The Academy of Pahl Scholars was created in 2019 as part of The Pahl Initiative. It is comprised of faculty members who have received the prestigious Pahl award. Since 2019, one faculty project is selected for two years of research funding support. The goal is to “light a fire” under promising new or ongoing work, helping it to grow in scope, visibility and public relevance. There is an annual Pahl Symposium which has proven to be critical in the dissemination of the research project results by the Pahl Scholars and their students.
Research projects are selected for their potential to bridge rigorous scholarship with pressing social issues and to engage audiences beyond the academy. As part of The Center’s commitment to mentorship and training, every research project must include meaningful graduate student involvement with opportunities for undergraduates to contribute as well. This ensures that The Pahl Center not only advances faculty research but also invests in the next generation of scholars. Community partners and collaborators also have helped with the success of The Pahl Center research projects. Each year, several Pahl Scholars help in the selection process of future awardees.
By fostering projects that combine academic excellence with public engagement, the Pahl Scholars support the mission of the Division of Social Sciences Division: to generate knowledge that matters, and to support research that makes a difference in the world.
Application Information Coming Soon
Past Recipients
Amy Boddy
Associate Professor, Anthropology Department
Funded Years:
2024-2026
Title:
From Disbelief to Trust: Examining Prenatal Care Practices to Eliminate Medical Gaslighting
Project Summary:
This study explores how pregnancy and postpartum experiences can be shaped by stress, communication, and structural inequalities in the U.S. healthcare system. Pregnant individuals often report that their concerns are minimized or misunderstood, which can lead to delayed diagnoses, inadequate treatment, and sometimes emotional distress. At the same time, caretakers of pregnant patients often experience time pressures and systemic constraints that can limit the quality of care and communication they provide their patients. To better understand these challenges, we are surveying and interviewing 150 pregnant and postpartum patients, along with 50 medical providers, to capture experiences from multiple perspectives. Findings will be shared at a roundtable at Cottage Hospital, bringing together patients, providers, and hospital staff to co-develop strategies for improving communication and support. Our goal is to improve communication and create more equitable prenatal and postpartum care.
erin Khuê Ninh
Professor, Asian American Studies Department
Funded Years:
2023-2025
Title:
This May Help: Vulnerabilities and Remedies in Student Mental Health
Project Summary:
The levels of anxiety and depression among US college students have risen steeply over the past decade. National surveys put the trend at about 38% to 41% experiencing depression in 2023, versus 20% in 2014; anxiety likewise at 34%-36% versus 20% nine years earlier. In addition to the expected stressors of coursework, family, and campus life, college students across this span have contended with (not only a pandemic but) heightened economic, political, and environmental crises. This twofold project explores UCSB's mental health support for undergraduates by investigating stressors related to community: In the first instance, we are conducting surveys, pilot workshops, and focus groups to identify the roles that "political feeling" (depression or anxiety related to "macro"-level social crises, exceeding individual choice or treatment) may play in students' lives, as well as the campus resources they may find helpful or needful to address such political feeling. In the second, we explore student loss of life for its ripple effects through the campus community, beyond the epicenter around which institutional resources are traditionally focused. Interviewing students and staff about their experiences of "postvention" at UCSB, we strive to identify measures that the campus can take to address community grief. Findings will be shared with the administration, for ways of scaling up support as higher education itself faces economic precarity.
Jennifer Kam
Professor, Department of Communication
Funded Years:
2022-2024
Title:
Migration-Based Family Separation: From Research to Policy and Practice
Project Summary:
Because of political turmoil, extreme poverty, threats to safety, and lacking educational opportunities, many Latin American parents make the heart-wrenching decision to migrate to a country separate from their partner and children. Despite their desire to eventually reunite, these families face numerous barriers that make reunification impossible. This project explored why some families are forced to migrate without their loved ones, the multifaceted challenges they experience while living apart, potential protective factors, and the various policy and practical implications emergent from in-depth research with migrant families. To answer these questions, the first part of this project involved collecting data from 58 under-resourced Latina/o/x/e transnational couples experiencing migration-based family separation. Transnational couples participated in a dyadic audio-recorded phone conversation discussing their experiences living apart, expressing gratitude, and brainstorming ways to increase support and connection. Prior to and immediately following the conversation, each partner individually completed a survey over the phone with a research team member. The second part of the project involved collecting semi-structured interviews with 27 family triads, each including a father, mother, and child (children between 9-17 years old), where each family member was interviewed individually over the phone.
Clayton Nall
Associate Professor, Political Science Department
Funded Years:
2021-2023
Title:
The Folk Economics of Housing
Collaborators:
Christopher S. Elmendorf (UC Davis) & Stan Oklobdzija (UC Riverside)
Project Summary:
Why is new housing so difficult to build, especially in coastal California? Economists and political scientists often blame self-interested “Not in My Backyard” (NIMBY) homeowners who back regulations that block multifamily construction and restrict supply, driving up prices. Our research shows that the problem is broader. In national online surveys, both homeowners and renters prove to be “supply skeptics”: only about one-third believe building more housing lowers prices, even though they correctly answer supply-shock questions about other markets. As a result, even those who want cheaper housing only weakly support new construction. Consistent with prior findings on lay economics, respondents instead blame putative “bad actors” like developers and landlords, and they favor counterproductive or ineffective policies such as rent controls, demand-side subsidies, and inclusionary zoning (mandates that property owners rent out some units below market rates). In ongoing experiments, we find that brief educational messages about housing-market research and simple analogies—such as comparing housing markets to a game of “cruel musical chairs”—reduce supply skepticism and boost support for market-rate housing development.
Heather Royer
Professor, Economics Department
Funded Years:
2020-2022
Title:
Understanding Food Security
Collaborators:
Marianne Bitler (University of California-Davis) and Mireille Jacobson (University of Southern California)
Project Summary:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, food security became a visible national concern, captured by long lines outside food banks. Yet the trend was complex: food insecurity rates fell during the immediate crisis but rose again in 2022. Our project examines two key policy issues—how food security is measured and how valuable in-kind food benefits are compared to cash. Using a survey of 1,200 low-income adults, we tested shorter food security questionnaires (1, 2, or 6 questions) and found that while brevity may increase responses, single-question surveys miss important information. We also asked participants how much cash they would accept in exchange for $50 in SNAP-like food benefits. While 42.8% saw cash and food benefits as equivalent, the groups most targeted by SNAP placed greater value on cash. The results suggest that both survey design and benefit delivery matter.
Tristan Bridges
Professor, Sociology Department
Funded Years:
2019-2021
Title:
Mass Shootings in America
Collaborators:
Tara Leigh Tober (University of California-Santa Barbara)
Project Summary:
This project develops the most comprehensive dataset to date on mass shootings in the United States by integrating five of the largest existing databases and expanding them with original data collection. Unlike previous work that relies on narrow or conservative definitions, we adopt a broader standard to capture a wider range of incidents, producing a more inclusive picture of gun violence since 2013. Drawing on roughly 10,000 online news articles, the dataset includes detailed information on shooter and incident characteristics, geolocation data to map where shootings occur (and where they do not), and the full text of media coverage. This design enables analyses across multiple dimensions: the situational and demographic features of shootings, the geographic patterns and disparities in their occurrence, and the ways these events are framed for the public through news reporting. In addition to providing a robust empirical foundation for social science research, the project advances understanding of how mass shootings are constructed as social problems, how different framings may shape public opinion and policy, and how patterns of violence intersect with broader inequalities in American life.