Social Sciences

Two Social Science Graduate Students Earn Fellowships

July 3, 2025

image with two people with brown/black hair and the Beginnings sculture

UC Merced Ph.D. candidates Eliana Fonsah and Nihan Karagul are recipients of the highly competitive dissertation fellowship from the UC Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC). They competed with doctoral candidates from across the UC system, resulting in about 10% of applicants...

Study: Early High-Altitude Settlers Were Hunter-Gatherers, Not Farmers

A new paper by UC Merced Professor Mark Aldenderfer begins to settle a longstanding debate over when people began permanently occupying higher elevations of the Tibetan Plateau, and shows communities...

Researchers to Discuss Strong Family Relationships in Symposium

UC Merced will host its fourth annual Symposium on the Child and Family from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Jan. 28, offering a day of talks by researchers on the theme of “Strong Families: Fostering Healthy...

Will Shadish Memorial Fellowship Announced for Giving Tuesday

During this year’s Giving Tuesday — an international day of giving held each year on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving — UC Merced will honor Professor Will Shadish with a new graduate student...

Grad Students Help Begin Academic Exchange With Honduras

Four UC Merced graduate students got a rare opportunity to establish and strengthen relationships between the campus and the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) this summer. The...

Campus to Celebrate Spendlove Winner Anita Hill

UC Merced will honor Anita Hill as the 10th recipient of the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance in an Oct. 24 ceremony at the Art Kamangar Center at the...

Future Public Servants Get a Boost From UC Fellowships

UC Merced student Stephanie Maldonado was excited when she earned a slot in the University of California’s public service internship program in Washington, D.C., this fall — then came the financial...

Campus Awarded $500K for Undergrad Research, Support

Undergraduate humanities students at the University of California, Merced, will gain valuable research opportunities and support for their transitions into graduate studies and scholarly careers,...

Ancient DNA Sheds Light on Origins of Himalayan Populations

In a collaborative study by the University of California, Merced, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Chicago and Uppsala University in Sweden, researchers conduct the first ancient DNA...

Dedicated Student Breaks Ground With Ph.D., Autism Research

When Nikko Da Paz decided to go to graduate school, she didn’t limit herself to one degree — or even one campus. The mother of two young children with autism enrolled at UC Merced in 2011, and in May...