Social Sciences Dispatch

Vol. 1, Issue 2 | Winter 2026

The Pahl Center for the Study of Critical Social Issues has named Dr. Shaunak Sastry, a professor of communications, as its inaugural director. Before arriving at UCSB in January 2026, Dr. Sastry was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Cincinnati and an affiliate faculty at the Center for Culture-Centered Research and Evaluation. Dr. Sastry's mandate is to make The Pahl Center a hub for innovative, impactful research that speaks to the most critical issues of our time.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $3.8 million grant to communication professor Tamara Afifi, which will fund research to explore how virtual reality can support older adults and their caregivers. Afifi is co-leading the project with psychological and brain sciences professor Nancy Collins. “Virtual reality isn’t meant to replace relationships," says Afifi, "it’s a tool for relationship maintenance and social bonding.”

UCSB's Dept. of Chicana and Chicano Studies celebrated its 20th anniversary with an Oct. 18 dinner at El Paseo restaurant in downtown Santa Barbara. Special guests at the festive event included U.S. Representative Salud Carbajal (above left w/wife Gina) and Chancellor Dennis Assanis (right, with wife Eleni). The department is one of the first in the nation dedicated to Mexican-American history and culture, and was, at the time of its creation, the first department of its kind in the UC system.

The new Center for Feminist Futures at UCSB's inaugural director is consistently demonstrating the urgent relevance of feminist research to local, national, and global issues. Appointed in August 2023, Dr. Jigna Desai's mandate is to build the center from the ground up, with a mission to use feminist scholarship to address pressing societal challenges.

Dr. Sabine Frühstück, Distinguished Professor and Koichi Takashima Chair in Japanese Cultural Studies, is the new Director of UCSB's East Asia Center (EAC), which forms part of the Area Global Initiative (AGI). A highly respected scholar and co-editor of the flagship Journal of Japanese Studies, Dr. Frühstück's leadership signals a strategic effort to enhance the Center's role as a major hub for international and interdisciplinary research.

UC Santa Barbara’s Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy has been awarded a prestigious $100,000 grant from UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Economic Justice and Action (CEJA) which will enable it to continue its research and advocacy on behalf of the Central Coast’s most vulnerable populations. As a multidisciplinary hub, the Blum Center has long focused on the intersection of economic hardship and systemic inequality. The CEJA grant will specifically bolster the Center’s Central Coast Regional Equity Initiative (CCREI), a project (see group photo above) dedicated to documenting and dismantling the disparities in housing, health, and environmental risk that disproportionately affect multi-racial working-class communities in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties.

Global Studies Professor Dr. Jorge Ramirez-Lopez is currently working on his first book manuscript titled Democracy From Below: The Communal World’s Indigenous Migrants Created, a history of Indigenous people from the state of Oaxaca, Mexico who migrated to the United States and northern Mexico during the 1980s and early 1990s and their historic struggle for autonomy in the face of increasingly harsh anti-immigrant politics of the time.

“In the Department of Global Studies, I am part of an exciting team of faculty with a distinct focus on asking significant questions about the world we live in today. As a member of the Oaxacan Indigenous diaspora, I’d like to build projects that support the Oaxacan Indigenous migrants who toil in the surrounding fields and help produce the food we eat. Among these goals is to help build a hub for Oaxacan and Indigenous migrant archives and make them accessible for migrant communities and the next generation of scholars. 

Laura Cox ’83 and Jay Cohen ’84 direct their philanthropy to create opportunities for students — and to help them graduate into a more equitable, resilient world. Jay and Laura serve on the Division of Social Sciences Dean’s Cabinet, and Laura is a trustee of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation. Their service to campus is informed by their education and careers.

“Jay and Laura, who met at UC Santa Barbara, are very special donors,” said Charles Hale, SAGE Sara Miller McCune Dean of Social Sciences. "Laura has extensive professional experience helping disadvantaged youth meet their educational and career aspirations, which has informed her invaluable guidance for us in creating PROPEL, our student success program. Jay works at the intersection of investment and environmental sustainability; this has made him an extremely well-informed and proactive partner to our 2035 Initiative for environmental policy. Their generous financial support has been wonderful, and their visionary accompaniment in both realms has been absolutely priceless.”

Political Science Professor Paasha Mahdavi has emerged as the go-to expert for reporters seeking insights into the impact of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela on the politics and economics of the global oil trade. In recent weeks, he's been interviewed by AP News, CBC News, and CBS News, among others, and been quoted by The Guardian, Mother Jones, Los Angeles Times, and NPR's All Things Considered.