As the largest division on campus, the Social Sciences educate the next generation of professionals, researchers, and leaders to socially relevant thinking and doing.

left to right: Mike Lofchie (Poli Sci), Ed Keller (Poli Sci), Al Ingersol (Naval Science), Monica Smith (Archaeology), Tom Phelan (SSC), Carol Browner (Anthropology), Roger Farmer (Economics), Charles Stanish (Cotsen), Ned Alpers (History), Bill Roy (Sociology), Alessandro Duranti (Dean), David Scott (Conservation), Marilyn Raphael (Geography), Tim Groeling (Communication Studies), Cindy Fan (Associate Dean), Paul Rosenthal (Communication Studies), Alicia Gaspar de Alba (Chicana/o Studies), Abel Valenzuela (Chicano/o Studies), Elizabeth Landaw (Assistant Dean)

Engaged Social Sciences Blog

Engaged Social Sciences Blog

Once in a while current events give social scientists a chance to act as both experts on social change and responsible citizens. A phenomenon with the scope, complexity, ambiguity, and visibility of the “Occupy Movement” tests the relevance and viability of social scientists’ interpretations, theories, and methods. This UCLA Engaged Social Sciences BLOG invites scholars in our division and others to join the public dialogue surrounding the Occupy Movement worldwide protest.

Welcome

photo of Dean Duranti Alessandro Duranti
Dean of Social Sciences

The contemporary world is changing at a rapid pace and in often dramatic ways. Ordinary citizens as well as leaders and the social institutions they run are in great need of accurate documentation and solid theories of the social, cultural, and environmental conditions that make change likely, unlikely, predictable, or inevitable. Over the last one hundred years the social sciences have developed tools to provide highly reliable analyses of societal challenges and problems, at both the micro-level of everyday interaction and at the macro-level of socio-economic events that impact communities and organizations.

The Division of Social Sciences at UCLA, with its stellar faculty and highly ranked departments and programs, offers unique opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate education in African American studies, American Indian studies, anthropology, archaeology, Asian American studies, Chicana and Chicano studies, communication studies, economics, geography, history, political science, sociology, and women's studies. In each of these fields, human diversity is studied and celebrated from interdisciplinary perspectives that integrate the social sciences with one another and with the departments in the humanities, life sciences, and physical sciences, as well as in the professional schools.

Dean's Initiatives

Social Sciences In Practice (SSIP)

As part of a new initiative that will affect how social science is taught and practiced at UCLA, the Dean has created a postdoctoral fellowship program. Postdoctoral fellows will work closely with faculty and students who bridge fields and transform disciplinary boundaries to address an important societal problem.

Social Science Education in Asia (SSEIA)

A new outreach initiative designed to connect with student populations beyond the UCLA campus. As part of the initiative, UCLA Social Sciences General Education (GE) courses are taught by UCLA instructors to highly-selected international students who are interested in attending university in the United States.