News

Sociologist Waverly Duck tapped to lead prominent journal

For the first time in the journal’s history, a UC Santa Barbara professor sits at the helm of 

2026 Pahl Making a Difference Award Winners Announced

Three outstanding students have received 2025 Louise A. and Stephen D. Pahl "Making a Difference" Awards from The Pahl Center for the Study of Critical Social Issues. According to Pahl Center Director Dr. Sastry, the awards were made possible with the support and oversight of the Social Sciences Divisional Leadership; in particular, Associate Dean Walid Afifi, who worked to identify and select the projects. 

Why California Farmworkers Deserve Basic Protections

Matthew Kinsella-Walsh is a graduate researcher with the UC Santa Barbara Community Labor Center and the Organizing Knowledges Project who researches agricultural economics and labor in the North American strawberry industry. In an April 22 Los Angeles Times opinion piece, he highlighted the economic impacts of recent immigration enforcement raids on California's Central Coast agricultural economy, arguing in favor of providing basic protections to farmworkers in the wake of a new federal policy allowing steep cuts to wages for workers on temporary visas known as H-2A workers.

UCSB Anthropologist Addresses Critical Gaps in Women's Health Research

From left, moderator Dr. Jane Varner, Amy Boddy, an anthropology professor at UC Santa Barbara, Dr. Stephanie Handler, a urogynecologist at Cottage Surgical Clinics, and Dr. Courtney Stull, a rheumatologist at Cottage Rheumatology Clinic.  Rebecca Caraway / Noozhawk photo

New PBS Documentary Highlights Asian American Studies Professor's Civil Rights Scholarship

UCSB Report Shows Most County Residents Oppose New Onshore Drilling

With Santa Barbara County weighing ordinances to phase out onshore oil and gas development – a decision that will affect workers, communities, and the environment for decades to come –  uncertainty and uncertain claims are swirling around future of the offshore oil platforms along the county's southern coastline. In 2015, following a burst pipeline connected to oil drilling spilled over 450,000 gallons of heavy crude into the ocean along 136 miles of coastline.

Communication and brain sciences professor at UC Santa Barbara elected as inaugural SANS Fellow

René Weber, a UC Santa Barbara professor whose early experiments involving video games and brain scanners were once met with deep skepticism, has been named an inaugural Fellow of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society (SANS). The distinction recognizes scholars who h

UCSB’s Public Finance Lab Demystifies Data for the Community

As an economist schooled in the prestigious halls of HEC Paris and UC Berkeley, Dr. Youssef Benzarti specializes in the intricate interactions between governments, firms, and individuals. After arriving at UC Santa Barbara in 2018, he and his colleague, Professor Alisa Tazhitdinova, a fellow Berkeley PhD alumna specializing in individual tax responsiveness, established the Public Finance Lab (PFL), with with foundational funding from the Thelma and Walter Mead Initiative.