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Barbra Streisand Funds UCLA Institute To Study Social Issues
Barbra Streisand speaks onstage during the 91st Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on February 24, 2019.
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Barbra Streisand is best known for her long career as a singer-songwriter, an actress and a filmmaker. But she's also a philanthropist, and she recently made a major gift to UCLA.
The new Barbara Streisand Institute will include four research centers that cover a wide range of social issues, from climate change to gender roles and power dynamics.
In tweet from her official account, Streisand said:
So thrilled to be teaming up with one of the nation’s premier universities to fund future changemakers who will study:
— Barbra Streisand (@BarbraStreisand) October 19, 2021
•Truth in the Public Sphere
•the Impact of Climate Change
•the Dynamics of Intimacy & Power Between Women & Men
•the Impact of Art on the Culture
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Darnell Hunt, dean of UCLA's division of social sciences, said this gift will make it possible to launch large-scale research projects.
"Barbra is very interested in having impact, and really getting the findings from our research out into the public so that we can impact public policy, the way people are thinking about these issues," he said. "We can change the discourse around a number of these topics."
UCLA has not disclosed the exact dollar amount of the gift, but Hunt says it creates an endowment so that the work of the Streisand Institute can continue for years to come.
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