Study: No link between foster care entry rates and child maltreatment deaths | Rutgers and @ucirvine.bsky.social researchers’ analysis of national data shows no evidence that higher foster care placements correlate to a drop in child abuse- or neglect-related deaths @kelleyfong.bsky.social

Welcome back, Anteaters! We’re kicking off 2026 with congratulatory news for Alexis David Lopez-Rodriguez, a third-year psychology B.S. major, who's the recipient of a Social Sciences Education Enhancement Scholarship! #zotzotzot @ucirvine.bsky.social

Congrats to @laurennross.bsky.social, @ucirvine.bsky.social logic & philosophy of science Dean's Professor and Chancellor's Fellow, who’s received research funding from the John Templeton Foundation to study token causality, which concerns explanations for specific events!

Policy Responses to Tax Competition | New book by @ucirvine.bsky.social economist David R. Agrawal with James M. Poterba and Owen M. Zidar offers a critical examination of the effects of tax competition www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news/2025/2025-12-16-agrawal-policy-responses-to-tax-competition

The Assault on the State named among best books of 2025 by Foreign Affairs | Work by political scientists Jeffrey Kopstein, @ucirvine.bsky.social, and Stephen Hanson, William & Mary, examines causes, consequences of the erosion of modern government institutions @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Congrats to Eve Darian-Smith, @ucirvine.bsky.social global and international studies and law Distinguished Professor and author of Policing Higher Education, which has been named among @forbes.com' ten best higher ed books of 2025! @ucirvinelaw.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Notes from a future professor | @ucirvine.bsky.social political science major Ngoc Le is fast-tracking her way to a Ph.D. while discovering the joy of research www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/n... @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Congrats to @ucirvine.bsky.social anthropology Ph.D. student Fei Yuan who has been selected as one of only ten scholars worldwide to receive the 2025 China Times Young Scholar Fellowship, an honor that recognizes groundbreaking doctoral research! @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Bad Medicine: Settler Colonialism and the Institutionalization of American Indians | New book by Sarah Whitt, @ucirvine.bsky.social global and international studies assistant professor, explores Indigenous histories tied to settler-operated institutions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Minding the gap | Maira Delgado Laurens, @ucirvine.bsky.social global and international studies graduate student, researches one of the world’s most dangerous migrant crossings

Congrats to Shalita Areeyaphan, a fourth-year psychology and biological sciences double major at @ucirvine.bsky.social, who is a 2025 recipient of the Social Sciences Moore Scholarship for Community and Social Change!

Economics for social good | @ucirvine.bsky.social economics graduate student Cassie Zhang – who earned her undergraduate degrees in economics and international studies as an Anteater - aims to help consumers and support students @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Anneeth Kaur Hundle, @ucirvine.bsky.social anthropology associate professor & Presidential Chair in Social Sciences to Advance Sikh Studies, explores the lasting impact of Uganda’s 1972 expulsion of nearly 80,000 South Asians in new book, Insecurities of Expulsion

UC Irvine-led study finds protective role of culture in Latina mothers’ mental health | Findings are first to link facets of familism to postpartum health benefits Pictured: Lead author Isabel F. Almeida, UCI Chicano/Latino studies assistant professor @ucirvine.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Such an inspiring event for our @ucirvine.bsky.social LeadHER mentees at @edwardslifesci.bsky.social! Our students had the recent opportunity to explore women’s leadership in action & see how purpose-driven leadership shapes one of Irvine’s most impactful companies. www.leadher.socsci.uci.edu

Beyond the books | @ucirvine.bsky.social political science Ph.D. student Jacob Sutherland explores how libraries and local governments respond to public pressure in polarized times @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

A steward of information | Ensuring that peer-reviewed scholarship is accessible is how Adrienne Nguyen, ‘13 history & anthropology, fights back against disinformation, artificial intelligence & censorship @ucirvinelaw.bsky.social @ucirvine.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

From data to models | @ucirvine.bsky.social cognitive sciences Ph.D. student Kathleen Medriano is challenging assumptions and traditional approaches to modeling @uofcalifornia.bsky.social @joachim.cidlab.com

Congrats to @ucirvine.bsky.social professors Padhraic Smyth and Mark Steyvers who've received a $900k grant from the National Science Foundation for a four-year study on improving human-AI decision-making! @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Final adapted post from my forthcoming book @mitpress.bsky.social Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language. This one focuses on progress over the last 2.5 decades and summarizes some of the main takeaways, IMO. @psychtoday.bsky.social www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...

Where scholarship meets service | Inside @ucirvine.bsky.social's Veterans Studies Certificate Program with cofounders Bill Maurer and Anita Casavantes Bradford, as featured in the Journal of Veterans Studies #VeteransDay @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

In honor of National First-Gen Celebration Day on Nov. 8, UCI social sciences first-generation faculty share tips for navigating the college experience #CelebrateFirstGen @ucirvine.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Bridging the communication gap between humans and AI | Richard Futrell, @ucirvine.bsky.social language science professor, receives NSF grant to study how humans talk about space across languages to improve human-AI interaction @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Understanding scientific explanations | As a Ph.D. candidate in the top-ranked @ucirvine.bsky.social Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, Jaehyun Lee investigates the very nature of scientific inquiry @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

An interdisciplinary approach | Jeremy Yeaton, UC Irvine language science Ph.D. ’25, demonstrates the value in taking a cross-pollinating approach to understanding speech loss @ucirvine.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social @jeremyyeaton.bsky.social @gregoryhickok.bsky.social

More than a status | As a Ph.D. candidate in one of the top-ranked sociology departments in the country, UC Irvine’s Jozef Robles explores what happens to undocumented immigrants after they gain legal status @ucirvine.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Teaching the whole story | Through their contributions to the High School Ethnic Studies Resource Book and their nonprofit, Educate to Empower, UC Irvine alumnae Virginia Nguyen and Stacy Yung are reshaping how students see themselves @ucirvine.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

My first academic article is out in the journal Latino Studies! Read if you're interested in performance, memory, and Latinx identity formation. Thanks to my colleagues, friends, and partner for supporting me in this publication process! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Where global meets local | @ucirvine.bsky.social global and international studies graduate student Gvantsa Gasviani researches Russian exiles in Georgia @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Building bridges | @ucirvine.bsky.social economics Ph.D. candidate Santiago Campos-Rodríguez uses unique data from the Central Bank of Costa Rica for trade and labor research @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

The mysteries of the mind | @ucirvine.bsky.social cognitive sciences Ph.D. student Allison Morehouse’s lifelong curiosity drives her quest to understand how sleep shapes memory and cognition @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Huge congrats to Jayla Kamilla Pete, a third-year triple major in political science, anthropology and criminology, law & society at @ucirvine.bsky.social who is a 2025 recipient of the Social Sciences Moore Scholarship for Community and Social Change!

The electability gap | @ucirvine.bsky.social political science Ph.D. student Pharrell Allen combines political insight with a passion for research to examine how perceptions - not preferences - shape electoral outcomes for Black candidates @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

A life in learning | For @ucirvine.bsky.social anthropology Ph.D. student Kristen Kennefick, a love of learning has led to a life in academia and a commitment to helping others discover that same joy @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Why do top students choose @ucisocsci.bsky.social for grad school? ✅ Collaborative culture ✅ Field-shaping faculty ✅ Powerhouse programs ✅ Top 10 public university ✅ Minutes from OC beaches Over the next few weeks, we're sharing Ph.D. student stories - their journeys & where they're headed next.

Congrats to Nathan Bui, political science & urban studies at @ucirvine.bsky.social, a 2025 recipient of the Social Sciences Moore Scholarship for Community and Social Change! The $1,000 award supports students who demonstrate the most promise, potential to enact change & improve the community.

Teaching biology from a global perspective | Qiwen Zheng, ’22 international studies and ecology and evolutionary biology, brings an international perspective as Knowles Teaching Fellow   @ucirvine.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

New @ucirvine.bsky.social Center for Language, Intelligence, and Computation to serve as hub for scientific study of language | Research center is led by Richard Futrell, language science professor, and housed in the School of Social Sciences

💙💛 A warm Anteater welcome from @ucirvine.bsky.social social sciences dean Bill Maurer ⬇️💛💙 #zotzotzot #ucipride

With @acls1919.bsky.social grant funding, @ucirvine.bsky.social's Tiara Na’puti is tracing the history of a Samoan canoe on display in Social Sciences Tower to bring attention to the complex past and present of Indigenous Pacific Islanders in Southern California

💙💛 We’re back!!! We had so much fun meeting so many new faces today at our annual undergrad BBQ as we kickoff another great year in @ucisocsci. To all of our new Anteaters out there, welcome home! 💛💙⁠ ⁠ #zotzotzot #ucipride #ucirvine @ucirvine.bsky.social

New @ucirvine.bsky.social Center for Socially Engaged Philosophy aims to address real world problems | Research center is led by @cailinmeister.bsky.social, logic & philosophy of science Chancellor’s Professor, and housed in the School of Social Sciences

Congrats to Kevin Olson, @ucirvine.bsky.social political science professor, who’s been named the recipient of @apsa.bsky.social's Charles Taylor Book Award for his latest work, Subaltern Silence: A Postcolonial Genealogy! @columbiaup.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

LPS Summer Development Program at @ucirvine.bsky.social marks fourth year of expanding access to graduate study | Funded by the National Science Foundation, the weeklong program brings students from around the world to explore graduate-level topics and connect with LPS faculty and graduate mentors

We have another warm Anteater welcome to share: Beijie Ann Tang, the new director of the @ucirvine.bsky.social Long U.S.-China Institute. More, including a video intro of Ann: ⬇️

And another warm @ucirvine.bsky.social soc sci welcome to Crystal Robertson, our newly hired political science assistant professor! Crystal specializes in research on race, ethnicity, and politics; gender and politics; and political psychology.

We’re giving a warm @ucirvine.bsky.social soc sci welcome to David Inman, a newly hired assistant professor of language science. David specializes in research on languages, grammatical systems and computational modeling.

Research team earns best article award from @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social | @ucirvine.bsky.social’s @meganakpeters.bsky.social & Brian Maniscalco, along with @qmul.bsky.social's Lucie Charles, honored for work on metacognition published in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

The Weight of the White Coat: Latinos Navigating American Medicine (@ucpress.bsky.social) | New book by UC Irvine Chicano/Latino studies professor & department chair Glenda M. Flores explores the personal & professional journeys of Latina/o doctors @ucirvine.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

Congrats to Tauhid Bin Kashem, ’25 UC Irvine political science Ph.D., who has received the Best Dissertation Award from the American Political Science Association Migration and Citizenship Section! @ucirvine.bsky.social