By Peggy McInerny, Director of Communications
The winners' four prizes account for roughly 21% of all Dean's Prizes awarded for creative and research projects in the humanities, arts and social sciences category this year — a stellar student achievement.
UCLA International Institute, June 10, 2026 — Four students of the UCLA International Institute — graduating seniors
Pauline Barlier, Jade Faircloth and
Aya Ibrahim, and sophomore
Naima Kahl — won the Dean’s Prize for Excellence in Research and Creativity for the research papers they presented at
UCLA Undergraduate Research Week 2026 (May 18–22).
Taken together, their prizes account for roughly 21% of all Dean’s Prizes awarded in the humanities, arts and social sciences category this year. This is a stellar achievement for institute students, given that they major in interdisciplinary programs that are relatively small compared to undergraduate powerhouse majors such as political science, history, sociology and anthropology.
Nuanced research under the guidance of faculty mentors
Pauline Barlier (UCLA 2026, global studies major with minors in film, television & digital media and in entrepreneurship) earned the Dean’s Prize for her senior thesis, “
Fractured Screens: French Cinema and the Distorted Memory of the Algerian War.”
Her mentor on the project was Professor
Dominic Thomas, Madeleine L. Letessier Professor in the department of European languages and transcultural studies, or ELTS, and longtime associated faculty member of the UCLA International Institute. Barlier was the 33rd global studies student he has mentored on a senior thesis.
“I initially intended to comparatively analyze French and Algerian films on the Algerian War to demonstrate how artistic productions contribute to political and historical legacies while, at the same time, marginalizing other voices in the presence of a dominant narrative,” said Barlier.
“However, I quickly encountered a limitation: there are hardly any Algerian films on the conflict, aside from Mohammad Lakhdar-Hamina’s work. I therefore shifted my focus to French cinema, examining how that absence and the dominance of a single national perspective shape global understanding and the legacies of a violent, highly sensitive conflict.”
Thomas, who is also chair of the program in digital humanities at UCLA, said, “I first met Pauline as she started her UCLA undergraduate experience and she enrolled in a general education course I offered under the aegis of ELTS. [The course focused on] cinematographic and literary works by francophone African and Caribbean practitioners that explored colonial history and its contemporary legacies, notably as they related to immigration, Islamophobia and racism.
“For [her] senior thesis,” he continued, “Pauline… developed an impressive bibliography and filmography on France’s struggle to confront colonial guilt following the Algerian-French War of 1954–62.
“She considered how decades of cinematic silence and distortion regarding the conflict shaped the afterlives of empire and demonstrated an unusual aptitude for independent research, notably in identifying and contacting filmmakers, producers and various stakeholders, and subsequently conducting interviews that provided invaluable insights on the research questions under investigation.”
“My research,” explained Barlier, “combines textual film analysis with scholarly research on memory, alongside primary interviews with French filmmakers. Through a close analysis of post-war films, films about
banlieue (suburban) housing projects and, subsequently, more recent works, this project traces the ways in which France’s difficulty in confronting its colonial past manifests itself in cinema through silence, distortion, displacement and incremental acknowledgment.
The senor chose a global studies major because, in her words, “I wanted a field of study that would allow me to examine international issues from multiple perspectives rather than through a single discipline.” She rounded out her studies with two study abroad experiences: a semester at Kings College London and a global studies travel study program in businesses communication and leadership in Singapore.
Her favorite course, FTV 112: Film and Social Change, “paired readings from influential authors such as James Baldwin and Judith Butler with films from around the world,” she said. “I loved this course because it showed me how film can be a powerful social and political tool, and it encouraged me to think about how cinema shapes our understanding of history and identity.”
Following graduation, Barlier plans to work in the film industry and is considering eventual graduate studies that would perhaps combine an M.B.A. and an M.F.A.
Jade Faircloth (UCLA 2026, global studies major/ public affairs minor), received the Dean’s Prize for her senior thesis in global studies, “
A TWAIL Perspective on Article 98(2), U.S. Immunity Deals, and Colonial Hierarchies in International Criminal Justice.” Faircloth also won the second
UCLA Second Library Prize for Undergraduate Research in the arts, humanities and social sciences category for her thesis.
Her research work was supported by an academic year-long
UCLA/Keck Humanistic Inquiry Undergraduate Research Award and guided by
Shaina Potts, associate professor of geography and chair of the global studies program at the International Institute.
“My thesis examines how the United States used Article 98(2) of the Rome Statute to negotiate bilateral immunity agreements that shield U.S. nationals from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), analyzing this practice through the lens of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL),” explained Faircloth.
“Jade has written a very strong and impressively technical thesis,” said Potts. “I've been especially impressed with her careful reading of U.S. Congressional documents, interviews and press releases from the White House and some U.N. documents. She made a strong case for analyzing this issue via a TWAIL framework, which emphasizes the role of international law in (re)producing longstanding structural hierarchies in the world system.”
Explained the senior, “I learned that the United States plays a significant role in shaping the ICC’s legitimacy and global perception, despite not being a member of the Court. I was also surprised to learn that opposition to the ICC was not solely a Bush-era phenomenon; key anti-ICC legislation originated during the Clinton administration before gaining momentum after 9/11 under Bush.
“What surprised me most was how relevant these debates remain today, as many of the legal frameworks and arguments developed in the early 2000s continue to shape contemporary discussions about accountability, sovereignty and international justice,” she commented.
“I hope my project highlights the structural inequalities that have been historically built into the global system and the enormous power that Western states continue to exercise. International law has largely been created by Western powers, for Western powers, and it operates through hierarchies that mirror older colonial relationships,” said the senior in a
UCLA Undergraduate Research Center interview earlier this year.
Faircloth said that she majored in global studies because “I have always been interested in the inequalities that shape relationships between the Global North and Global South, and I was drawn to the major’s interdisciplinary approach to understanding complex global issues.” Not to mention wanting to attend the global studies summer travel study program on human rights at The Hague.
“[That program] became one of the most meaningful experiences of my undergraduate career,” she related. “Studying under Professor David Kim, visiting the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice and learning about international law firsthand sparked my interest in international criminal justice and ultimately inspired my honors thesis.”
In addition to her studies, the accomplished student also worked in various capacities for the International and Comparative Law Program of the UCLA School of Law throughout her senior year. This summer, Faircloth will participate in the student-organized
China-America Student Conference, traveling within the U.S. and China over three weeks in July. Her plan is to then gain professional experience for several years before applying to law school and, ultimately, pursuing a career in international human rights.
Aya Ibrahim (UCLA 2026, IDS and political science double major) won the Dean’s Prize for her departmental honors thesis in international development studies, “
Roots Uprooted: Environmental Degradation as a Tool of Occupation in Palestine,” under the mentJade Fairclothorship of
Chris Jadallah, assistant professor of environment justice in education at the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies.
“Aya is a remarkable student and very well-deserving of her many recognitions,” said Jadallah. “Her thesis focuses on the everyday experiences of rural Palestinian communities in the West Bank as they navigate life under Israeli military occupation. She deftly leverages ethnographic interviews, archival research and legal analysis to illuminate how ecological degradation is mobilized as a tool of colonial expansion in the West Bank.”
“My topic,” explained Ibrahim, “emerged as I watched the genocide in Gaza, while also witnessing the destruction, death and expanding occupation in the West Bank through more ‘invisible’ forms... The thesis explores how environmental degradation and control, particularly of olive groves and water resources, serve as tools of Israeli territorial expansion and Palestinian displacement in the West Bank. It examines Israeli legislation and legal structures, and then analyzes the use of violence and force by both state and non-state actors.
“To conduct this research, I utilized a combination of primary interviews, which I conducted with Israeli activists and Palestinian environmental reclamation organizations, as well as secondary interviews and data from human rights organizations. Together, these sources documented violence by settlers against both farmers and the land, including the uprooting, burning and vandalizing of olive trees, as well as the complicity of formal state actors in these attacks.
“The second section of the research examines Palestinian
sumud, or steadfastness, through practices such as rebuilding and replanting, Indigenous land reclamation and regeneration techniques, cultivation methods that avoid heavy machinery and chemical inputs, rain-fed agriculture, recycled wastewater systems and community-based initiatives.
“Sumud,” she concluded, “represents a persistent engagement with occupation itself, in which individuals know they may rebuild only for their efforts to be destroyed again, yet still choose to remain on the land, preserve their identity and refuse to be uprooted in the face of ongoing oppression.”
Noted Jadallah, “Aya is well-attuned to the tensions and challenges of conducting research in a militarized context and during a time of heightened academic repression and censorship. Even so, she remains laser-focused on a commitment to justice, and grounds her work in an ethic of solidarity and care.”
Ibrahim appreciated the interdisciplinary nature of the IDS program and credited her first course, Introduction to International Development Studies with
Hannah Appel, associate professor of anthropology and International Institute faculty member, for cementing her decision to double major in the program.
The soon-to-graduate senior, who plans to become a human rights lawyer, also won the
2026 IDS Activist Award in recognition of her commitment to activism and service in international development and humanitarianism.
Naima Kahl (UCLA 2028, cognitive science and global studies double major) earned a Dean’s Prize for her research paper, “The ‘Black’ Box: African Immigrant Inclusion and Categorization in the United States Census,” under the guidance of
Whitney Pirtle, associate professor in the department of
community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and associate director of the
Ralph J. Bunch Center for African American Studies.
The sophomore is a stellar, all-around student who not only works with the UCLA International Visitor’s Bureau in hosting visiting dignitaries and scholars on campus, but is the musical director of Scattertones A Cappala and an editing lead for the UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal of Psychology. In addition to pursuing two demanding majors, she is also assiduously developing professional research skills as an undergraduate.
Kahl was supported in her research project by a competitive
Bunche Center Fellowship, during which she also did research for her mentor, UCLA sociologist Whitney Pirtle. “I am so impressed by Naima,” said Pirtle. “I personally selected [her] based on her impressive application, which demonstrated her true passion for inquiry. We [met] weekly and she has pushed forward my research agenda.”
Describing Kahl’s work on “The ‘Black’ Box,” Pirtle commented, “She has been conducting rigorous interdisciplinary research to better understand the variation and diversity that makes up the U.S. ‘Black’ category’. ‘Black’ as a racial category and racial label has historically been flattened of the intragroup diversity, which we contend is a consequence of anti-Black racism.
“Yet, African immigration and continued interracial marriage are just two factors that have expanded our ideals of ‘what is black?’ Nonetheless, scholarship remains precursory in terms of analyzing all of this nuance,” she continued.
“Naima’s work spearheads an innovative approach to reconceptualizing Blackness within its expansiveness. [She] has learned how to conduct systematic literature reviews and, impressively, qualitative data analysis [using] the software program Nvivo, as methodologies to address this question. More specifically, she has coded over 1,500 comments submitted to the U.S. federal government on the Black racial label and [uses] this data, alongside her comprehensive literature review, to answer her research questions.
“Her research found that appeals for Blackness remain attached to a desire for increased needs, and this appeal differs by African versus Black identity,” commented Pirtle. “Naima’s exceptional dedication to academic excellence, community and public service and passion for research are truly commendable. She is within the top 1% of undergraduate students I have worked with.”
As Naima
says of her intellectual interests, “I am fascinated by the cognitive and behavioral implications of ancestral trauma and upheaval in communities around the world and am passionate about delving deeper into studying and understanding those patterns.” Those goals can already be discerned in her academic and student life, as well as her study of the Korean language and plans to attend a study abroad program in South Korea later this year.
Published: Wednesday, June 10, 2026
