Summer Research Incubator

As part of your application to the Summer Research Incubator, you will be asked to choose an area of research inquiry (as well as two back-up areas) to work on this summer. The 2026 areas of inquiry are as follows:

Research Inquiry 1: How does disability awareness shape broader social justice issues?

Disability rights have been hard fought for in recent decades, with progressive social justice movements leading to legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans came to understand the lives of isolation and quarantine that many disabled folks experience because of structural and social inequalities. Since the advent of the internet, disability advocacy movements and communities have found traction in online spaces, increasing awareness for these communities. As the number of disabled Americans increases, partly due to frequent epidemics as well as advanced medicine enabling people to live longer and survive deadly illnesses such as cancer and diabetes, disability advocacy is increasingly important for more and more of the country. Recently, social justice movements have adopted disability care practices into their best practices such as masking and planning actions in accessible spaces. Important questions arise from this dynamic. How do those without prior disability consciousness understand themselves within broader disability rights movements? How are disability advocacy tenets being incorporated into the goals and practices of other social justice moments? What role does ableism play in the structural inequities affecting all minority populations? This project is aimed at students interested in disability studies, intersectional identity formation, and interview methods, and may be of interest to students in the humanities and social sciences, particularly in anthropology, communications and sociology.

Research Inquiry 2: How do immigrant communities across the United States imagine, build, and sustain places of belonging amid shifting social, political, and economic landscapes?

Across cities and regions in the United States, immigrant communities have long shaped local landscapes through collective organizing, cultural expression, and everyday practices of belonging. This research inquiry explores how such communities are often formed through shared histories of migration, displacement, race, and resistance, create and sustain spaces of identity, solidarity, and care amid shifting social, political, and economic conditions. Students will examine how neighborhoods, community organizations, cultural institutions, and informal networks, across U.S. geographies, become sites where people assert visibility, preserve cultural memory, and respond to contemporary pressures. Drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives in anthropology, ethnic studies, sociology, and geography, this project invites students to investigate how communities mobilize across generations and borders, negotiate belonging, and imagine collective futures rooted in place, culture, and shared struggle.

Research Inquiry 3: How do the intersections of race, gender, and size oppression shape the experiences of marginalized communities?

George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed during his arrest outside of a convenience store in Minnesota by white police officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on his neck for 9 minutes, inciting the largest global protest and a resurgence of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement that first became a rallying cry in 2014 following the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson. Both Brown and Floyd’s size and stature were factors in applying excessive force, not only resulting in their deaths but also used as a means to justify their deaths. Brown was referred to as “Hulk Hogan,” and Floyd, though referred to as “a gentle giant” in death, his size as a larger Black man, coupled with his medical history, was strategically used by police, lawyers, and medical examiners to justify his death. This research cluster will invite all students who are broadly interested in examining the intersections of race, gender, and size across marginalized communities. Therefore, we will grapple with the following questions: What do racial analyses of gender and size offer as analytic/s? What forms of interlocking oppression and violence might come into further view by adopting a critical or intersectional lens? This research area will appeal to students interested in race, gender, size, disability, cultural studies, history, digital humanities, and other related fields.

Research Inquiry 4: How do we challenge the impact misinformation and disinformation have on our communities?

As an increasing number of people access their news through social media, the issue of misinformation and disinformation has reached new heights. The global COVID-19 Pandemic is an example of how misinformation reached dangerous levels, fueling Sinophobia and anti-intellectualism. As the confluence of social media algorithms and unregulated artificial intelligence shifts the landscape in which people communicate and obtain information, this research invites us to consider what factors play a role in the creation of misinformation, the motivations behind disinformation, and how their dissemination should be taken as social justice issues. We will pose questions such as: How do different forms of literacy, such as data literacy, information literacy, and media literacy, inform our approach to social justice? By acknowledging that data is not neutral, what challenges to data privacy and surveillance can we investigate? How does the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT complicate our understanding of authenticity? What tools can we use to engage our communities online and offline against misinformation and disinformation? This research inquiry will be of interest to students studying education, political science, history, information studies, public health, gender studies, and other related fields.

Research Inquiry 5: What does it mean to “decolonize” art, museums, and cultural institutions today?

Recent years have seen a dramatic rise in calls to “decolonize” museums and other cultural institutions, bringing new attention to questions of representation, authority, and historical accountability. This research inquiry will grapple with what decolonization means in the context of art, visual culture, and education, and how these ideas are taken up, adapted, or resisted within cultural institutions. Students will explore how artists, curators, educators, and activists have challenged colonial legacies, and how institutions have responded. When have productive dialogues around decolonization and other social justice issues taken place, and when have they been coopted or trivialized? Case studies may include museum repatriation debates over the Benin Bronzes—including those happening here in Los Angeles— controversies around biennials and institutional funding, and movements like Decolonize This Place. Students may also look at community-based arts initiatives, artistic responses to war or displacement, or the use of contemporary art as a tool of political critique. The goal is for each student to develop a focused research project that investigates the role of art or visual culture within broader debates about power, representation, and social justice, contributing to ongoing conversations about what decolonization looks like—or should look like—in cultural spaces today.

Research Inquiry 6: What curricula, programs, and policies can schools implement to best support immigrant students?

Challenges around immigration are not new; throughout US history there have been waves of migration that have posed complex questions around belonging, membership, and community. Immigration has become even more pertinent in political and social discourse over the last two decades, particularly with the rise of right-wing extremism, the elections of Trump in 2016 & 2024, and the legitimized anti-immigrant rhetoric that accompanied his win. These challenges and complexities have permeated deeply into almost every aspect of society, and one such area that poses particular challenges—and polarizing rhetoric—is education and schooling. A recent increase in immigration across the country has led to an increase in immigrant students attending schools, raising pressing questions around how to best support immigrant students. And while significant strides have been made within education policy to support immigrant students glaring disparities remain, particularly around access to postsecondary education and career opportunities. Given the current socio political context, and the rising anti-immigration rhetoric and action, what are the best approaches to support immigrant students in schools? How can schools be safe environments for immigrant students, and in what ways does the curriculum impact immigrant students’ sense of belonging? What kind of programs and policies can schools implement to end disparities facing immigrant students? This research area will be of interest to students studying education, political science, history, race, gender and ethnic studies.

Research Inquiry 7: What environmental injustices impact communities of color in the U.S. and how do communities resist under these conditions?

In the United States, Black, Indigenous, Latinx and communities of color are disproportionately exposed to environmental injustices. The air, water, and soil that people of color rely on are polluted by extractive industries and are rarely held accountable. Even so, communities of color find ways to live and organize for more just futures in these environments. There is an increased interest in environmental justice organizing in communities of color to rebuild healthy relationships with the natural environment through the creation of urban gardens, climate change policy work, and art. Taking a critical geography, political ecology, and ethnic studies approach, this research inquiry will focus on understanding the social processes that cause and sustain environmental injustices and how communities of color resist. An ethnic studies lens will help us locate the resilience found in communities of color who create their own alternative systems of caring for the environment and each other. Theis research project asks: How are environmental injustices unequally spaced out in cities across the U.S.? What are communities of colors relationships with their natural environments? How are communities of color organizing to resist and transform their environmental conditions? This research inquiry will provide students the skills to analyze environmental injustices though the interconnections of race, space, and power. Overall, we will focus on how environmental injustices come to be and the possibilities to create more just futures.