HUMANITIES
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
EMERGING HUMANITIES: DIGITAL HUMANITIES
In response to the rapid transition to
the first-ever UCLA transfer student recipient of the Marshall Scholarship. Yen earned her bachelor’s degree in English with a double minor in global studies and digital humanities. Her solo-authored digital thesis titled “Digital Syria” was the first of its kind at UCLA and examined Western society’s narrative about the Syrian refugee crisis. For her digital humanities minor, she worked on Drone Wars, a group project that analyzed data on American drone strikes in the Middle East. Yen plans to use her award to pursue two master’s degrees in digital humanities, and digital culture and society at King’s College London. •
pandemic, the Bruin Tech Fund raised much-needed support for financially vulnerable students who normally rely on campus resources for access donors came together to raise nearly giving platform, SPARK, setting a UCLA SPARK record. • Donors Raised
LIFE SCIENCES
REVOLUTIONIZING GENE THERAPY Stem cell gene therapy offers new
bone marrow to malfunction. Today,
conditions. Donald Kohn in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics is testing novel approaches to treating genetic diseases such as Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (SCID), also known as “bubble baby disease.” In these diseases, an inherited mutation in a single gene causes blood cells in
infection-free thanks to a new approach developed in Kohn’s lab that doesn’t rely on a perfectly matched stem cell donor. Instead, the patient’s own stem cells are extracted, a normal copy of the relevant gene is added, or that gene is fixed, and these are transplanted back to the patient. These “self” transplants are safer since the patient’s cells are a perfect match. •
SOCIAL SCIENCES
A HISTORY OF
ACTIVISM
Dr. Donald Kohn (left) treats infant for “bubble baby disease” in 2016.
ETHNIC STUDIES AT UCLA
FOR THE WORKERS
ethnic studies centers — UCLA American Indian Studies Center, UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA and UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center — have fueled campus diversity and the fight for equity and social change on campus and beyond. Using data, research, archives, art, storytelling and more, the centers help move the understanding of Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans and Native people from the margins to the mainstream.
for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) has played an important role in the intellectual life of the university and in the national conversation on labor and employment issues.
UCLA Pow Wow is an annual campus event held by the American Indian Student Association whose mission is to inform UCLA students about the native community on campus and to correct negative stereotypes about American Indian people in society.
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