Society and Culture

Three Alumnae Named Sacramento Latino Change Makers

Melinda Guzman, Cathy Rodriguez Aguirre and Lydia Ramirez attended UC Davis at different times, pursued different majors in the College of Letters and Science, and followed different paths to successful careers in law, business advocacy and banking. Their paths converged at various times, most recently with a shared honor: each was named to The Sacramento Bee’s inaugural list of Top 25 Latino Change Makers for leading positive transformations in their communities.

Wine Honors Economist Marianne Page

Marianne Page can count numerous accomplishments during her career as an economics professor in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis, but none like an honor recently bestowed by a Napa Valley winemaker. Page appears on the label of The Sage, an organic red blend wine created by Kira Ballotta for her Cantadora brand that celebrates Page and two other women “doing extraordinary things in support of their communities.”

Mobile App Founded by UC Davis Physics Student Empowers Socially Responsible Investors

An app founded by a UC Davis graduate student is poised to revolutionize financial investing for the socially conscious. Fennel, a mobile investing app that gives users insights into a company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics, was recently named one of Fast Company’s “10 most innovative companies in personal finance of 2023.” What’s more, the company has raised roughly $8.5 million in seed funding to support its growth during its beta stages.

Sloan Fellowships for Chemist and Mathematician

Two College of Letters and Science faculty members are among 125 recipients of this year’s Sloan Research Fellowships, prestigious awards given by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to early-career scientific researchers seen as emerging leaders in their fields.

The 2023 fellows, including UC Davis’ Jesús M. Velázquez and Alexander S. Wein, “represent the most promising scientific researchers working today,” the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation said in announcing its selections Feb. 15.

Hemispheric Institute Scholars Present Recent Findings

Ten doctoral students across many disciplines in the College of Letters and Science and two students from outside the college will present research done as UC Davis Hemispheric Institute on the Americas Summer Fellowship recipients. The fellowships allowed the students to travel to further their scholarship into diverse topics ranging from music about the Panama Canal to examining human remains for insights into drought and societal collapse in Peru.

Mellon Foundation Awards $1.5M for Disability Studies

Ryan Lee Cartwright, an American studies professor in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science, has received a $1.5 million award from the Mellon Foundation for a project to explore the intersection of research on disability and chronic illness. The three-year project in partnership with Yale University aims to develop a national network of scholars, culture workers and organizers who will bring disability justice approaches to the study of chronic illness.

Babies Remember Faces Despite Face Masks, UC Davis Study Suggests

Babies learn from looking at human faces, leading many parents and childhood experts to worry about possible developmental harm from widespread face-masking during the pandemic. A new study by researchers in the UC Davis College of Letters and Science allays those concerns, finding that 6- to 9-month-old babies can form memories of masked faces and recognize those faces when unmasked.

Resilience and 'La Familia'

Now in its 16th year, the California Families Project looks at the development of children of Mexican origin and a wide range of characteristics — individual, family, neighborhood, school and culture — that help them succeed in life. The landmark UC Davis study is the most comprehensive longitudinal study of its kind in the United States.

The Cultural Impact of the Fukushima Disaster

Fukushima, Japan, was struck by a triple disaster on March 11, 2011 — earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant failure. The disaster and its impact on the nation’s psyche has been explored extensively through film, literature and art during the decade since the disaster.