Affirming that feminist studies scholarship will continue to be vigorously pursued at UC Santa Cruz, Feminist Studies professors announced they are transitioning away from departmental status. This transition makes way for professors to pursue wide-ranging feminist scholarship across UCSC.
The news was shared earlier today in a message sent to the department’s undergraduate and graduate students. The disestablishment process is expected to conclude by July 1, 2025.
All enrolled undergraduate majors, Ph.D. and designated emphasis (DE) students have a right to complete their degrees, and Feminist Studies faculty and staff are committed to helping students to that end. They also affirm their commitment to transferring the undergraduate major in Feminist Studies to another department, which is currently in-process and awaiting approval.
“We hope that this transition away from departmental status will open up new possibilities that allow us to maintain our focus on feminist studies scholarship and approaches in ways that are exciting and sustainable for our community,” the faculty wrote.
The Feminist Studies department was established in 1974, first as a program in Women’s Studies. The program became a department in 1996 and as it re-defined its epistemological emphasis through feminist analytics, it became the first in the nation to change its name to Feminist Studies in 2005.
The Feminist Studies department has been home to some of the field’s most prominent thinkers and it has produced scores of alumni who have gone on to make contributions in a range of fields, including law, politics, policy, health care, and higher education. UC Santa Cruz faculty remain committed to investigating how gender impacts our world and shapes social, political, and cultural formations. Indeed, this new formation is an extension of new directions in feminist studies on our campus, not a foreclosure.
"I am committed to supporting and promoting Feminist Studies teaching and research at UC Santa Cruz, regardless of departmental status," said Dean of the Humanities Jasmine Alinder. "While the institutional structure will change, and while I feel a tremendous loss and reverence for the department's remarkable legacy, I also believe that new avenues for feminist scholarship may become possible without the department framework and that Feminist Studies teaching and research will continue to thrive at UCSC in interdisciplinary and cross-campus initiatives."
With support from the Mellon Foundation, faculty will continue to honor the department’s groundbreaking work over the last 50 years with a number of special events this year, including guest speakers, workshops, and an undergraduate symposium in spring.
