Staff | UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy

Current LCHP Staff

Tawny Paul

Director (2026-present)

Tawny Paul is an award-winning historian of early-modern Britain and America, with a particular interest in histories of capitalism, labor and incarceration. She has also written extensively on commemorative practices and the intersections of art and history. Since 2020, Paul has directed UCLA History Department’s Public History Initiative.

Email: tpaul[at]history.ucla.edu

Roselyn Campbell

Assistant Director (2023-present)

Roselyn A. Campbell is an anthropologist and bioarchaeologist. She earned her PhD in Archaeology from UCLA. Her research focuses on evidence for state-sanctioned violence in the past, particularly in ancient Egypt, and seeks to understand how violence and trauma are performed and understood on the physical and cultural body. She also explores themes of identity and otherness in the past and the history of cancer in antiquity. Before joining the Luskin Center, Roselyn worked at the Getty Research Institute and the Getty Villa for nearly a decade..

Email: rcampbell[at]history.ucla.edu

Former LCHP Staff

David Myers

Founding Director (2017-2026)

David Myers is a Professor and the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA. He has written extensively in the fields of modern Jewish intellectual and cultural history, with a particular interest in the history of Jewish historiography. He has previously served as Robert N. Burr Chair of the History Department and as director of the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies.

Email: myers[at]history.ucla.edu

Ben Zdencanovic

Post-Doctoral Scholar (2022-2025)

Ben Zdencanovic (pronounced sten-CHAN-oh-vich) is a Postdoctoral Associate at the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. Ben is a historian of the United States in the world, domestic and international politics, and economic and social policy. He has a particular interest in the relationship between U.S. global power and the politics of redistribution and the welfare state.

Ben earned his doctorate with distinction from the Department of History at Yale in 2019, where his dissertation was the winner of the Edwin W. Small Prize for outstanding work in United States history. Prior to coming to UCLA, Ben was a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale Jackson School for Global Affairs and an Assistant Instructional Professor at the University of Chicago.

Email: bz246 [at] ucla.edu

Hiba Zaidi

Graduate Student Researcher

Hiba Zaidi is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Policy at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, with a keen focus on the historical dimensions of societal dynamics and data policy. As a Graduate Student Researcher at the Luskin Center of History and Policy, Hiba delves into the intersection of society and data policy, specifically investigating biases in data that historically omit marginalized groups. Informed by her background in sociology and enriched by her professional experience in the digital marketing realm, Hiba is dedicated to unraveling the historical roots of data bias and its contemporary implication.

Email: hibazaidi20[at]g.ucla.edu

Mary Bejanyan

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Mary Bejanyan is a fourth-year History major and Public Affairs minor originally from Glendale, California with hopes to pursue a career in law in the future. Her interests are in international law and examining foreign policy.