Sara Hovda, a student in the Master of Fine Arts program at UC Riverside, has won the 2026 Trio Award for her debut poetry manuscript, “Night’s Grammar.” “I was honestly beside myself,” Hovda said.
UC Riverside education professor Rita Kohli has been named the 2026 recipient of the Derrick Bell Legacy Award, a national honor recognizing scholars committed to advancing racial justice in education.
Rican Vue, an associate professor in UC Riverside’s School of Education whose scholarship examines racism, community knowledge, and educational justice, has received the 2026 Carlos J. Vallejo Exemplary Scholar Award from the American Educational Research Association.
Five UC Riverside Highlanders have been selected for the 2026 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, or NSF GRFP. The fellowship supports students pursuing full-time, research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, fields at accredited U.S. institutions. This...
UC Riverside’s Jamal Myrick was recognized by the American College Personnel Association, or ACPA, for his outstanding career in student affairs and support through African Student Programs, or ASP. Myrick is one of 22 Diamond Honorees selected for 2026. “Dr. Myrick’s dedication to his craft in higher education over 10 years has been recognized...
Xiao Chen, an assistant professor of history at UC Riverside, has been awarded a Luce/ACLS Early Career Long-Term Fellowship in China Studies. With a yearlong research leave made possible by the $45,000 grant and support from UCR’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Chen plans to complete a book manuscript.
Erika Villeroy da Costa, a graduate student in critical dance studies at UC Riverside, has been awarded a 2026 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship. Da Costa will use the $52,000 grant to support her research on first-generation members of the Afro-Brazilian dance troupe Balé Folclórico Mercedes Baptista.
Raquel M. Rall, an associate professor and associate dean in UCR’s School of Education, has been selected as one of seven scholars nationwide for the inaugural Alliance Fellowship Program, a new initiative aimed at strengthening higher education’s role in American democracy.
UC Riverside student Sneha Ahuja is one of 12 recipients of the 2026-2027 A. Strauss Scholarship for a project addressing extreme heat through public health efforts. The Donald A. Strauss Public Service Scholarship Foundation provides up to $15,000 scholarships to college sophomores and juniors to fund public service projects they proposed...
Georg Michels, a professor of history at UC Riverside, has won the 2026 Richard F. Gustafson Guggenheim Fellowship in Slavic Studies, one of only three named fellowships awarded by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Allison Benis White’s most recent poetry collection, “A Magnificent Loneliness,” was awarded the 2025 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry. “This recognition of ‘A Magnificent Loneliness’ is what writers dream about," White said. "And I’m grateful to represent UC Riverside, and our Creative Writing Department, with this honor.”
UC Riverside’s natural landscape served as inspiration for second-year student Valerie Cheng’s photo illustration that won the 2026 R’Card photo contest on March 19. Her colorful entry, featuring orange trees and a blue sky, will be the background image on R’Cards distributed to students, staff, and faculty members for the 2026-2027 academic year...
The American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, has named UCR faculty members Rodolfo Torres and Yadong Yin as 2025 Fellows, a distinction that ranks among the highest scientific honors in the nation.
Ronald Loveridge, associate professor of political science at UC Riverside, was presented with a 2026 Poppy Award from the California Association of Councils of Governments for his efforts to support UCR students and advocate for good regional governance.
