The UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy was launched in 2016 and made possible by a generous gift from Renee and Meyer Luskin. A major initiative of the school’s five-point strategic plan, it was intended to be a key node of research and public outreach for social justice scholarship and public programs at UCLA Luskin.

From 2016 to 2026, Ananya Roy served as founding faculty director and developed a mandate to organize knowledge to challenge inequality. The Institute undertook research and scholarship in accompaniment of movements and communities on the frontlines of dispossession and displacement in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the world. Led by Professor Roy and associate faculty directors, Professors Hannah Appel and Kian Goh, such work focused on housing justice, sanctuary spaces, the future of finance, and climate justice, and took the form of insurgent research collectives, reparative public goods, and liberatory knowledge. Learn more about previous research and programs, publications, and events here.

Professor Martin Gilens was appointed as the next Institute director in July 2026. Gilens has published widely on political inequality, mass media, race, gender, and welfare politics. His appointment marks an exciting new era of the Institute’s growth.

The UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers ofTovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands). As a land grant institution, we pay our respects to theHonuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Anhiihirom (Elders), and ‘eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present, and emerging.