GRAD NEWS | UNDERGRAD NEWS | FACULTY NEWS | ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT | EVENTS | OPPORTUNITIES & DEADLINES
CHAIR'S LETTER: Winter 2023
Dear Feminist Studies Community,
I hope all of you enjoyed a peaceful winter break and had the opportunity to decompress and spend time with loved ones. We also hope the storms did not cause too much inconvenience, and that you’re safe and sound in 2023.
A promising quarter last fall ended with a spirited strike organized across all UC campuses by members of the unions represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW), fighting for better conditions for Postdoctoral Scholars, Academic Researchers, Academic Student Employees, and Graduate Student Researchers. While members of each group ultimately ratified the new contracts, much work remains to be done. FMST stood in solidarity with our valued graduate student colleagues, as articulated in the department statement issued early on in the action, and we will continue to do so.
As we enter the new year, I hope our graduate and undergraduate students continue to thrive academically as we strive to build a strong, vibrant feminist community here at UCSC. In that regard, graduate student Anne Napatalung is currently acting as this year’s Grad Student Rep to liaise between grad students and faculty, and Kaiya Gordon has taken on a new role as Grad Events Coordinator. Stay tuned for news about events in the works! We also are pleased to welcome our new Undergrad Student Rep, Avery Miller Shevelev; and senior Ann Niland will be working with departmental staff to support FMST transfer students at UCSC.
We also have very exciting faculty news, including the publication of a new book by Prof. Jenny Kelly – Invited to Witness: Solidarity Tourism Across Occupied Palestine – and an upcoming symposium in March called Indigenous Borderlands, being coordinated by Prof. Felicity Schaeffer as the Jack & Peggy Baskin Endowed Chair in Feminist Studies. This public event will feature keynotes by migrant activist Harsha Walia, author of Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism, and Theresa Gregor, assistant professor of American Indian Studies at CSU-Long Branch. As a result of her research on border surveillance at the US-Mexico border, Felicity was recently invited to participate in a United Nations Expert Seminar on the “Impact of Militarization on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” Read more about that in the newsletter.
In addition, we are very proud that Race & Technology, a course developed by Prof. Schaeffer, was selected as one of five classes in the Humanities Division’s new Humanizing Technology Certificate Program. More about the HTCP project further on in the newsletter, too.
And finally, we are happy to continue the Five Questions with a Feminist series, in which FMST alumni are interviewed by our faculty. Once again, this issue’s spotlight is particularly inspiring and timely. Read Professor Madhavi Murty’s conversation with Trio Harris – Restorative Justice Facilitator/Human Trafficking Prevention Lead & Continuing Education Instructor (Class of 2016) – in the newsletter, or view it, along with previous alum interviews, on our FMST YouTube channel.
I wish you all a successful, hopeful, and happy new year in 2023. May it be kind to the world, and may we continue to be kind to each other.
Zsuzsi Abrams
Interim Chair, Feminist Studies / Professor, Languages & Applied Linguistics, UCSC
GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS
New grad student reps
FMST PhD candidate Anne Napatalung is the 2022-23 Grad Student Rep. Anne will be attending FMST faculty meetings to bring grad issues to the attention of faculty, and report back to grad students on any issues of interest. She encourages FMST grad students to “holler If you have questions, insights, concerns, etc. you’d like me to bring to faculty meetings.” Reach out directly to anapatal@ucsc.edu.
Anne is currently working on her thesis, which centers around the Tuskegee School of Midwifery (1941-1946) in Alabama, framing it as a potent historical site for exploring the ways vibrant minoritized care networks were suppressed and criminalized as a part of the racist institutionalization of reproductive medicine. For more info about Anne’s research, check out this recent THI Grad Profile.
In a new role, third-year grad student Kaiya Gordon is the 2022-23 Grad Events Coordinator. Professors Felicity Schaeffer and Gina Athena Ulysse will be working with Kaiya to put together a schedule of speakers for Winter and Spring. Plans are afoot, stay tuned!
FMST grad student achievements
Breanna Byrd moderated a panel at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in November: “Networked Affects: Cringing and Queers on Social Media.”
Jess Fournier presented their paper, “The Role of Transformative Justice Anthologies in Constructing the Movement,” at the National Women’s Studies Association conference.
Anne Napatalung was profiled in a THI Q&A in October 2022 about her 2022 Summer Dissertation Fellowship, which supported her writing and further fieldwork in Alabama for her dissertation:“Re-membering Healing: The Tuskegee School of Midwifery and its Legacies for Reproductive Care.”
Elana Santana contributed a chapter to a recently published book: Literary Animal Studies and the Climate Crisis (Nov. 2022, Palgrave Macmillan), edited by Sune Borkfelt and Matthias Stephan. Her chapter is titled, "Bodies Tell Stories: Race, Animality, and Climate Change in Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones."
Marina Segatti was awarded a Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation to pursue research for her dissertation on "Queer and Trans Digital Activism: Sexuality and Democracy in Brazil.” In November, Marina presented a paper at the NWSA conference: “AFROntar @ TRANSformar: Brazilian Black Trans Women in Politics.”
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT NEWS
Meet Avery Miller Shevelev, our 2022-23 UG Student Rep
We are very pleased to introduce Avery Miller Shevelev, the new FMST Undergraduate Student Representative & Events Host.
Currently a sophomore, Avery brings an impressive background in student advocacy, activism, and policy making to this newly created position in the FMST department. In her role as liaison between undergrads and faculty, she will attend faculty meetings and work to lift up undergrad voices, concerns, and questions. In addition, Avery will be organizing undergrad events, including informal meet-ups and study sessions, and an Undergrad Research Symposium being planned for the Spring quarter.
“I'm really excited for this position and look forward to meeting more fellow feminist majors, now that many of us can come together in-person again,” says Avery. “My goals for this year are to help y'all feel more represented and supported by the department and bridge the gap between FMST faculty and students, especially pertaining to classes and events students actually want to see offered.
“Please don't hesitate to reach out to me at smille15@ucsc.edu. I love meeting fellow feminists and critics of the world. Otherwise I hope to meet more of you in the coming months as the department's student-led events begin kicking off!"
Be sure to keep an eye out for polls from Avery – your opportunity to provide input about the types of representation and events you want this year!
Introducing Ann Niland, our new Transfer Student Rep
Senior Ann C. Niland is a low-income, queer, single parent, and a transfer re-entry student. In this newly created position as the Transfer Student Representative in the FMST Department, Ann will work alongside staff and potential and current transfer students to build community and ensure FMST majors find the support and resources they need.
As a double major in Feminist Studies and Literature’s Creative Writing concentration, Ann will be spending the last two quarters of their senior year working with EOP’s Pathways to Research and the THI Undergraduate Research Group to study diversity representations, identity swaps, and the translation from text to screen in the genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Their work attempts to unpack the subtle or overt mythology of whiteness – how it decouples individuals from community and community from culture, the public’s interaction with the marketplace of identities, and the corporate co-opting of identity for profit.
“If you need mentorship or guidance about the many things that come with being a transfer student, don't hesitate to reach out!” says Ann (aninland@ucsc.edu)
Race & Technology class selected for Humanizing Technology certificate program
Race & Technology, a class developed by FMST/CRES Professor Felicity Schaeffer, was selected as one of five courses to kick off the Humanities Division's new Humanizing Technology Certificate program, an initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to provide humanistic training for UCSC undergraduate engineering students. Project partners include Baskin Engineering, THI, CITL, and Online Education.
To be offered in Spring and Summer 2023, the Race & Technology class examines how the construction of race connects with constructs in science and technology – how is race coded into the technology we use every day? Watch a video about the class here.
The Humanizing Tech program brings humanistic methods and thinking to contemporary issues in technology and engineering, encouraging students to explore the impacts of new and existing technologies and help develop critical thinking about social and cultural systems that inform these technologies and provide tools for becoming socially responsible professionals. The HTCP offers engineering students a pathway to fulfill GE requirements with courses that have a direct relevance to their majors and career interests and gives students an opportunity to develop community and a sense of belonging in smaller learning environments. To earn the certificate, students are required to complete three out of five designated courses. All courses are lower division classes with no prerequisites and do not need to be taken in a particular sequence.
Interested in being a K-12 teacher? Check out the UCSC MA Education & Teaching Credential Program
The UCSC Master of Arts Degree & Teaching Credential Program prepares future teachers for work in elementary and high school settings. The goal of the program is to develop teachers who are change agents and social justice advocates dedicated to fostering equitable and effective schooling and life opportunities for all students.
Over the course of one calendar year, MA/C students will earn a Master of Arts in Education and complete the requirements for a California SB2042 Preliminary Teaching Credential. Multiple Subject Credential and Single Subject Credentials are also available.
The five-quarter program is comprised of two summers and one academic year. Masters candidates are admitted to begin the program in the summer quarter only, and no candidate is admitted on a part-time basis. Through a combination of coursework, classroom placements, and research projects, students in the program learn to integrate theoretical perspectives with teaching practice.
The application deadline for Summer 2023 is January 31. Go here for more info about the program.
FACULTY NEWS
Professor Jenny Kelly celebrates publication of new book
Congratulations to Professor Jenny Kelly on the publication of her new book – Invited to Witness: Solidarity Tourism Across Occupied Palestine (Duke University Press).
In Invited to Witness, Prof. Kelly explores the significance of contemporary solidarity tourism across Occupied Palestine. Examining the relationships among race, colonialism, and movement-building in spaces where tourism and military occupation operate in tandem, she argues that solidarity tourism in Palestine functions as both political strategy and emergent industry. The book draws from fieldwork on solidarity tours in Palestine/Israel and interviews with guides, organizers, community members, and tourists, asking what happens when tourism is marketed as activism and when anticolonial work functions through tourism. Palestinian organizers, Kelly demonstrates, have refashioned the conventions of tourism by extending invitations to tourists to witness Palestinian resistance and the effects of Israeli state practice on Palestinian land and lives. In so doing, Invited to Witness shows how Palestinian guides and organizers wrest from Israeli control the capacity to invite and the permission to narrate both their oppression and their liberation.
Felicity Schaeffer invited to speak at U.N. conference
FMST/CRES Professor Felicity Amaya Schaeffer was invited to participate in a United Nations Expert Seminar on the “Impact of Militarization on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” in Geneva, Switzerland in December 2022. The invitation stemmed from Prof. Schaeffer’s recent book, Unsettled Borders: The Militarized Science of Surveillance on Sacred Indigenous Land (Duke University Press, 2022).
Established by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2007, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides the Council with expertise and advice on how to better protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, as set out in the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
At the two-day gathering of U.N. staff, scholars, ngo directors, activists, and policy makers, Prof. Schaeffer made two presentations, one on the impact of militarization on Indigenous territories, lands and natural resources at national borders, the second on the role of Indigenous women in combatting militarization and the impact of militarization on the rights of Indigenous women.
A synopsis of the Expert Seminar will be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council in September 2023, with the aim of revising the U.N. Declaration to include more concrete language on protecting Indigenous peoples’ land and lives from militarization. The hope is that this international document will arm states, Indigenous peoples, civil society, national human rights institutions, international organizations, and businesses with guidelines to further its implementation.
FMST Faculty Awards, Publications, and Conferences
Bettina Aptheker participated on a “Queer History” panel at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in November, discussing her paper, “Queer & Communist: Revolutionary Politics of Betty Millard and Lorraine Hansberry.”
Gina Dent presented the opening keynote at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in November with co-authors Angela Davis, Erica Meiners, and Beth Richie, discussing the impact of their book – Abolition. Feminism. Now. – and the state of feminism in today's world.
Jenny Kelly talked about the research and writing process for her new book on anticolonial solidarity tourism, Invited to Witness, on the Ideas on Fire “Imagine Otherwise” podcast. Listen here.
Amy Krauss discussed “Abortion accompaniment as anticapitalist ethics of care,” with Oriana López Uribe in an interview for the Social Movements Lab, Red May TV, December 20.
On November 11, Amy presented a paper at the American Anthropological Association conference on "Aesthetics and complicity," as part of a roundtable session, "Fieldwork Confessionals Redux: Unsettling Ethnography," with discussants Ruth Behar, Sarah Luna, and Lillith Mahmud.
She also was panel chair for a discussion on "Global Anti-Gender Politics," organized by Roy Kimmey and Misha Appeltova, University of Chicago, October 28.
Gina Athena Ulysse presented a paper, “Black Bodies, Strange Fruits & Zombies,” as part of a panel on “Embodiment And Exposure: The Black Body Metaphor In Context” at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting in Seattle, WA on November 10.
At the Haitian Studies Association conference at Howard University (October 7 in Washington DC), Gina participated in a conversation about “Haiti, the Anthropocene, and the kriz konjonktirèl” with book authors Mark Schuller and Mimi Sheller.
At the International Conference of Community Psychology (Naples, Italy, September 22), she presented “Of Ideas, Things, People, and Spirits: Toward a Black Feminist Rasanblaj” as part of a panel on “Community Re-generation in Violent Times” with Regina Langhout, Katja Kolcio, and Ronelle Carolissen.
Gina also had several pieces recently published:
“Calabash/Kalbas/Kwi: a personal journey of diasporic returns,” Etnográfica Special 25th Year Anniversary Issue, December 2022.
“Constant’s Consort and Marvelous Work,” an interview essay in the exhibition catalog for Myrlande Constant: The Work of Radiance at the Fowler Museum; Katherine Smith, Jerry Philogene, editors. Los Angeles: University of California Press, January 2023.
“A Priestess’s Salutation: A Study in Movement” photo essay and cover image with artist statement in Frontiers Journal, Vol 43 Issue 3, trilingual publication, January 2023.
"Nou La: Didier William's Spaciousness," Sugarcane Art Magazine, December 2022.
“Ola Thunder” cover photo of Feminist Formations Journal, Summer issue, 2022.
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Five Questions with a Feminist
The Five Questions with a Feminist interview series spotlights FMST alums who have gone on to do great things. Visit our YouTube channel to view the interview that Professor Madhavi Murty did with Trio Harris, Class of 2016. Below is an edited version of their conversation.
Trio Harris, Class of 2016 – Restorative Justice Facilitator/Human Trafficking Prevention Lead & Continuing Education Instructor
Trio Harris (they/them/theirs) graduated from UCSC in 2016 with a double major in Feminist Studies and Critical Race & Ethnic Studies. After graduating, they began working in Oakland with non-profits, law offices, and schools as a consultant and coach for Restorative & Transformative Cultural Arts Education, as well as Youth & Organizational Leadership Development. Trio currently works with Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in West Oakland, California as a Restorative Justice Facilitator and Human Trafficking Student Prevention Lead. When not with OUSD, they are a conflict mediator, conflict coach, and Restorative Justice Practitioner with Seeds Community Dispute and Seeds Community Resolution Center in Berkeley, CA. This summer, Trio will complete a Master of Science in Restorative Practices with a Specialization in Education at the International Institute for Restorative Practices. Trio is also an instructor of continuing education at the Institute.
That’s a terrific bio, Trio! Could you tell us more about the work you're currently doing?
Right now I'm in my Restorative Justice Office, where I do a lot of work triaging multi-tiered systems of support around restorative practices, human trafficking prevention, and gender-based violence. This year I’m stationed at McClymonds High School in West Oakland, California. It's my second year with the school, where I teach Introduction to Restorative Justice. Our concentrations include restorative critical race theories and restorative global feminisms. We talk about how restorative and transformative justice and practices, like community accountability, can relate to things like critical carceral studies. How Third World women of color feminisms have influenced restorative and transformative practices. We talk about the intersections of interpersonal and institutional violence, and how things like prisons are a form of gender violence. We really try to think about gender-based violence and preventing it proactively using universal tools that our young people – we have 20 student peer leaders – can use to scaffold and build social competencies as well as social emotional wellness on our campus. My job is to provide a restorative school culture and climate. When I'm working with my students at McClymonds, we're really trying to think about how to build a campus we all want to be part of.
When I'm not [at the high school] I’m a conflict coach and mediator. I also help people one-on-one with conflict coaching and do mediations between neighbors or friends or random people who might be in conflict for whatever reason. Conflict is normal, but harm should not be. So how do we use restorative practices in our community to help people in conflict? I recently spent five Wednesdays in a row from 6 to 9 pm coaching new mediators using role play based on models our organization has seen. Like, I have a daycare across the street from my house, and they're really loud and take up a lot of parking spots. So real-life scenarios and instances of conflict.
When I'm not doing that, I am earning my Masters [at the International Institute for Restorative Practices] and working on training adults and administrators. I train restorative practices for educators as well as restorative justice conferencing, something I've started this year at the Institute. So yeah, I do a lot, but it all relates. And it's what keeps me motivated and passionate about what I do. Because I really don't want to be in a bubble of theory all day long. I want to really live it and work it.
You really are working it, Trio! Not only is the work you do so interlinked, it's also deeply significant. Can you talk to us about the journey that led you to majoring in Feminist Studies at UCSC?
Trio: Well, I'm just gonna say it: It’s a legendary department. I was privileged to be exposed to critical race theory, feminist theory, and queer theory in high school. I was the president of my Gender Sexuality Alliance. I was Secretary of our Black Student Union. I did things like Summer Bridge, which allowed me to take community college classes while I was in high school. I took a sociology class with a concentration in critical race theory and was able to talk about positionality and situated knowledge before I even came to UCSC.
I was also a youth lobbyist, fighting for fair education and bathroom access bills. And when I wasn't doing that, I was running around because I was a homeless youth, trying to find ways to keep myself occupied as an unhoused youth who felt constantly exploited by so many systems and structures of power. Because of all that, when I was applying to schools, Santa Cruz really stood out. I was so in love with the work of bell hooks and Audre Lorde, and of course, Professor Davis. So many legendary feminists have been either [professors] in the FMST department, or they went to Santa Cruz, or they came [to speak]. Lisa Lowe came twice when I was an undergraduate, and that was so magical to be able to sit in a room with Lisa Lowe, and then have her recommend graduate schools to me. Nothing's perfect, but to me as a 16/17 year old, it was like, Wow! It really was amazing to have a space where I could look at critical theory and grow and read and be intersectional, intertextual, dialogical, dialectical, and all those things, and be in conversation with other feminists. That was the most exciting part. That's what I looked forward to. We didn't have CRES yet [as a department], so I did [concentrations in] feminist studies and legal studies. Because I had been a youth lobbyist doing work for queer and youth, and queer and transient liberation, I was like, yeah, this works for you, Trio. Let's get up there and enrich ourselves. I wasn't the best student, but I definitely was passionate, and still am.
You were one of the best students, Trio. Precisely because you were so passionate and engaged, not just in the classroom but in the world around you, which you brought to bear in the classroom. Can you tell us more about how the FMST major influenced your own professional goals?
Yes, I love this question because anyone that knows me knows that I also study schools and pedagogy. As someone who's interested in the feminist classroom, I really push now to think about the restorative, neuro-diverse feminist classroom. What does that look like, and how can we explore that world? How do we embody that knowledge? I just re-read Teaching Critical Thinking [Practical Wisdom] by bell hooks and I read the Teaching Trilogy as an undergraduate and used it in my thesis to talk about poisonous pedagogy versus decolonial pedagogy. What does it mean to have feminist critical race pedagogy? What does it mean to use fugitive pedagogies? Not just for the sake of buzz words – I love my buzz words – but to actually embody those things and talk about it with young people.
When I was an undergraduate, I didn't see a lot of people actually talking about schools as a site of study, especially the educational industrial complex. It’s so important to look at that, but I didn't have many peers in feminist studies or ethnic studies that were doing that work. We had an education minor, and Cindy Cruz was so wonderful; she took me on and helped me write my thesis, and I learned so much by studying pedagogy in feminist studies. How we think about affect, for example, which is so essential to restorative practices. Indigenous feminism offered us a way to really look at affect and think about it. And, of course, there is no restorative justice or peacemaking without indigenous communities and having built that understanding. It’s not just about sitting in a circle, it's a lived, spiritual experience. So I got to learn a lot about critical pedagogy and [think about] the foundations and the people I want to put in my canon. Now, when I’m doing work as a graduate student, I have a canon of thinkers I go to, and it's nice to have my own canon versus people who may be using other thinkers. Maybe they're not using Freire or Wahl. Maybe they're using other people than bell hooks or Eve Tuck. We all work so differently, and in the FMST department I got to actually see my own difference and the meaning in the work I was doing. I never felt so proud of myself until I actually started doing my own research. I was like, wait! I do have things to say! Type, type, type.
In so many ways, Feminist Studies as a discipline is anti-canonical, in the sense that we’re deeply invested in the question about how canons come to be. We’re in conversation with many interlocutors, so we can think about it as many canons, and you can formulate your own. Leading on from what you just said, what would you say was the most important thing you got out of the Feminist Studies major?
Definitely how I thought about pedagogy because the professors always pushed me. But I also was so grateful to be able to have my own individualized professional development. I did at least three independent studies, and I was an undergraduate research assistant. I'm not trying to brag – I know that's a lot of privilege, and I want to check the privileges that were afforded to me, but I took advantage of what was available. And I was able to grow into the intellect that I wanted to be. I was also an undergraduate student instructor and got to teach my own class on black feminist art, and how the black feminist cultural arts movement really impacted pedagogy. I was really able to grow into the feminist I wanted to be. I could lean into my own strengths and read whatever books I wanted to read because I was doing independent study. And, of course, I was always getting feedback and commentary. Like maybe we shouldn't conflate schools and prisons if we're talking about critical carceral studies. What if we look at linkages and how carcerality emerges, and how the toxic traditional culture of carcerality can have certain linkages. But to call school a prison? Now that I'm 28, I’m thinking about how we can look at differences and linkages without having to make everything be the same. Prisons are the same as slavery? No, they're not.
So I began to push deeper and ask, what am I actually trying to say? I'm trying to say that the school is a site of colonization. That school is a site of disempowerment and disenfranchisement in the public school model. But what can it also be? And that allows me to look at the Freedom School model and think, okay Trio, you want to start your own Freedom School one day. That's your dream; that's your goal. So I got to think about, Who am I? Talk about positionality and situated knowledge, I got to actually situate and position myself, and it was so empowering. We talk about moving from margin to center…I got to see myself move from margin to center. I was like whoa, I’m moving! That was really empowering.
That's great – moving from margin to center. As we wrap up this wonderful conversation, did you have a favorite feminist studies course, besides all your independent studies?
I hope you're not surprised…I'm really sad you only taught one class with me, because Advanced Feminist Theory was my favorite class. In Teaching Critical Thinking, bell hooks said, you may not remember every class you took, what you studied, what you read, or what you talked about. But if your professor or teacher had decolonial pedagogy and moved away from poisonous pedagogy, that class is going to stick with you. So yeah, of course, Advanced Feminist Theory. Why? Because on day one, you told us: Do not let theory scare you; do not let it seem inaccessible. Theory can be violent, epistemically, discursively, but it doesn't have to be something you alienate yourself from. You encouraged us to rethink what we saw as theory. I hadn't had a professor stop the class on the first day and make that appeal to the whole class to lean into your strengths. It was the definition of an asset-based teaching mindset – that all of you have something to offer and bring. When we read these texts, you may not know some of these authors, and it may be your first time reading this kind of [material], but we were diving deep into cultural studies. Many of us may not have had that background in cultural studies, but because of feminist studies, we could try it on. As an instructor rooted in decolonial pedagogy, you helped me think, yes, I know what I'm doing. It's nice to have a teacher affirm that to the whole class and say that to everyone. Also the attention to detail and care that you gave to the class and the amount of interdependence – that's a feminist classroom. And that's why I'm sad I only had one class with you, because I wouldn't be surprised if that's how you carry most of your classes.
Thank you, Trio, that’s very kind. That experience stands out as one of my favorites. I learned a lot from all of you as a group. Is there anything else you want to share with UCSC FMST students?
I just wanted to say that I know it can be difficult sometimes, because we can kind of silo ourselves and get stuck in our own bubbles. So I want to remind folks to lean into the community; find people and peers to build you up. It can be really easy to feel overwhelmed and under-resourced. There are so many things going on in the world; it can be so careless and unkind, so I just want to encourage students to lean into each other. We're really all that we have, and I probably wouldn't have made it out of feminist studies, not because of the department, but because of the University, and academia, and neoliberalism, and those new colonial regimes. I would just encourage people to take care of each other, because the system will not take care of us. We have nothing to lose but our chains, and we should just lean into each other. I was able to make so many friendships that I still have to this day.
FMST EVENTS AND OTHER EVENTS OF INTEREST
Indigenous Borderlands Symposium – March 9, 2023, 4:30pm at the Cowell Haybarn
This event will feature keynotes by migrant justice activist Harsha Walia and Theresa Gregor, assistant professor of American Indian Studies at CSU-Long Beach. Harsha Walia is the author of Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism, which addresses how current migrant and refugee crises are the inevitable outcomes of conquest, capitalist globalization, and climate change, generating mass dispossession worldwide. Born in Bahrain, she emigrated to Canada and studied law at the University of British Columbia. Theresa Gregor is Iipay and Yoéme and grew up on the Santa Ysabel Indian Reservation in San Diego County. Her research focuses on California/American Indian women, gender, identity, cultural revitalization, language repatriation, and decolonization. This event is free and open to the public.
On March 10 interdisciplinary scholars from across the country will gather to consider the concept of borders and the borderlands from the perspective of Indigenous peoples from across the Americas. Presentations of their work across several symposium themes will result in publication of an Indigenous Borderlands journal in 2024.
CSAS Futures Lecture Series – Winter 2023
The UCSC Center for South Asian Studies’ year-long lecture series, curated by FMST Professor Anjali Arondekar, continues with two events in winter. All lectures are virtual, held from 10am to 12noon. Visit csas.ucsc.edu/events to register and learn more about each event:
- January 20 – Caste and Time: Notes from Early Modern India – Professor Divyan Cherian, Princeton University. Register here.
- February 10 – Bangladesh, Third World Solidarity, and the Global Politics of Feminism – Professor Elora Shehabuddin, UC Berkeley. Register here.
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES AND DEADLINES
Phi Beta Kappa Society Public Service Scholarships – Deadline January 23, 2023 Undergraduate sophomores and juniors majoring in liberal arts and sciences and interested in public service careers are invited to apply for a $5,000 scholarship from the Key Into Public Service program, awarded by the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Go here for more info and links to the application.
21st Century Feminist Scholarship – Deadline January 31 @ 6pm PT
The 21st Century Feminist Scholars endowment supports the pursuits of new and rising scholars in the field of feminist studies. Every year, the FMST department awards 2-3 scholarships in amounts ranging from $300 to $1,000 to support independent research. These scholarships are restricted to declared Feminist Studies majors.
To apply, submit the following documents to Undergrad Advisor Anne Eickelberg (aeickelb@ucsc.edu):
- Project proposal (2 pages maximum) – describe your project, its relevance to Feminist Studies and/or your career goals, and the expected timeline.
- Projected budget – list expected expenses and funds received from other sources, if any.
- Letter of endorsement/recommendation (1 page maximum) from a FMST faculty mentor.
Bettina Aptheker Award for Research or Community Service on Sexual, Gendered, and Racial Violence – Deadline January 31 @ 6pm PT
Bettina Aptheker, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Feminist Studies, is one of UC Santa Cruz's legendary professors. A radical feminist, political activist, UCSC alumna, and history scholar with a national reputation, Professor Aptheker has reached over 16,000 students through teaching in the department. In honor of and as an extension of her legacy, Professor Aptheker established an endowment that supports students whose research, work, or community service relates to sexual, gendered, and/or racial violence. The annual award is open to graduate and undergraduate students on an alternating basis. This academic year, the award is open to FMST undergraduate students. The recipient will receive a $1,000 award.
To apply, submit the following documents to Undergrad Advisor Anne Eickelberg (aeickelb@ucsc.edu):
- Cover letter (2 page maximum) – describe your research, activism, and/or community service related to sexual, gendered, and/or racial violence.
- Letter of recommendation and project evaluation from a faculty sponsor.
Call for Papers: Signs 50th Anniversary Special Issue on Big Feminism – Deadline February 1
A preeminent journal in the field of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, Signs was founded in 1975 as part of an emergent tradition of feminist scholarship and has been publishing continuously ever since. This special anniversary issue seeks to engage with the big feminist questions that remain outstanding after all these years. How has the definition of feminism evolved, and how might we imagine a feminist vision for the future from where we stand now? Go here for more info and links to manuscript submission guidelines.
Call for Papers: UC Berkeley 10th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium – Deadline March 1
Undergraduates are invited to submit papers for UC Berkeley Comparative Literature’s 10th anniversary symposium. To be held on April 15, 2023, the symposium theme is (Re)imagining the Body: the Abject, the Peculiar, and the Other. Go here for more info and to submit a paper.
