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.

Kate McAllister received her B.A. in Anthropology from UCLA and her M.B.A. from UCLA Anderson. Kate can be contacted at kmcallister@college.ucla.edu.

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.

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).

Xiong Her is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Higher Education and Organizational Change (HEOC) Program in the School of Education and Information Studies. His research interests focus on increasing access and support for low-income and/or first-generation students, affirmative action policy, and diversity issues in higher education. He earned his M.S. Ed. in International Educational Development from University of Pennsylvania and his BA in International Affairs and Political Science from Marquette University. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, playing sports (soccer, badminton, volleyball, etc.), hiking, and spending time with his family.

Harmeet Kalsi (she/her/hers) is a third-year Ph.D. student at UCLA’s Higher Education and Organizational Change program. She is a first-generation community college transfer student who graduated from the University of California Merced with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology.

She is interested in researching first-generation community college transfer student populations and how institutions influence their graduate school aspirations and long-term career trajectories. She is also interested in utilizing asset-based frameworks such as Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth theory when conducting and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative work. Harmeet is also interested in exploring the experiences of first-generation Punjabi women in U.S higher education institutions, particularly post 9/11.

She has mentored both undergraduates and graduate students throughout her educational journey. Harmeet is excited to support the research and educational goals of UCLA undergraduates.

Yejoo Kim is a third year doctoral student in Anthropology. She is currently pursuing a long-term ethnographic project that looks at the geopolitical and local logics of borders, crisis, peace, and militarism within the Korean borderlands and the DMZ in particular. In her research, she draws inspiration from critical race, empire, infrastructural, peace, and security studies. She is happy to mentor and advise students with questions regarding fellowships, graduate school life, and long-term research / ethnographic projects and can be reached at ykim@college.ucla.edu.

Nicole Prucha is a PhD student in the English Department at the University of California, Los Angeles. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley in mathematics and English, with a minor in creative writing, then took a year and a half away from academia to teach high school math. As a graduate student and Eugene Cota-Robles Fellow at UCLA, she studies minoritarian literature and art through a lens of affect theory, queer of color critique, and performance studies. Her research focuses on loneliness, longing, and love as modes of survival for the queer / artist of color and is most heavily influenced by the late scholar José Muñoz, Alice Walker, and her mother. As a graduate research mentor, she looks forward to furthering her passion for teaching and mentorship.

Shouhei Tanaka is a PhD candidate in English. He is a graduate student coordinator for the university’s Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies and an affiliate of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

Fatimah Patel is a first-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!