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The UC Diversity Initiative for Graduate Study in the Social Sciences

The UC Diversity Initiative for Graduate Study in the Social Sciences (UC DIGSSS) program is a three-campus consortium comprised of UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC Santa Barbara to enhance doctoral student diversity in the social sciences.  In accordance with NSF guidelines, the Program awards grants to support students traditionally underrepresented in Ph.D. programs in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences.

UC-DIGSSS @ Berkeley is funded jointly by the National Science Foundation and UC Berkeley.

Departments participating in the Program include:

• African American Studies
• Anthropology
• Demography
• Economics
• Ethnic Studies
• Geography
• History of Science
• Linguistics
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Sociology/Demography

The Mission of the UC-DIGSSS Project

1. Form partnerships with minority serving institutions (MSIs) in order to increase the applicant pool, by developing longitudinal relationships across administration, faculty, and staff.


2. Build upon the extensive alumni network of UC graduates at institutions across the country in order to potentially identify underrepresented minority (URM) graduate students and to mentor students who are already on the pathway to the PhD.


3. Mentor URM students with one-on-one research traineeships with faculty in the early stages (first three years) of the graduate program in order to help build research skills and to create strong bonds with faculty mentors.


4. Improve retention by focusing on community building and help students overcome academic hurdles through seminars and workshops throughout all stages of the graduate program, including written and oral qualifying exams, finding a dissertation topic, preparing the dissertation proposal, and applying for professional employment.


5. Support graduate research by encouraging academic skills building, participating in conferences and conducting field research.

For More Information...

Dr. Gloria Chun
UC-DIGSSS Program at Berkeley
Graduate Diversity Director
Division of Social Sciences
College of Letters & Science
Office location: 158 Barrows Hall
Mailing address: 201 Campbell Hall, #2920
Berkeley, CA 94720-2920
Telephone: 510.642.5565
Fax: 510.643.6762
Email: socscigrad@berkeley.edu