Message from the Dean

Welcome to LA Social Science.  This e-forum is a space for you to interact with our faculty, students, staff and community partners as we collectively create new knowledge aimed at finding solutions to the challenges that confront our region.

As a profoundly diverse global city, Los Angeles is literally a gateway to the rest of the planet.  By engaging the challenges we face here in Los Angeles, we believe we can help change the world for the better.  The academic programs and research centers comprising the Division of Social Sciences at UCLA are uniquely positioned to do this work.  But our efforts, in the end, cannot proceed in isolation.  To engender buy-in and ensure impact, our efforts must be shaped in collaboration with the insights and interests of community partners beyond campus.

This is where you come in.  Whether you are a member of the UCLA campus community or a stakeholder elsewhere, we invite you to subscribe to LA Social Science so that you receive regular updates about important posts to this e-forum.  We encourage you to use our search engine to browse the posts that are relevant to you.  And we urge you to interact with this information by posting your thoughts on the attached message boards or by submitting your own stories for posting.  Share your perspective.  Your voice matters to us.

Abel Valenzuela Jr., PhD
Interim Dean of Social Sciences
Professor of Labor Studies, Urban Planning and Chicana/o & Central American Studies
UCLA College of Letters and Science