Announcing the 2025 Cotsen Prize recipient: Julie Bernard M.A. ’01, Ph.D. ’08
UCLA College | April 8, 2025
The UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology is pleased to announce that the third Lloyd Cotsen Prize for Lifetime Achievement in World Archaeology and Mentorship has been awarded to Julie Bernard M.A. ’01, Ph.D. ’08.
The Cotsen Prize is a $50,000 award given to Bernard in recognition of her longstanding commitment to archaeological research and mentorship, as well as her passion for increasing diversity, equity and inclusion within the discipline of archaeology.
She has been a passionate instructor of anthropology at East Los Angeles College since 2008, where she has impacted the lives of countless community college students through her archaeological work in California, her engaging in-class pedagogy, and the numerous field school and study abroad programs she has supervised. Part of this award will go toward supporting student research at ELAC.
Bernard received her B.A. from UC Berkeley and her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA, where she studied under the mentorship of the late Jeanne Arnold. She has conducted archaeological research in range of locales, including Central Mexico and British Columbia, with a research focus on Native resistance to Spanish colonialism in California. Her more recent efforts and publication collaborations have focused on late-period interior Chumash sites.
The Cotsen Prize was the brainchild of Lloyd E. Cotsen, former president and CEO of Neutrogena Corporation, who was associated with UCLA’s Institute of Archaeology for almost 40 years as a volunteer, adviser and benefactor. Cotsen was deeply committed to public outreach, education and mentorship; this award is a wonderful reminder of his generosity and dedication to improving the discipline of archaeology for all.
As an educator and research, Bernard’s work represents all that is good about higher education and the important role that archaeology can play in helping us understand the human condition.
The UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology will formally recognize Bernard on Wednesday April 9, 2025 at 6 p.m. as part of its first-annual Community College Transfer Day event in Lenart Auditorium.
