2024

Please Note: Presentations will be viewable starting Wednesday, May 29th
Brizeida Alvarez Arana

Brizeida Alvarez Arana

Cultural Resistance: Experiences of Maintaining Identity Among the Yoreme in Northern Sinaloa, Mexico

Emily Diane Calkins

Emily Diane Calkins

Soy Dueña de Mi Tiempo”: How Women in Antigua, Guatemala Become ‘Owners of Their Time and Money’ through Street Food Vending

Aidan Hong-Jet Choi

Aidan Hong-Jet Choi

Examining Ceramic Standardization at Hispanic Period Bombon Church, Camarines Sur, Philippines

Maisy Green

Maisy Green

The Business of Identity: Exploring the Dissonant Landscape of Personal Identity for Non-Male Artists in the Indie Music Industry

Tiana Gregoryona

Tiana Gregoryona

“What the Enemy Wants”: Resisting Diasporic Disconnection in Armenian Identity & Belonging

Samaya Joshi

Samaya Joshi

Cultivating Kinship: U.S. Mothers’ Motivations to Adopt Female Orphans from India

Isabella Lazur

Isabella Lazur

“Taking Control of My Health”: Undergraduate Students Navigating the Transition from Pediatric to Adult Care

Georgia Antonia Lewis

Georgia Antonia Lewis

Navigating Liminality in Paradise: Searching for Psychological Well-Being Through Work-Trade in the Midst of Maui’s Disintegration

Jennifer Nguyen

Jennifer Nguyen

It Takes a Village: The Importance of Community for Immigrant Vietnamese Families Raising Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Jesse Ontiveros

Jesse Ontiveros

Gender, Race, and Nationality: Experiences of Highly-Skilled West African Migrant Women Living in France

Diana Rinza

Diana Rinza

Lo Que Pasa en la Casa: How Latinx Immigrant Communities Navigate Cultural and Structural Barriers When Seeking Mental Health Care in Los Angeles

2023

Kendra N Barreras Rodarte

Kendra N Barreras Rodarte

Revisiting Yo’eme Women’s Secrecy: Agency and Resistance Embedded in Discourse

Tavi Lorelle Carpenter

Tavi Lorelle Carpenter

“We’re Indigenous from Here, Right Here”: California Indigeneity as Understood by 10 Tribal Citizens from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria

Courtney Taylor Croteau

Courtney Taylor Croteau

Picturing Culture: A Critical Look at Cultural Representation in Children’s Picture Books and Intentional Inclusivity Practices at the Los Angeles Public Library

Paola Jasso

Paola Jasso

A Discourse Divided: Cultural Appropriation in K-Pop and Navigating the Online Fandom

Huda Rasul

Huda Rasul

Pakistani-Americans, Sustainable Eating, and Environmental Consciousness

Sean Katsuhei Peralta Sugai

Sean Katsuhei Peralta Sugai

Stories of Skin: Race, Beauty, and Afro-Asian- Indigenous Relationalities in Diasporic Filipinx Hawaiʻi

Ashley P.T. Tran

Ashley P.T. Tran

“Mani-Pedi?”: Vietnamese Immigrant Women (Re)making Identity in Nail Salons

Rongji Wang

Rongji Wang

Materialization of Power and Identity: Exploring the Rise of Early Gold Use Tradition in Northern China, 1300-221 BCE

2022

Leigha AbiSaab

Leigha AbiSaab

Faith and Diaspora: An Ethnographic Study of Lebanese Druze migrants to the United States

Alivia Brown

Alivia Brown

An Evaluation of Women’s Reproductive Health Research: Physical Activity & Hormones

Amanda Castillo

Amanda Castillo

Holocaust Museum LA: Preserving Memory Through Docent Storytelling & Narrative

Cassandra Cruz-Ramos

Cassandra Cruz-Ramos

The Importance of Being Salvadoran: Language Socialization and Ideologies Between First and Second Generation Migrants

Ahmet Emre Dikyurt

Ahmet Emre Dikyurt

Trauma, Emotion, Identity, and Belonging: The Case of Second Generation Bosnian Americans

Ariella Daniali

Ariella Daniali

Narratives of COVID-19: Experiences of Los Angeles community college students through quarantine

Peixin Li

Peixin Li

Chinese Colorism: The Significance of Whitening in Skin Color to Chinese College Women

Hongtao Liu

Hongtao Liu

Cut from the Same Cloth: Ideologies of the Han Clothing Movement

Camille Lopez-Ambrosio

Camille Lopez-Ambrosio

Unshelling the Dietary Strategies of the Maritime Tongva

Elena Sofia Moro

Elena Sofia Moro

Environmental Injustice & the Salton Sea: Lived Experiences of Social Inequality in California’s Drying Lakebed

Mariana Orozco-Berber

Mariana Orozco-Berber

Deconstructing Fast Food Media: Understanding Fast Food through a Cultural Lens

Mya Kamea Snell

Mya Kamea Snell

Black Panther, Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?: Race and The Problem of Representation within the Hollywood Film Industry

2021

Iklil Bouhmouch

Iklil Bouhmouch

Disruptive Rhymes: Gender, Class, and Nationhood in Moroccan Hip Hop

Ahmad Daaboul

Ahmad Daaboul

“The future of Lebanon is in the hands of the ‘Future of Lebanon’”: Youth Political Activism and the Lebanese Thawra

Joshua David

Joshua David

A Cult of Fried Chicken and Sweet Spaghetti: Expressions of Diasporic Filipino-American Identity Through Filipino Fast Food

Isabella Ding

Isabella Ding

Dewy Skin Over Scruffy Beards: Critical U.S. Fan Reception of K-pop’s Male Gender Performativity

Jaclyne Garcia

Jaclyne Garcia

Foodways To Decolonization: How Filipinos in Hawai’i Reclaim Identity by Celebrating Filipino Cuisine

Leilani Hurtado

Leilani Hurtado

Leche Caliente: How a Traditional Mexican Farmer’s Breakfast Keeps Mexicans and Mexican Americans Rural at Heart

Jasmine Jackson

Jasmine Jackson

Public Enemy #1: Connective Marginalities and Identity Construction Within Post-9/11 Muslim Hip Hop

Jackeline Lopez

Jackeline Lopez

Animal Imagery in Mesoamerican Art: Tracing Iconographic Legacies from the Mokaya to the Classic Maya

Tania Nasrollahi

Tania Nasrollahi

De-individualizing Blame: Online Activism and the Fat-Acceptance Movement

Jacelyn O’Neill

Jacelyn O’Neill

"Fame Without the Fame": Performing and Negotiating Identity Among American Dwarf Wrestlers

Shayda Shevidi

Shayda Shevidi

“Air pollution is a vicious cycle”: The Everyday Experiences of Unbreathability in Tehran

Princess Udeh

Princess Udeh

“Black Students Do The Real Work!”: Maintaining Mental Health Among Black College Students at UCLA

2020

Shagun Bali

Shagun Bali

“Play Like a Man”: Gendered
Conversations Among Female Hindustani Instrumentalists

Neinel Zani Estapanians

Neinel Zani Estapanians

Stuck in Crisis: The Perceived Residual Impacts of the 1988 Earthquake on Life in Spitak, Armenia

Miranda Gilmore

Miranda Gilmore

Mothering the Mother: Intimate Moments Among Birth Workers

Caroline Goese

Caroline Goese

Shedding the Heavy Coat: The Shame and Resilience of Formerly Incarcerated Women

Jessica Hall

Jessica Hall

The Allure of Western-Themed Environments in Suburban Shanghai and the Reconstruction of Social Space

Makenzie Hart

Makenzie Hart

Transforming Tradition: How Tourism and the Quest for Authenticity Affects the Portrayal of the Fijian Kava Ceremony

Valeria Catalina Landeros

Valeria Catalina Landeros

The Degradation Next Door: How Knowledge Disparity in the Imperial Valley Delocalizes Environmental Risk

Alysun Littlefield

Alysun Littlefield

Belonging to the “Tribe”: New Age Spiritualities and the Erasure of Indigeneity in Pisaq, Peru

Michelle Peraza

Michelle Peraza

Alone but Together: Spousal Perspectives on Resources Available to Marine Corps Wives Facing High Divorce Rates

Jorge Quezada

Jorge Quezada

“If They Have a Work Permit, Why Are They in the Street?” Exacerbating Migrant Precarity in a Border Town

Elijah Renteria

Elijah Renteria

Documenting the Mask’s Journey: Ritual and Retail Choices in Pascola Mask Making

Julianne Rodriguez

Julianne Rodriguez

The Perception of Choice: Generational Change and The Social Pressures on Women in Malawi, Africa

Yui Sasajima

Yui Sasajima

Ecuadorian Women and Pachamama: Understanding Everyday Life in Cangahua through Narratives

2019

<a href="https://youtu.be/1N1JgucUCNg">Sarah Bertman</a>

Sarah Bertman

She Sorts Seashells from Years Before: The Role of Student Research in the Analysis of an Orphaned Collection from Antelope Valley

<a href="https://youtu.be/ZMZ1xfDoErE">Melva Colter</a>

Melva Colter

"Historically-Informed Performance" and Egalitarianism in Practice in California Early Music Ensembles

<a href="https://youtu.be/0B4x2StSh5A">Dana Goldman</a>

Dana Goldman

Behind the Red Door: Linguistic Choices and Cultural Meaning in Hip Hop

<a href="https://youtu.be/veyNKtDUEk0">Nirinjan Khalsa</a>

Nirinjan Khalsa

Stamp the Yard: Embodied Experiences and Globalization in Block-Printed Textile Production in Bagru, India

<a href="https://youtu.be/355OxVyW1tE">Grace Kim</a>

Grace Kim

“Skinny is Cosmetic Here”: Exposing Clinical Significance of Eating Disorders within South Korea’s Dual Medical System

<a href="https://youtu.be/FNdmWGYdtm4">Alex Krantzler</a>

Alex Krantzler

"Speak Like You Don’t Know Hebrew”: Cultivating Queer Registers in Contemporary Israel

<a href="https://youtu.be/MIAfioO1t-Q">Robin Meyer-Lorey</a>

Robin Meyer-Lorey

Resistance and Cultural Persistence: Medicine, Resources, and Religion in Spanish Colonial Bicol, Philippines

<a href="https://youtu.be/LCdNsuxmsYQ">Nafi Misan</a>

Nafi Misan

Pictures of People Taking Pictures: Contemporary Meaning Making Through Photography in Art Museums

<a href="https://youtu.be/plHuXla1S2Y">Moses Ramirez</a>

Moses Ramirez

Counter Narratives of Foster Youth in Adulthood: Challenging Deficit Thinking

<a href="https://youtu.be/EXvR-ZdeNKQ">Hamza Saleh</a>

Hamza Saleh

The Herb as Resistance: How Bedouin of Beida Village Maintain Identity Through Medicine

<a href="https://youtu.be/y0v-Eg5tFfA">Yoselene Tello</a>

Yoselene Tello

Sacred Ambivalence: Women’s Negotiation of Gender and Power within a Santeria Community in Los Angeles

<a href="https://youtu.be/M2Q7u4IYfNU">Jamie Thomas</a>

Jamie Thomas

Cutting the Safety Net: Precarity in Austerity for the United Kingdom’s National Health Service

2018

<a href="https://youtu.be/NsYTLct46qI">Sakina Ayaz</a>

Sakina Ayaz

Cultural Reappropriations of Traditional Healing: Ayurveda in Contemporary India

<a href="https://youtu.be/B7YZZD574aU">Taylor Babian</a>

Taylor Babian

What is the Cost of Beauty? The Economics of Plastic Surgery In South Korea

<a href="https://youtu.be/mZxrUErHhAo">Katelyn Benedict</a>

Katelyn Benedict

Performance and Ritual: Possibilities of Transformation Through Performing Arts Workshops

<a href="https://youtu.be/iQVnMd8bYJ8">Tarah Frost</a>

Tarah Frost

Keep it moving: Space Rights, Social Welfare, and Vendedores Ambulantes in San José, Costa Rica

<a href="https://youtu.be/3UZmwlU_ZCk">Maggie Gallagher</a>

Maggie Gallagher

Youth, Climate Change and Visions of the Future in Miami

<a href="https://youtu.be/jcAuuiVAIxI">Avery Lopez</a>

Avery Lopez

The Infant White-Faced Capuchin Monkey Gargle Vocalization as a Bond-Testing Mechanism

<a href="https://youtu.be/nYzIiui2m2o">Rachel Mernoff</a>

Rachel Mernoff

Perspectives on Global Health: Analyzing Medical Partnerships in Malawi

<a href="https://youtu.be/FYAVkpgZ82Q">Conor O’Brien</a>

Conor O’Brien

Branding Manhood: The Abakuá Secret Society and the Commodification of Masculinity in Cuba

<a href="https://youtu.be/HqEkN_BZAZE">Hannah Stewart</a>

Hannah Stewart

We are Chameleons: Understanding the Adaptations of North African Identity in Lyon, France

<a href:"https://youtu.be/bhGL7C4YqZs">Livina Tang</a>

Livina Tang

Practicing ‘Cute’ Among Japanese Women: Gender Relations in Contemporary Japan

2017

<a href="https://youtu.be/H_At1yrus9Y">Jake Abarca</a>

Jake Abarca

Embodying New Pathways: Individuals with Stroke Disability and Communal Exercise

<a href="https://youtu.be/NvaoELrREXw">Kassandra Angel</a>

Kassandra Angel

"I’m One of the Cool Kids Now!": Forming Community and Identity within Online Anime Fandom

<a href="https://youtu.be/SFK-poR2eH8">Cory Buckband</a>

Cory Buckband

"The Land that Devours its Inhabitants": How Jewish Ethiopian Israelis Resist the ’Rescue Narrative

<a href="https://youtu.be/ChOHMhMXmHY">Ipsita Dey</a>

Ipsita Dey

Redefining Victimhood: Vicissitudes of Empowerment | Domestic Violence in South Asian Immigrant Communities

<a href="https://youtu.be/9jDHlmT1Gg4">Caty Drewnia</a>

Caty Drewnia

Beauty and Brokenness: Being Native and Christian on the Yakama Reservation

<a href="https://youtu.be/gSzx0R9uE7Y">Zaith Lopez</a>

Zaith Lopez

Precarity and Liminality among Jornaleros in Southern California: Structural Vulnerability, Porous Spaces, and the
Struggle for Being

<a href="https://youtu.be/bxdAfeTZ-K0">Christian Loritz</a>

Christian Loritz

Doing What God Wants Me To Do’: The Hopes of Christian-NGOs in Southern Haiti

<a href="https://youtu.be/LCBwazM2T44">Adán Martínez Ordaz</a>

Adán Martínez Ordaz

Immigration Portals: Social Capital and Community Formation on Facebook Secret Groups

<a href="https://youtu.be/ZY-GU1ZWQwQ">Zach Martinucci</a>

Zach Martinucci

Plate it Forward: Crafting Local Identity as Resistance Through Authentic Culinary Traditions in Bologna, Italy

<a href="https://youtu.be/QA3mqZlpvpo">Miguel Medinabetancourt</a>

Miguel Medinabetancourt

Crafting Communities in a Twilight Zone: The Politics of Urban Power in Unincorporated Los Angeles

<a href="https://youtu.be/IhXZr6vdvHo">Jackie Reznikoff</a>

Jackie Reznikoff

I’m Just Third World, Right? Intersubjectivity and Competing Narratives in Belize Tourism

<a href="https://youtu.be/9Yalx3qwaEg">Nika Said</a>

Nika Said

The Strength of Female Conviviality: An Ethnographic Study of a Female-only Mosque in Los Angeles

<a href="https://youtu.be/7SlZwLoq4yg">Paulo Suarez</a>

Paulo Suarez

Materializing Peru in Los Angeles: Commodifying Culture for Recognition in the Multicultural City

<a href="https://youtu.be/YB8PmrYE0iw">David Vieyra</a>

David Vieyra

Lift Like a Girl: Challenging Hegemony Through Fitness

Talia Villa

Alloparenting Among Captive Chimpanzees at the L.A. Zoo: Exploring the Role of Age, Sex, & Genetic Relatedness

2016

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDZS2JjGuKA">Disha Bhagwat</a>

Disha Bhagwat

Tourism in Angkor Wat: Examining the Impact of Global Tourism on Local Culture and Economy in Siem Reap, Cambodia

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4G0Rk4rn8g">Jonathan Calzada</a>

Jonathan Calzada

Anthropological Methods in the Field of Design at Technology Companies: An Ethnographic

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMACqtv2JCA">Amy Chan</a>

Amy Chan

Connections in Funerary Practices: An Analysis of Food Offerings and Imagery in Theban Tombs from New Kingdom Egypt

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mX2U6-2sVE">Gee Decierdo</a>

Gee Decierdo

Swardspeak: identifying the phenomenon in so-called gay language in Manila, Philippines

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWji88Ehzjs">Felipe Huicochea</a>

Felipe Huicochea

U.S Border Crosser Citizens : Social Mobility in California’s Community College System

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJeakJ8etdM">Rebecca Nevarez</a>

Rebecca Nevarez

Dialogic Interactions: The Effect of Performer/Audience Exchange During Drag King Performances

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M81anc0ZVE">Katherine Rother</a>

Katherine Rother

The Declining Trend of Child Support Cases in Monterey County: An Ethnographic Study Exploring the Dynamics of Case Closures

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJSu9RBthgk">Allison Solomon Wales</a>

Allison Solomon Wales

Changing Foodways in the American South: Examining Intergenerational Food Choices in Alabama

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKGgU7qMwMg">Jessica Twineham</a>

Jessica Twineham

Love and International Marriage in Northern Italy: Examining Native Born Italian Women’s Experiences in International Relationships

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_pQCvl50ww">Brian Vallejo</a>

Brian Vallejo

A comparative analysis of pottery vessels from the Cerro del Gentil ceremonial mound in Upper Chincha Valley, Peru dating to the middle-late Paracas period (400-100 B.C.E.)

2015

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4U6ISk1aiU">Ricardo Enrique Alcaraz</a>

Ricardo Enrique Alcaraz

Faculty Mentor: Marjorie Harness Goodwin

“Writing Papers Without Papers: How the Passage of DACA and the CA DREAM Act Have Affected the Educational Trajectories of Undocumented Students at UCLA”

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQA-YICN3uA">Luis A. Gonzalez</a>

Luis A. Gonzalez

Faculty Mentor: Akhil Gupta

“’Full Citizenship’ as Healing: Recovering from Physical and Emotional Ailments as a Military Veteran of Puerto Rico”

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-RcC2ODE5Y">Alexea Howard</a>

Alexea Howard

Faculty Mentor: Linda Garro

“Engaging the Tools for Wellness: Integrative Health as Individual Practice”

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRQGV1CKQSk">Kaitlyn Ireland</a>

Kaitlyn Ireland

Faculty Mentor: C. Jason Troop

“What Makes a Nerd?: The Presentation of Self in Terms of
Identification and Membership of Female Sherlock Holmes Fans in Los Angeles and London”

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1RmIlYJKzM">Raul Martinez (Quichi Patlan)</a>

Raul Martinez (Quichi Patlan)

Faculty Mentor: Paul V. Kroskrity

“Being and Speaking Kichwa in Otavalo, Ecuador: Language Ideologies and Language Vitality”

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTKAtx0b6hM">Megan Moran</a>

Megan Moran

Faculty Mentor: Akhil Gupta

“Debt, Shame, and Patriarchy: Why Some Women Fail to Benefit from Microcredit Self-Help Groups in Rural West India”

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f5ah3wSULc">Sara Morrisset</a>

Sara Morrisset

Faculty Mentor: Richard Lesure

“Patterns of Destruction: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Deliberate Mutilation of Ancient Statuary from Mesoamerica and Mesopotamia”

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMealI2vuu8">Selene Nafisi</a>

Selene Nafisi

Faculty Mentor: Paul V. Kroskrity

“Playing with Language, Experimenting with Identity: An Ethnographic Study of Language Ideologies in a German Minority School in Denmark”

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb9aIzL4dns">Ali Navid Said</a>

Ali Navid Said

Faculty Mentor: Alan Page Fiske

“Emotional Motivations for the Shi’a Mourning Rituals in London”

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh-IdqpJMpQ">Giselle Sanchez</a>

Giselle Sanchez

Faculty Mentor: C. Jason Troop & Kyeyoung Park

“Re-Rootings: Experience, the Senses, and Cultural Identification among Mexican University Students in London”

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kmYrWHO6qg">Mingling Shang</a>

Mingling Shang

Faculty Mentor: C. Jason Troop & Yunxiang Yan

“Being a Christian in Contemporary Urban China: An Ethnographic Study of Urban Educated Christians in Tianjin ,China”