By Peggy McInerny, Director of Communications
Award recipients reflect the breadth and depth of global engagement at UCLA.
UCLA International Institute, August 28, 2026 — Expanding UCLA’s global reach is one of the strategic goals under the UCLA Connects initiative.
In support of that initiative, the UCLA Global Advisors Council has awarded nearly $260,000 to 17 faculty across campus in its second annual Global Education and Global Research awards.
A total of 11 faculty received Global Education Awards for Internationalizing Curriculum to revise a current course; design a new course; or design a new program, concentration or track that incorporates global perspectives. Award amounts ranged from $3,000 to $10,000.
Six faculty received Global Research Awards, which vary between one-year seed grants (up to $15,000) and two-year research grants (up to $50,000) focused on expanding an existing domestic research project, enhancing one or more international partnerships, or engaging students and other partners in a research initiative that addresses global issues.
This year, two UCLA professors — Alberto Casillas-Trasviña of the Samueli School of Engineering and Paavo Monkkonen of the Luskin School of Public Affairs — each received a Global Education and a Global Research award.
Award recipients reflect the breadth and depth of global engagement at UCLA. They work across the UCLA divisions of social sciences, humanities and life sciences, as well as in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, David Geffen School of Medicine, Samueli School of Engineering, Luskin School of Public Affairs and African Studies Center.
The five projects summarized below illustrate the multidisciplinary span of the 17 funded projects:
M.A in Global Music Education
Lily Chen-Hafteck, Global Education Award
Lily Chen Hafteck, professor of music education, will create a global music education M.A. program to provide a graduate pathway for music educators seeking career advancement. Drawing on the school’s programs in music education and ethnomusicology, the program will apply an interdisciplinary approach to global music pedagogy, cultivate intercultural understanding and impart graduates with the skills to connect with diverse international communities. In addition to providing a foundation in the philosophies, pedagogies and research methodologies of music education, the program will juxtapose the perspectives and music paradigms of musical cultures from Africa, Asia and Latin America, among others, with those of the West.
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Integrated Watershed Systems
Alberto Casillas-Trasviña, Global Education Award
Alberto Casillas-Trasviña, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, will create a new graduate civil and environmental engineering course organized around three engineering challenges that are acute in California and globally relevant: managed aquifer recharge for water security, the effects of wildfire on recharge and water infrastructure, and the engineering dimensions of transboundary aquifers. Each theme will pair cases from the western United States with analogous settings in regions underrepresented in U.S. engineering curricula, including South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Latin America.
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Global HIV Landscapes: Epidemiology, Experience and Evidence-Based Action
Matthew James Mimiaga, Global Education Award
Matthew James Mimiaga, professor of epidemiology and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, will develop a new graduate course in epidemiology that centers on the lived experience of HIV and the expertise of local researchers, practitioners and community leaders in regions worldwide. The course will examine sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, combining epidemiologic and global health frameworks with live virtual sessions that explore how local healthcare systems, policies and socio-cultural contexts shape the epidemic. Students will engage with international experts, analyze locally developed case studies and participate in discussions that emphasize community-driven knowledge and culturally responsive public health practice.
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Coalitional Carbon Mapping and Spatial Empowerment: Partnering with Amazonian Communities in Pará
Yue Li, Global Research Award
Assistant Professor of Geography Yue Li will initiate a new international research partnership between UCLA and Indigenous, Quilombola and traditional extractivist communities in Pará, Brazil, to advance community-led forest conservation through spatial science and carbon mapping. By combining local ecological knowledge with geographic information systems, remote sensing, participatory mapping and GPS-based field data collection, the project will strengthen territorial governance, support land rights advocacy and improve forest carbon monitoring. Through field visits, collaborative workshops and hands-on spatial training, the project will build local capacity while fostering equitable knowledge exchange and long-term research partnerships.
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Multilingual Repertoires in Forced Migration
Tanya Ivanova-Sullivan, Global Research Award
Tanya Ivanova-Sullivan, associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in the department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian languages and cultures, will lead an international research project with experts in the U.S., Germany, Israel and Norway to investigate the multilingual repertoires of Ukrainian refugees across their home and host-country languages. Combining sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic approaches, the project will examine language use, code-switching, language attitudes and integration across diverse migration contexts and develop a comparative methodology to advance research on multilingual adaptation among forced migrants.
Published: Friday, August 28, 2026
