Message from the Dean

2025-2026 Chairs and Directors

kelvin — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 22:41:15 +0000

2025-2026 Chairs and Directors kelvin Fri, 12/19/2025 - 14:41 More Messages & Announcements December 19, 2025

Colleagues,

I take this opportunity to communicate the appointments, reappointments, and extensions of several CHASS department chairs and directors that took effect earlier this year. I also offer heartfelt thanks to our outgoing unit heads for their dedication to our academic mission, teaching, research, and service.

The leadership appointments below have been reviewed and approved by UCR’s Academic Personnel Office and shared with Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Watkins.

Please visit our main college website for a list of all CHASS department chairs and center directors.

Please join me in thanking our chairs and directors for their continued leadership.

Yours sincerely,

Daryle Williams
Professor of History and Dean
College of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
University of California, Riverside

New Appointments
	Department of Anthropology Christina Torres Chair 3-year appointment, effective July 1, 2025 Christina Torres is a bioarchaeologist who received her Ph.D in anthropology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and was previously a professor at the University of California, Merced. Torres’ primary research questions focus on the body and its intersection with society and culture. Through her research, she seeks to convey how our physical body is so much more than just our biology. To do so, she studies how humans directly intervene with their bodies through body modifications and patterns of violence, and the potentially substantial and indelible marks these leave on the skeleton. Within the frameworks of mobility and inequality, she studies how the body maintains evidence of the customs of populations in different social spheres and environments. In this way, her work seeks to understand the experience of living in the Atacama during archaeological times and the ways in which this life is made manifest in the body.
	Department of Art Anna Betbeze Chair 3-year appointment, effective July 1, 2025 Anna Betbeze is an artist based in Los Angeles, where she lives and works. She has held solo exhibitions at venues including MassMOCA, Utah MOCA, The Atlanta Contemporary, The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Markus Lüttgen in Cologne, Lüttgenmeijer in Berlin, Luxembourg & Dayan in London, Kate Werble Gallery in New York, and Francois Ghebaly in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited at institutions such as MOMA PS1, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, The Hessel Museum at Bard College, and The Power Station in Shanghai and reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum, New York Magazine, Frieze, and The Los Angeles Times. She was awarded the Rome Prize in 2013–2014, received the Headlands Chiaro Award in 2020, and is a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow.
	Department of Black Study Anthony Jerry Chair 3-year appointment, effective July 1, 2025 Anthony Russell Jerry holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His primary research interests are in theorizing the relationships between race and citizenship and investigating the influence that regional discourses of race and racism have on citizenship practices and overall access to citizenship. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Garcia Robles Fellowship, a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, and a University of California Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. He has worked in the Costa Chica Region of Mexico for over 10 years. His work also explores the impacts of issues of migration, immigration, racism, and citizenship on first-generation youth and youth of color in the U.S./Mexico border region.
	Department of Ethnic Studies Robert Perez Chair 5-year appointment, retroactive to July 1, 2024 Dr. Robert C. Perez is an associate professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies. He received his Ph.D. in history at UC Riverside. He focuses on American Indian History in California, the U.S. Southwest, Texas, and Northern Mexico. His research includes archival documents from the 16th to 20th centuries in Spanish, French, and English, and “attempts to present history with Native people at the center.” He is interested in studying how modern nations (policies) are associated with those of the settler-colonial past (dating back to 500 years). His current work is a book titled (tentatively) "The Incomplete Conquest of Sonora: Native Survival and Colonialism, 1610-1776.”
	Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts Liz Przybylski Director 3-year appointment, effective July 1, 2025 As an interdisciplinary scholar of popular music, Liz Przybylski (proununciation) specializes in hip hop practices in Canada and the United States, as well as gender in the music industry. A graduate of Bard College (B.A.) and Northwestern University (M.A., Ph.D.), Przybylski’s research appears in Ethnomusicology, Journal of Borderlands Studies, and IASPM Journal, among others. Przybylski has presented research nationally and internationally, including at the Society for Ethnomusicology, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, Feminist Theory and Music, International Association for the Study of Popular Music, and International Council for Traditional Music World Conferences. Recent publications analyze how the sampling of heritage music in Indigenous hip hop contributes to dialogues about cultural change in urban areas. Przybylski has also published on popular music pedagogy. Przybylski was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship and a Fulbright Fellowship. Przybylski's most recent book, Sonic Sovereignty: Hip Hop Indigeneity, and Shifting Popular Music Mainstreams (NYU Press, 2023) considers how contemporary Indigenous musicians champion self-determination through musical expression, and first book, Hybrid Ethnography: Online, Offline, and In Between (SAGE Publications, 2020) develops an innovative model hybrid on- and off-line ethnography for the analysis of expressive culture. In addition to university teaching, Przybylski has taught adult and pre-college learners at the American Indian Center in Chicago and the Concordia Language Villages program of Concordia College in Bemidji. On the radio, Przybylski hosted the world music show “Continental Drift” on WNUR in Chicago and has conducted interviews with musicians for programs including “At The Edge of Canada: Indigenous Research” on CJUM in Winnipeg. Przybylski served as the Media Reviews Editor for the journal American Music, as the President of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Southern California and Hawaii Chapter, and on the Society for Ethnomusicology Council.
	Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies Crystal Baik Chair 3-year appointment, effective July 1, 2025 Professor Crystal Mun-hye Baik (she/her) is an interdisciplinary feminist scholar with training in critical ethnic studies, visual culture studies, and oral history. She is the author of two books, including the forthcoming book, "Before the Fire Dogs Steal the Sun: An Elegy" (Duke University Press, 2026) and is the co-founder and co-editor of the Critical Militarization Studies Book Series with the University of Michigan Press. Baik is a recent recipient of the ACLS Digital Justice Seed Grant and a UCHRI Multicampus Research Award, and is also a Mellon New Directions Fellow (25-28).
	Department of History David Biggs Chair 3-year appointment, effective July 1, 2025 David Biggs is a professor of Southeast Asian History at UC Riverside and an environmental historian with a regional specialization in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, but creative interests locally in Southern California and globally in modern environmental history. His academic research (davidbiggs.net) focuses on ways that historic human interventions such as public works projects and wars have reshaped landscapes, reconfigured environmental relationships and produced new societies. His first book, Quagmire: Nation-Building and Nature in the Mekong Delta, focuses on hydro-engineering, colonialism and nationalism in a bitterly contested wetlands frontier of Vietnam. His second book, Footprints of War, explores militarized landscapes in Vietnam and reflects on the environmental dimensions of military occupation and conflict as well as long-term legacies for post-war economic development. Besides these book projects, he applies similar approaches to a host of issues, including chemical weapons histories and cleanups, international river basin management, and military base transfers. His creative work is focused on related issues of environmental history, including some forays into public history projects in Southern California and creative projects elsewhere. In this work he often draws on photographs, historic maps, oral histories and field research to support exhibits and collaborative publications. He is currently working on two academic book projects, a green history of Southeast Asia and a book about Saigon and sinking urban waterfronts in Southeast Asia.
	Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production Robin Russin Chair 3-year appointment, effective July 1, 2025 Robin Uriel Russin is a professor of dramatic writing at UC Riverside, where he has served as graduate advisor and as director of the MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts. Russin has degrees from Harvard, Oxford, the Rhode Island School of Design, and UCLA. He is a Rhodes Scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Writers Guild of America. Russin has written, produced, and directed for film, TV, and the theater, including Warner Bros.’ On Deadly Ground; America’s Most Wanted on Fox; and Vital Signs on ABC. His original one-hour series about King David, Beloved, was adapted by ABC as Of Kings and Prophets. He directed the independent feature film, When I Sing, co-starring Chris Mulkey, and an independent feature about the humor and challenges of disability, The Anxiety of Laughing. Another feature he co-wrote, 2 Hearts, starring Jacob Elordi and Radha Mitchell, had a wide theatrical release in 2020 and streams on Netflix. He is currently working on "The Rescuers: The Mystery of Goodness," a documentary series about the “Righteous Among the Nations,” the diplomats recognized by Yad Vashem in Israel for saving Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Robin has won or been a finalist for numerous awards for screenwriting and directing. In theatre, his play, Painted Eggs, was reviewed by The Los Angeles Times as "ambitious, heartfelt and hypnotic," and his play, The Face in the Reeds, had an extended four-month run at the Ruskin Group Theatre in LA. He has also written dozens of short plays and directed numerous stage productions. Russin is co-author with William Missouri Downs of the books Naked Playwriting and Screenplay: Writing the Picture, both in their second editions.
	Social Sciences Laboratory Jennifer Merolla Director 3-year appointment, effective July 1, 2025 Jennifer Merolla is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside. Her research focuses on how the political environment shapes individual attitudes and behavior across many domains, such as candidate evaluations during elections, immigration policy attitudes, foreign policy attitudes, and support for democratic values and institutions. She is co-author of Democracy at Risk: How Terrorist Threats Affect the Public, published by the University of Chicago Press (2009), and Framing Immigrants: News Coverage, Public Opinion and Policy, published by the Russell Sage Foundation (2016). Her work has also appeared in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, Electoral Studies, the Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Political Behavior, Political Research Quarterly, Political Psychology,and Women, Politics, and Policy. Merolla has received support for her research on public opinion and terrorism from the National Science Foundation and Time Sharing Experiments in the Social Sciences. She was field editor for American Political Behavior for the Journal of Politics from 2015-2018. Merolla earned her Ph.D. in political science from Duke University.
	Department of Sociology Robert Clark Chair 5-year appointment, retroactive to July 1, 2024 Rob Clark is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University in 2007. Before moving to California in 2020, he was at the University of Oklahoma. Clark’s research agenda focuses on international development, the distribution of income in the world economy, and the global spread of institutions across the world polity. He is particularly interested in the effect of globalization (trade, foreign investment, international organizations) on economic growth, the evolution of income disparities as they exist within and between countries, and cross-national convergence in welfare outcomes, institutional forms, and cultural scripts. Collectively, his prior and current work addresses questions of political economy and social change at the global level. Clark’s research has appeared in International Sociology, Social Forces, Social Problems, Social Science and Medicine, Social Science Research, and elsewhere.
Reappointments
	Department of Comparative Literature & Languages Jeffrey Sacks Chair 5-year reappointment Jeffrey Sacks works, teaches, and writes on poetics, critical theory, and Arabic Studies. Sacks is also interested in a number of overlapping questions in relation to collective socialities, law, philology, translation, the question of Palestine, Arabic philosophy, Jewish thought, decolonization in global frames, and practices of study. Sacks has authored two academic books: Poeticality: In Refusal of Settler Life (Fordham UP, forthcoming, 2025), and Iterations of Loss: Mutilation and Aesthetic Form al-Shidyaq to Darwish (Fordham UP, 2015), which was awarded the Harry Levin Prize of the American Comparative Literature Association (2016). In 2023, Sacks edited a special issue of the journal Critical Times: Interventions in Global Critical Theory around the theme “Critique and Translation.” Sacks is presently completing a book titled "Pomegranate Colloquy: Notes on Palestine and Decolonization," and is working, in longer time frames, on two books: one about law and the other about Marx.
	Liberal Studies Heidi Brayman Co-Director 3-year reappointment, effective July 1, 2025
	Liberal Studies Stephen James Co-Director 2-year reappointment Stephen James is an American-born, British dual-national. Stephen returned to the United States after 25 years of working as a consultant in intercultural communication in the Philippines, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan in Soviet Central Asia, London, England, Basel, Switzerland, and Germany. Stephen completed a B.A. in history (1984), an M.Div. in ancient languages and world religions (1990), and a Master of Philosophy at the University of London in Media and Communications (2011). Before attending secondary school and Soochow University in Taiwan, Stephen was raised bilingual in Vietnam during the “Vietnam/American War Era” (1962-1975), Stephen returned to those roots, completing an M.A. in Southeast Asian studies (2015), and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at the University of California, Riverside (2018). At UCR, Stephen serves as Co-Director of the Liberal Studies Program, Faculty in Residence, and Lecturer in Anthropology and Liberal Studies.

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FY27 Graduate Funding Memo

kelvin — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 20:51:48 +0000

FY27 Graduate Funding Memo kelvin Fri, 12/19/2025 - 12:51 More Messages & Announcements December 19, 2025

Dear CHASS Chairs, Directors, and Faculty Executive Committee Acting Chair:

I begin with my sincere thanks to each of our graduate program leads for taking the time in the fall quarter to sit down with me, Associate Deans Lamar Prieto and Tomoff, and Dean Kos to discuss the PhD and MFA programs that advance our core research and creativity mission. At a time of uncertainty, we recognize that the expanded availability of three-quarter fellowship recruitment packages turns our top-quality admits into the promising newcomers who joined us at Welcome Week. More broadly, we learn about the best of our scholars and artists across all stages of their graduate studies at UCR.

We take comfort that recent, quite serious disruptions to the higher education landscape have not diminished our commitment to sustaining quality graduate education. I remain grateful to each program for the honest feedback about cohort size and funding at all stages of graduate training. These conversations also support programmatic improvement and adaptation, informed by experimentation among our peers as well as local metrics available in the dashboards published online alongside the 2025 State of the College.

Our major challenge remains the adequate funding of high-quality graduate education at a time of increased costs and limited new revenues. The Dean’s Fellowship packages are both a good and a costly investment. The expanded availability of dissertation or MFA thesis completion support draws upon our limited pool of funding. As we continue to meet the obligations of the standing UAW contracts, we must plan for additional increases in compensation for all academic student employees. Those same increases also cover our new students on first-year fellowship quarters as well as students on competitive internal and external research or dissertation/thesis completion fellowship support.

In the absence of new funding to support the graduate fellows and academic student employees who are with us now, we are faced with an uncomfortable reduction in new cohorts. The scope of contraction in graduate admissions in CHASS is modest in comparison to peer institutions across the United States. Nonetheless we face the necessary reality that targets for the next cycle of graduate admissions will be lower than targets set for the past two years.

Therefore, funded admission slots for Fall 2026 are set at a combined 104 matriculating funded PhD and MFA students — an 8% decrease over the combined five-year average.

There are no limits placed on unfunded direct-to-MA admissions.

In FY27, all funded admissions packages shall continue to carry two quarters of fellowship to be taken exclusively in the first year of study. About one fourth of these funded packages will carry one additional fellowship quarter — the CHASS Dean’s Fellowship — also to be taken in the first year. Tuition, benefits, and most fees are also covered for students on fellowship as well as Academic Student Employees. For PhD programs, CHASS continues to backstop four-year packages, inclusive of the first-year fellowship quarters, for Fall 2026 admits who remain in good standing. The same guarantee is set at two years for the MFA programs. To offer packages competitive with our peers, individual programs may extend longer guarantees, drawing from departmental resources as the backstop. The Dean of the Graduate Division is also making available additional resources to supplement packages offered to each program's top recruit to help us compete with other offers.

The following table reflects the number of authorized multiyear funding packages for Fall 2026 matriculated students, inclusive of the CHASS Dean’s Fellowships allocations.

Program	5-Year Average	Fall 2026 Authorized	CHASS Dean's Fellowship
Anthropology	5.4	5	1
Art History	1.8	2	1
Comparative Literature	3.4	3	1
Critical Dance	3.0	3	1
CRWT: Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts	10.2	9	2
Economics	13.0	12	2
English	8.4	7	2
Ethnic Studies	2.2	2	1
Experimental Choreography	2.8	2	1
History	7.8	8	2
Music	4.8	4	1
Philosophy	4.5	4	1
Political Science	10.0	9	2
Psychology	17.2	17	3
Spanish	4.0	4	1
Study of Religion	4.2	3	1
TFDP: Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts	6.4	6	1
Visual Art	4.6	4	1
Total	113.5	104	25

In January, Cova and Perla will be following up with a more detailed explanation of the CHASS Dean's Fellowship allocations and the overall timeframe and workflow of the admissions season.

Cova will also be coordinating our participation in the ACLS Doctoral Futures initiative. The work will include structured discussion about the wisdom of permitting departments to allocate fellowship quarters in the second or third year of study, biannual admission cycles, the delinking of graduate admission targets and the staffing of undergraduate instruction, and other options discussed over the past few months. Finally, the associate and assistant deans and I will be proposing necessary adaptations to temporary teaching to sustain our obligations to the undergraduate curriculum.

For this December, I wish each of you rest in the coming two weeks and peace in the New Year.

Yours sincerely,

Daryle Williams
Professor of History and Dean
College of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
University of California, Riverside

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Message from the Dean: CHASS Staff Success

kelvin — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 17:51:18 +0000

Message from the Dean: CHASS Staff Success kelvin Fri, 03/22/2024 - 10:51 More Messages & Announcements March 22, 2024

Dear CHASS Staff and Faculty,

Today, I am writing to share updates on my commitment to staff success.

With the advice of the CHASS Strategic Staffing Task Force, I am pleased to announce immediate investments in a number of areas critical to our valued staff.

Recruitments: CHASS Human Resources is actively recruiting several new positions to meet College-wide needs in graduate studies support, finance, and payroll. Be on the lookout for these recruitments:
- Graduate Student Services Lead
- Divisional Financial Administrative Officer
- Harvest lead liaison exclusively dedicated to CHASS
Staff Recognition: Effective March 11, we relaunched the STAR Awards. I invite colleagues and leaders to nominate staff for their exceptional work. The deadline is next Monday, March 25.
Reaffirming My Commitment to Hybrid/Remote Work Guidelines: Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Human Resources Officer Alex Najera has approved my request to roll out multiyear agreements for hybrid and remote work schedules. Details will be provided to employees and their supervisors at the end of the spring term.

Background, Outcomes, and Insights

As I learned early in my candidacy for my job, the burdens on our staff can be significant. CHASS has been understaffed for quite some time, and the strains of the pandemic have made things even more challenging. Since my arrival in Riverside in September 2021, I have listened to the challenges our staff professionals face in their jobs, careers, and lives.

In direct response to these conversations and insights from the 2023 Faculty Executive Committee’s Climate Survey, I called for the creation of the CHASS Strategic Staffing Task Force, charged last October.

During these past six months, the Task Force has run a comprehensive survey, organized an in-person town hall attended by nearly 100 CHASS employees, and conducted interviews and consultations with union and non-represented members of the College. In partnership with AVC/CHRO Najera, the Task Force looked at staffing levels and workloads. It explored the reasons behind the unease and churn that accompanied that most challenging transition from remote to in-person campus operations. The data and insights gathered have mapped out several immediate needs and some easy wins. The Task Force also has its eye on long-term opportunities for staff success. I am grateful for the work to date, and I invite you to find the time to express your thanks for the work of your peers.

The CHASS Strategic Staffing Town Hall presentation, shared at the February 28 Town Hall, provides additional information about the Task Force's work.

Some key findings from the Staff Support Survey

A total of 112 CHASS employees completed the Staff Support Survey, and 88% of respondents self-identified as staff. Among staff respondents, 40% have been with us less than 4 years.

Some findings from our staff respondents include:

77% are adequately trained for their position
69% are content with their job responsibilities
80% are content with their supervisors and the critical roles they play
89% know how their role contributes to the mission of their unit
84% know how their role contributes to the mission of the College
82% are actively contributing toward the mission of the College

There is strong evidence that a critical majority of our CHASS staff are actively committed to CHASS and feel empowered to advance our mission. Our early-career staff have reason to see their future in the College.

Yet unbalanced workloads, underresourcing, and overly narrow career tracks negatively impact morale. The survey signals that:

70% consider leaving CHASS due to compensation
65% consider leaving CHASS due to being overworked
59% consider leaving CHASS due to a lack of career advancement opportunities

These are discouraging figures that reflect real problems.

A Path Forward

Even before the CHASS Strategic Staffing Task Force was created, we were making modest gains in staff positions and career opportunities. Our remote work policy gave CHASS a competitive edge in retention. It was my pleasure to approve $25K seed funding for the CHASS Staff Scholarship, announced last July. Since July 1, 2022, the CHASS HR team has successfully filled 80 staff positions for a total net gain of 12. Our most recent investments include:

Impact23 financial system support
Core HR operations in recruitment, employee relations, and professional development
Finance and administration in English, Philosophy, and History
Assistant Dean for Student Success
Administrative support for the new Department of Black Study and the Department of Society, Environment, and Health Equity

These are important down payments on staff success, but they are not enough. It’s my resolve that we continue to hire and build, even in a tight fiscal climate.

Long-Term Solutions

Based on the CHASS Support Survey results and feedback from the town hall, the Task Force is now considering recommendations on additional investments that I envision to include:

Additional administrative and transactional support for the units with the greatest needs
Contracts and Grants support
Additional support for the unique needs of the visual and performing arts, as well as laboratory-based research and instruction
Staffing the facilities, academic personnel, and information technology workgroups to meet the needs of a College that grows in size, footprint, and ambition.

I look forward to receiving updated recommendations later in the academic year. You may share your feedback directly with CHASSHR@ucr.edu.

I appreciate the opportunity for our staff to have a substantive and participatory voice in matters of climate, mission, and resource allocation. I recognize those happy moments at the staff holiday party or expressions of appreciation for a well-earned comp day following Commencement may not reflect the harsher realities of work in our offices, labs, and studios. I am nonetheless proud to work alongside so many Highlanders who believe in CHASS, and I am grateful for the progress to date in making the College a better workplace for staff professionals.

I look forward to returning to you with additional updates at the State of the College in Fall 2024.

For now, happy spring!

Sincerely,

Daryle Williams
Professor and Dean
College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

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2023-24 Chairs and Directors

kelvin — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 18:07:26 +0000

2023-24 Chairs and Directors kelvin Fri, 10/20/2023 - 11:07 More Messages & Announcements October 20, 2023

Colleagues,

The beginning of the instructional year is a moment of recognition and welcome for our new and continuing CHASS students, faculty, staff, and leaders.

I take this opportunity to announce the appointments, reappointments, and extensions of several CHASS department chairs and directors. I also offer heartfelt thanks to our outgoing unit heads for their dedication to our academic mission, teaching, research, and service.

The leadership appointments below have been reviewed and approved by UCR’s Academic Personnel Office and shared with Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Watkins.

Please visit our main college website for a list of all CHASS department chairs and center directors.

Please join me in congratulating our new and continuing department chairs and directors.

Yours sincerely,

Daryle Williams
Professor of History and Dean
College of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
University of California, Riverside

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Letter from the Dean: Tracy Avery

kelvin — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 18:56:53 +0000

Letter from the Dean: Tracy Avery kelvin Thu, 08/10/2023 - 11:56 More Messages & Announcements August 11, 2023

CHASS Colleagues,

Please join me in congratulating Tracy Avery on her appointment to a new role as Executive Assistant to the Dean in UCR’s School of Education. Tracy’s new role will include an opportunity to take on new responsibilities at UCR.

Since July 2018, Tracy has directly served three CHASS Deans as an Executive Assistant, while simultaneously supporting the Office of the Dean and CHASS departments through problem-solving, coordinating events, and resource support. Tracy previously worked for nine years as a Development Coordinator, overseeing the administrative aspects of CHASS Development and coordinating fundraising and donor events. In her roles, Tracy has also assisted in coordinating numerous commencement ceremonies and helped with the grand opening gala for the Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts.

Tracy’s last official day in CHASS is Friday, August 18.

I invite you to join me in my office, HMNSS 3414, on Wednesday, August 16, at 2 pm for a catered reception to thank Tracy in person for her tireless years of service in support of CHASS and its mission.

Yours sincerely,

Daryle Williams
Professor of History and Dean
College of the Humanities, Arts,
and Social Sciences
University of California, Riverside

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Message from the Dean: Russia Invasion of Ukraine

kelvin — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 23:45:03 +0000

Message from the Dean: Russia Invasion of Ukraine kelvin Tue, 03/08/2022 - 15:45 More Messages & Announcements March 02, 2022

The unlawful invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and allied nations has prompted outrage across the globe. War-related disruptions to academic research and educational exchange have already affected the CHASS community. Economic sanctions, travel restrictions, and the growing humanitarian crisis may soon impact all of Inland Southern California.

While CHASS has the expertise to explore the origins and impacts of Russian aggression over the days and weeks to come, our faculty, staff, and students must take immediate actions to comply with UC and federal directives to protect our core academic assets. All CHASS personnel and programs with activities in, with, or in support of the Russian Federation are required to review the list of new financial and trade sanctions below.

A Fact Sheet outlining the U.S. Government’s February 24 actions
A Fact Sheet outlining the U.S. Government’s February 22 actions
A Fact Sheet outlining the U.S. Government’s February 21 actions
U.S. Presidential Executive Order (E.O. 14065) Blocking Property Of Certain Persons And Prohibiting Certain Transactions With Respect To Continued Russian Efforts To Undermine The Sovereignty And Territorial Integrity Of Ukraine

Please note that the United States’ response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine remains very fluid. As such, all actions taken by the U.S. Government are subject to change at a moment’s notice.

Affected administrative and research personnel should contact UCR’s Export Control Office as soon as possible to help resolve any challenge with research, collaboration, procurement, payments, shipments, and travel to Russia, Ukraine, or Belarus. For more information, please visit exportcontrol.ucr.edu or contact Export Control Officer Roberto Galvan Ramos, Jr., at 951-827-4889 or roberto.ramos@ucr.edu.

All CHASS personnel and units, with or without engagement with the Russian Federation, should take extra precautions to prevent cyberattacks. Information Technology Solutions has created a “Be Cyber Smart” web page with information and best practices for staying secure including videos, pdfs, and Tips for Spotting Phishing.

For affected CHASS students and scholars in need of specific guidance related to recent developments in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, please contact the Office of the Vice Provost of International Affairs or the United States Department of State.

For all those interested in learning more about the conflict, I invite you to attend War in Ukraine on Thursday, March 3, at 1 pm, featuring four experts from the Departments of History and Political Science, hosted by the Center for Ideas and Society.

Yours sincerely,

Daryle Williams
Dean, College of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
University of California, Riverside

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Message from the Dean: Thang Vu

kelvin — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 03:34:04 +0000

Message from the Dean: Thang Vu kelvin Wed, 12/15/2021 - 19:34 More Messages & Announcements December 16, 2021

We are saddened by the recent passing of Thang Vu, a UCR student in the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences majoring in neuroscience. On behalf of the entire College, we extend thoughts of peace and comfort to Thang's family, friends, and CHASS First colleagues.

If this has personally affected you, and you find yourself in need of comfort and support, please know that UC Riverside offers a vast array of resources for grief counseling, wellbeing, and mental health services.

For students, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) can be reached at 951-827-5531, 24 hours a day, or by emailing counseling@ucr.edu. Student Affairs Case Managers can also offer support and guidance at 951-827-5000 or by emailing casemanager@ucr.edu.

For UCR staff and faculty, confidential counseling and support is available through UCR’s Faculty and Staff Assistance Program.

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Message from the Dean: Dismissal of a Tenured Faculty Member

kelvin — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 17:20:41 +0000

Message from the Dean: Dismissal of a Tenured Faculty Member kelvin Mon, 11/22/2021 - 09:20 More Messages & Announcements November 22, 2021

On Thursday, November 18, 2021, after considering consistent recommendations of the UC Riverside Academic Senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure, Chancellor Wilcox, and President Drake, the Board of Regents voted to dismiss a tenured member of the Department of Sociology, Dr. Augustine Kposowa, for violating the Faculty Code of Conduct due to sexual misconduct with a student over whom he had academic responsibility. Upon recommendation by the UCR Committee on Privilege and Tenure and Chancellor Wilcox, President Drake also denied Dr. Kposowa emeritus status.

The UCR College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences subsequently terminated the former faculty member’s access to all department and College facilities and resources. All CHASS honorary awards and recognition extended to the former faculty member are revoked.

The Office of the Dean stands in solidarity with those adversely affected by the serious violation of the Faculty Code of Conduct and of our community expectations of faculty as disciplinary experts and as responsible student mentors. We offer our compassion to survivors of sexual misconduct and other behaviors that diminish a student's full rights to a world-class UCR education in a chosen major.

I call upon each member of the CHASS community to commit themselves to a learning, research, and working environment of equity and respect. I pledge to work with all faculty and staff within CHASS to ensure a climate that values the contributions and potential of all of our members, and in which students, faculty, and staff feel safe to report and proactively prevent sexual misconduct, abuse of power, and bullying.

— Daryle Williams,
Dean, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

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Department of Sociology

Message from the Dean: Mereseini Rakabu

kelvin — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 19:46:50 +0000

Message from the Dean: Mereseini Rakabu kelvin Tue, 11/16/2021 - 11:46 More Messages & Announcements November 16, 2021

The CHASS Office of the Dean joins the entire UCR community in mourning the recent loss of Mereseini Rakabu, a student majoring in CHASS pre-business. Our deepest sympathies are with Mereseini's loved ones, friends, classmates, and professors during this difficult time.

If this personally affected you, and you find yourself in need of comfort and support, please know that UC Riverside offers a vast array of resources for grief counseling, wellbeing, and mental health services.

For additional questions about student resources, please contact vcsa@ucr.edu.

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