URC-HASS Staff

Jacquelyn Ardam holds a PhD in English from UCLA. She is a specialist in modern and contemporary literature, especially poetry, and has taught at UCLA and Colby College. Her book Avidly Reads Poetry was published in 2022 by NYU Press.

Jacquelyn joined URC-HASS in 2019 and became the Director in 2022. She co-directs the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship at UCLA and the Writing and Research Training Program for visiting Mellon Mays students. She also runs the Summer Research Incubator and the URC-HASS RAP Lab Fellowship. She is particularly interested in increasing the accessibility of undergraduate research experiences at UCLA and creating entry-level programs for new researchers across the humanities, arts, and social sciences. You can reach her at: jardam@college.ucla.edu.

Dr. Kelly Kistner received bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration and Sociology from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Washington in Seattle. Her research and publications have centered on the history and sociology of knowledge production.

Dr. Kistner joined the UCLA Undergraduate Research Center – Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in the spring of 2016. She oversees the Research Revealed Program, Aleph Undergraduate Research Journal, and is involved in the Center’s planning, outreach, and assessment activities. She can be contacted at kkistner@college.ucla.edu.

Laura Ha Reizman received her Ph.D. in Asian Languages and Cultures from UCLA. Her research investigates the racial and gendered legacies of U.S. and Korean militarisms, respectively, during the Cold War era. Prior to joining the Undergraduate Research Center for the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, she was a postdoctoral fellow in Korean humanities at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Reizman joined URC-HASS in 2023. She manages URFP, URSP, Keck, and co-leads the Transfer Research Entry Program with URC Sciences. She looks forward to helping motivated undergraduates develop their research and professional skills during their time at UCLA.

Silveria Alvarado Luna grew up in Southern California and received their B.A. in History & Chicana/x/o Studies from UCLA. Silveria can be contacted at salvarado@college.ucla.edu.

Gloria is a Masters student in Social Sciences and Comparative Education. Her research interests are in immigrant-origin youth and community cultural wealth. She received her B.A. In Cognitive Science from Scripps College. She is excited to work with the URC-HASS team to inspire research and learning interests among UCLA undergrads!

Jason Araújo is Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature at UCLA. A first-generation college graduate, he holds a B.A. in History, summa cum laude, from the University of San Diego. Upon graduating Jason spent a year teaching kindergarten in Oakland, CA. He was then hired by the Department of Navy and moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked closely with the Office of the Secretary of Defense to execute then-President Obama’s Veterans Employment Initiative (Executive Order 13518.) After several years with the federal government, he moved to New York City where he worked on undergraduate education initiatives at Barnard College/Columbia University, specifically the role-playing curriculum Reacting to the Past. Prior to arriving at UCLA, he completed an M.A. in French and Francophone Studies at San Diego State University.

Jason is currently writing a dissertation tentatively titled “Transatlantic Triangulations” that examines the capacity for literature and culture to resist in times of war. Using three literary magazines, two French language publications and one Spanish, during the years leading up to and just after WWII he examines a network of writers and publishers producing work that was committed to the anti-fascist cause. During his time at UCLA, he has felt tremendous honor to receive various awards and distinctions including the Cota V. Robles Fellowship, the Lenart Travel Fellowship, and the university-wide Distinguished Teaching Award (2021).

Micaela Bronstein (she/her/ella) is a second-year Ph.D. student in Urban Schooling at the School of Education and Information Studies. Her research interests include immigrant and refugee education, alternative space of learning, and political and critical consciousness and activism in education. She is passionate about education equity and uplifting marginalized student voices. In her free time, she likes to hike, dance, and rock climb.

Lynette Dixon (she/her/hers) earned a Bachelor of Arts in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality from Emory University and a Master of Arts in African American and African Students from The Ohio State University. As a doctoral student at UCLA, her research utilizes black feminist thought, performance theory, and hip-hop studies to explore the techniques of embodiment Black women in popular culture employ to navigate, contest, and innovate performances of gender and sexuality.

Sarah Alonzi (she/her) is a fourth-year PhD student in the Health Psychology program. Her research focuses on medical decision-making in patients with serious illness. Specifically, her dissertation research focuses on how patients with end-stage renal disease awaiting kidney transplant make the decision between waiting to receive a potentially longer-lasting organ or waiting a shorter time to receive a marginal (i.e., shorter-longevity) organ. In her free time, she likes to hike, rock climb, and SCUBA dive.

Katherine Smock (she/her) is a Ph.D candidate and 6th-year graduate student in the Department of Sociology at UCLA. Her research interests include housing, homelessness, and local governance in the Los Angeles region. A three-time recipient of the UCLA Department of Sociology’s Excellence in Teaching Award and graduate coordinator of the department’s honors thesis program, she is excited about undergraduate education and introducing students to research in the social sciences and humanities.

Greg is originally from Atlanta, GA. He received his BA in English and Neuroscience from Vanderbilt University, his MA in Global Studies from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is a first year PhD student in the Sociology Department at UCLA. After receiving his BA, he founded a business providing executive functioning coaching to students with learning needs, taught a broad range of subject matter as a homeschool teacher, and worked in two psychology labs at Vanderbilt University. While studying at UNC Chapel Hill, he worked as Lead Teaching Assistant for Global Studies, as well as the Phillips Ambassadors Graduate Teaching Fellow. After receiving his MA, he performed contracted research for United States Agency for International Development, Varieties of Democracy Institute, Digital Societies Project, and NORC at the University of Chicago. He also part-timed as a bartender and stand-up comedian in the wonderful town of Carrboro, North Carolina. Currently, his research interests are in examining ethnonationalist identity formation in rural communities in the Southeast United States. Namely, he is interested in how these identities are constituted through forms of labor, and how these identities articulate as supportive or resistive of environmental protectionism. He plans to use ethnographic and interview methods, coupled with survey instruments. Greg is passionate about teaching and mentorship, and he looks forward to working with the many bright minds at UCLA!   

Fatimah Patel is a second-year undergraduate student majoring in English. She is passionate about the law and social justice and is always trying to learn new things! She aims to go to law school and pursue a career as an attorney. She is also an author for the Davis Vanguard, where she watches and reports on court cases, and a member of UCLA’s mock trial team.

In her free time, Fatimah loves to read, bake, and spend time with friends and family!