The Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement is proud to announce the nine recipients of the 2024 Public Impact Research Initiative (PIRI) Grants, continuing its commitment to supporting research that creates meaningful community impacts.

Karrigan Börk, UC Davis professor of law and Associate Director at the Center for Watershed Sciences, has been awarded the prestigious $10,000 Morrison Prize for his paper on water rights.

The fire-related deaths of at least 39 migrants in a detention facility in Ciudad Juarez, just across the U.S. border with Mexico, will likely be found to have had several contributing factors.

Professor Gabriel "Jack" Chin works with law students on cases that involve reducing sentences which were too long, setting aside convictions where there is doubt about guilt or an unfair trial and expunging criminal records.

Public Scholarship and Engagement launches its inaugural Public Scholarship Faculty Fellows program with 10 faculty members from across disciplines whose project topics span environmental health disparities and green gentrification to criminal justice reform and Korean immigrant activism.

Keith David Watenpaugh (Director, Human Rights Studies) joined Karima Bennoune (Professor of Law and UN Special Rapporteur, Cultural Rights) and Joanna Regulska (Vice Provost and Associate Chancellor of Global Affairs and Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies) for the second in the DHI’s special virtual Conversation series on COVID-19.

UC Davis law student Alison Corn created the Next Steps Advisor app for survivors of domestic violence who want a legal recourse at the Yolo County Superior Courthouse, winning second prize this year for her app in the Iron Tech Lawyer Invitational hosted by Georgetown University.

As part of the Public Impact Research Initiative, Public Scholarship and Engagement recently awarded grants to support the development of new research collaborations and to deepen, sustain, or evaluate existing collaborative research.

UC Davis Professor of Law Lisa Pruitt is partnering with people in rural communities to advocate for those who experience unequal access to legal services because of where they live. It’s work she isn’t paid for that takes a lot of time, but it helps ensure her work in academia can be more broadly relevant and address the experiences of rural communities.