Our mission is to create conditions for our faculty members to excel, individually and collectively, in their teaching, professional activities, research and public engagement endeavors. Toward this end, the Dean’s office guides the recruitment, retention and evaluation of our outstanding faculty, and in addition, serves as a catalyst for special initiatives that heighten the efficacy and enhance the stature of our Division. These initiatives nearly always require infusions of support from a range of external sources, such as grants, contracts, and private gifts. The generosity and vision of our donors, many of whom are Social Science Alumni and Dean's Cabinet Members, play a crucial role in helping the Division achieve our highest aspirations for excellence.  

Dean's Cabinet

The Dean’s Social Science Fund provides seed funding for these initiatives, which are organized in five distinct categories. Placement of initiatives will evolve as priority initiatives are fully funded and launched.

1.  Social Science Centers: In Full Operation and Seeking Additional Support

• Center for Information, Technology and Society
• Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies
• Center for Publicly Engaged Scholarship (with Gevirtz Graduate School of Education)
• Broom Center for Demography
• Blum Center for the Study of Poverty, Inequality and Democracy

2.  In Full Operation and Seeking Additional Support

• Pahl Initiative for the Study of Critical Social Issues
• EXITO (formerly 4+1, in collaboration with Gevirtz Graduate School of Education)
• UCSB Regional Equity Profile 
• Dean’s Investment Lab
• American Presidency Project

3.  Launch Phase: 2021-22 Fund Raising Priorities

• Student Success in the Social Sciences
• Global Immigration and Inequality
• Feminist Futures

4.  Seed Funding Phase

• Area and Global Studies at UCSB: (with ISBER, the Office of Research and Humanities and Fine Arts)
• SOSC Practitioner-in-Residence
• Dean’s Social Science Lecture Series 
• Dr. U.S. Awasthi Initiative for Cooperative Economics

5.  Conceptual Phase

• Health, Justice and Community (HJC): Social Science Approaches
• Environmental Racism / Environmental Justice
• Jeffrey’s Jazz Coffee House 2.0

I invite you to browse our website to learn more about our programs, departments and people.

Charles R. Hale
SAGE Sara Miller McCune Dean of Social Sciences