THE MORE YOU KNOW… Careers in Academia & Research

Kate McAllister
UCLA ’17, Anthropology (major) / Art History (minor)
Administrative & Program Coordinator for the Undergraduate Research Center–Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at UCLA

Kate has lived all over the United States and settled in Los Angeles to complete her B.A. in Anthropology and minor in Art History from University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests range from human genetics and evolution to medieval art and architecture. Kate joined the Undergraduate Research Center – Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in 2017.

Whitney Arnold
UCLA ’11, Comparative Literature
Director of the Undergraduate Research Center–Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at UCLA
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at UCLA

Dr. Whitney Arnold received her B.A. in English Literature and French from Washington University in St. Louis and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UCLA. Her publications focus on British and French literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as theories of authorship.

Dr. Arnold became Director of the Undergraduate Research Center–Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in 2013. Prior to joining the Center, she taught at UCLA in the Departments of Comparative Literature, English, and French and Francophone Studies, and she managed the faculty tenure and promotion process at the University of Southern California.

In addition to overseeing the direction and activities of the Center, Dr. Arnold teaches undergraduate courses and studies undergraduate research engagement and outcomes.

Allison Benedetti
Director of Arts, Music, and Powell Libraries at UCLA

Allison Benedetti worked in art museums and architecture libraries before coming to UCLA to support researchers in the humanities and social sciences. As Director of Arts, Music, and Powell Libraries, she manages User Engagement personnel, budgets, and services at the three locations. She is a member of the ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee and the ARLIS/NA Development Committee. She has conducted research on user-centered services and is interested in mentorship and change in libraries. Outside of work, she is a fan of college basketball, enjoy exploring the city, and salsa dancing.

Luke Yarbrough
Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at UCLA

Luke Yarbrough (Ph.D. 2012, Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University) is a historian of pre-modern Islamic societies. His work deals primarily with relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in their historical and legal aspects, and extends to the study of hadith, polemical literature, and administrative practice, among other topics. Yarbrough has held post-doctoral fellowships at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania (2012) and the New York University Abu Dhabi Institute, where he was a Humanities Research Fellow in 2016-17. Since 2013 he has served as Assistant Professor of History at Saint Louis University, where he received a university-wide graduate-mentorship award (2014) and the annual Helen I. Mandeville Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in the Humanities (2018). His critical edition and translation of a thirteenth-century Arabic polemic by a disgruntled Egyptian bureaucrat, entitled The Sword of Ambition, was published in 2016 with the Library of Arabic Literature series of New York University Press, and his articles have appeared in journals such as Islamic Law and Society, the Journal of the American Oriental Society, and Der Islam. His forthcoming monograph—Friends of the Emir, Enemies of God—excavates prescriptive discourses surrounding non-Muslim officials in pre-modern Islamic states. Yarbrough earned his A.B. (History, 2004) as well as his Ph.D. at Princeton, and has studied and traveled widely in the Middle East and North Africa, including extended stints as a Fulbright Scholar and fellow at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad at the American University in Cairo (2004-5, 2009). In May 2018, he will give a series of seminars at the Université Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Barbara Van Nostrand 

UCLA ’07, Education

Director of Student Affairs & Initiatives for the Division of Humanities at UCLA

Barbara Van Nostrand is the Director of Student Affairs and Initiatives for the UCLA College, Division of Humanities at University of California, Los Angeles. She has been working in higher education for the last 10 years as a student advisor, supervisor, and manager of large scale curriculum and programmatic student initiatives within the Humanities. She co-taught two quarters of Community Health Sciences 179: Life Skills for College Students in 2009-2010 at UCLA. In addition, Barbara presented at the UC Academic Advisor’s conference in 2014, and served as Co-Chair of UCLA’s Association of Graduate Counselors and Advisors from 2011-2013. Barbara holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and a Master of Education in Counseling in Students Affairs from the University of California, Los Angeles.