UC Irvine School of Social Sciences

💙💛 This year's graduating class includes more than 1,900 social sciences bachelor's degree recipients - more than 22% of all undergraduate degree earners at UC Irvine! Huge congrats to all of our amazing grads! We’re so proud to welcome you to our Social Sciences Anteater Alumni Network, now more than 65,000 members strong. Stay in touch and continue pursuing a future that makes the world a better place. Be bold, always break the mold, and remain boundaryless in your pursuit. 💛💙

Congratulations, Class of 2026!

University of California, Irvine UCI Alumni UCI Department of Political Science Sociology, UC Irvine UCI Chicano/Latino Studies University of California

pictured: UC Irvine social sciences students celebrate commencement in the UCI Bren Center.

💙💛 So much UCI soc sci pride! Congrats, Class of 2026! 💛💙

pictured: UC Irvine social sciences students celebrate commencement in the UCI Bren Center.

University of California, Irvine UCI Alumni Sociology, UC Irvine UCI Department of Political Science UCI Chicano/Latino Studies

🎓 💙💛The commencement excitement is real - what a great day to be an Anteater! 💛 💙🎓

Ceremony one of two for University of California, Irvine social sciences graduates has begun!

pictured: UC Irvine social sciences students celebrate commencement in the UCI Bren Center.

University of California UCI Alumni UCI Department of Political Science Sociology, UC Irvine UCI Chicano/Latino Studies

Congrats to Yeryeng Choi, a third-year sociology Ph.D. student and co-recipient of the UC Irvine School of Social Sciences Outstanding Service Award! The faculty-nominated honor recognizes Choi’s contributions to the social science community, including the intellectual growth of others. Below, the grad student from Seoul, South Korea who earned her undergrad and master’s at Seoul National University – along with a master’s in Demographic and Social Analysis from UC Irvine - shares the activities that have filled her time as an Anteater, her research, and her post-grad plans.

https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news/2026/2026-06-11-yeryeng-choi-service-in-action

University of California University of California, Irvine UC Irvine Graduate Division Sociology, UC Irvine

An urge to better understand how the world operates and why suffering persists drove Yuhan Gao to pursue a Ph.D. in sociology at UC Irvine following completion of her bachelor’s and master’s at Emerson College and Columbia University, respectively.

“I believed that sociology could offer me tools to engage with these broad and difficult questions,” she says. “UCI has many leading scholars in macrosociology and comparative sociology. I feel deeply grateful and honored to have the opportunity to work with them and learn from them.”

Now in her second year of the program, Gao, who is from Shenzen, China, has been awarded both the A. Kimball Romney Award for Outstanding Graduate Paper and Etel Solingen Award for Outstanding Paper in International Cooperation. The honors recognize her paper, “Society-Building and ‘Accidental’ Democratization,” and more broadly her research which lies at the intersection of cultural sociology and political sociology.

https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news/2026/2026-06-11-yuhan-gao-research-excellence

University of California, Irvine University of California Sociology, UC Irvine UC Irvine Graduate Division

Congrats to our four social sciences students honored with the Chancellor’s Award of Distinction!

⭐️ Zayaan Khan, Social Policy and Public Service and Quantitative Economics
⭐️ Arun Prakash Malani, Political Science and Data Science
⭐️ Mina Shin, Political Science
⭐️ Jessica Jia Zhang, Political Science

The honor, awarded by the UCI Alumni Association, recognizes UC Irvine’s most outstanding graduating seniors for exceptional academic achievement and a commitment to cutting-edge research, leadership and service.

https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news/2026/2026-06-10-chancellors-award-of-distinction

University of California, Irvine University of California UCI Department of Political Science

Congrats to Juwon Lee, sixth-year anthropology Ph.D. student, who has been named a co-recipient of the UC Irvine School of Social Sciences Outstanding Service Award! The faculty-nominated honor recognizes Lee’s contributions to the social science community, including the intellectual growth of others.

“The Outstanding Service Award means a lot to me as I am dedicated to building a community of learning and support where scholars can engage intellectually with each other while grounded in humility and mutual respect,” he says.

Below, the grad student from Seoul, South Korea who earned his undergrad and master’s at The Ohio State University shares the activities that have filled his time as an Anteater, his research, and his post-grad plans.

https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news/2026/2026-06-10-juwon-lee-outstanding-service

University of California, Irvine University of California UC Irvine Graduate Division

Congrats to Giselle Ferrer, a junior at UC Irvine majoring in language science, who has been named the 2026 Elena B. and William R. Schonfeld Scholarship recipient! The honor is awarded annually in the School of Social Sciences to the outstanding undergraduate who combines excellence in scholarship with dedication to the university community and the highest level of achievement in other fields. The award committee described Giselle as perfectly embodying the spirit of this honor due to her remarkable GPA and her exemplary contributions across campus and within her discipline.

Read more about her award-worthy work and service below, and congrats again, Giselle!

https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news/2026/2026-06-09-giselle-ferrer-schonfeld-scholar

University of California, Irvine University of California UCI Alumni

Award-winning UC Irvine grad student Amelia Roskin-Frazee hates unanswered questions. As an undergrad, she began exploring the relationship between identity and the policing of s*x crimes, but quickly realized existing research left some significant gaps.

“When I couldn’t find answers in existing literature, grad school was a logical next step so I could address those questions myself,” she says.

After earning her bachelor’s in women’s, gender, and s*xuality studies at Columbia University, she was accepted into the UC Irvine sociology Ph.D. program.

“My research didn’t really fit neatly within any one field, and sociology tends to gather people whose work spans multiple disciplines,” she says. And UCI offered the full package: money, health insurance, housing, and most importantly, the people.

“UCI has an amazing network of faculty doing sociolegal scholarship, and the department felt very collaborative,” she says.

As she gets ready to defend her dissertation this month and join UC Berkeley Law in the fall, Roskin-Frazee took some time to share more about what drives her work, what’s filled her time as an Anteater and what’s next.

https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news/2026/2026-06-09-amelia-roskin-frazee-building-a-case-for-change

University of California, Irvine University of California UCI Alumni Sociology, UC Irvine UC Irvine Graduate Division