Study finds that a gene for lighter skin spread rapidly among people in southern Africa in the last 2,000 years. University of California, Davis, researchers and colleagues report that the gene was introduced from eastern Africa to southern African populations. Strong positive selection caused this gene to rise in frequency among some KhoeSan populations.

In a new policy brief, Chloe N. East (Ph.D., economics, ’16), an assistant professor of economics at the University of Colorado Denver, examines how parental eligibility for the Food Stamp Program affects children's well-being and healthcare expenses, with a particular focus on U.S.-born children of immigrants.

What are the most psychologically healthy personality traits? Scholars have been interested in characterizing the healthy personality as long as they have been trying to understand how people differ from one another. Researchers from UC Davis have identified a healthy personality prototype in a recent study using a contemporary trait perspective.

Graduate Students Bring Research and Action to Communities

Through the Mellon Public Scholars program, UC Davis graduate students combine their scholarship and passions to make a tangible difference in communities across the region, nation, and world. Working with community organizations and individuals, the scholars examine real-world problems and offer creative solutions.

Starting in 1910, Punjabi women began trickling into California, joining a community of men who started arriving from the northern Indian province of Punjab in the 1890s. But even as their numbers grew these women remained largely invisible. Their women’s story is now being told, thanks to Nicole Ranganath, historian and assistant adjunct professor of Middle East/South Asia Studies (ME/SA) in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science. Along with amassing an archive of interviews, photographs, letters and archival footage, she has created a documentary film “Walking into the Unknown: A History of Punjabi Women in California.”

The California History-Social Science Project, headquartered at UC Davis, will share a national K-12 teaching award with the California Department of Education for helping to write the state’s new framework for history-social science instruction in the public schools. The American Historical Association recently announced that it will award its Beveridge Family Teaching Prize to the co-winners.

The centenary of women’s suffrage in Germany will be marked with several events about women’s suffrage and leadership in Germany presented by the UC Davis College of Letters and Science’s Department of German and Russian on Oct. 22, 23 and 26. 

The events start Oct. 22 with an opening reception for an exhibition on the history of female suffrage in Sproul Hall lobby from noon to 1 p.m. On display through Nov. 8, it will feature posters on the history of women’s right to vote around the world. All posters have been researched and prepared by UC Davis students.

Technological innovation is transforming agriculture and a UC study funded by a $492,000 grant from the National Science Foundation will explore the booming connections between new technologies, agriculture and food. Charlotte Biltekoff, associate professor and chair of the UC Davis College of Letters and Science’s American studies program, is part of the multi-campus study team.

Even when they're thinking things through, people sometimes behave similarly to others, according to communication research at the University of California, Davis.

The FOXP2 gene has been associated with uniquely human language abilities. But a UC Davis scientist and colleagues did a study with a wider variety of people and found no evidence of selection for FOXP2 in modern humans, challenging previous of how we think humans acquired language.

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth announced today that it will give a research grant to UC Davis economics professor Ann Huff Stevens to study the long-term decline of men’s employment in the United States.

UC Davis economist Giovanni Peri has spent close to two decades researching the impacts of immigration on local labor markets. His findings: local economies grow with an influx of immigrants and decline when they leave.

The University of California is spearheading a statewide effort to advance the purchase of 1 million high-quality, energy-efficient light bulbs for campus buildings and residences across the state.

Under the Community Buy Program, all UC students, staff, faculty and alumni can purchase light bulbs at nearly half the price of online competitors.

Close to 500 economics scholars from around the globe will gather at UC Davis beginning Thursday, June 21, for the four-day 2018 North American Summer Meeting of the Econometric Society. This is the first time that UC Davis has been the host for a meeting of the Econometric Society, the preeminent international society of academic economists and publisher of three scholarly journals.

In high-stakes environments, success is not just about playing your cards right, but also playing your opponents right. Looking at how more than 35,000 individuals interacted when playing millions of poker hands online, a University of California, Davis, study reveals that game experts are an excellent source of insight into how people process strategic information in competitive settings.