Below, you will find information about CBD's pre-doctoral fellowships and the pre and postdoctoral training programs.

CBD Training Program

CBD was established with a grant from the Foundation for Psychocultural Research. CBD offers pre- and postdoctoral training in theory and methods integrating research on development, brain function, and cultural processes. CBD fosters training and research concerning the integration of these three systemsin normal and pathological conditions. The training programs consist of interdiscplinary research collaboration or mentoring, attendance at the Forum and at the Integrative Seminar on Culture, Brain, and Development. Fellows are eligible to apply for small CBD research grants.

Psychology
Anthropology
Applied Linquistics
Education
Psychiatry
Neuroscience/Brain Mapping

Applicants should apply to a program with at least one participating CBD faculty member.

If you are or will be in the process of applying to a program, please talk about your interests in CBD in your personal statement, giving an indication of the cross-disciplinary mentors you have in mind and the general area of your interests. CBD Predoctoral fellows must be mentored by one CBD faculty member inside their department and one outside their department.

The training program normally begins in the first year of graduate school and ends when the trainee completes his/her dissertation. A few trainees will be selected from ongoing graduate students. Each trainee selected for funding will be given a fellowship stipend (about $15,000) and tuition/fees from Center funds during only one year of graduate school, normally the second. The Graduate Division has also guaranteed a dissertation year fellowship, including fees and tuition, for all funded trainees in good standing, in the year following their advancement to candidacy. During the other years of graduate school (typically 1, 3, and 4), there will be a mix of fellowship, TA, and RA support provided by UCLA.

Students may also be accepted into the program without funding.

Academic Requirements and Program

Attain background in graduate level study of human development, of culture, and of the brain.

The requirement will be one basic graduate course in developmental psychology, one basic graduate course on culture, and one basic course on the brain.

Integrative seminar, coordinated with biweekly forum presentations on culture, brain, and development.

A pair or trio of faculty representing two or three of the six participating disciplines co-teaches the integrative seminar, which has been developed especially for the Culture, Brain, and Development training program and cross-listed in each relevant department. It is coordinated with the biweekly forum on culture, brain, and development. Normally, students will take the integrative seminar during their first or second year.

Students (and postdocs) will be expected to attend the Forum on Culture, Brain, and Development throughout their graduate (or postdoc) career at UCLA.

Methodology requirement

Each trainee must take one methodology course outside his or her major department and in one of the other cooperating units. Examples are a Psych student taking a course in discourse analysis in Anthropology or an Applied Linguistics student taking a course in fMRI at the Brainmapping Center.

Laboratory Course: The Use of fMRI to Study the Acquisition of Culture, with Special Reference to Language Development.

This new course will be developed by Co-PI Mirella Dapretto of the UCLA Brainmapping Center.

Summer Research Internships in Jacobs’ Laboratory of Quantitative Neuromorphology, Colorado College.

Dr. Bob Jacobs will host trainees who would like to learn to use quantitative neuromorphology to address research issues in culture and human development.

Multidisciplinary guidance and research mentoring

At the beginning of the first year, all students in the program form a faculty guidance committee to guide the student's academic program and mentor his/her research. This committee must meet with the student at least twice a year, in Fall and Spring, to help plan an interdisciplinary academic program in culture, brain, and development, as well as the student's interdisciplinary research. Research mentoring would continue on an ongoing basis. Each student in the program selects a major advisor from within the list of participating Culture, Brain, and Development faculty; the advisor would be a member of the student's major department. A second advisor would be a participating faculty member from another academic unit. The third advisor would normally be from the student's own department and would not have to be a participating faculty member. This guidance committee helps the student formulate an interdisciplinary program of study and mentor the student's research. A new committee can be formed at any time up through the dissertation committee; however, the requirements concerning its interdisciplinarity would remain the same.

In addition to departmental requirements and the minimal requirements listed here, the program planned by each student with his/her committee includes courses both inside and outside the student's own department that are relevant to his or her specific interests.

The planned and executed program is updated and filed with the chair of the Education Committee at the beginning of every academic year.

Cross-disciplinary teaching and research assistantships

During their tenure as trainees, every graduate student in the program will have a paid teaching assistantship with a faculty member from a different department and discipline from the student's home department. Where possible, we would also encourage cross-disciplinary research assistantships.

Local and international field research

As contextually-based research is central to the methodology and conceptual foundations of culture and human development, sites for field research training are very important. Within Los Angeles, trainees will have field sites available in three multicultural daycare and school settings on the UCLA campus and in the outside community.

Research funds are available to provide stipends and travel expenses for graduate students and postdoctoral trainees to carry out field research at international sites. The sites are Kenya (Weisner), Chiapas, Mexico (Greenfield), as well as a site in Korea, Cameroon, and Southeast Asia supervised by local faculty (Kim, Nsamenang, and Agusno respectively). Each site provides an opportunity for studying the cross-cultural roots of the development and socialization of immigrant groups in the United States. For example, research in Southeast Asia can be coordinated with the types of Southeast Asian populations studied at Lin’s Research and Education Institute on.the Psychobiology of Ethnicity. These opportunities foster international, as well as multicultural perspectives on research.

Fieldwork/qualitative data laboratory

This laboratory, begun with a seed grant from NICHD, is directed by Co-P.I. Weisner. It provides methodological consultation for trainees and includes a library of methods books on qualitative and ethnographic research methods, as well as computers and special purpose software for qualitative data recording and analysis (e.g., Ethnograph).

Discourse laboratory

This laboratory includes audio, video, and computer equipment for the analysis of discourse, an important method for investigating the communication processes by which culture is created and sustained. The facilities are available across departments.

Lecture Series in Culture, Brain, and Development

This series, held three times per year, will consist of important researchers in culture, brain, and development from the United States and around the world. Each year, one of the three lectures will be dedicated to the current topical focus, as this focus intersects with the theme of Culture, Brain, and Development. Complementing the lecture series, we cooperate with the Brain, Evolution, and Culture (BEC) group; two of our participating faculty, Alan Fiske (also Co-Investigator) and Daniel Fessler, founded BEC, and several of our co-investigators attend their brown bag series regularly.

Annual FPR Symposium

Attendance at future FPR symposia is an intrinsic component of training for our predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees.

For further information about this program and participating faculty, contact Dr. Marjorie Goodwin or call the CBD office (Dr. Helen Davis) at 310 825-5326, or contact any of the relevant faculty participants listed on this website.

CBD Postdoctoral Training Program

CBD does not directly fund postdoctoral fellowships. Our funding agency, the Foundation for Psychocultural Research, funds postdocs, and they must be contacted directly. If you receive a postdoc from FPR, one option is to use the funding to be a postdoctoral fellow at CBD. However, we do not accept applications for postdocs directly.

The postdoctoral training programs consists of interdisciplinary research collaboration and mentoring, enrollment in the Forum on Culture, Brain, and Development, attendance at CBD Lectures, and enrollment in the integrative seminar on Culture, Brain, and Development one year, plus one course in an area (culture, brain, development) that the fellow has not experienced in graduate training. Fellows are also eligible to apply for small CBD research grants every year.

Postdoctoral fellows will conduct interdisciplinary research and participate in seminars with CBD trainees and faculty in Anthropology, Psychology, Applied Linguistics, Education, Psychiatry, and the Neuroscience program (including the Brain Mapping Center). Primary training or mentoring must be in a field different from the Fellow's Ph.D. field, and trainees should have mentors in at least two of the three program areas.

The CBD postdoctoral training program is open to UCLA postdoctoral students and is designed especially for FPR Postdoctoral Fellows.

The Foundation for Psychocultural Research Postdoctoral Fellowships in interdisciplinary studies of culture and neuroscience

The FPR provides a limited number of fellowships aimed at advancing interdisciplinary research projects and scholarships at the intersection of psychology, culture, neuroscience, and psychiatry, with emphasis on psychocultural factors as central, not peripheral. Fellows participate in the ULCA-FPR CBD postdoctoral training program. Fellowships begin in 2008.

Letters of intent due September 30, 2007; Completed applications due February 15, 2008. Allow 4 months for funding activation.

Click here for the FPR Postdoctoral fellowship application form in pdf.

PURPOSE:

The Foundation for Psychocultural Research (The FPR) provides a limited number of fellowships aimed at advancing interdisciplinary research projects and scholarship at the intersection of psychology, culture, neuroscience and psychiatry, with emphasis on psychocultural factors as central, not peripheral.

ELIGIBILITY:

Applicants must have a doctoral or M.D. degree and should have interest in pursuing a career involving interdisciplinary research in psychology, culture, neuroscience and psychiatry. The research will involve substantial engagement in the current topical foci, which includes integrative research on neurobiology, culture, child development, and psychopathology.

Candidates must conduct their proposed research under primary and secondary sponsors who hold an academic appointment at UCLA. For interdisciplinary purpose, sponsors should come from different disciplines. Candidates should be eligible to hold a postdoctoral appointment at UCLA. Candidates are also required to attend interdisciplinary seminars offered by the FPR-UCLA Center for Culture, Brain, and Development throughout their fellowship appointment at UCLA.

STIPEND AND INSTITUTIONAL ALLOWANCE:

Fellowship stipend is $40,000 per year.

A support allowance of up to $1,500 per year, to be used at the sponsor's discretion, to help defray the fellow's research supplies or travel to scientific meetings.

The FPR does not permit deductions to cover administrative expenses from either the stipend or the institutional allowance. The fellowship may be extended for one additional year, based on the evaluation of the previous year's excellent performance. This extension is not automatic. Requests for extension should be submitted to the Foundation by February 15. Progress reports from both sponsors are required to accompany extension requests.

DEADLINES FOR RECEIPT OF APPLICATIONS:

Annual deadline for the receipt of letter of intents is September 30. Annual deadline for the receipt of completed applications is February 15. If a deadline falls on a weekend, applications will be accepted on Monday. Allow a minimum of 4 months between the deadline and the desired activation date. Fellowships are activated on the first of the month and must activate within one year of the deadline. Applicants are notified of the review committee's decision within 12 weeks of deadline.

NOTE: The next available fellowships will be for 2008. Letters of Intent due by September 30, 2007.

1. Involve substantial engagement in the current topical foci, which includes integrative research on neurobiology, culture, child development, and psychopathology.
   
2. Be at the intersection or integration of Culture and Neuroscience, with sponsors who have worked or shown interests in the related integrative approach.
   
3. Have a significant degree of novelty in their research. The research should not be repetitive of, or similar to, existing research.
   

Step 1: Letter of Intent
Please email to the foundationpsycul@aol.com in Microsoft Word format:

1. A two page letter of interest describing the proposed research, including the date for which applicant is seeking the FPR fellowship;
   
2. The applicant's CV
   
3. The applicant's and sponsors' contact information.
   

1. Completed Application Cover Sheet and Sections One through Four, which are included in the application form.
   
2. Abstract of the research in non technical English explaining the importance of the proposed research and its potential application / clinical relevance.
   
3. Concise outline of the research proposal (background, significance, specific aims, materials and methods, summary) not to exceed 10 pages (inclusive of tables and figures; exclusive of references).
   
4. The date for which applicant is seeking the FPR fellowship and a list of other funding sources to which applications have been or will be submitted, with due dates.
   
5. Applicant's Curriculum Vitae and Bibliography.
   
6. A brief description of the applicant's background and research accomplishments.
   
7. A Statement of Interest (2-3 pages) describing in detail applicants' interests (i.e. general and/or specific research interests) in interdisciplinary research and/or scholarship on culture-mind-brain interactions and future goals.
   
8. Letters from the sponsors at UCLA introducing the applicant and describing the sponsors' qualifications to direct the proposed research. These letters must contain assurance that the applicant's project will be conducted under the direct supervision of the sponsors, including the extent of, and targets for the applicant's work under the sponsorships. The sponsors should also emphasize the relevance, and its novelty if any, of the proposed project to culture-mind-brain interactions.
   
9. Sponsors' curriculum vitae, bibliography (limit bibliography to past 5 years or to publications relevant to proposed research) and a list of sponsors' current research supports.
   
10. Letters of Recommendation from 2 individuals, other than the intended sponsors in item #8, well acquainted with the applicant's work. These letters should address the applicant's interests, prior work and achievements, and professional promise. Letters of recommendation requested in item 10 should be sent directly to the FPR by the referees.
    

MAILING INSTRUCTIONS:

Send completed applications to the attention of:
The Director
The Foundation for Psychocultural Research
PO Box 826
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
U.S.A.

Please include a self-addressed postcard if you wish to be notified that we have received your completed application.

The application will not be considered if:

Applications exceed any mentioned page limits. All 8 sets of items 1 through 9 must be collated. If not collated, the application will not be considered.

For further information on THE FPR, please visit: http://www.thefpr.org