Student Profiles

Elya is a first-generation immigrant student majoring in Art and Comparative Literature, and she is fascinated by the stories a landscape tells of its environment. By partaking in material play, Elya digests odd, unexplored, or uncomfortable ambivalent spaces that shape her, such as her relationship with the freeway, which runs right by the house she has lived in for the past 11 years. Last spring, Elya participated in the Undergraduate Research Fellows Program, where she created L.A. Freeway Compositions Including (Studies of Concealment), Cement Companions: AKA Infected Souls, Instruspeaker TBD, and Its Leftovers, a sonic-sculptural installation that engaged with the visual and acoustic landscape of the Los Angeles freeway. Inspired by this work, her current research analyzes the sonic landscape of architectural walls as they shape sculptural drawings. By exploring the walls of her house through their translation into sonic material, Elya metaphorically interacts with abstract notions of the solid and porous borders that shape her identity. She believes that by honing in on and collaborating with the information embedded within the buildings and objects she shares space with, she can translate her relationship to landscapes— transforming this process of exchange into affective art objects— and find answers to questions like, “what are the walls saying that I refuse to hear?”

David has a keen interest in Latinx and Chicanx agency and representation in research and academia. His primary interests are in community-engaged collaborative research, oral histories of environmental injustice in unincorporated communities of color in Los Angeles, and the interplay between evolutionary psychology, evolutionary biology, and sociocultural variables in the context of Chicanx and Latinx life experiences. His research project for this program takes on an interdisciplinary approach to explore life history theory and its intersection with cultural influences on reproductive behaviors within Latinx communities in East Los Angeles. This study aims to bridge the gap between evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, and sociocultural anthropology by examining how cultural norms, environmental circumstances, and social factors shape the reproductive strategies and outcomes of Latinx adults. Through a mixed-methods approach, this project weighs the applicability of life history theory by comparing its determining factors and features with individual narratives and explanations of lived experiences. This research examines individual responses to reproductive strategies, such as age of first childbirth, perceived parental investment, and number of offspring. Additionally, his project tracks sociocultural variables, such as cultural practices and beliefs specific to Mexican and Mexican-American Latinas/os in East Los Angeles and socioeconomic status. This research offers a fresh perspective on human behavior by challenging deterministic biological models and emphasizing community-engaged perceptions and narratives, underscoring the importance of holistic approaches in evolutionary models and predictive reproduction frameworks.

Brizeida is a proud first-generation student in her fourth year at UCLA majoring in Anthropology with a minor in Spanish. She is from the Bay Area and is currently completing a Departmental Honors Thesis in the Anthropology Department which focuses on an indigenous group from Sinaloa, Mexico known as the Yoreme/Mayo. Her research seeks to understand the complexity of indigenous identity among the Yoreme as well as investigate how the Yoreme are preserving/maintaining their identity through specific forms of cultural involvement during a threatening time of cultural loss. Brizeida hopes her research can reveal the on-going threat that indigenous peoples face, specifically in Mexico, as not only their identities are being impacted, but their cultural traditions are in danger of being lost. After graduating with a bachelor’s from UCLA, she intends to pursue a graduate degree in anthropology with the aim of continuing her research in Mexico about indigenous peoples.

Mher Arutyunyan is a fourth–year Political Science major and Russian Studies minor. He is currently working on a senior thesis as part of the Political Science Departmental Honors Program under the guidance of Professor Richard Anderson. His work investigates Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy strategy with particular emphasis placed on the relationship between his decision–making and his domestic political goals. The research also devotes close attention to the Russian Orthodox Church, scrutinizing its role as a key support system for the incumbent regime. He hopes that his research conclusions will contribute to a better understanding of the Putin regime by US academics and policymakers, offering key insights which can be generalizable to other contexts. Mher is also heavily active in the Armenian–American student community at UCLA and in the broader Los Angeles area, serving as the Executive Chair of the All–Armenian Student Association and the Political Committee Chair of the UCLA Armenian Students’ Association.

Branden Bohrnsen is a third-year senior, studying Political Science and Statistics. His departmental honors thesis asks to what extent state legislature ideology impacts the emissions of American states, and more particularly, whether this effect is greater for emissions associated with energy production or consumption. He argues that the effect of ideology on production emissions is mediated by a state being especially dependent on the fossil fuel industry, as that fosters opposition towards the clean energy transition. With a focus on methods and political economy, Branden hopes to pursue a PhD in Political Science and delve further into climate politics and public economics research. Outside of research, Branden develops games with ACM Studio and serves as the Vice Chair of UCLA’s Student Fee Advisory Committee.

Jester Bulnes is a fourth-year Fine Art major and Chicana and Chicano Studies minor. Their work and practice is rooted in duality, parallels, and the in-between as a framework for engaging with materiality to challenge preconceived notions of identity and expand the possibilities to see things beyond a western-colonial binary. They are interested in the intersection of performance, fashion, and art and indulge in critical readings that engage race and ethnicity in performance. They wish to highlight the work of Kemi Adeyemi, Jillian Hernandez, José Munoz, and their
faculty mentor, Uri McMillan, as these scholars have assembled a foundation for Bulnes to traverse. Their current research explores artists’ relationships to materiality, with specific interest in Latinx and queer artists, to understand how specific materials have gained cultural meaning and function as specific codes and signifiers for queerness, race, gender, and class. They wish to continue to engage with both research and theory beyond their time at UCLA and are interested in pursuing a Master’s Degree in Art in the future.

Makyla Burson is a 4th year Psychology Major and Chicano/a Studies minor at UCLA. She presently serves as the supervisor to the Academic Advancement Program (AAP)’s English Composition Discipline Peer Learning Unit and act as a member of their Student Staff Advisory Committee. As she pursues her last year of university, she has taken on an honors thesis as a member of UCLA’s Psychology Departmental Honors Program under the mentorship of Dr. Efren Pérez, with a concentration in both Political and Social Psychology. Having been presented with a research scholarship under UCLA’s Keck Humanistic Inquiry Research Award, she is pleased to soon be able to fund a majority of my research project and gain additional support as a Keck Fellow through the program. Her project focuses on the concept of political polarization and its effect on mixed-race individuals’ identity formation and well-being. The levels of polarization within these individuals’ political ideologies are to be measured according to their scores on the American National Election Studies (ANES) Survey, while identity formation and well-being are measured using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and Assessment of Identity Development in Adolescence (AIDA) surveys. Her goal is to obtain a better understanding of the unique challenges that multiracial individuals’ face in today’s sociopolitical climate, and to validate these experiences while offering possible strategies for navigating America’s politically polarized environment. In her analysis, she aims to promote social cohesion, inclusivity, and psychological health, especially as societies become increasingly diverse, both racially and politically.

Irene Chang is a fourth-year Psychobiology major, double minoring in Applied Developmental Psychology and Gerontology. Through the support of Keck program, Irene will be investigating differences in language complexity between monolingual and bilingual children through a narrative book reading. Growing up speaking Mandarin and English, she has always been intrigued by the differences in language acquisition between bilingual and monolingual speakers. Outside of her work with Keck, Irene is deeply involved with several different campus organizations, such as Community Health Collective, Undergraduate Research Journal of Psychology, Chinese American Culture Night, Expressive Movement Initiative, Synthesis Dance Theater, Music of China Ensemble, Association of Students in Child Development, and LA Hacks. Irene also loves exploring new restaurants in LA, watching sunsets, and going to concerts! After graduating, she intends to pursue a career in medicine to become a pediatrician

Kaitlyn Coons is a fourth-year student pursuing a double major in History and Classical Civilization, along with minors in Digital Humanities and Latin Language and Culture. She is writing a History Departmental Honors Thesis under the mentorship of Professor Stefania Tutino. Kaitlyn’s thesis seeks to reconstruct the intellectual network of the 17th-century broker of knowledge, William Leybourn, and rewrite the story of the so-called passive and peripheral printer. It is an interdisciplinary project combining traditional historical investigation with Digital Humanities technologies to provide new insights into the nature of discovery in Early Modern England and the role of intellectual networks in the dissemination of knowledge to both academic and non-academic audiences. In her free time, you can find Kaitlyn swimming with friends at Sunset Rec or running in the neighborhoods around campus with BruinRunners!

As a fourth-year Statistics major, Arielle Davis, blends elements of STEM and Humanities Research. She enjoys learning about statistics but, also has a background in creative writing. During her time at UCLA, Davis picked up a minor in African American Studies and collaborated on an Emmy nominated video series about poetry. Her writing experience is what inspired her Keck project, a fictional anthology of short stories that illustrate intersectional perspectives on the treatment of Black people in the United States. This book will touch upon less popular subjects, like life as a Black Republican and healthcare accessibility for Black households, with a narrative that is informed by patterns and themes from focus group interviews, expert interviews, and historical document analysis. Davis hopes to further define what it means to be a Black American with her project. Going forward, Davis will continue to carve a space for creatives with analytical minds as she begins her career in data science.

Chloe Duffield is a fourth-year Public Affairs departmental honors major with a minor in Professional Writing. Her thesis analyzes the multi-thousand spike of firearm purchases the United States experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her research aims to pinpoint the societal conditions that influence the volatile and elusive nature of the firearm as a symbol in American culture and hopes to determine what specifically sparked this rise in sales. By examining pre-existing literature and attitudes regarding gun culture in the United States, different periods of America and their corresponding societal conditions and firearm ownership rates prior to COVID-19 and comparing them to the constraints and ownership rates the U.S. experienced from 2020-2022, she hopes to provide a deeper understanding of the forces in our country that shape the attitude and opinion of firearm ownership. She also hopes that her research will illuminate how the general perspective of the firearm is reflective of America’s social and political climate. Chloe is a writer for the Bruin Political Review in the World Politics section and works in data analytics at UCLA’s Bruin Media Group. She is also a research intern for UCLA’s Commercial Sexual Exploitation Research Group. Chloe intends to study law following graduation in the spring.