The URC-HASS RAP Lab Fellowship is a pilot program that supports undergraduate students doing multi-quarter research and creative projects at UCLA. The program is a collaboration between the Undergraduate Research Center for the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and Professor Adam Bradley, director of the Laboratory for Race & Popular Culture (the RAP Lab) and professor of English and African American Studies. RAP Lab Fellows will work on one or more of the RAP Lab’s ongoing projects and/or propose a new project for the Lab to consider.
INTRODUCTION TO THE RAP LAB
- The RAP Lab brings cutting-edge arts and humanities research to communities that historically have not benefitted from it: incarcerated populations, K-12 classrooms, and other groups for whom the college campus often seems far away. The Lab believes that race matters to all Americans and that experiences with pop culture—music and literature, film and television, games and sports—are often the best ways to begin difficult conversations. Modeled on a natural sciences laboratory, the RAP Lab is project-driven, bringing together academics, graduate students, undergraduate students, and community partners in collaborative research, publications, and events.
RAP LAB FELLOWS
- Receive a $3,000 scholarship ($1,500 in winter quarter and $1,500 in spring quarter)
- Enroll in a Student Research Program (SRP) 99 course with Dr. Adam Bradley for winter and spring quarters
- Enroll in a minimum of 12 units in winter and spring quarters before the SRP 99 course
- Commit to spending ten hours/week on the program
- Meet weekly with Dr. Bradley and the RAP Lab team in person on Wednesdays at 2pm throughout winter and spring quarters. To participate in the RAP Lab, you must be available at this time on a weekly basis
- Participate in research workshops three times per quarter
- Present their research at Undergraduate Research Week
ELIGIBILITY
- Commitment to completing a research or creative project by the end of spring 2025
- Not concurrently enrolled in any URC-HASS Program (such as URSP, URFP, Keck, Mellon, or Research Revealed)
- While financial need is not required, some awards are for students with established financial need
- US citizens, permanent residents, undocumented, DACA, AB540, and international students are eligible to apply
HOW TO APPLY
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- Application Deadline: November 1, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. Submit a RAP Lab Fellowship application (available October 2, 2024): visit MyUCLA, click on “Campus Life,” and select “Survey” to access the application. You can also access the survey here.
- Statement of previous research experience (200 words)
- Research interest statement: What interests you about the RAP Lab? How does the Lab’s work relate to your major and your past or future academic coursework? How does it relate to your post-UCLA goals? (500 words)
- Personal statement (500 words)
- Indication of interest in current RAP Lab projects:
- The RAP Lab x The Grammy Museum
- The RAP Lab x Gang Awareness Program
- The RAP Lab x UCLA Hip-Hop Initiative
- Pitch for future RAP Lab project: Your pitch should propose an idea for a future RAP Lab project. The pitch should provide background/context for your idea, offer a vision for the project, and list the project’s deliverable(s) at the end of the program. Please note that acceptance into the RAP Lab Fellowship does not guarantee that the Lab will undertake your project. View previous successful pitches here.
- The application consists of 5 components:
If you have any questions or would like to schedule an advising appointment with a Graduate Research Mentor to discuss your application, please email the Undergraduate Research Center. The Undergraduate Research Center also hosts info sessions and workshops on applying to our programs. Click here for a list of current workshops and info sessions.
Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
Undergraduate Research Center –
Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
(310) 825-2935
urhass@college.ucla.edu
The RAP Lab x The Grammy Museum
- From fall 2024 to fall 2025, the Lab is co-curating the Grammy Museum’s exhibit “Hip Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit,” in honor of the 50th anniversary of hip hop. This ambitious project includes multiple interactive experiences as well as a deep historical engagement with hip hop culture. Among the collaborating artists are: Latto, the Migos, Cordae, Roddy Rich, Chuck D, the estate of the Notorious B.I.G., and the estate of Tupac Shakur. In addition, the Lab is responsible for designing and implementing a number of events and educational programs related to the exhibition.
The RAP Lab x Gang Awareness Program
- One of the Lab’s founding collaborations has been working with a group of incarcerated people at a Colorado correctional facility, in support of a program designed by two men serving life without the possibility of parole.
The RAP Lab x UCLA Hip-Hop Initiative
- Along with partners from across the campus and coordinated by the Bunche Center for African American Studies, the Lab is working to position UCLA as a world leader in hip hop studies. Though the academic study of hip hop is now well established, it is disproportionately centered in and focused on the East Coast. The Hip Hop Initiative looks to rebalance that attention, giving the West Coast, Los Angeles, and the UCLA campus proper attention as sites of hip-hop history, performance, and knowledge building.
Meiko Kaji (梶芽衣子).Who is Meiko Kaji? Meiko Kaji stands as a paramount figure in the Japanese cinema consciousness. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that, along with the likes of Pam Grier in the ‘70s, she was part of a generation of women that both empowered their gender through a renewed control of their sexualities as well as a vigorous display of power and fearlessness towards patriarchal hierarchies that existed, and certainly still do, in society. Hopefully these materials are a good introduction to that idea. My vision for a project on her is to (1) plan a film festival on campus and (2) write a feature article on her, ideally with an interview from her. For the former, I love the idea of partnering with one of the film clubs on campus, possibly Bruin Film Society, who know how to secure screening rights, etc. to get a campus screening of one or more of her films. I’m sure the Japanese, Asian Studies, Film, and Anthropology departments would dig the idea. For the latter, I would hope to work with Professor Bradley to identify a magazine, newspaper, or website that would be interested in a feature on her. I could definitely craft a list of interview questions for Ms. Kaji that would tailor the project to the Lab with ideas of racial stereotypes and pop culture creation.
Mapping Arts Project. The Mapping Arts Project tells a public history of a particular city through the people, places, and individual acts of creation that define an artistic community. By marshaling the interactive power of the digital humanities, it brings a broad public audience in closer connection with our collective culture. These histories are mapped through places where artists – including visual artists, writers, musicians, and performers – have lived and worked. By mapping these places, the project traces not only the groundbreaking moments in art production, but also artists’ day-to-day process. I propose to develop a Mapping Arts site covering the city of Denver, Colorado. Mapping Arts-Denver focuses on the 1950s through the 1980s. Locating the research in place and on a digital map provides both spatial analysis and an interactive environment to engage the research. Through this research, Mapping Arts Denver highlights social dynamics of race, class, gender, and other markers of social location that have often determined whether an artist gains recognition or remains in archival anonymity. During the academic year, we will conduct archival and ethnographic research, write narratives, upload documents, and add geographic data to the website. The goal is to launch a beta version by the end of the academic year.