The Ph.D. Forum was initiated in 2001 to foster awareness and critical discussion of original research developed by students and to enhance the sense of intellectual and social community within the department. Student presentations reflect the different stages of the dissertation process from proposal writing to data analysis and final conclusions. Students may also present conference papers or other action-oriented research and collaborations with communities. Each presentation is followed by discussion led by a member of the faculty. The forum is organized by doctoral students. Students, staff, and faculty are invited to attend.

Recent Ph.D. Forum Topics:

• Walking the Walk: Do Green Beliefs Translate to Green Travel Behavior (Eric Morris)
• Planning After the Porkbarrel: Metropolitan Responses to Congressional Earmarking in Transportation (Gian Claudia Sciara)
• Exit, Voice or Loyalty? Understanding Attitudes, Behavior and the Demand for Public Goods in Nigerian Cities (Charisma Acey)
• Beyond the Sign: Economic Development & Municipal Designation in Asian and Pacific Islander Communities (Michelle Magalong)
• Falling Behind: California's Small Metropolitan Areas (Mike Manville)
• Getting from the plan of study through field papers and exams
• Transportation Research Board (TRB) Conference Presentations (Mike Smart, Eric Morris)
• How to Climb out of Technological Backwardness: Lessons from Cross-National Evidence (Tom Kemeny)
• How Urban Inequality Shapes City Politics: Mayoral Elections in Buenos Aires after Argentina's Crisis of Globalist Neoliberalism (Miguel Kanai)
• Cognitive Maps, Neighborhoods, and GIS (in 3D!): Methods for Mapping and Analyzing the Internal Dynamics of Contemporary Urban Environments (Andrew Mondschein)
• Toward Social Capital of Empowerment: Turbulence, Stigma, and Resources in the Lives of Filipino Men Living with AIDS (Michelle Magalong)
• Taking Public Spaces: The Municipal Regulation of Sidewalk Activities in Twentieth Century Los Angeles (Renia Ehrenfeucht)
• Cars, Parking, People and Cities (Mike Manville)
• The Roles of Residential Relocation and Housing Development in Explaining Rail Ridership over Time (Hyun-Gun Sung)

PH.D. STUDENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

2009

Linda Samuels has two publications forthcoming in 2009: "Infrastructural Optimism" in Places Journal: A Forum for Design in the Public Realm, spring 2009 and and two chapters in Dana Cuff and Roger Sherman's edited volume, Fast Forward: Toward a Design and Politics for Metroburbia, spring 2009.

2008

Doug Houston was named the University of California Transportation Student of the Year. Houston, who received his Ph.D. in Urban Planning from the UCLA School of Public Affairs in 2008 and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the UCLA School of Public Health, was selected from among outstanding nominees from several other UC campuses. Students of the Year are selected based on their accomplishments in areas including technical merit and research, academic performance, professionalism, and leadership. Houston was selected for his research supporting the transportation and infrastructure planning process by enhancing tools for identifying the land-use and public health impacts of the goods-movement sector.

Victor Pineda has been awarded a 2008-09 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship.

David R. Mason has published "Community-based Planning and Poverty Alleviation in Oaxaca, Mexico in the Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 27, pp. 245, March 2008.

Linda Samuels presented "Film and Photo: Teh road and the City in Pop Culture at the ACSA National Conference in Houston TX, March 2008.

Charisma Acey was selected to the 2008-09 Collegium of University Teaching Fellows, sponsored by the UCLA Office of Instructional Development. The Collegium of University Teaching Fellows (CUTF) is an innovative program that creates unique learning opportunities for both graduate teaching fellows and undergraduate students on campus. Through the program, some of UCLA's best advanced graduate students have the opportunity to develop and teach a lower division seminar in their field of specialization on a one-time only basis. This experience serves as a “capstone” to the teaching apprenticeship, preparing them for the academic job market and their role as future faculty.

Acey has published a paper on "Neighborhood Effects and Household Responses to Water Supply Problems in Nigerian Cities"in the Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, Vol 4, Issue 1 (July).

She has presented papers at conferences including

• "Planning for Poverty Alleviation: Preliminary Findings from Field Research in Lagos and Benin City, Nigeria," at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP)/AESOP Joint Congress, July 6-11, Chicago, Il.
• "Globalization and Urban Inequality in African Cities" at the African Studies Association Annual Conference, November 16-19, San Francisco.
• She has been invited to present the paper, "Voice and Access to Water in Nigerian Cities," at the International Transdisciplinary Conference on Water, Society and the Environment in Africa, April 20-24, Drakensberg, South Africa.

2007

Michael Smart, was selected to attend the 2007 Eno Leadership Conference, May14-18 in Washington, D.C. The conference is designed to provide exceptionally promising master’s and doctoral degree students who plan to pursue careers in transportation with a first-hand look at how transportation policy is developed and implemented. Smart is among a select group of students who met with top government officials, association leaders, and members of Congress and their staff members. Candidates were also chosen based on their leadership ability and potential to assume a senior role in a transportation-related organization in the future. Universities were allowed to nominate one student from each transportation-related discipline.  The ENO Transportation Foundation was created in 1921 by William Phelps Eno, a pioneer in the field of traffic control. Foundation programs cover all modes of transportation in the public and private sectors.

Charisma Acey received a Graduate Research Mentorship from UCLA Graduate Division to support dissertation fieldwork in Nigeria. She also received a UCLA Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowship.

Dontraneil Clayborne received the 2007 WARA (West African Research Association) Pre-Doctoral Fellowship for his research project on "Colonial Legacy and Post-Colonial Approaches to Urban Land Tenure, Property Rights and Slum Upgrading in Ghana." Clayborne was one of two recipients selected from a national pool of applicants. The fellowship will provide travel funds and a research stipend to enable him to conduct preliminary fieldwork for his dissertation proposal

Victor Pineda has received the Jefferson Award for making a difference in his community. Jefferson awards are administered by the American Institute for Public Service, a national foundation that honors community service. Each week the San Francisco Chronicle features a Bay area resident who has won a Jefferson Award. Pineda has worked on the U.N. Disability Treaty and the World Bank’s Disability and Development Team. In 2005 he founded the Victor Pineda Foundation, a nonprofit organization that inspires, educates and informs the global audience on the capabilities and potential of people with disabilities. The VPF helped start the country's first inclusive media center.

Pineda presented "Global Rights of People with Disabilities" at the UNICEF and Save the Children Conference in Yemen, October 2007 and "Cultural and Critical History of People with Disabilities in US Public Policy and Planning at the ACSP National Conference in Milwaukee, October 2007.

2006

Eric Morris is the winner of the American Planning Association Transportation Division's 2006 outstanding student paper competition for his paper "The Privatization of British Rail: How Did It Turn Into a Train Wreck?" The competition recognizes outstanding student papers on current transportation planning or policy issues. Entries were judged on the basis of relevance, insight and quality. The award (which includes a cash prize) was announced at the APA National Conference in San Antonio in April.

Ashok Das and Kimiko Shiki are recipients of Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowships. The fellowship program is intended for students who are formally advanced to candidacy, who will be in their final year of graduate school and who are planning to start teaching and research appointments soon after the end of their fellowship year. For 2006-07 each award consists of a $17,500 stipend, a reimbursable research allowance of up to $500 and mandatory fees.

Dontraneil Clayborne and Laura Russ received UCLA Summer Graduate Research Mentorships from the UCLA Graduate Division. The Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Program provides financial support for doctoral students in disciplines where students have little opportunity for academic apprentice appointments or other university funding relevant to their graduate training during the summer months. A specific objective of the program is to promote opportunities for students to work closely with a faculty mentor in developing a paper for presentation at an academic conference and/or for publication. Both students will work with Professor Lois Takahashi.

Charisma Acey received the department's Julie Roque Environmental Justice Award.

Gregory D. Morrow has been awarded a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. which will allow him to travel and conduct field research for his project on Seeking Spatial Justice: Social Difference and the Privatization of Urban Space.

John Douglas Houston has received a 3 year Dwight David Eisenhower Graduate Transportation Fellowship from the The National Highway Institute. The objective of the award is to attract qualified students to the field of transportation and research, and advance transportation workforce development. Houston received his B.A. in from the Honors Program at the University of Texas and his M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA in 1999. He entered the UCLA doctoral program in Fall 2004. His major field of interest is pollution and environmental hazards. His publication, "Proximity of Licensed Childcare to Near-Rodeway Vehicle Pollution co-authored with Professors Paul Ong and Arthur Winer, forthcoming in the American Journal of Public Health, illustrates his research interests.