The UCLA Activists-in-Residence program welcomed its ninth cohort to campus for a five-month residency that provides time to reflect and recharge, envision new projects, and connect with UCLA faculty, students, and staff.
Four activists are participating in this year’s program, which supports artists, community organizers, and movement leaders as they undertake power-shifting scholarship and pedagogy focused on social change. The UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy will host three activists — José Gama Vargas, Chelsea Kirk, and Chris Tyler — and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center will host Set Hernandez.
- José Gama Vargas, a steward of the vast ancestral territory of the Gabrielino/Tongva Nation, is exploring what it means to unite gardeners as they stand in solidarity with the land, with each other and with the land’s original caretakers.
- Set Hernandez is a queer and undocumented filmmaker, writer, and community organizer with roots in the Philippines. Since 2010, they have organized around migrant justice issues, from deportation defense to health care access.
- Chelsea Kirk is a tenant organizer, researcher, and policy advocate whose work is oriented toward building a better world without predatory landlords. She earned her UCLA Luskin Master of Urban and Regional Planning in 2025.
- Chris Tyler, an organizer with the Los Angeles Tenants Union and communications manager at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, works for housing and economic justice, organizing neighbors, fighting evictions, and coordinating educational programs.
Learn more about the UCLA Activists-in-Residence program and this year’s cohort
