Achievements

Following is a partial list of some recent achievements of the many people affiliated with UCSC's Division of Social Sciences.

A National Reputation for Excellence:

The Social Sciences Division has earned a national recognition for the quality of its research and teaching. Some examples of major national rankings follow.

  • UCSC ranked 1st in the nation among public universities for the quality of its research productivity in Social Sciences, in The Rise of American Research Universities: Elites and Challengers in the Postwar Era, by Hugh Graham and Nancy Diamond.
  • UCSC's Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems oversees research, education, and public service programs that have an international reputation for increasing ecological sustainability and social justice in the food and agriculture system.
  • Two Economics Department faculty (Joshua Aizenman and Michael Dooley) are research associates of the prestigious National Bureau of Economic Research.
  • Economics Department Chair, Lori Kletzer, was featured in a National Journal special report that identified the "people whose ideas will help shape debate on 10 important issues of the day." Kletzer was singled out for her work on workforce quality.
  • UCSC's Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community is a nationally recognized research institute tackling issues of social justice, diversity, and tolerance through collaborative relationships between the university and its state and local communities.

Innovation Rewarded with External Funding:

The following list underscores the excellence of UCSC's Social Sciences research, which has resulted in significant increases in contracts, grants, and private funding.

  • UCSC's New Teacher Center (NTC) is part of a $36 million new program that will provide a mentor for all first-year teachers in the New York City public school system. Now active in 31 states and Puerto Rico, the center has dramatically increased teacher retention and boosted student achievement.
  • UCSC faculty are leading a $1.5 million study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, to identify the strengths of programs that encourage underrepresented minorities to pursue biomedical research careers.

Quality Attracts Awards and Honors:

The following list includes just a few of the many Social Sciences faculty and alumni who, through their achievements, have received significant honors:

  • Professor emeritus of education Roland Tharp received the "Nobel Prize of Education," the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award. The $150,000 award, which Tharp shared with a faculty member from UCLA, recognizes their book Rousing Minds to Life: Teaching, Learning and School in Social Context, advocating redesigning education to fit students' needs.
  • In 2002, Paul Ortiz, assistant professor of community studies, received the Lillian Smith Book Award for his work on Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell about Life in the Segregated South.
  • Elliot Aronson, professor emeritus of psychology, was named one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century in a study reported in the July/August 2002 issue of the Review of General Psychology.
  • In 2001, UCSC alumnus Kent Nagano, one of the most sought-after conductors in the world, became the Los Angeles Opera's first principal conductor.
  • In 2000, UCSC alumna Martha Mendoza, an Associated Press reporter, received a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism. Mendoza is one of four UCSC graduates to receive a Pulitzer.