not exist elsewhere in the prison. My findings support policy arguments that prison arts programs are beneficial for individual inmates, the prison institution, and broader society but add an important mechanism for how this is accomplished: these art programs allow inmates to drop the hyper masculine imperative. This has broader theoretical implications for the study of gender and organizations. Just as Ely and Meyerson (2010) found on oil rigs, getting individuals in masculine (and dangerous) workplaces to shift their goals and utilize a new reward system allows them to cast aside the rigid guidelines that formerly shaped their gendered behavior.Creating "alternative spaces" in heavily gendered organizations can reduce members' necessity to enact this gendered behavior, thereby "undoing" gender.

Author:   Rawan Arar

Working Paper number  2015-1

Title:  Borrowed Legitimacy: Using the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict to Strengthen Nationalist Claims in Northern Ireland

Abstract:  While researchers have paid extensive attention to how political entrepreneurs selectively appropriate the local past to create ethnic boundaries, the case of Northern Ireland reveals the surprising ways that entrepreneurs can also reach sideways, not just backwards, to reinforce those boundaries. Through a process of borrowed legitimacy, Unionists and Nationalists strategically mobilize expressions of international solidarity with Israelis or Palestinians, respectively, in order to compete for control of the state in Northern Ireland. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict reinforces the ethnic boundary between Protestants and Catholics despite the Northern Irish peace process. This study examines technologies of borrowed legitimacy such as flags, graffiti, murals, and political speech that reinforce the ethnic boundary as an alternative to violent methods that have become delegitimized.

Author: Kelly Nielsen

Working paper number 2014-4

Title: “Fake It ‘til You Make It”: Why Community College Students’ Aspirations “Hold Steady.”

Abstract: Sociologists of education have explored the relationship between students’ postsecondary aspirations and their propensity to get “cooled out” in community colleges. However, researchers have directed little attention to students whose aspirations remain stable over long periods of time or to the different roles that college degree goals play in the lives of disadvantaged students. Using four waves of longitudinal interviews, I examine the reasons why low-income women hold steady to their aspirations for college degrees over a three-and-a-half-year period. I argue that holding steady not only reflects rational expectations about future employment opportunities, but it also generates moral status in the face of marginalization and facilitates the navigation of personal relationships. I use the concept of an “ambition imperative” to demonstrate how aspirations for college attainment are a means of asserting moral status and pursuing virtuous social membership. This article contributes to theories of aspirations and offers an alternative explanation of the institutional effects of community colleges in the lives of students.

Published as: Nielsen, Kelly. 2015. “’Fake It ‘til You Make It’: Why Community College Students’ Aspirations ‘Hold Steady.’” Sociology of Education 88(4): 265-283.

Author: Natalie Aviles

Working paper number  2014-3

Title: The Little Death: Rigoni-Stern and the Problem of Sex and Cancer in 20th-Century Biomedical Research.

Abstract:  Approaches to the organization and conduct of cancer research changed dramatically throughout the 20th century. Despite marked differences between the epidemiological approaches of the first half of the century and molecular techniques that gained dominance in the 1980s, prominent 20th-century researchers investigating the link between sexual activity and anogenital cancers continuously invoked the same 1842 treatise by Italian surgeon Domenico Rigoni-Stern, who is said to originate the problem of establishing a causal link between sex and cancer. In this article, I investigate 20th-century references to Rigoni-Stern as a case of a broader phenomenon: scientists situating their work through narratives of venerated ancestors, or originators. By explaining shifting versions of originator narratives in light of their authors’ cultural context and research practices, we can reimagine as meaningful cultural symbols the references that previous scholars have treated as specious rhetorical maneuvers. In this case, references to Rigoni-Stern provide an interpretive anchor for American scientists to construct continuity between their work and a diverse historical legacy of cancer research.

Published as: Aviles, Natalie B. 2015. “The Little Death: Rigoni-Stern and the Problem of Sex and Cancer in 20th-Century Biomedical Research.” Social Studies of Science 45(3): 394-415.

Author:   Dilara Yarbrough

Working paper number 2015

Title:   “You start with the youth”: Systemic critique at a homeless service organization

Abstract:  Using ethnographic observation, in-depth interviews, and analysis of homeless youth art and writing, I investigate the prevalence of structural explanations of poverty among transition-age homeless youth at a large homeless youth service organization. I find that narratives of “youth” facilitate structural explanations of poverty and inequality among homeless participants. As staff members emphasize the positive characteristics of youth to challenge anti-homeless stigma, homeless clients leverage the organization's official discourse to advance more radical critiques of the systems that oppress them. This finding calls into question scholars' assumptions about the hegemony of pathologizing ideologies and practices in homeless shelters, and sheds light on how discursive resources can disrupt individualizing understandings of homelessness.

Author:   Pablo Pérez-Ahumada

Working paper number  2014-1

Title:   The End of a Traditional Class Distinction in Neoliberal Society: “White-Collar” and “Blue-Collar” Work and its Impact on Chilean Workers’ Class Consciousness

Abstract:  For several decades, the distinction between ‘white-collar’ (non-manual) and ‘blue-collar’ (manual) work occupied a central place in the analysis of working-class consciousness. According to many scholars, the expansion of non-manual employment was key to dismantling traditional working-class identities. Although several analysts noted the irrelevance of the white-collar/blue-collar distinction as a determinant of class consciousness, the most recent research on class in Chile continues on the traditional argument. However, the empirical research supporting such a contention has been scarce. In this paper I test that hypothesis. Based on quantitative and qualitative data, I show that the distinction between manual and non-manual labor does not lead to significant variations in workers’ class consciousness. Therefore, its use in recent research on class (e.g. the contention that non-manual employment reinforces a ‘middle-class’ consciousness among workers) is deemed questionable.

Published as: Pérez-Ahumada, Pablo. 2015. “The End of a Traditional Class Distinction in Neoliberal Society: ‘White-collar’ and ‘Blue-collar’ Work and its Impact on Chilean Workers’ Class Consciousness.” Critical Sociology . Published online before print May 13. 

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The Directed Research Track under the Contiguous BS/MS program will provide a streamlined program of research-based coursework, allowing students to complete their MS requirements in 3 quarters during an academic year (Fall, Winter, Spring). Students in the Directed Research Track will adhere to the Thesis Plan and complete a research-based thesis that will be reviewed by a three member faculty thesis committee.

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Eligible applicants must be current UC San Diego undergraduates, with a declared major in one of the undergraduate degree programs offered by the School of Biological Sciences. Students must demonstrate excellent performance in upper-division biology core courses during their undergraduate program to be eligible to enroll in biology graduate core courses. Eligible applicants will be considered for admissions if they meet the following requirements:

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All prospective students must submit a complete application to the BS/MS program by the stated deadline. Application instructions and deadlines are detailed below.

Admission to the Directed Research Track of the Contiguous BS/MS program is not guaranteed for any applicant and will be selective due to the limited capacity of this program. Admissions decisions are final.

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Students interested in the Directed Research Track must submit an application by the stated deadline. To be considered for admissions, students must complete the application form and submit the following materials through the application:

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Applicants are strongly encouraged to provide a letter of recommendation with their application. If providing a letter of recommendation, the letter may be written by any faculty member in the School of Biological Sciences. Letters of recommendation can be submitted by faculty directly to the program or by students through the application link below.

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All applications must be complete and submitted by 11:59 PM PST on May 29, 2024. Late or incomplete applications will not be considered.

Only applicants with an expected undergraduate degree completion date of Spring 2024 or Summer 2024 will be considered for Fall 2024 admission. Students selected for admission to the Directed Research Track will be contacted by the program with instructions for finalizing admissions.

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Active Ph.D. students in the Department of Literature.

Comparative Literature

Catherine Nina Evarkiou

Ningning Huang

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry :  Fall 2017

Biography :

Ningning is a researcher and educator of Asian American literature /film and Transpacific Asian queer diaspora. Currently a PhD candidate from the Literature Department of UC San Diego, she also holds a master’s degree in Critical Asian Humanities from Duke University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Lingnan University, Hong Kong. In her dissertation, she explores the paradoxical temporality trapping Asian Americans and Asian diasporic queers, both progressing from pest-like immigrants toward the model minorities and regressing back toward immaturity as emasculated /neutered pets, via the critical lens of animal studies. Revealing that the regression of Asian Americans as ornamental animals is the dark side of their progression as model minorities, she envisions regression as a strategic pathway for Asian Americans to transgress the racial, gender and species boundaries. In addition to animal studies and critical race theories, she also focuses on queer and women of color critique, environmental studies, biopolitics, and film theories. Her paper,   “And I Shall Hear, Though Soft You Tread Above Me”:  The Racialized Queer Migrations of “Danny Boy”   is published by University of California Press in   Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture . Another paper entitled as   “Don’t F**k with Cats” and the Specter of Racialized Queer Violence   is under review by   The Journal for Critical Animal Studies . Ningning is also a bilingual creative writer seeking publication opportunities for her novella,   Joseph the Violinist .

Research Interests :

Asian American Literature and Film, Pacific Islands Studies, Transpacific Queer Diaspora, Comparative Ethnic Studies, Comparative LGBTQ Literature, Queer and Women of Color Critique, Animal Studies, Race and Science, Biopolitics, Ecocriticism, Critical Race Theories, Film Theories.

Melina Jung

Jasmine Yueming Li

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2023

Research Interests:

Sinophone science fiction novels and theater, epistemology of science and technology, embodiment and disembodiment, performing and installation arts in contemporary China

Academic Background:

M.A., Bilingual Bicultural Education, Columbia University, 2023 B.A., Chinese Language and Literature, Nankai University, 2021

Caleb Mertz-Vega

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry :  Fall 2021

Latin American Literature, Contemporary American Literature, Northern Andean Region literatures, LGTBQ+ literature, Queer Theory, Affect Theory, reader response, Gender studies, psychology and literature, religion and culture.

I was previously a restaurant manager for Emeril Lagasse in Pennsylvania but realized that I wanted to do more with my life. Deciding to move to San Diego—in part to get away from the cold—changed my life as I began attending San Diego City College where I remembered how much I loved learning. Transferring to UC Berkeley after three years, I again double majored in English and Spanish, earning both Bachelors by the end of 2020. It was during this time when I was finally able to embrace my love for LGBTQ+ literature and accept that I enjoyed literature the most when there was a character that I could identify with. Now, working toward my PhD in Comparative Literature, I combine that passion with a passion for teaching, knowledge, knowledge production and Latin America. I hope to teach and research at an R1 University in the future.

Publications:

Mertz-Vega, Caleb A. “Apetito «contra natura»: Celestina and Her Same-Sex Desires.”  Celestinesca , vol. 46, Dec. 2022, pp. 97–117.  ojs.uv.es ,  https://doi.org/10.7203/Celestinesca.46.21582 .

Fiction: From Jason's Journal . Kindle Direct Publishing, 2023 (2nd ed.). The Silhouetted Leaves . Publish America, 2009. The Unexpected . CreateSpace, 2012.

Conference Presentations:

“Affect and the Archive,” UCSD First Annual Literature Symposium, Faculty Club Atkinson Pavilion, San Diego, CA, June 2023

“Feminized and Queer/Cuir Bodies Around the Venezuela - Colombia Border,” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association 120 th Annual Conference, Hilton Portland Downtown, Portland, OR, Oct. 2023.

“Feminized and Cuir Bodies on the Colombia-Venezuela Border,” Latin American Studies Association 2024, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia, June 2024.

AA Spanish & English – San Diego City College BA English and Spanish – University of California, Berkeley

Makenzie Read

Yomira Varela Guadiana

Dingding Wang

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2020

Literature and space; eco-writing; speculative fiction; East Asian literature, visual arts, and culture; posthumanism, nonconscious cognition, cybernetics; architecture.

Academic Background :

M.A in Critical Asian Humanities, Duke University, 2019. B.A. in English Language and Literature, Wuhan University, 2017.

Selected Publications :

“ Yugongyishan: Renleishi de xiandai yuyan ” 愚公移山：人類世的現代寓言 [Yugongyishan: The Modern Allegory of Anthropocene],   Science Writing   科普創作, No. 2, June 2020, pp. 23–26. “ Dang zhiguai xiaoshuo zaoyu zhengqi pengke: Cong Ai, siwang he jiqiren tanqi ” 當誌怪小說遭遇蒸汽朋克：從<愛，死亡和機器人>談起 [When Zhiguai Xiaoshuo Meets Steampunk: Starting from an Episode of Love, Death & Robots],   Jiemian Wenhua   界面文化, 20 April 2019. “ Shiyu yuanshengxiang de ditin g” 始於淵聲巷的諦聽 [The War Siren over Nanjing: The Soundscape of Historical Memory],   Xinhua Daily   新華日報, 7 Dec 2018: 18. Print.

Selected Translations :

Jason Goodwin,   The Gunpowder Gardens: Travels through India and China in Search of Tea . (Jiangsu People’s, 2019). Nathaniel Isaacson,   Celestial Empire: The Emergence of Chinese Science Fiction . (Jiangsu People’s: in preparation). N. Katherine Hayles,   Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious . (Jiangsu People’s: in preparation). Carlos Rojas, “The Eye of the Other: Wu Ming-yi’s The Man with the Compound Eyes and the Challenge of Seeing Otherwise” 他者之眼：吳明益《復眼人》和異樣觀看的挑戰.  Science Writing   科普創作, No. 2, June 2020, pp. 6-13.

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry :  Fall 2021

20th century Chinese literature and film; Literature and Cosmopolitanism; Urban literature and cultural history; Cityscape and memoryscape; Gothic Horror and Modernity/Modernism.

M.A. in Critical Asian Humanities, Duke University, USA, 2021. B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature (minor in German Language and Literature), Peking University, China, 2019.

Publications and Conferences:

“Bookstore-cafés in Contemporary China: New Concepts, Cultural Capital and the Future of Physical Bookstores.” Presented at the Southeast Conference of Association for Asian Studies 2021 at UNC-Chapel Hill. “Encounter Holmes and Lupin in Shanghai: Murders, Social Orders and Cosmopolitanism.” Presented at American Comparative Literature Association 2021 Conference. “Model Citizen (1986): An Outlaw’s Boundary Exploration of Taipei.” Presented at 2020 SPAS Annual Student Conference at University of Hawaii, Mānoa. “Modern and Diabolism: Spatial Organization and Narrative Techniques in Shi Zhecun’s Haunted House (1933).” Writing (xiezuo写作), 2019 (1). 

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2022

Modern Japanese literature, Japanese colonialism, the intersection of gender and colonialism, the intimate spheres and domesticity of the Japanese empire, and East Asian cinema.

I was born in Shanghai. I finished my undergraduate studies at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, focusing on Chinese literature and languages. However, “unfortunately,” I was more interested in the Japanese language and literature than Chinese literature. Maybe the reason is the large number of Japanese animations I have watched since childhood. Then I began to have contact with some modern Japanese literature. I was obsessed with Tanizaki Junichiro, Nakatsuma Atsushi, and Dazai Osamu in college. I studied East Asian Studies at Duke University in 2016, focusing on the CAH track. Aimee Kwon’s  Intimate Empire  greatly inspired me regarding its content and writing style. Leo Ching’s class also taught me how to reflect on colonialism, so I decided to write on Japanese colonialism. I went to study Japanese in Yokohama for one year after graduating from Duke. 

Currently, I am interested in Japanese colonial literature, especially female writers’ works. I am also interested in investigating the legacies of Japanese colonialism. I have been reading some works by Abe Kōbō and Tsushima Yūko. Although I use the word “post-colonial,” we can also argue that the war and colonialism in Japan have never ended. It was shocking to see some righteous left-wing Japanese writers not thoroughly reflect on the problem of Japanese colonialism. 

In my spare time, I watch some movies and Japanese TV dramas. I am a huge fan of Sang-soo Hong and Murakami Haruki, although I do not want to write a paper on him. However, I might write a paper on Sang-soo Hong in the future.

Alice Zheng

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2023

Alice Zheng is a multilingual scholar, poet, and writer. Her current research focuses on transnational women and gender studies, memory, Chinese and/or Sinophone literature and cinemas. Other research interests include the transpacifics, diaspora, literary theory, experimental cinema, archives, poetics and translation. As a poet and writer, she has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and published in journals such as Cutthroat and Santa Ana River Review. Outside of work, she enjoys poetry, music, and traveling.

Cultural Studies

Ngoc Linh Bui

Manuel Carrion Lira

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2019

Materialisms, Post-human Theory, Decoloniality, Contemporary Native American and Indigenous Literature, Indigenous Mapuche Epistemologies, Feminisms, Anticolonial Thought, Two-spirit Theory, New Materialisms, Post-human Theory, Queer Theory, Contemporary Indigenous Art, Contemporary Latin American Art, Film Studies.

M.A., Arte, Pensamiento y Cultura Latinoamericanos, Instituto de Estudios Avanzados, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, 2017 Professional Practice Certificate, Design, Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile, 2013 B.A., Design, Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile, 2012

Professional Experience:

Artist at Residencia de Arte Colaborativo, Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio, Chilean Government, Chile (2017-2019). Postgraduate Coordinator at the Faculty of Arts, Universidad Mayor, Chile (2015-2017). Lecturer at the Faculty of Arts, Universidad Mayor (2014-2017).

I come from a small agro industrial town called Quillota, located in Chile, South America. A place that once was an indigenous metropolis where the Inca, Llolleo, Mapuche, Diaguita, Bato and other ancient cultures shared a common space for intellectual and political development. The traces of that ancient history still remain along with our colonial/modern present. It was in this territory where I experienced homophobia, racism and classism for the first time, it is the place that was most important for shaping my multidimensional sensibility.

I am a non-heterosexual indigenous person. We call ourselves   epupillan   in our mapuche communities, which could be translated as two-spirit for the reality in Turtle Island (North America), since   epu   means two and   pillan   is a reference to an ancient spirit.

As a contemporary   epupillan   artist and thinker, I dedicate my work to analyze remaining colonial continuities in our epistemologies and ontologies rendered as a binary matrix of thought. I am particularly interested in materiality as a critical dimension to understand the paradox of the human/culture divide as well as the active/passive divisions of agency present in our way of organizing our worlds. What does it mean to give form to matter? Does matter participate here or is it just a passive receptacle for the human action? Are non-western practices and epistemologies funded in this same divide?

My work faces these kinds of questions through academic research but also through my artistic collective practice, allowing me to experiment and practice diverse approaches to question the spectator, reader or viewer. The "Catrileo Carrion Community" is our   epupillan   research-creation platform where we can modulate our questions through editorial, audiovisual, curatorial and contemporary art practices that include diverse techniques and resources such as book publications, political memory workshops, indigenous revitalization talks, video-art exhibitions, video-essays projections, archive exhibitions, collective essay writing, wool knitting, and poster and diagram design.

Our community is currently composed of Constanza Araya Miranda (Journalist and social communicator,   epupillan   weaver and author of the radio programs   Lafken Kürruf   and   Wente winkul mew ), Alejandro Carrion Lira ( epupillan   healer and creator), Antonio Catrileo Araya ( epupillan   writer, teacher and weaver) and Manuel Carrion Lira ( epupillan   artist and thinker).

We have published the following books:

• Poyewün Witral: bitácora de la comunidad de tejedoras de Neltume   (Self edited, 2019).   https://issuu.com/catrileocarrion/docs/poyewun_witral_para_issu  
• Torcer la palabra: escrituras obrera-feministas   (Tiempo Robado Editoras, 2018).   https://issuu.com/catrileocarrion/docs/torcer_la_palabra__sinposis_  
• Yikalay pu zomo Lafkenmapu   (Self edited, 2017).   https://issuu.com/catrileocarrion/docs/yikalay_pu_zomo_lafkenmapu   

Bias Collins

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry :  Fall 2018

Bias Collins is a queer, neurodivergent, transgender graduate student in the PhD in Literature program, Cultural Studies emphasis. His primary research focus is on analyzing adaptations of fictional dis/abled figures from literary to visual mediums, particularly in the genres of science fiction, horror, & the gothic. He is keenly interested in exploring the hybridity of morality & mortality in figures of the cyborg, zombie, & vampire and their reliance on dis/ability in their dis/configurations of the human body. His wider areas of research interests include Disability, Queer, Feminst, & Film Studies.

Art Credit : Trein Zuniga https://www.instagram.com/sparebikes/  

Monique Dixon

Erik Christopher Homenick

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry :  Fall 2017

My scholarly interests include representations of monstrosity in literature and films as well as the narrative/semiotic potential of music in films. My doctoral dissertation focuses on the outstanding narrative importance of music, especially by the composer Akira Ifukube, in Godzilla films. Other interests include 17th and 18th century French literature (especially the Marquis de Sade), cinema history, cinema sound, and musicology.

Bachelor's degree in French (Minor in Linguistics), San Diego State University Master's degree in French, San Diego State University

I have worked as a French and Humanities instructor at San Diego State University. Also, I have been an adjunct French professor at Mesa College, City College, and Southwestern College in the San Diego area. I have also served as a French translator for two video game companies, Sony Online Entertainment and Midway Home Entertainment.

Tatum Howey

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry :  Fall 2021

Visual and Media Studies; History of Technology; Poetics; Hermeneutics; Phonetics; Transgender Studies; Performance Studies; History of Representation; Phenomenology; Surveillance Studies; Materiality of Language; Biopolitics

My current focus, on the function of the screen and page as ontological exile for the transgender subject, seeks to examine the failures of representation of its constitutive body and the possible methodologies of self-determination through address, both in narrativization and performance, through which the transgender subject may become legibly constituted. I am currently thinking through both art historical and new media theories of visuality––specifically that from Martin Jay, Hal Foster, and Christian Metz––to research this precarious legibility. My interests are not limited to transgender representation in the arts, and I am currently engaged in a variety of critical theory, including using Walter Benjamin’s studies on toxicity to complete research on the “profane illumination” of Paul Celan’s late poetics and the artist Hamad Butt’s installation pieces that he made while succumbing to AIDS, which contain toxic chemicals. I am also writing through Johann Winckelmann’s theories of imitation and Jacques Derrida’s analysis of the phantasm to emphasize how mimicry and idolatry proliferate in queer communities. I have written on the liberatory force of the gesture for marginalized bodies in both performance and surveillance, and most recently the poetics of transmasculine vocalization through the additive technology of testosterone.

Nilufar Karimi

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

Musicology, sound studies, cinema studies (silent and sound films), gender studies, media technological advance and human mindset

M.A., Critical Asian Humanities, Duke, U.S., 2018 B.A., Chinese Language and Literature, Zhejiang University, China, 2014

Jessica Lizarraga

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

Hegemonic narratives, Post-colonial theory, border literature, transnational literature, and narco archetypes. 

B.A. in English from California State University, Fullerton

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

War and media, East Asian cinema, materiality and materialism, Chinese masculinity and melodrama, celebrity studies, interactive & algorithmic media, senses and media

M.A. in Film and Media Studies, Columbia University B.A. in Media and Communication, Swansea University B.A. in Literature of Theatre, Film and Television, Shandong Normal University

Selected Translation:

(From English to Chinese) 

William Urrichio. “Rethinking Documentary in An Interactive Age” In   Documentary and Methods ： International Forum on Documentary Film  紀錄與方法: 國際記錄影像論壇. Forthcoming.

Jane M. Gaines. “Radical Documentary: World Connection Before & After the Internet.” In   Documentary and Methods ： International Forum on Documentary Film   紀錄與方法: 國際記錄影像論壇. Forthcoming.

Joseph Vogel. 2018. “Whitewashing Slave Rebellion: The Confessions of Quentin Tarantino.” 昆汀·塔倫蒂諾的供詞: 《被解放的姜戈》與“洗白”奴隸起義. In   Contemporary Cinema   當代電影, May 2019, 86-93. 

Patrick F. Campos. 2011. “The Politics of Naming a Movement: Independent Cinema According to the Cinemalaya Congress.” 電影運動之命名論——依照菲律賓Cinemalaya電影大會所定義的獨立電影（2005—2010）. In   Contemporary Cinema  當代電影, July 2018, 101-109. 

(From Chinese to English)

Journal of Beijing Film Academy (ed.) 2019.   Beijing Film Yearbook 2017 , Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2019, 270 pages, ISBN: 9781783209316.

Alick McCallum

Bianca Negrete Coba

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

Chicanx Studies/Literature, Chicana Feminisms, Chicanx Histories, Multiethnic Literature, Critical Race Theory/Studies, Ethnic Studies, Mixed-Race Studies, Critical Gender Studies, Place/Space Studies, Gentrification Studies, Urban Planning/Studies, Prison Studies

BA English, Writing Minor, UC Merced MA Interdisciplinary Humanities, UC Merced

UCSD Literature Department Shen Fellowship, 2020-2024

Jessica Silbaugh-Cowdin

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2019

Jess Silbaugh-Cowdin is a queer nonbinary (she/they) PhD student in Cultural Studies at the University of California, San Diego. She studies theories of affect and emotion through emergent strategies in visionary and radical forms of contemporary speculative fiction and film. She also attended Clarion West Writers' Workshop in 2016, and she writes and edits speculative fiction in her free time.

BA, Psychology (minor in English), 2011 MA, Literature and Culture (emphasis on film), 2018 

Affect Theory, Emotion, Speculative Fiction and Film, Visionary Fiction, Octavia Butler, Speculative Imagination, Critical Fabulation, Black Radicalism, Emergent Strategies, Decolonial Methodologies, Environmental and Restorative Justice, Ecotheory, Black Feminist Thought, Queer Feminist Liberatory Practices, Queer & Feminist Theories, Anti-Colonial Pedagogy, Popular Culture

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2019

Animal studies, the alterity of animal, animal representation in different forms of art, Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature.

I was born and grow up in Beijing, China. During 2009-2016, I studied Tourism Management and Chinese Literature in Soochow University, which is in Suzhou, a city famous for its rivers and bridges in southern China. I finished my East Asian Studies MA program in Duke University in 2018.

Reem Taşyakan

Anglophone Arab literature; Diaspora studies; Arabic literature in translation; Arab-American cultural studies; Middle East cultural studies; Arab-American ethnic and racial studies; Post-colonial studies; Arabic literary translation and translation theory; Modern Middle East history

From 2013-2019, I was a lecturer at San Diego State University and University of San Diego where I taught courses in Arabic literature in translation, Arab-American literature, and Middle East culture while conducting course-related and independent research. From 2011-2015, I worked in the translation industry performing Arabic to English translations and coordinating translation and interpreting projects for individuals, non-profit organizations, and corporations.

M.A., Middle East and North African Studies (MENAS), University of Arizona, 2011 B.A., Creative Writing, University of Arizona, 2004

Evelyn Vasquez

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2019

I am from East LA, Lincoln Heights (Clifton St., Ave 28, and Ave 26) and worked on Whittier Blvd. and Arizona Ave. throughout my childhood up to an adult. Triqua for life. I rep sopes from King Taco all day every day. Rap is my harmony. Cumbias are my jams. 

B.A., English (Literature, Criticism, and Theory Emphasis), University of California, Davis, 2016  Pasadena City College (2008-2013) 

Research Interests: 

I am currently interested in researching depictions of impoverished housing in the American city novel (late 19th and early 20th century). In these depictions, I investigate how authors detail the architecture of housing and the narrative structure in which they design living spaces in the city. Some of my previous research experience includes studying the tenement in American comics and urban documentation (planning for low-income housing and communities). Some of my more specific research has included analyzing comic book panels and tenement architectural drawings in Will Eisner’s  A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories  (1978).

Professional Experience :

While an undergraduate student, I studied abroad at Oxford, England and Santiago, Chile. After graduating from UC Davis in 2016, I worked at Pasadena City College, where I assisted students with transfer resources and provided personal statement workshops. I worked at Aspires West Pasadena, an after-school program, dedicated to fill in academic gaps. Some of the community work I have done include organizing a low-income housing community meeting to bring awareness of the housing changes occurring in the Lincoln Heights Neighborhood (2018) and the impact on the neighborhood residents. I conducted geography and reading workshops for Lincoln Heights youth in the summers of 2012 and 2013 at the local library and low-income housing center. 

Awards:  

Interdisciplinary Research Award, Graduate & Professional Student Association, UC San Diego (05/2022)  Jewish Studies Fellowship, UC San Diego (07/2021 & 2020 ) Sawyer Seminar Fellowship, UC San Diego (03/2021)  Student Training Academy for Research Success (STARS) Fellowship (09/2019) Fulbright U.S. Student Program, Teaching Assistant (09/2018) University of California Education Abroad Program Scholarship (UCEAP) (01/2016)     Mentorship for Undergraduate Research in Agriculture, Letters and Science (MURALS) (2015 & 2013)

Constance Von Igel De Mello

Chenfeng Wang

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

East Asian film and literature, memory and trauma studies, non-fiction and documentary studies, transcultural and transmedia adaptation studies

M.A., East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania, 2020 M.A., History, Tsinghua University, 2018 B.A., Chinese Language and Literature (Minor in Journalism), Tsinghua University, 2015

Shiya Zhang

Chengfan Zhou

Literatures in english.

Laala Al-Jaber

Email Address :   Contact Department Year of Entry : Fall 2016

The rise of the novel; Victorian literature; Gender Studies; Film Studies; Literatures of migration, passing, and mobility; Psychoanalysis; The Harlem Renaissance; Ethnic Studies; Performativity; Literary representations of The Other; Popular Culture Studies

I was the literature and popular fiction librarian at the Qatar National Library for two years. At UCSD, I worked as a graduate student researcher and served as a teaching assistant in the Warren Writing Program. While earning my master’s degree in comparative literature at Dartmouth, I worked on an oral history project and conducted interviews with undergraduates. I served as an intern for the ABA Journal and the CQ Researcher while pursuing my journalism degree at Northwestern. I am fluent in English and Arabic.

M.A. in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth College 2013 B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University in Qatar 2012

Joanmarie Bañez

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry :  Fall 2019

Joanmarie Bañez is a PhD candidate in the Literatures in English section. She is from Atlanta, Georgia, where she completed her BA and MA in English literary studies at Georgia State University. She studies aesthetics and narratology in multiethnic literature of the U.S. from the 19th-century to the present; kinship and transracial adoption narratives; and Asian American diaspora in the U.S. South. Her work can be found in the   South Atlantic Review   and   The Georgia Review .

M.A., English (Literary Studies), Georgia State University, 2019 B.A., English (Spanish minor), Georgia State University, 2017 Universidad de Málaga, Spring Semester 2016

Steven Beardsley

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry :  Fall 2018

Filipino/x American & Filipino/x Spanish American Literature of the 20th to 21st century; 19th and 20th Century American, Latin American, and Spanish Literatures; queer theory, particularly queer people of color critique and queer diasporic studies; Asian American, African American, Indigenous American, and Transpacific Literatures; psychoanalysis; feminist theory and queer masculinities; postcolonial studies and the subaltern; identity construction, subjectivity, and nationalizing projects; ecocriticism; and media and popular culture. I am currently interested in reading the intersections between Filipino and Filipinx American Literature and Indigenous Literature from the Philippines through a Queer Decolonizing framework.

Research Skills:

I am fluent in Spanish, and I conducted an interdepartmental honors project between the English and Modern Languages Departments at Hamline University in Minnesota titled:

“Revolution, Redemption, and Romance: Reading Constructions of Filipino Spanish American Identities and Politics of Knowledge in Rizal’s  Noli me Tangere  and  El Filibusterismo  alongside Filipino American Fiction.” This ninety paged project is published in the  Hamline Digital Commons . A section of it is also published through the  National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) 2016 proceedings .

I have two years of experience teaching English as a second language to Spanish and Russian speakers. I taught for the Center for Interamerican Studies (CEDEI) in Cuenca, Ecuador for one year (2016-2017). I then taught for Berlitz in San Luis Potosi, Mexico for one year (2017-2018). I also taught for Skyeng an online school based in Russia for three months (June-September 2018). I also have experience working as an independent contractor for the Center for Global Environmental Education (CGEE) where I helped design and write a  blog  discussing environmental education topics such as water conservation and alternative energy.

More about me on my  Linkedin profile

Mayra Cortes

Email Address :  Contact Department Year of Entry :  Fall 2015

"New World" Travel Writing English and Spanish Colonialism Transatlantic Studies Sound Studies Literary Histories of Class, Race, and Labor  Decoloniality Indigenous Studies Utopian/dystopian fiction

Nolan Dannels

Hannah Friederike Doermann

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry :  Fall 2017

Academic Background: C.Phil., English Literature, Graduate Specialization in Critical Gender Studies, UCSD, 2020 M.A., Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College, 2017 B.A., English Literature, Spanish & Queer Studies, Denison University, 2016 Research Fields: Children’s and Young Adult Literature Studies; Youth and Childhood Studies; Girl Studies; Fan Studies; Queer Studies; Critical Whiteness Studies; Ecocriticism Dissertation: Hannah Doermann’s dissertation, “Girls Will Be Girls: Reimagining Girlhood in Contemporary Young Adult Literature,” explores the racial politics of models of girlhood in Young Adult literature (YA). Employing theories of temporality from queer studies, postcolonial studies, and youth and childhood studies, this dissertation argues that YA takes girls seriously in the present moment and reimagines girlhood as a state of being rather than a state of becoming in service of the nation. Using different engagements with girlhood in YA as a site to explore the racial politics of this marketing category, she traces its history from its establishment as a marketing category for middle-class white girls to the predominance of neoliberal diversity politics and emphasizing interventions by YA authors of color who explore girlhood as a racialized category. Merging analyses of YA novels and girls’ online discussions of YA, this dissertation bridges of the gap between the study of literature for young people and young people themselves, intervening in the central debate in Childhood Studies about the slippage between the discursive category of childhood and the materiality of actual children by reading YA as a site that discursively constructs girlhood and is simultaneously shaped by the lived experiences of actual girls. Publications: “Embracing the ‘Silly Teen Girl’: Intergenerational Feminism, Perpetual Girlhood, and the   Twilight   Renaissance.”   Children’s Literature Association Quarterly,   accepted pending revisions. “Against Ecocidal Environmentalism: Anti-Capitalist, Queer & Decolonial Critiques of Mainstream Environmentalism in Lilliam Rivera’s   Dealing in Dreams .”   The Lion and the Unicorn , vol. 45, no. 2, April 2021, pp. 137-153. Teaching Experience: Instructor of Record, Literature Department, UCSD Girls in Literature (Summer 2022) Vampires in Literature (Spring 2022) Young Adult Literature (Summer 2021) Instructor of Record, Critical Gender Studies Program, UCSD Sexuality & Nation (Summer 2022)

Óscar Fernando García

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry :  Fall 2021

Research interests:

Latinx/Chicanx Studies; Queer Literatures and Theory; Critical Race Theory; Decoloniality; Media Studies; Vagrancy

Academic background:

B.A. English, Spanish (Literary Journalism minor), University of California, Irvine, 2021

Aimee Jurado

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

Aimee Jurado received her B.A. in English at California State University, Fullerton in December of 2019. Currently, she is a first-year Literature Ph.D. student at UCSD on the English Literature track. Her research interests include 19th-20th century American literature, American identity, and African American and Asian-American narratives. Outside of school and work, Aimee enjoys spending time with her family, friends, and dogs. She is an advocate for equitable education and higher education, and she hopes to weave this personal passion into her professional work.

19th-20th century American literature, American identity, African American and Asian-American narratives and their role in defining American identity, Victorian literature and its impact on American character, food as symbols in literature, and food fiction.  

LinkedIn Profile:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/aimee-jurado-22b643117/

Trung T. Le

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2017

Theory and Criticism, with focus on post(-)colonialism; film aesthetics; world literatures, especially Pacific literatures and Vietnamese literatures; cultural studies; linguistics; comparative literature; modernist and postmodernist literature

Current Research Areas:

The intersection of the body, the nation, and gender in the formation of identity; practices of encoding the body: the digital, the tattoo, bio-chemical and social influences on the body and behaviour; interdisciplinary studies: postcolonial theory, post-colonial period, and Vietnamese/Pacific literary zones.

Samuel Lyons

Kellie Miller

Matthew Moore

Barışcan Ozkuzey

Maya Richards

Camille Uglow

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2022

Early Modern English and French drama, Early Modern English and French literature, ecocriticism, dramaturgy, performance studies, Renaissance studies, eco-Shakespeare, environmental humanities

“On Overthinking.” Alchemy , Issue 22, August 2023 (creative translation)  https://quote.ucsd.edu/alchemy/on-overthinking/

Conference Presentations: 

“Shakespeare’s Blue Globe: An Ecocritical Examination of A Midsummer Night’s Dream ,” Writing Environments: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air Symposium, Literature Department, University of California, San Diego, June 2023

Academic Background: 

B.A. in Literature (General Literature, Intensive), University of California, Santa Cruz, 2021

Vyxz Vasquez

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry :  Fall 2021

Protest Literature, Translation, Creative Writing, Asian American Studies, Poetry, Philippine Literature, Police Archives, Filipino Diaspora

MA in Creative Writing, University of the Philippines, 2019 BA in Creative Writing, University of the Philippines, 2012

Phuong T. Vuong

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

critical race theory, gender studies, queer theory, constructions of knowledge and the subject, Asian American studies, decolonial/settler colonial studies, 20 th and 21 st century multi-ethnic U.S. literature.

Phuong T. Vuong is a Vietnamese American poet and writer from Oakland. She is a PhD candidate whose critical research explores Asian/American women and queer writers and artists' work with the archives, creative refusal of recognition, and relations to land and water. Phuong is the author of two poetry collections including  A Plucked Zither  (Red Hen Press, 2023), which won the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award 2021. She has publications in  American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry ,  Prairie Schooner,  The Asian American Writers' Workshop:  The Margins,  and elsewhere. Her reviews and interviews have been published in journals such as  The Rumpus  and  The Adroit Journal . She often writes to interrogate language, migration, race, gender and other topics related to her research. You can find out more about her work at  phuongthaovuong.com .

MA in Literature, University of California- San Diego, 2023 MFA in Creative Writing, University of Colorado- Boulder, 2020 BA in Black Studies, Amherst College, 2009

Literatures in Spanish

Jessica Aguilar

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2017

Master of Arts in Spanish, New Mexico State University (2016) Bachelor of Arts with majors in Spanish Literature and Latin American Studies, University of California, San Diego  (2014) University of California, Education Abroad Program at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (2012)

!9 th  Century Latin American Literature Contemporary Mexican Literature Critical Race Theory Critical Gender Studies Critical Ethnic Studies Decoloniality Narco-Politics Politics of Death  Critical Migration and Refugee Studies Central American Transmigration Studies Border Studies

At New Mexico State University, Jessica conducted research on Spanish Language Acquisition and Teaching Methodology for Heritage and Second Language Learners. Through the implementation of Case Studies, Survey Research, and Critical Discourse Analysis, she was able to present a Didactic Unit specifically designed for teaching Spanish to Heritage Learners. In addition, as a UCSD Competitive Edge fellow (2017), Jessica also worked on a project that took from Fredric Jameson’s concept of “National Allegory” to analyze the relationship between the mutilated body and neoliberal economic practices in Salvadoran short stories published between 1990-2000.

Jessica Aguilar is originally from the San Ysidro/Tijuana border region and a first-generation, low-income, transfronteriza student. She graduated from UCSD in 2014 with BAs in Latin American Studies and Spanish Literature and received a Master’s Degree in Spanish from New Mexico State University in 2016. While at NMSU, Jessica volunteered for the College Assistant Migrant Program, worked closely with the Center for Latin American and Border Studies, and was a member of literary workshop Pizca a las 6:30. Upon her return to San Diego, Jessica worked closely with unaccompanied migrant children from Central American backgrounds, something she continues to do during the summer time. 

Jessica is a founder and current Co-Chair of the Latina Doctoral Student Collective at UCSD. She also works for the Raza Resource Centro as a Graduate Learning Specialist (GLS), where she assists in the facilitation of high impact learning components of the Raza Research and Conference Program, and coaches undergraduate Latinx/Chicanx students in the creation of pathways to post-baccalaureate opportunities. 

Marisol Cuong

Yingjie Fei

Email Address :   [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

Decolonizing theories Colombian armed conflict  Dirty war State terrorism  Nadaísmo Narratives on violence Chinese community and diaspora in Latin America

Spanish-Chinese translation and interpretation Translation work:  [Chinese] Mutis, Álvaro.   Relatos De Mar y Tierra .

Veronica Perez Garcia

Carolina Ramirez Moreno

Ana Villalpando

Andrea Zelaya

• Dissertation Defenses & Qualifying Exams

In Memoriam

Sarah Jo Mayville

• Graduate Students

Prospective Graduate Students

Graduate admissions.

The Bioengineering graduate program at UC San Diego is one of the top in the country and actively seeks the brightest students. This section contains information about the requirements and procedures for applying to the Bioengineering program. Please look over it carefully, as it may answer many of your questions.

Note: per university policy, generally “duplication of advanced academic degrees—MA, MS, PhD—is not permitted. A duplicate academic degree is one at the same level (e.g., a second master’s degree or second PhD), regardless of the discipline or the specialization awarding the degree. A professional degree at the master’s or doctoral level(e.g., AuD, DMA, EdD, MAS, MBA, MCEPA, MEd, MEng, MF, MFA, MIA, MPAc, MPP, MD, PharmD) is not regarded as a duplicate of an academic degree.” Please keep this in mind when considering an application to any of the Bioengineering programs. 

If you do have questions, please reach out to an advisor via email at [email protected] . In your email please include which graduate degree program(s) you are interested in so advisors can better assist you.

APPLICATION

The application deadline for all Bioengineering graduate degree programs for Fall 2024 has passed. We are not accepting any additional applications. 

The application for Fall 2025 will be made available beginning in early September 2024. Please check this page again at that time for more information about the Fall 2025 application.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

NOTE: Effective Fall 2022 and thereafter the GRE is no longer required for admission, and we do not recommend submitting scores.

• Submit via the online application
• Limit of 1200 words (approximately 2 pages)

A helpful guide to get started is available on the website of the Division of Graduate Education & Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) at https://grad.ucsd.edu/admissions/requirements/statement-of-purpose.html

• Submit via the online application directly by the recommender. Further instructions on how recommenders upload letters are available in the application.
• Letters can be submitted via Interfolio.
• Letters of recommendation should come from individuals who can attest to your academic and/ or professional competencies and to the depth of your interest in pursuing graduate study. Letters can come from faculty, instructors, and/ or professional supervisors. Letters should not come from family members or other students, including graduate students.
• Applications may be submitted before all letters are received, but the letters are still due by the same deadline as the application since the Admissions Committee begins reviewing applications as soon as the deadline has passed.
• Request the Educational Testing Service (ETS) send official scores to UC San Diego Institutional Code 4836. A department code is not needed.
• We require applicants to have a minimum overall TOEFL score of 85 with a minimum speaking score of 23 or higher. For IELTS, applicants must have a minimum overall band score and speaking score of 7.0 or higher
• Information about exceptions to the English Language Proficiency Requirement can be found on the GEPA website  here .
• Applicants may upload transcripts directly to the online application for initial review. Please view the uploaded transcripts for clarity. Illegible transcripts will disqualify an application from review. 
• Do not send official transcripts until requested to do so. If admitted, applicants will be given instructions on how to submit official transcripts from all prior institutions.

Please see the GEPA website here for information about possible application fee waivers. At this time, these are the only fee waiver options available.

FUNDING INFORMATION

More detailed information about financial support can be found on our Financial Support page.

The Department supports most full-time Ph.D. students. Financial support is available in the form of fellowships, traineeships, and research assistantships (GSRs). Sources of funding include university fellowships and traineeships from National Institutes of Health (NIH) training grants. Awarding of financial support is competitive, and includes a stipend in accordance with requirements outlined in the UCOP-UAW Collective Bargaining Agreement for Graduate Student Reseachers for the academic year in addition to the coverage of tuition, fees, and health insurance. 

U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents must establish California Residency by the start of the second year as Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition (NRST) will only be paid in the first year. More information about establishing California Residency for tuition purposes can be found on the Registrars’ Office website at https://students.ucsd.edu/finances/fees/residence/about.html .

This does not apply to international students.   

The Department does not offer financial support to students at the M.S. or M.Eng. level. Masters students are encouraged to seek information on how to fund their education from the sources listed in the “Financial Support Links” section below. 

UC San Diego Student Financial Services

UC San Diego  Division of Graduate Education & Postdoctoral Affairs

National Institutes of Health

National Science Foundation

UC San Diego Career Services Center

For further information, please contact us at  [email protected]  or call (858) 822-1604.

Our office is located at:

University of California, San Diego, Bioengineering Graduate Student Affairs, 9500 Gilman Drive - MC 0419, La Jolla, CA 92093-0419

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Financial Support

Non-uc visiting graduate students.

Participation of Visiting Graduate Students (VGS) in research activities at UC San Diego is inherently beneficial for the University, its current students and faculty, the VGS, and the home institution. Not only does such participation increase UC San Diego’s international profile, but the inclusion of diverse perspectives accelerates the progress of research and enriches the campus climate. In addition, VGS may bring specific expertise to a given research problem that is not available on campus, and their involvement can strengthen and cement collaborative interactions between UC San Diego faculty and international colleagues.

A Visiting Graduate Student is a pre‐doctoral graduate student (PhD, MA, MS, MBA, MD, or DO) pursuing research at UC San Diego related to their degree program at their home institution. If you are currently enrolled in a graduate degree program at another University of California (UC) campus or at San Diego State University, visit this website for more information on exchange programs .

A Visiting Scholar is normally a scholar from another university, research institution, government agency or non-profit organization on leave from his/her home institution who visits the University for the purposes of participating in a University-sponsored educational program, cooperative agreement, or collaborative research project under the supervision of a UC San Diego faculty, for a short period of time. (see Visiting Scholars )

System Access

The appointment submission process for the VGS is through the Visiting Graduate Student Appointment System (VGSAS) .  VGSAS is an online administrative portal and database.

To request Department Administrator access to VGSAS, an authorized individual (MSO) must submit a ticket to Services & Support or send an e-mail to [email protected] .  Once authorized, the Department Administrator will have the authority to assign users and user roles for the Sponsoring Department.

A user’s manual can be found under the heading Documentation  upon logging into the system. In addition, staff who would like to be added to the Visiting Graduate Students staff mailing list can sign up here: Graduate Financial Support FAQs (see Graduate Student Financial Support Listservs) .

Submission Deadlines

Domestic visitors.

• Appointment material should be submitted and routed to the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs at least 1 month in advance of the start date.

International Visitors

• Appointment material should be submitted and routed to the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairsat least 3 months in advance of the start date, and earlier for international visitors who require a visa.
• Once the VGS Appointment Form has been approved, the sponsoring department or ORU will submit the appropriate visa paperwork to the International Faculty and Scholar Office (IFSO) at Global Initiatives . International students coming on F1-STEM should also note the new F-1 STEM OPT Extension Protocol below.
• Students applying for J‐1 visas should review potential visa term restrictions at: http://ifso.ucsd.edu/dept‐facilitators/j1/index.html#Minimum‐Financial‐Support  

Eligibility

A Visiting Graduate Student is a pre‐doctoral graduate student (PhD, MA, MS, MBA, MD, or DO) pursuing research at UC San Diego related to their degree program at their home institution. The VGS must be enrolled in a degree-granting program or equivalent at an institution of higher education other than the University of California, and be physically present at UC San Diego for the duration of the appointment. The UC appointment must serve an academic purpose for the unit in which they are visiting. 

A VGS should be sufficiently advanced in their course of study at their home institution to be able to contribute meaningfully to ongoing research at UC San Diego without significant additional training (typically, in or beyond the third year of study, depending on the discipline). They should also be able to demonstrate sufficient oral and written language proficiency to enable them to participate fully both in research activities and in the social and cultural life of the campus.

VGS will not be permitted to enroll in UC San Diego courses for credit unless they do so via Extension, with payment of appropriate fees by either the student or their home institution. VGS may be permitted to audit UC San Diego courses with permission of the instructor. A VGS may not be enrolled in any degree program at UC San Diego.

Appointment into this title is not for physicians with patient care or researchers with clinical activity. For an appropriate appointment, contact the School of Medicine’s Dean’s Office .

Department Responsibility

Prior to the visitor's arrival, the appointment must be approved, via the Visiting Graduate Student Appointment System (VGSAS), by a Faculty Sponsor, the department chair or organized research unit (ORU) director, and the Dean of the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs.  

Acceptance of a VGS implies a commitment on the part of the host faculty member and/or department to provide, at a minimum, appropriate mentoring. Departments or programs with significant numbers of VGS should also consider arranging events to orient such students to practical and social aspects of campus life as well as US research culture, and to promote their continued engagement. In formal programs, it would be desirable to negotiate a contribution from the home institution to support such activities.

Titles and Appointment Criteria

Non-salaried visiting graduate student - visitor graduate (wos) job code 003730.

• A non-salaried VGS receives financial support for their visit from their home institution (grant, fellowship/scholarship) or personal funds.  See “Compensation” below for support level requirements.
• A non-salaried VGS does not receive financial support from their UC San Diego faculty sponsor. 
• Workers Compensation coverage is not provided to a Non‐salaried VGS.
• Effective August 2021:  Non-salaried Visiting Graduate Students must be entered into UCPath.

Salaried Visiting Graduate Student - Junior Specialist Job Codes 003329/003330

• A salaried VGS may receive partial or full support from their UC San Diego faculty sponsor via the Junior Specialist Title.  Approval for this title must be requested in advance by submitting an appointment to the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs. See “Compensation” below for support level requirements.
• All VGS are prohibited from being appointed as a Lecturer at UC San Diego or any title covered by the UAW/ASE contract with the UC system.
• For payroll entry guidelines, please see Chapter 10: Visiting Graduate Students in the Graduate Student Employment Policy & Procedures .
• Salaried VGS are eligible for Workers’ Compensation at UC San Diego if injured in the course and scope of their employment.

Terms of Service

• VGS may be appointed up to one year at a time. 
• Appointments may be extended up to an additional year without a break in service for a total of two years maximum with appropriate justification.  Departments requesting to extend a VGS appointment for longer than one year must attach a letter of exception to the amended application.  

Appointments Shorter Than 6 Months

• All VGS engaged in research activities at UC San Diego, and appointed for six months or less, must have financial support that meets the J-1 visa requirement of $2400 per month.

Appointments Longer Than 6 Months

• All VGS appointed for more than six months must have financial support comparable to that available to UC San Diego graduate students enrolled in similar disciplinary programs for the duration of their appointment. The source of support may come from their home institution (fellowship/scholarship or grant), personal funds, and/or salary from UC San Diego.
• Please see the following chart for a list of financial support levels by degree major: Visiting Graduate Student Compensation Levels .
• Regardless of the source of support, under no circumstances will the appointment of a VGS be approved if the visitor will receive support less than the minimum requirement for J1 visa holders. Under no circumstances should involvement of a VGS detract from financial support and/or resources that would be otherwise available to registered UC San Diego graduate students whether domestic or international.
• An exception approval is required when a department is requesting a salaried VGS appointment above the amount paid to a registered UC San Diego graduate student in a comparable department. 

  Junior Specialists

• I n all cases the maximum monthly dollar amount for the Junior Specialist title will be the Step 1 rate for Junior Specialists on the Represented Specialist Series, Table 24B .

Visiting Graduate Student Processing Fee

Each Visiting Graduate Student (VGS) is required to pay a $100 nonrefundable processing fee .  This is a one‐time fee that covers a period of stay up to 2 years. An additional $100 nonrefundable processing fee will be charged in the following instance: 

• there is a > 30‐day break in the appointment period and a new appointment packet is required

There are two options to pay the processing fee: 1) upon arrival at UC San Diego, the VGS may pay the fee directly at the UC San Diego Cashier's Office, or 2) the Sponsoring Department may pay the fee via UC San Diego recharge.  In all cases , the Sponsoring Department must supply an index number when submitting the original VGS appointment to the Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA).

The processing fee is due on the 15th of the month following the appointment start date. For example, if the appointment begins October 1, the fee must be paid no later than November 15. If the VGS does not pay the fee by the deadline, the fee will be automatically recharged to the Sponsoring Department. For this reason, it is imperative that Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) is notified of any changes to the appointment period.

Application Procedure/Appointment Packet

All VGS must have a UC San Diego faculty sponsor who will host the visit. Prospective VGS should first contact the department chair or faculty with whom they would like to work and request an invitation. The host faculty and/or department are responsible for preparing and submitting the appointment packet three months prior to the visitor's arrival, in addition to preparing for the arrival (arranging for office space, if applicable). VGS may not enter the lab or university facility without an official approved appointment .

Dates of Visit

Start date of appointment should be a date in the future; GEPA will not accept retroactive appointment begin dates.

Summary of Research Project   

The proposed summary of research should include the specific activities and duties the applicant will perform during their visit

The following documents will be required to be uploaded in VGSAS as a condition of the VGS appointment approval process. All documents must be submitted in English.

• Current Curriculum Vitae
• Current Proof of Registration (i.e. copy of current transcript or letter from home institution) as a graduate student (PhD, Masters, or MD)
• Proof of Health Insurance, submit a copy of the completed UC San Diego International Center "Form C: Health Insurance Memorandum of Understanding"
• Once the updated form is complete, it can be uploaded to the VGS application for the visitor and kept at the department level. Do not send the completed oath/patent form to GEPA.

Export Control

Before agreeing to host a VGS from a foreign country, please review the information from the UC San Diego Export Control Office. That office can provide further guidance if there is a specific concern. http://blink.ucsd.edu/sponsor/exportcontrol/

Appointment Extension

The appointment extension process for the VGS is through the Visiting Graduate Student Appointment System (VGSAS). 

The following document is required when the VGS/Sponsoring Department is requesting an appointment extension:

• Current proof of registration and/or transcript from the home institution
• Exception letter (if applicable)

NOTE: By UCOP policy, the maximum stay for VGS is a total of 2 years.  Extensions are only considered for VGS who have not met this maximum.  VGS exceeding the 2 year maximum may want to pursue admission to UC San Diego to complete their degree.

F-1 STEM OPT extension : New regulations governing the F-1 STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) extension are in effect as of May 10th, 2016 . In order for UC San Diego to either continue to employ or hire new F-1 students during their STEM OPT period, the institution must meet new requirements. Students will be responsible for alerting their departments to their need for STEM extension support, and departments will have to decide to either meet these new requirements or sponsor students in an alternative visa classification that provides work authorization. For more information, see:  http://blink.ucsd.edu/HR/supervising/hiring/staff/f1-stem-opt.html

Health Insurance

It is required that all VGS have health insurance coverage 24 hours a day, including time spent at UC San Diego conducting research.

Effective September 1, 2014, this requirement must be met through:

• The UC San Diego Visiting Scholar Benefit Plan offered by Garnett-Powers
• Another insurer
• Be provided by the student’s home country

To enroll in the Plan offered by Garnett-Powers, visit http://clients.garnett-powers.com/vs/ucsd/ or call toll free 1-888-441-3719.  Note: The VGS appointment must be approved by the Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) prior to enrollment in the Plan. 

If the VGS has other insurance, certain requirements must  be met to waive the UC San Diego Plan.  If the VGS is international with his/her own coverage, that coverage must also meet these standards that meet or exceed the J-1 Visa requirements, as well as provide this same coverage to the student’s eligible dependents.  The minimum levels of coverage that must be offered through the student’s own insurance can be found on Form C, here.

If the student’s insurance meets these requirements, he/she may request a waiver (to decline coverage) for the Plan.  Instructions on how to submit a waiver can be found here:  http://clients.garnett-powers.com/vs/ucsd/waiver/ .

Benefits and Services

VGS will be provided access to the following campus services regardless of their source of support:

• Campus ID card (see Affiliates categories, Visiting graduate)
• Library privileges
• Discount rates to special events
• Eligibility to enroll in Garnett‐Powers and Associates Visiting Academic Benefit Plan
• Eligibility to purchase RIMAC (recreational facility) card
• Visa sponsorship (F1 opt, J, or B)
• UC San Diego email account (policy varies by department)
• Individual recharge accounts (policy varies by department)

Other Resources

• Off Campus Housing: http://students.ucsd.edu/campus-services/housing/off campus/
• La Jolla Del Sol (UC San Diego Affiliated Housing): http://hdh.ucsd.edu/arch/ljds.asp
• Parking:  http://blink.ucsd.edu/facilities/transportation
• Questions regarding visas should be directed to International Center: http://icenter.ucsd.edu
• Other Visiting Scholars: http://blink.ucsd.edu/sponsor/ora/appoint-visiting.html

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Graduate Student Resources

FINANCIAL SUPPORT Academic Student Employment Positions ( go ) Travel Funding ( go ) Residency Requirements ( go ) Direct Deposit ( go )

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT INFORMATION

HEALTH BENEFITS

STUDENT SURVIVAL SKILLS

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

All graduate students at UC San Diego are responsible for tuition and fees  each quarter in order to utilize University resources.  Students can receive financial support to help cover these costs in the forms of fellowships, scholarships, and academic student employment positions.  To be eligible for financial support, graduate students must be registered full-time (12 units) and be in good academic standing .

Departmental fellowships are provided to the most oustanding applicants to the Ph.D. program though the generous support of the Jacobs School of Engineering.  These awards are very competitive and not all applicants who are offered admission are offered departmental fellowships.  Throughout the year, other fellowships and awards are available to all graduate students.  Students are encouraged to follow this link for a list of annual fellowships and awards .

Currently, there is no funding provided by the department for MS students. For more information on financial support, please see "Additional Resources" below.

Academic Student Employment Positions

Both Ph.D. and M.S. students are eligible for the appointments listed below, but priority is given to Ph.D. students.  Appointments are quantified by a percentage based on a 40-hour work week (i.e., 100% = 40 hours per week; 50% = 20 hours per week; 25% = 10 hours per week).  Graduate students cannot work more than 50% during the academic year, or 100% during the summer.

Graduate Student Researcher (GSR)

Paid research positions are available via grants awarded to faculty members.  Students employed as GSRs at 25% or above qualify for GSR Tuition and Fee Remission which covers all tuition, fees, and nonresident student tuition (if applicable).  Students should talk to their faculty advisor for availability.

Pay rates are posted on  the Graduate Division website . MATS M.S. students are paid at the Step 1 GSR rate, and Ph.D. students are paid at the Step 3 GSR rate until they advance to candidacy, after which time they are paid at the Step 4 GSR rate 4.

Teaching Assistant (TA) / Reader

Teaching Assistants and Readers are hired on a quarterly basis to support teaching instruction.  Appointment percentages are assigned based on course enrollment.  Students in the MAE and MATS Departments will be notified when quarterly applications are open.  Students can also apply for positions in other departments on the UCSD Open Positions website .  Offers are typically extended one month prior to the start of the quarter.  Students employed as TAs or Readers 25% and above are eligible for TA Fee Remission which covers the majority of resident tuition and fees.  The Teaching + Learning Commons offers training opportunities for TAs and future faculty members.  

Before they can be appointed as a teaching assistants, all  international graduate students  at UCSD are required to demonstrate a high level of oral and aural competence in the English language. International students must contact  [email protected]  to schedule an English Language Certification Examination (ELCE) as soon as they are offered their  first  TA position. The ELCE must be taken during finals week or the week after to be eligible to work as a TA the following quarter. Students can  follow this link for more information on the ELCE .

All new Associates In, Teaching Assistants, Readers, and Tutors must attend the New Academic Student Employee (ASE) Orientation.  Department staff will distribute orientation information as they are scheduled.

Pay rates are posted on  the Graduate Division website .

Visit Graduate Division's website for additional information regarding  support for student parents .

Fee Remission

Graduate Students hired as Instructional Assistants at 25% or above are eligible for Fee Remission which covers the majority of Resident Tuition and Fees.  The TA Fee Deferment Program allows graduate students appointed at a minimum of 25% for the entire quarter to pay the balance of their registration fees (excluding nonresident supplemental tuition) through payroll deduction.

Travel Funding

The MATS Department provides travel grants of up to $1,000 per fiscal year (July - June) to Ph.D. students presenting their work at conferences. Applicants must be in good academic standing and must be registered for the quarter during which the conference takes place. Students applying for grants during the summer must have been registered during the preceding spring quarter.

To apply for travel funding, Ph.D. students must submit an  MATS Ph.D. Student Travel Grant Form prior to booking travel arrangements . If approved, the student will receive a confirmation email from the MATS Student Affairs Office with the award amount. Payment of funds will be processed as a reimbursement.

The GSA also has funds available for graduate and professional students;  follow this link for more information .

Residency Requirements

Non-residents of the state of California must establish residency immediately upon entering the State.  If students do not establish residency by the end of their first year of study, out of state tuition WILL NOT BE COVERED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.  This means that even if a student holds a TA or Graduate Student Researcher position, the out of state tuition will not be covered under these jobs.

Establishing residency can be a lengthy and frustrating experience. Students are encouraged to start with this  residency information  and read it thoroughly from beginning to end. Departments can't answer questions about residency because it involves laws of the State of California. All questions must be sent to the Residence Deputy.

International students will have nonresident student tuition waived for three years after successful completion of the Senate Examination.

Direct Deposit

In order to avoid payment delays, it is highly recommended that students enroll in direct deposit.  There are three forms of direct deposit for graduate students:

• Student Business Services : Stipend payments for domestic  students 
• Payroll : TA, Reader and GSR employment checks.  Students will be unable to enroll in this form of direct deposit until they have completed hiring paperwork and an employee number has been generated.  Students may opt to enroll in the Aline ADP Pay Card .
• Disbursements : Travel and other personal reimbursements

Additional Resources

• Tuition and Fees
• Registration Fees
• UCSD Graduation Division
• UCSD Financial Aid Office
• Tax Information
• JSOE support for PhD students transitioning to a new advisor

The International Student & Programs Office (ISPO) is a multi-purpose facility created to foster cross-cultural exchange and international education for the UC San Diego campus community. The International Student & Programs Office provides services and programs for UC San Diego's 4,000+ international students and scholars and for approximately 500 study abroad participants. Services include orientation, visa and immigration regulation advising, personal academic advising, and travel document issuance. Please contact ISPO for all questions and concerns regarding the student visa process.

Here are some helpful pages on the ISPO website:

• iPortal Instructions: https://ispo.ucsd.edu/submit-request/instructions-troubleshooting.html
• Resources for Campus Partners: https://ispo.ucsd.edu/campus-partners/index.html
• Recent Immigration Policy Updates: https://ispo.ucsd.edu/news/immigration-policy.html
• Contacting ISPO: https://icontact.ucsd.edu

HEALTH BENEFITS   ( Student Health Services )

The  Graduate Student Health Insurance Plan (GSHIP)  is a comprehensive health insurance plan. Enrollment in SHIP is mandatory for graduate, medical, and foreign students at UCSD. The health insurance premium is assessed and paid with registration fees. Spring SHIP coverage continues automatically through the summer. Waiver of SHIP enrollment requires approval of the SHS Insurance Representative after review of proof of existing comparable insurance. Waiver of SHIP also waives GSLIP.

Other Health services:

• Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) : Integrative and student-centered services designed to support students towards their academic success, personal development and well-being while at UC San Diego.
• Office of Students with Disabilities (OSD) : UC San Diego welcomes students, faculty, staff, and campus visitors who have disabilities and wish to participate in the academic endeavors, professional opportunities, and campus events available in our community. In a collaborative effort to share campus resources for and about people with disabilities, this site provides resources to encourage all campus partners and constituents to engage in UCSD programs and activities.
• Pregancy Resources
• National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1 (800) 273-8255
• Speaking of Suicide : A site for suicidal individuals and their loved ones, survivors, mental health professionals and the merely curious.
• UC Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) : UC SHIP is a student-focused benefits package for UCSD graduate and undergraduate students, including strong medical, behavioral health, pharmacy, dental, and vision care benefits. UC SHIP is compliant with the Affordable Care Act requirements and works to complement your care at the Student Health Services right on campus. Enrollment is automatic for registered students; waiver application is also available.

Campus Services

• Student Legal Services : Student Legal Services can give legal education, counsel, and referrals to UCSD Students. Access the link for additional information and appointment scheduling.
• Basic Needs Center : The Hub Basic Needs Center provides resources for connections to nutritious food, Calfresh, stable housing, and financial wellness resources.
• Basic Needs Assistance Form : If you are a UC San Diego student who is facing challenges with your access to adequate food, stable housing, or financial resources, you're encouraged to complete this form
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Five from UC San Diego Elected to National Academy of Sciences

New members represent biological sciences, mathematics, computer science and oceanography.

• Robert Monroe - [email protected]

Published Date

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The National Academy of Sciences has elected five University of California San Diego professors to membership in the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors bestowed on U.S. scientists and engineers.       

Fan Chung of the Jacobs School of Engineering, Stephen Hedrick and Susan Kaech of the School of Biological Sciences, and Lisa Levin and Lynne Talley of Scripps Institution of Oceanography were among the 120 new members and 24 foreign associates elected to the academy “in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

They join more than 100 living and deceased members of the UC San Diego faculty who previously had been named to membership in the academy, which was established by Congress in 1863 to serve as an official adviser to the federal government on matters of science and technology.

Major research universities use the number of academy members on their faculty as a benchmark by which to compare the strength of their scientific research and education programs among universities across the nation in different disciplines.

“The election of five UC San Diego professors to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences is a truly remarkable distinction,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “This recognition not only celebrates their individual scholarly excellence and visionary leadership, but also underscores the exceptional quality of our faculty, who are driving innovative, cross-disciplinary research that helps us tackle the most daunting challenges of our time.”

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Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science Fan Chung has held the Paul Erdos Chair in Combinatorics at UC San Diego since 1998. She earned her PhD in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the National Taiwan University. She worked at Bell Laboratories and Bellcore for 19 years then joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania as the first female te nured professor in mathematics. Her research interests are primarily in graph theory, combinatorics and algorithmic design. She has authored more than 240 papers and coauthored the book Erdös on Graphs with Ron Graham, her late husband who served as the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Endowed Professor of Computer and Information Science at UC San Diego. She is a longstanding member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 1998), a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the American Mathematics Society and a fellow of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Chung received the Euler Medal from the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications in 2017 and was awarded the Allendoerfer Award by the Mathematical Association of America in 1990. She serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Combinatorics and of Internet Mathematics .

Distinguished Professor Emeritus Stephen Hedrick holds appointments in the Departments of Molecular Biology (School of Biological Sciences) and Cellular and Molecular Medicine (School of Medicine). He earned a PhD from UC Irvine and spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. In 1983 he joined the faculty at UC San Diego, where he has spent his entire scientific career. Hedrick served as chair of the Department of Biology (two years) and chair of Molecular Biology (five years). His research was continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health and focused on the development and function of T lymphocytes and their resilience in recognizing and responding to infectious agents. He has written about host-parasite co-evolution, disease ecology and the imperative to vaccinate. He was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award and was named in the inaugural class of Distinguished Fellows of the American Association of Immunologists.

School of Biological Sciences Adjunct Professor Susan Kaech is a leader of UC San Diego’s Program in Immunology and an active mentor to Biological Sciences PhD students. Her lab, based at the Salk Institute, investigates how T cells form, function and fight infection and cancer. Kaech directs the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis and holds the NOMIS Chair. Her research findings have helped advance the modern understanding of long-term immunity. Kaech has identified genes and signaling molecules that are critical for memory T cell generation during immune response. She also helped establish the field of cancer immunometabolism through her characterization of the metabolic interplay between tumors and immune cells, and how changes in nutrient availability can lead to metabolic immune suppression in tumors. Kaech is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has received numerous awards including a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist award, the National Institutes of Health Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biosciences and the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Research Fellowship.

Distinguished Professor Emerita Lisa Levin is a biological oceanographer at Scripps Oceanography and a leading authority on deep-ocean life and its vulnerability to climate change and direct human disturbance. Levin is co-founder of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI), which seeks to integrate science, technology, policy, law and economics to advise on ecosystem-based management of resource use in the deep ocean and strategies to maintain the integrity of deep-ocean ecosystems within and beyond national jurisdictions. She also helps lead the Deep Ocean Observing Strategy. Levin has contributed to multiple Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC) reports and has brought deep-sea science to United Nations policy negotiations in the arenas of climate change, biodiversity, and deep-seabed mining. Levin is a fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union. She was awarded the American Association of Limnology and Oceanography’s Redfield Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, the Prince Albert I Grand Medal in Ocean Science in 2019, and a Western Society of Naturalists Lifetime Achievement award in 2022. Levin has frequently served as a representative of the University of California delegation at the United Nations climate conferences, known as COPs, to integrate climate science into global policymaking. 

Distinguished Professor of Physical Oceanography Lynne Talley’s research focuses on the general circulation of the ocean and the role of various oceanic and atmospheric conditions that affect ocean currents and property distributions, and the role of the ocean in climate. She is a co-author of one of the most widely used oceanography textbooks in the world and has been an advocate for the importance of ongoing ocean observations as a necessary way to help humanity adapt to climate change. She was a lead author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Working Group I chapter “Observations: Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level,” which was released in February 2007. The report earned contributing scientists a share of the Nobel Peace Prize later that year. She was also a lead author on the same topic for the Fifth Assessment Report, released in 2013. Talley became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2017, a fellow of the Oceanography Society in 2010, a fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 2008, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2006, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003. Like Levin, she has served as a representative of the University of California delegation at United Nations climate conferences. 

Those elected bring the total number of active members to 2,617 and the total number of foreign associates to 537. Foreign associates are nonvoting members of the academy, with citizenship outside the United States. 

The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation signed by Abraham Lincoln that calls on the academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology.

Additional information about the academy and its members is available online at http://www.nasonline.org

-- Susan Kaech information and photo per the Salk Institute

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