The Chancellorʹs Postdoctoral Fellowship Program offers postdoctoral research fellowships and faculty mentoring to outstanding scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity at the University of California. The contributions to diversity may include public service towards increasing equitable access in fields where women and minorities are under‐represented. In some fields, the contributions may include research focusing on underserved populations or understanding inequalities related to race, gender, disability or LGBT issues.
UC President's Fellowship Program
The Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship awardees are selected from the pool of applicants for the University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The Chancellor's and President's programs are seeking applicants with the potential to bring to their academic and research careers the perspective that comes from their non-traditional educational background or understanding of the experiences of members of groups historically underrepresented in higher education.
Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellows
Antonio Garcia IV
Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Antonio Garcia IV was a NIH MARC-U*STAR scholar at California State University, Los Angeles, where he received his B.S. in chemistry. He subsequently pursued his doctoral studies in chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, under the advisement of Prof. Suzanne A. Blum. His doctoral research focused on advancing fluorescence microscopy methods to investigate polymer-catalyst dynamics and polymer molecular weight. As a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Santa Barbara, Antonio will work under the co-advisement of Prof. Matthew Helgeson in Chemical Engineering and Prof. Megan T. Valentine in Mechanical Engineering. His postdoctoral studies will also be conducted with mentorship from Prof. Samanvaya Srivastava, from UCLA in Chemical Engineering, via a highly collaborative project. Antonio will be embarking on an interdisciplinary project to investigate polyelectrolyte self-assembly and polymer-composite structure via optical microscopy.
Hamzah Baig
History
Hamzah Baig received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA, and an M. Phil. and Ph.D. in History from Yale University. Hamzah’s dissertation title is A Wind from the South: The Algerian Revolution, Settler Colonial Internationalism, and the Third World Radical Imagination under thesis advisors Dr. Rosie Bsheer and Dr. Odd Arne Westad in Yale University’s Department of History. As a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Santa Barbara, Hamzah is working under the mentorship of Dr. Sherene Seikaly, professor of history at UC Santa Barbara. Hamzah’s research interests include the social and intellectual history of the modern Middle East, the history and theories of racial capitalism, along with the Black radical tradition and Africana studies.
Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Past Fellows
Eupha Jeanne Daramola
The Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
Eupha Jeanne received her B.S. in Human Development from Northwestern University, her M.A.in Urban Education from the University of Pennsylvania, and her Ph.D. in Urban Education Policy from the University of Southern California. Eupha Jeanne’s thesis title is Fever Dreams: The Promise and Limitations of BIPOC Parent Organizing During the First Year of the COVID- 19 Pandemic under her thesis advisor Dr. Julie Marsh in USC’s Department of Urban Education Policy. As a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Santa Barbara, Eupha Jeanne is working under the mentorship of Dr. Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj in the Gevirtz School of Education. Her research topic is the role of BIPOC radical education imaginaries in school reform.
Candice Lyons
Black Studies
Candice Lyons is a 2021-22 Black Studies Dissertation Scholar at UC Santa Barbara. She received her B.A. in Philosophy, M.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies, and Ph.D. in African and African Diaspora Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Her recent pieces “A (Queer) Rebel Wife in Texas” (2020), “Rage and Resistance at Ashbel Smith’s Evergreen Plantation” (2020), and “Mary Todd Lincoln, Elizabeth Keckley, and the Queer History of the Old Clothes Scandal” (2022) can be found on the public history site Not Even Past. Lyons’ writing can also be found in the 2022 E3W Review of Books, for which she served as co-editor. Her 2021 Feminist Studies article “Behind the Scenes: Elizabeth Keckley, Slave Narratives, and the Queer Complexities of Space” is the winner of the 2020 FS Graduate Student Award. Lyons’ research interests include African American Women’s History, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Black Feminist Theory, and Slavery Studies.
Silvia Rodriguez Vega
Chicana and Chicano Studies
Silvia Rodriguez Vega received her B.A. in Political Science & Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies from Arizona State University, her M.A. in Arts in Education from Harvard University, and her Ph.D. in Chicana/o and Central American Studies from UCLA. Silvia’s thesis title is Immigrant Children: Resilience and Coping with HeART under her thesis advisors Leisy Abrego and Judy Baca in the Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies. As a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Santa Barbara, Silvia is working under the mentorship of Professor Inés Casillas in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. Her research topic is Immigrant Students, Family Separation, and School & Community-Based Participatory Art Methods.
www.SilviaRodriguezVega.com | ucla.academia.edu/SilviaRodriguezVega
Aide Macias-Muñoz, PhD
Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology
Aide Macias-Muñoz received her B.A. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her M.S. Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Irvine. Aide’s thesis topic was the diversification and expression of vision-related genes in Lepidoptera under thesis advisor Adriana D. Briscoe, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Currently, as a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Program fellow at UC Santa Barbara, Aide is working under the mentorship of Todd Oakley, Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology. Aide’s research topic is the molecular basis of convergent evolution of vision in Cnidaria.
Simi Kang, PhD
Asian American Studies
Simi Kang received her B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and Creative Writing from the University of St. Thomas and her Ph.D. in Feminist Studies from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Simi’s thesis title was Restoration Imaginaries & Shrimping Futures: Vietnamese/American Fisherfolk Respond to State-Mandated Resilience in Southeast Louisiana, under Dr. Jigna Desai in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, and Dr. Karen Ho in Anthropology. Currently, as a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Program fellow at UC Santa Barbara, Simi is working under the mentorship of Lisa Sun-Hee Park, Professor of Asian American Studies. Simi’s research topic is Resilient Refugeeism: Restoration and Environmental Sacrifice at the Ocean’s Edge.
Ethan Chang, PhD
Asian American Studies
Ethan Chang received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Redlands, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Contexts of Education from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Ethan’s thesis title was Just Innovation? Digital Education Reform in Silicon Valley and Oakland, California under thesis advisor Ronald David Glass, Professor of Education. As a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Program fellow at UC Santa Barbara, Ethan worked under the mentorship of George Lipsitz in Black Studies, and Diane Fujino in Asian American Studies. Ethan’s research topic was Race, Religion, and Real Estate: Boundary Work among Grassroots Organizers for a Democratic Education.