Student Spotlight – Teresa Xu

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Meet third-year undergraduate researcher Teresa Xu!

Teresa majors in Art History and minors in Anthropology and Digital Humanities and is in our Undergraduate Research Fellows Program (URFP). The title of her project is “Intercultural Museum Display: an Investigation on Tangibility.” She hopes that her project can bring a new way of seeing intercultural exhibitions or help museums to deal with the problematic magic of tactility. Her best piece of advice is to enjoy the learning experience and find the stance you want to take.

How did you first get interested in your research project?

I took an Art History class called “Art and Empire” which examined the creation of art through the lens of imperialism. There was a museum accident at the Franklin Museum in which a man accidentally snapped off a thumb of a 2000-year-old terracotta warrior on loan from China, and I connected this incident with the remaining effects of postcolonialism and became interested in museum exhibitions, especially the contextualization of intercultural ones.

What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far?

My focus has primarily been on current art historical scholarship: books, magazines, and other scholars’ research. I have a rudimentary idea about how we can use replicas to better design intercultural exhibitions. I will design a short questionnaire and collect answers from the public to learn how people’s opinions about using replicas in museums change before and after understanding their cultural context. The questionnaire will be conducted in both Chinese and English to see how different cultural communities will perceive the replicas differently.

What has surprised you about your research or the research process?

Even though I was not able to visit the museums I planned to use as case studies in person, the pandemic has allowed me to see so many more digital exhibitions and see other directions future museums can take. Exhibitions and art media will no longer be restricted by the limit of physical spaces. We can expect new forms of representation that may transcend time and space in the near future.

What is one piece of advice you have for other UCLA students thinking about doing research?

Don’t feel rushed or obligated to have research experience just because other people are doing it. Enjoy the learning experience and find the stance you want to take. It doesn’t have to be something that has never been done before. Start with what you like.

What effect do you hope your research has in your field, at UCLA, in your community, or in the world?

I hope my research can bring about a new way of seeing intercultural exhibitions and/or help museums deal with the problematic magic of tactility. Sometimes people just want to touch the marble sculpture, become closer to the cave painting, sit on the fragile wooden chair that is over 200 years old just because of the beauty of these objects. But museums visits are not only about sightseeing. We need museums to not only provide the artifacts, but also the stories behind them so that visitors can find their own relevance. Otherwise, what museums are displaying are just lifeless gravestones of what has already been killed by history and ourselves.

Student Spotlight – Ngoc Nguyen

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Meet fourth-year undergraduate researcher Ngoc Nguyen!

Ngoc majors in International Development Studies, Asian American Studies, and Sociology and is in our Undergraduate Research Scholarship Program (URSP). The title of her project is “Hidden in Plain Sight: On the Legal and Grassroots Organizing against Thai Labor Trafficking in the United States,” which focuses on the role of grassroots organizing in the El Monte case by exploring questions regarding labor laws and rights of immigrant communities. She hopes that her project will bring light to challenges that the Thai community experiences and promote effective change.

How did you first get interested in your research project?

Coming from a low-income immigrant family and seeing my parents being exploited by the unjust labor system as they work long hours with low wages have inspired me to pursue an education to learn about immigration and labor law and advocate for the rights of immigrant communities. Although I have always wanted to research immigration and labor law, I did not know what topic I want to pursue until I met my faculty mentor, Professor Jennifer Chun, who suggested that I learn about the El Monte Thai Garment worker case.

Interning for the Thai Community Development Center (Thai CDC) has taught me about the case and the role that non-profit organizations such as the Thai CDC played in the case. I was extremely inspired by the ways in which grassroots organizations, activists, and community members came together in the mid-1990s to demand justice for the workers and create systemic changes. This experience led me to research this case for my senior project. Through this project, I focus on the role of grassroots organizing in the El Monte case by exploring the following questions: How did grassroots organizations, lawyers, and community members come together to advocate for the workers? How was the coalition formed and what role did each organization play? What strategies did these organizations use to advocate against state violence and to demand justice for the workers?

What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far?

The most exciting part of my research has been getting the opportunity to research archival materials about the El Monte case and talking to community organizers who were involved in the labor movement in the 1990s!

What has surprised you about your research or the research process?

I never would have expected to grow this much through this process! Not only have I been able to meet and listen to stories of amazing community organizers, but I have also become more inspired to pursue a career in the legal field. Learning about immigration and labor organizing has helped me realize who I want to be, what kind of activist I want to become in the future, and how pursuing a law degree can help me achieve my aspirations.

What is one piece of advice you have for other UCLA students thinking about doing research?

I would advise students to challenge themselves, go out of their comfort zone, and actively pursue opportunities. As a first-generation college student, I struggled to navigate UCLA and find opportunities to pursue research. However, talking to my professors, friends, and mentors has helped me narrow down my research and apply to opportunities.  

What effect do you hope your research has in your field, at UCLA, in your community, or in the world?

I hope that my project will bring light to challenges that the Thai community experiences that continue to remain hidden in mainstream discourse and promote integral dialogues about how grassroots organizing can advocate for effective change.

Student Spotlight – Michael To

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Meet fourth-year undergraduate researcher Michael To!

Michael majors in Psychology with a minor in Biomedical Research and is in our Undergraduate Research Scholarship Program (URSP). The title of his project is “The Outbreak of Anxiety in Tandem with COVID-19: A Health Anxiety and Media Use Analysis,” which he hopes will better illuminate the interaction between health anxiety, media consumption, and psychosomatic symptoms.

How did you first get interested in your research project? 

I’ve had an interest in the interaction between the brain and body for several years, starting with my work on Brain Computer Interfacing Systems to create moveable prosthetics in 2018 at California State University, Fullerton. Through this experience, I realized that I wanted to look at the brain-body interaction in a more macroscopic sense. Upon transferring to UCLA, I was able to meld my interests in the brain and body by looking at the psychosomatic interaction between health anxiety and unexplained somatic symptoms at the Brain and Body Lab. 

What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far? 

The most exciting part, for me, is that I work with a diverse, interdisciplinary group of people who wholly enrich my academic experience at UCLA. I love the process of learning, and at the BAB Lab I have been routinely challenged to learn new skills, new programs/tools, and new ideas through the process of interaction with my laboratory peers, my lab managers, and principal investigator. Significant results are exciting and provide a sense of satisfaction, but they are a smaller part of the overall, intellectually stimulating atmosphere I am immersed in through my URSP research experience. 

What has surprised you about your research or the research process? 

The research process is so much more than just sitting at a bench and crunching data. There is a huge outreach portion of research that goes into raising awareness about your work, disseminating that information in your community, and marketing your ongoing studies to future participants. I really enjoy the communication aspect of research, and it’s an area I didn’t know I was interested in until I got involved in my lab. 

What is one piece of advice you have for other UCLA students thinking about doing research? 

I would say that its important to keep in mind that research labs need you just as much as you need them! You have leverage, in that sense. Although at times it can be intimidating reaching out to labs, at this stage of our career, principal investigators are not expecting you to have a resume filled with relevant experience. What they are looking for is for you to display an avid curiosity and passion for the subject you are interested in. Research skills can be taught, but passion – well, you have to bring that with you. Be persistent, engage with what you do, and the rest will follow.

What effect do you hope your research has in your field, at UCLA, in your community, or in the world? 

I hope that my research will better illuminate the interaction between health anxiety, media consumption, and psychosomatic symptoms; by having a greater understanding of these relationships, we can develop protective guidelines surrounding healthy media consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as future regional, national and global health crises.