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Student Perspectives

Please enjoy these articles written by UCLA students affiliated with the International Institute

  • Global Studies Thesis Award Goes to Student with Ethos of Service
    Elya Filler's Global Studies thesis on the East Asian sex industry and its historical background won that interdepartmental program's top honor for 2008-09. Now she is volunteering at a school in Cambodia and thinking about how best to continue her education while helping to battle poverty.
  • Renewable Energy for Urban Homes
    Urban planning graduate student and Fulbright fellow T.H. Culhane introduces handmade solar water heaters in Cairo and thinks about how energy projects can address both poverty and environmental problems.
  • Finding the Cutting Edge of Fashion in Indonesia
    The Graduate Quarterly profiles anthropology graduate student and Fulbright fellow Brent Luvaas.
  • Musawah Movement: Seeking Equality and Justice in Muslim Family Law
    A doctoral student in women's studies reports on a February gathering in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, demanding inclusion of women's perspectives in the construction of family law in both Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority countries.
  • Venues of Transformation
    Damola Osinulu, a doctoral student in the Department of World Arts and Cultures, took his International Fieldwork Fellowship to Lagos, Nigeria, to understand why at least a million Pentecostal worshippers come together just north of the city.
  • Hip Hop Dreams in Dakar
    A whirlwind tour of the Senagalese captial's music scene laid the groundwork for my comparative dissertation.
  • UCLA Advanced Degrees Put to Work for Education in Afghanistan
    Born in Kabul and brought up in Orange County, UCLA Islamic Studies alumna Parisa Popalzai says that war-torn Afghanistan needs the help of those who had to leave it. She applies skills learned at the Anderson School and the International Institute to two issues: giving Afghan kids with special needs a chance and training managers for a new economy.
  • Seeking 'Spatial Justice' for World's Disabled
    Victor Pineda, a doctoral student in urban planning, will return to Dubai on a Fulbright-Hays award in December to monitor the implementation of an ambitious disability rights law. He argues that the built environments we live in largely determine our abilities and who we are.
  • Practical Math Problems Bring US, Foreign Students Together for Summer
    UCLA's Research in Industrial Projects for Students program invites undergraduates from around the country and the world to work on mathematical challenges with applications in biotech, information technology, filmmaking, and more.
  • Domesticating the Harem
    A doctoral student in art history reconsiders 'zenana' (female household) imagery in 19th- and early 20th-century India.

  • South African Heritages and Their Owners
    On a trip to Cape Town, Laura Foster, an attorney and UCLA doctoral student in women's studies, discovers that intellectual property rights are not marginal concerns for marginalized and historically oppressed communities. They're near the center of efforts to reclaim and reaffirm cultures.