Lemelson Scholars

2026

Jennifer Carmean

Voices of Hope: Survival Within Domestic Violence

Subreen Dhaliwal

Coping with Mental Distress: Community Engagement and Resources Among South Asian Migrants in West London

Caroline Elliott

Life off the Track: Immigrant Labor and the Invisible Expertise Behind Horse Racing

Peyton Hawkey

Transformations: How Transgender Adults in Cork, Ireland Utilize Their Community Spaces

Mila Mucic

Careers of Care: Social Reasoning and Economic Outcomes of Gendered Marine Responsibility

Mason Ng

Organizing Against the Algorithm: Motivations and Strategies Amongst Unionizing Rideshare Drivers in Los Angeles

Luce Parkyn

Queer Distortion: Agency, Risk, and Resistance in the Los Angeles Metal Scene

Riya Prabhakar

From Ragas to Mantras: The Purpose of Sound and Music for Therapeutic Practices in Bengaluru, India

Andrea Roman

Culture of Milk: Genetic Prevalence and Socio-cultural Effects of Lactase Persistance in Mexican Populations in Los Angeles

Jericho Tran-Faypon

"If I Could Be Straight, I Would": Hegemony and Belonging in the Experiences of Non-Heterosexual Fraternity Brothers

Xela Vargas

“Soy de Aquí, Soy de Allá”

2025

Greer Little

Fighting Back the Suburbs: Black Placemaking From Below

Daniel Nava

“I Wasn’t Expecting to Build a Mommy Village”: Resilience and Social Support among Single Mothers in Los Angeles Transitional Housing

Izabella Preziosi

Voices of Empathy: Socialization into Youth Agency and Inclusion through UNESCO Initiatives

Yanci Rosales Huezo

“We Do Not Depend on You”: Nawat-Pipil Efforts in Preserving Identity and Ancestral Knowledge in Western El Salvador

Sara Shimabukuro

“A Very Individualized, Personalized Standard of Care”: Health Care Professional Perspectives on Integrative Medicine

2024

Brizeida Alvarez Arana

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

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

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

Maisy Green

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

Tiana Gregoryona

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

Samaya Joshi

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

Isabella Lazur

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

Georgia Antonia Lewis

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

Jennifer Nguyen

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

Jesse Ontiveros

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

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

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

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

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

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

Huda Rasul

Pakistani-Americans, Sustainable Eating, and Environmental Consciousness

Sean Katsuhei Peralta Sugai

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

Ashley P.T. Tran

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

Rongji Wang

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

2022

Leigha AbiSaab

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

Alivia Brown

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

Amanda Castillo

Holocaust Museum LA: Preserving Memory Through Docent Storytelling & Narrative

Cassandra Cruz-Ramos

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

Ahmet Emre Dikyurt

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

Ariella Daniali

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

Peixin Li

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

Hongtao Liu

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

Camille Lopez-Ambrosio

Unshelling the Dietary Strategies of the Maritime Tongva

Elena Sofia Moro

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

Mariana Orozco-Berber

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

Mya Kamea Snell

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

2021

Iklil Bouhmouch

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

Ahmad Daaboul

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

Joshua David

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

Isabella Ding

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

Jaclyne Garcia

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

Leilani Hurtado

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

Jasmine Jackson

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

Jackeline Lopez

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

Tania Nasrollahi

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

Jacelyn O’Neill

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

Shayda Shevidi

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

Princess Udeh

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

2020

Shagun Bali

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

Neinel Zani Estapanians

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

Miranda Gilmore

Mothering the Mother: Intimate Moments Among Birth Workers

Caroline Goese

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

Jessica Hall

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

Makenzie Hart

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

Valeria Catalina Landeros

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

Alysun Littlefield

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

Michelle Peraza

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

Jorge Quezada

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

Elijah Renteria

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

Julianne Rodriguez

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

Yui Sasajima

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

2019

Sarah Bertman

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

Melva Colter

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

Dana Goldman

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

Nirinjan Khalsa

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

Grace Kim

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

Alex Krantzler

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

Robin Meyer-Lorey

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

Nafi Misan

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

Moses Ramirez

Counter Narratives of Foster Youth in Adulthood: Challenging Deficit Thinking

Hamza Saleh

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

Yoselene Tello

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

Jamie Thomas

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

2018

Sakina Ayaz

Cultural Reappropriations of Traditional Healing: Ayurveda in Contemporary India

Taylor Babian

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

Katelyn Benedict

Performance and Ritual: Possibilities of Transformation Through Performing Arts Workshops

Tarah Frost

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

Maggie Gallagher

Youth, Climate Change and Visions of the Future in Miami

Avery Lopez

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

Rachel Mernoff

Perspectives on Global Health: Analyzing Medical Partnerships in Malawi

Conor O’Brien

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

Hannah Stewart

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

Livina Tang

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

2017

Jake Abarca

Embodying New Pathways: Individuals with Stroke Disability and Communal Exercise

Kassandra Angel

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

Cory Buckband

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

Ipsita Dey

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

Caty Drewnia

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

Zaith Lopez

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

Christian Loritz

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

Adán Martínez Ordaz

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

Zach Martinucci

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

Miguel Medinabetancourt

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

Jackie Reznikoff

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

Nika Said

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

Paulo Suarez

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

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

Disha Bhagwat

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

Jonathan Calzada

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

Amy Chan

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

Gee Decierdo

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

Felipe Huicochea

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

Rebecca Nevarez

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

Katherine Rother

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

Allison Solomon Wales

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

Jessica Twineham

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

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

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”

Luis A. Gonzalez

Faculty Mentor: Akhil Gupta

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

Alexea Howard

Faculty Mentor: Linda Garro

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

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”

Raul Martinez (Quichi Patlan)

Faculty Mentor: Paul V. Kroskrity

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

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”

Sara Morrisset

Faculty Mentor: Richard Lesure

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

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”

Ali Navid Said

Faculty Mentor: Alan Page Fiske

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

Giselle Sanchez

Faculty Mentor: C. Jason Troop & Kyeyoung Park

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

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”

2014

Amy Cromartie

Faculty Mentor: Jeanne Arnold

"Moving Sales: The Divestment Process, How it Affects What We Sell and How We Sell It"

Eva Derilo

Faculty Mentor: Susan Perry

"Effects of Alpha Male Leadership Style on Group Social Dynamics in Wild Capuchins (Cebus capucinus)"

Antonio Gioia

Faculty Mentor: Nancy Levine

"Tradition to Modernity: The Use of Color Symbolism among Balinese Young People"

Violette Ho

Faculty Mentor: Linda Garro

"Going to College and Envisioning Futures: An Ethnographic Study of Female Undergraduate Students in Southern Vietnam"

Delaney Knorr

Faculty Mentor: Jason Throop

"Women in Heavy Metal: Gender Experience and Construction in a Contemporary Music Scene"

Amanda Levensohn

Faculty Mentor: Alan Fiske

"Why sustain relationships with a person after they die: Ancestor veneration among the Talensi"

Jaklyn Nunga

Faculty Mentor: Chris Kelty

"Motivational YouTube Channels and their Relationship to Social Movements"

Leon de Santillana

Faculty Mentor: Kyeyoung Park

"Dynamics of Privilege and Whiteness in a Transnational Site: English Teachers in South Korea"

2013

Francesca De La Fuente: The Construction and Interaction of Personal and Community Identities on Tumblr

Josh Paul Dhillon: Undocumented Punjabi Migrants’ Access to Healthcare

Elizabeth Hardy: The Existence and Significance of Commodities in Pre-State Societies: Ancient Nephrite Rings At and Around Lake Baikal, Russia

Lexy Hartford: Investigating the Role of Chicha in Andean Society: Prehistory to Present

Jason Naziri: Social Interactions and Quality of Life in Palliative Care

Allison Portney: The Role of Linguistic Demonstrations of Deference and Respect for Elderly Individuals in a California Adult Daycare Facility

Alexander Thompson: An Ethnography of Present-Day Scots Speakers in the Central and Mid-Northern Lowlands: Using a Minority Language to Meet Social, Political, and Identity Needs

Gray Tolhurst: Factors Influencing the Geographical Distribution of Food Availability in Los Angeles

2012

Beatrice Anguiano: Impacts of a Captive Breeding Program on the Mating Behaviors of Three Chimpanzees

Tyler Clement: “Man, I Feel Like a Woman”: Fashioning an Identity Through the Language of Performance and Life Histories in Los Angeles Drag Queens

Lee Corkett: Re-imagining Indonesia: New Diversity in Javanese Photographies through Traditional Community Structures

Kendall Darfler: A Moral Code of Honest Representation: The Ethical Construction of Gender Identity in World of Warcraft

Kamlya Davis: The Currency of Power: The Political Uses of Coinage in Eighth-Century Anglo-Saxon England

Erika Drazen: Green Thoughts & (In)Action: The Perception, Utilization, and Conversation of the Environment as Influenced by the Institutions of Government, Family, and the Scouts of Australia

Samantha Iacobello: Kumeyaay Ethnobotany as a Cultural Preservation in San Diego County: The Intergenerational Transmission of Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Jade Jenkins: Los Rave Culture: The Politics of Representation of a Youth Culture Group

Prabhneet Kaur Singh: “Sarab Rog Ka Aukhad Naam” (God’s name Heals All): The Role of a Sangat in Self-Transformative Healing

Leenoy Hendizadeh: The Coping Tools Shared by Family Caregivers of Late-Life Dementia Patients

Maureen Magee: Othering in the Land of Milk and Honey: Turning Points in Utahan Ex-Mormon Women’s Narratives of Religious Disaffiliation

Stacy Miller: The Lion Temple at Jaffa: Archaeological Investigations of the Late Bronze Age Egyptian Occupation in Canaan

Oliver Organista: The Impact of Space on Gender Relations: Spatial Restrictions and Accessibility in Viking Age Longhorns

Julie Strom: Empathy and the Moral Negotiation of Science Fiction Fandom

Oanh Ta: Embodying Tradition: Cultural Understandings Perceived Through Socialization to Hula Kahiko and Hula Auana

2011

Alexandra Athens: Pinned Up: Articulations and Embodiments of Class and Gender in a Hot Rod Subculture

Kerby Bennett: Texting Norms and Ideologies: Text Communication’s Interactions with Traditional Communicative Styles

Barry Alain Brilliantes: Subsistence Adaptations and Formative Transitions on the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, Mexico

Sandy Enriquez: Paykunaq Rimankupi (In Their Own Words): The Social Uses of Ethnicity and Tourism Among Andean Youth in Cusco, Peru

Michael Giffin: Holding on for Dear Life: Institutionalized Experience and Selfhood at a Holding Center in the Visayan Philippines

Zachary Fleming: Traditional Osteopathy: Patient Centered Medicine

Hallee Hirsh: Just a Click Away: Building and Maintaining Relationships in a Chinese Social Network Site

Kotrina Kajokaite: Variation in Strength and Stability of Female-Female Long-Term Relationships in Wild Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus Capunicus)

Lilia Rodriguez: Playing with the Rules: Building Agency and Student Engagement Through Student Participation at an Afterschool Program

Christopher Stephan: The Experience of the Holy Spirit as “Heterogenous Volition”

Crystal Weaver: Declining Membership and the Closure of a “Hard-Shell” Predestinarian Church