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Accomplished Bruin seniors win International Development Studies Awards
The three award winners of 2026 are living proof that the idealism of IDS students is paired with a deep commitment to doing the work on the ground and in the classroom that prepare them to make significant contributions to the world.
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IDS award winners (from left): seniors Aya Ibrahim, Emma Joyal and Sofia Fernandes Martins. (Photos provided by students.)
UCLA International Institute
Artist Gala Porras-Kim to speak at International Institute commencement ceremony
Interdisciplinary artist Gala Porras-Kim, who completed both a B.A. and an M.A. at UCLA, won a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship last year.
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Gala Porras-Kim. (Photo: Mike Vitelli.)

Recent News

Four International Institute students win Dean's Prize for research

The winners' four prizes account for roughly 21% of all Dean's Prizes awarded for creative and research projects in the humanities, arts and social sciences category this year — a stellar student achievement.

UCLA International Institute

Migrant workers in India's informal sector squeezed on all sides

At a recent CISA talk, journalist-author Neha Dixit spoke about the lived experience of poor rural Indians who emigrate to Delhi for work, only to end up living in near-permanent economic precarity.

Center for India and South Asia

Animal spirit tales transmit historical trauma, resistance in Dominican Republic

The baka/bacá, errant spirits on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola that turn humans into animals through sorcery, are the subject of Robin Derby's new book, “Bêtes Noires."

Latin American Institute

German consul general's visit gives UCLA class perspective on transatlantic partnerships

Consul General of Germany in Los Angeles Andrea Sasse recently visited a community-engaged course taught by UCLA professor David Kim, where she discussed issues ranging from diplomacy and intellectual curiosity to career development.

UCLA International Institute

Michael Berry and Chinese novelist Fang Fang win book prize

"The Running Flame" is the third work by Fang Fang that Berry has translated into English.

Center for Chinese Studies

International migration center responds to new circumstances

The new director of the Center for the Study of International Migration seeks to add new dimensions to center programming. She hopes to highlight such issues as the impact of increasingly aggressive immigration detention and deportation policies on local communities, including Los Angeles, as well as UCLA students' visceral experience of and research on these policies.

Center for Study of International Migration

Jared Diamond on warning signs – and hope – for the future of democracy

“Violence is a warning sign of a democracy that may slide into dictatorship, as well as the toleration of violence by its citizenry,” said the professor emeritus at UCLA's 11th Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership.

UCLA International Institute

More News

Faculty News

"Bêtes Noires" by Robin Derby wins Caribbean Studies Association book award

"Bêtes Noires ranks first as the most theoretically rigorous, intellectually ambitious and epistemologically disruptive of the 40 books reviewed by the Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Book Award Committee. … [It] dismantles colonial discourses that demonize Haitian and Dominican cosmologies as merely “superstitious” [and] approaches indigenous memory, the animal world, spirits, and colonial histories as legitimate archives of knowledge…" Continue reading: "Bêtes Noires" by Robin Derby wins Caribbean Studies Association book award

Cost of living, unequal access to opportunity both rising in LA

May 1, 2026. “Many households are struggling to meet basic living expenses,” Center for Mexican Studies Director Gaspar Rivera-Salgado told American Community Media. “For many students, the cost of living is a bigger burden than tuition... In a system where jobs and housing are geographically separated, one to two hours of daily commuting has become the norm. That loss of time directly translates into a lower quality of life.” Continue reading: Cost of living, unequal access to opportunity both rising in LA

Building connections with higher education institutions worldwide

Vice Provost Cindy Fan spoke at three major events for international education leaders this winter — the AIEA 2026 Annual Conference, the APAIE 2026 Conference and Hong Kong University Partner Day — on topics ranging from strategic plans, U.S.-China higher education dialogue, empowering women leaders and building resiliency and inclusivity in universities. Continue reading: Building connections with higher education institutions worldwide