2000 The Wave - University of California, Santa Cruz

W O M E N ’ S S T U D I E S A T U C S A N T A C R U Z
The Wave
Vol. III, No. 1 Summer 2000
A PERIODICAL FOR THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY AND FRIENDS OF WOMEN’S STUDIES
From the Chair
Bettina Aptheker
Women’s Studies celebrated its 25th anniversary this year with
much hoopla, and an extraordinary series of Visiting Scholars and
speakers, a Regents Lecturer, and the publication of a
Commemorative Journal. We also co-sponsored two major conferences.
You’ll find detailed accounts of
these events in this issue of The Wave.
In brief: our year began with a
powerful lecture by the Native
American, award-winning environmentalist,
Winona La Duke
celebrating the publication of
her new book, For All Our
Relations, at the Kresge Town
Hall. A few days later, famed civil
rights attorney and Harvard
Professor, Lani Guinier spoke on the
importance of “Re-framing the Affirmative
Action Debate,” at the Mainstage
Theater, in an event initiated by
Women’s Studies and co-sponsored by Arts & Lectures, The
Office of the Chancellor, The Women’s Center, and EOP, among
others. And later in November, Women’s Studies was delighted to
host the legendary folksinger, dramatist, and playwright, Ronnie
Gilbert as a Regents Lecturer, with a host of appearances in
classes, including an uproarious and brilliant lecture on music in
radical social movements in my Intro to Fem class. Ronnie also
gave an inspired lecture and performance on the life and times of
the famed union organizer early in this century, Mother Jones. It
WMST majors Andrea del Pinal and Leticia Robleto intern at the Women’s Center
which is celebrating its 15th Anniversary this year.
warmed all of our hearts to have this gifted, charismatic, and
immensely generous scholar and performer on campus.
The Women’s Studies 25th Anniversary Luncheon was a
blazing success, with nearly 200 guests crowded into a room at the
UCSC Arborteum designed to hold about 130! Everyone was in
marvelous spirits. Alums turned out in force; Founding Students
and Faculty were their visible and articulate selves; and Women’s
Studies core and affiliated faculty, Chancellor M.R.C.
Greenwood, and many community friends joined us for this gala
event. It being Women’s Studies, we awarded 43 Certificates of
Appreciation to Founders, faculty, students, and staff for all of
their labors over the years to make us an intellectually vibrant
feminist community. Available at the Luncheon was our
Commemorative Journal, produced in record time through the
extraordinary efforts of our Women’s Studies and Kresge staffs,
continued page 5
Special section inside on the
25th Anniversary Celebration of Women’s Studies!
Congratulations 2-3
Retirements 3
WMST Faculty 4
Sovereignty 2000 Conference 4
After the Last Sky
by Eman Desouky 6
WMST 25th Anniversary 7
Nancy K.D. Lemon 7
Sarah Heike Miguel 8
Tina M. Campt 9
INSIDE
25th Anniversary Congratulations
and Greetings! 10
The Joy of WMST
by Liddy Detar 12
Library Exhibit 12
Color of Violence Conference 13
Women of Color Film and
Arts Festival 14
21st Century Feminist
Scholarship Endowment 15
Thank you, Friends of
Women’s Studies 15
Become a Friend of
Women’s Studies 16
1

Congratulations UCSC Feminist Faculty Awards, Grants and Book Publications
Bettina Aptheker, Professor, Women’s Studies. Recipient of Phenomenal
Woman Award from Women’s Studies Program at California State
University, Northridge, Oct. 2000.
Nancy Chen, Assistant Professor, Anthropology.
“Translating Psychiatry and
Mental Health in Twentieth Century
China,” in Tokens of Exchange: Problems of
Translation in Global Circulation, Lydia
Liu, Ed. Duke University Press, 1999.
“Cultivating Qi and the Body Politic,” in
Harvard Asia Pacific Review. Winter
2000. UC Office of the President Pacific
Rim Research Grant 1999-2000: “Effects
of Smoking on Women and Youth in
China and the US.”
Nancy Chen
Faye Crosby, Professor, Psychology. Sex,
Race and Merit: Debating Affirmative Action in Education and Employment.
Cheryl Van De Veer, co-editor and UCSC Staff. University of Michigan
Press, 2000. This book is an outgrowth of affirmative action developments
at UCSC.
Jean Fox Tree, Assistant Professor, Psychology. Fox Tree, J. E., & Meijer,
P. J. A. (2000). Untrained speakers’ use of prosody in syntactic disambiguation
and listeners’ interpretations. Psychological Research, 63, 1-13. Fox Tree, J.
E., & Schrock, J. C. (1999). Discourse markers in spontaneous speech: Oh
what a difference an oh makes. Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 280-
295. Fox Tree, J. E. (1999). Listening in on monologues and dialogues.
Discourse Processes, 27, 35-53. Fox Tree, J. E., & Meijer, P. J. A. (1999).
Building syntactic structure in speaking. Journal of Psycholinguistic
Research, 28, 71-92.
Dana Frank, Associate Professor, American Studies. Recipient of the
Book of the Year Award for 1999 from the International Labor History
Association for her book, Buy American: The Untold Story of Economic
Nationalism. Beacon Press, 1999.
Donna Haraway, Professor, History of
Consciousness and Women’s Studies. Recipient
of the Fleck Prize for 1999 from
The Society for Social Studies of Science
for the best book in the field: Modest
Witness@Second Millennium (Routledge,
1997). The Society also awarded Haraway
its Bernal Prize for 2000 for Lifetime
Achievement. The Bernal Prize, given
jointly with the Institute for Scientific
Information, recognizes achievement by
scholars who have devoted their careers to
the understanding of the social dimensions
Donna Haraway
of science and technology. Haraway’s achievement will be recognized in a
ceremony in Vienna in September during the society’s annual meeting.
Jacquelyn Marie, Women’s Studies/Reference Librarian. Marie,
Jacquelyn and Nancy Kushigian. “Electronic Resources.” Information
Resources in Feminism and Women’s Studies. Ed. Hope Olson. London:
Bowker-Saur, 2001.
Gwendolyn Mink, Professor, Politics. Hostile Environment: The Political
Betrayal of Sexually Harassed Women. Cornell University Press, 2000. In
the book, Mink examines the impact of recent high-profile sexual harassment
cases and warns that women will be less likely to seek the
protection of the law after seeing how targets who speak up are treated.
Mink concludes that the “regime of disbelief ” that surrounds sexual harassment
is effectively silencing women.
Shelley Stamp, Assistant Professor, Film and
Digital Media. Movie-Struck Girls: Women and
Motion Picture Culture after the Nickelodeon,
Princeton University Press, 2000. Focus on
women’s films and filmgoing in the 1910s.
Women’s patronage was built with stories focused
on sexuality, sensational thrill-seeking,
and feminist agitation, topics not normally associated
with ladylike gentility.
Judy Yung, Associate Professor, American
Studies. Unbound Voices: A Documentary History
of Chinese Women in San Francisco. UC Press, Shelley Stamp
1999. This compelling book depicts the history
of Chinese American women in a very moving
and personal medium — in their own words, through oral histories, immigration
interviews, newspaper articles,
letters, poems, autobiographies, speeches, and
other sources.
Patricia Zavella, Professor, Community
Studies. Principal investigator for a $235,000
Ford Foundation three-year grant to the
Chicano/Latino Research Center and the
Latin American and Latino Studies Program.
The grant will fund a project designed to bring
a greater “trans-border” focus to Latin
American and Latino Studies.
Congratulations Undergraduate Awards
Michelle Campbell has been appointed a University Fellow at Northwestern
University. The Fellowship covers tuition and supplies, and an
annual stipend for living and research expenses. She will by studying
Performance Studies with a feminist emphasis. Michelle is the acclaimed
director of UCSC’s The Vagina Monologues, and Unspeakable Acts, sponsored
by The Rape Prevention
Education Program.
Maile Sing is the recipient of the
Dean’s Undergraduate Award for her
thesis “Dispelling the Myth of the
Oversexed Polynesian: An Exploration
of the Process of Change and
Persistence of Tradition During
Missionary Settlement Post-1820.”
Her thesis advisor, Emily Honig,
found Maile’s thesis “to be one of the
very best in my years as thesis advisor.”
Patricia Zavella
Maile Sing
THE WAVE, June 2000 Vol III, No. 1
Editor: Nicolette M. Czarrunchick
Editorial Assistant: Sherry Phillips
Editorial Kibbitzer: Bettina Aptheker
Graphic Design: Amy Sibiga
2

Congratulations Staff
Nicolette Czarrunchick, Department Manager, Women’s Studies.
Recipient of the UCSC Alumni Association Staff Award, 1999-2000.
Betsy Wootten, Supervisor, Kresge Faculty Services. Recepient of 25
Year Service to Women’s Studies Award
Barbara Lee, Database Specialist, Kresge College. Recipient of 10
Year Service to Women’s Studies Award and a Finalist in the national
“Golden Heart Awards” competition sponsored by the
Romance Writers of America for her manuscript “In Deep Water.”
Barbara has completed two manuscripts in the past seven years by
spending each lunch hour writing on her laptop in her pickup
truck. She will attend the organization’s national conference in
Washington, DC in July.
Sherry Phillips, Department Assistant, Women’s Studies.
Recipient of 25 Year Service to UCSC Award
Barbara Lee
Betsy Wootten
Nicolette Czarrunchick
New Directions by Akasha Hull
I leave employment here at UCSC with enormous gratitude to
my colleagues, the staff, and students who have made these twelve
years of work and play in Women Studies so stimulating. They
have been critical years of growth and transition for me during a
historical period when women’s studies itself has likewise changed
significantly. I resist using the word ‘retirement’ because, while it
is technically true, what I am embarking upon feels much more
like a beginning than an ending, like stepping — however uncertainly
— out of one door and into another. I am looking forward
to the joys of productive leisure and creative writing (with some
necessary employment giving lectures and being a visiting
professor). I am excited that the book which has been my labor for
the past few years — that Kate and Bettina dubbed “a life work”
— has found a wonderful publisher. Tentatively entitled, Eating
Salt and Honey: African American Women Model Spiritual
Transformation, it should be out in 2001.
What I regret are the teas and lunches
that didn’t get scheduled, the friendships
that went unconsummated for “lack of
time,” the many good and worthy things I
was not able to do. And I also wish that I
could be here for the people who would
want to study with me the black women
writers I care so passionately about at a
time when there is no one left who
specializes in this area. If I could turn this
Akasha Hull
junction into one of those metaphysical
crossroads where one of me kept living this life and doing this
work while another me-self split off in a different direction, I
almost certainly would do that. As it is, I relinquish this formal
position but not the enduring attachments with some shyness
about the mild hoopla and a heart full of love.
Women’s Studies Executive Committee: (front row)
Bettina Aptheker, Akasha Hull, Marge Frantz;
(back row) Tina Campt, Carla Freccero, Helene Moglen
Moving On by Sherry Phillips
Oh dear, here it is the end of the school year. And, just
like our graduates, my thoughts are turning to what's
next in my life. I never knew two academic years could
go by so quickly!
Who knew when I promised I’d stay for two years
that I’d find myself in my true “home” at UC, and how
difficult it would be to contemplate leaving what has
become a group of true, close friends. I’m retiring, you
see (this time I really really mean it!), and moving back Sherry Phillips
to the Oregon coast where my family awaits me. These past two years, back in Santa
Cruz, at UCSC, and in the company of old friends (as well as new ones), have been a
real joy and I owe it in no small part to Women’s Studies for making me feel I have
truly “come home again.”
To the students who make me feel that I really DO have the answers; to the
wonderful faculty whose vision and courage are so expansive; to Emily and Bettina for
knowing that “thank you” means so much; to Nicolette for being her incredibly
dedicated, patient, sympatico self — thank you all from the bottom of my heart, which
in large part belongs to you. With love and admiration, Sherry Phillips
3

Women’s Studies Faculty 2000-01
Bettina Aptheker, Chair; Professor, Women’s Studies and History. Women’s
history, women’s culture, African American women’s history, feminist
pedagogy, lesbian studies, Jewish women’s studies, women’s spirituality.
Jody Greene, Assistant Professor, Literature and Women’s Studies.
Restoration and 18th-century British literature, pre-and early modern
studies, gay and lesbian cultural studies, gender studies.
Anjali Arondekar, Assistant Professor, Women’s Studies. Feminist theory,
queer studies, critical race theory, Victorian literature and culture,
post-colonial literatures, film studies, transcultural studies.
Tina Campt, Assistant Professor, Women’s Studies and History. Feminist
oral history, modern German history, Afro-German history, women of color
in Europe.
Peggy Downes Baskin, Senior Lecturer and Research Associate, Women’s
Studies. Presidential leadership style, elections and the media, women’s political
and corporate leadership style, and intergenerational relations.
Dion Farquhar, Lecturer, Women’s Studies. Political theory, reproductive
technologies, cyberculture.
Emily Honig, Professor, Women’s Studies and History. Gender, sexuality
and ethnicity in modern Chinese history, comparative labor history, Chicana
history, nationalism and sexuality in the Third World, oral history.
Helene Moglen, Professor, Literature and Women’s Studies. The English
novel, feminist, cultural, and psychoanalytic theory.
Radhika Mongia, Acting Assistant Professor, Women’s Studies. Feminist
theory, critical race studies, Marxist, postcolonial and poststructuralist
theory, critical historiography, history of migration law and formations of
the modern state, cultural studies.
Marge Frantz, Lecturer Emerita, American Studies and Women’s Studies.
Women’s history, social movements, political repression.
Carla Freccero, Professor, Literature and Women’s Studies. Renaissance studies;
French and Italian language and literature; early modern European history
and literature, post-colonial theories and literature, contemporary
feminist theories and politics, queer theory, pre-and early modern studies,
contemporary fiction by women of color in the U.S., identity politics as poliical
formations.
Anjali Arondekar
Jody Greene
Radhika Mongia
SOVEREIGNTY 2000 by Joanne Barker
The Sovereignty 2000: Locations of Contestation and Possibility
conference challenged conventional notions between theory and practice
and ‘the academic’ and ‘the community’ by ignoring those boundaries and
bringing together key scholars, activists, government leaders, and multimedia
artists to take up the notion of sovereignty as a category of shared
scholarship, political action, and cultural production.
The conference also challenged conventional
notions of ‘Native American Studies’ by redefining
the field of inquiry into sovereignty struggles to
include North and South America and the Pacific.
Following the important precedence set by the
Native American Studies Department at UC Davis,
this redefinition acknowledges ongoing political and
cultural exchanges between the indigenous people of
the hemisphere and opens up our thinking about
processes of political and cultural exchange and
globalization.
The format of the conference attempted to
heed these challenges. Friday’s schedule included key
addresses by Mililani B. Trask (Native Hawaiian), Glenn T. Morris
(Shawnee), Debra Harry (Northern Paiute), Dore A. Bietz (Northern/
Southern MeWuk), Mark Macarro (Pechanga Band of Luiseño, Temecula,
California), Inés Hernández-Ávila (Chicana/Nez Perce), and
Stefano Varese. Saturday’s schedule opened with key addresses by Jack D.
J. Kehaulani Kauanui and Joanne Barker
both presented papers at the conference.
Forbes (Powhatan-Lenape) and Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie (Seminole,
Muskogee, Dine) and was followed by a series of break-away roundtable
discussions and panel sessions. The conference closed with a keynote
panel moderated by Anthony R. Pico, tribal chair of the Viejas Band of
the Kumeyaay Nation (Alpine, California). Emphasis throughout the
conference was on discussion, so we did not use moderators and
respondents in the formal conference style. Hopefully,
conference attendees were given ample opportunity to
bring their ‘scholarly’/ ‘political’ work to bear on the
course of the discussions as equal participants.
Close to 250 people from the US, Canada, Hawaii,
and New Zealand attended the conference over the two
days. The majority of those who attended the conference
were from the indigenous communities of California and
neighboring states.
The conference was a success in its main objective —
to provide a forum for critical dialogue and political and
cross-cultural networking. For instance, filmmakers and
artists hooked up with tribal business owners and
government leaders to discuss future collaborative projects. Lawyers and
activists hooked up with each other to discuss ongoing legal rights issues.
One of the outcomes of the conference will be a published collected
anthology of works based on conference presentations by the speakers and
presenters.
4

From the Chair continued from page 1
Vicki Ruiz, Professor of History and Chicana/Chicano
Studies, Arizona State University
and Darlene Clark Hine, John A. Hannah Professor
of History, Michigan State University
Audience attending the Roundtable
and the UCSC Public Information Office.
This 24-page, full color commemorative is
overflowing with photographs, and stories
accounting the history of the program, and is
still available (see page 16 for details). We are
especially grateful to special contributions from
Peggy Downes Baskin, Anne Neufeld Levin,
the Gessen Family, and the Varner Family for
helping to make this publication possible.
Likewise, at the Luncheon, we publicly
announced and celebrated the inauguration of
the 21st Century Feminist Endowment
Scholarship Fund. Established by Chancellor
Greenwood, with an initial contribution of
$10,000, and quickly matched by another
extraordinary gift of $10,000 from Peggy
Downes Baskin, the Endowment is well on its
way. Broadly conceived to support student and
faculty research in all fields and disciplines,
visiting scholars, and the Women’s Studies
Library, its existence will allow Women’s
Studies to take many independent initiatives in
the coming years. We hope many of you will
contribute to it and to our Gift Fund. (see
details, page 15)
Following the Luncheon, Founding
students and faculty participated in a
Roundtable discussion at the Kresge Town
Hall. Participants included Founding students
Nancy K.D. Lemon, Cheryl Peake, Kat Benn,
Grace Hammond, and Tracye Lea Lawson;
Founding faculty included Barbara Epstein,
May Diaz, Tilly Shaw, Donna Haraway,
Pamela Roby, Claudia Carr, and Madeline
Moore (Hummel). Each spoke for a few minutes
describing their memories of the early
years in Women’s Studies, how the Program
was established through student initiative and
faculty support, the ways in which it was
structured, and the kinds of classes that were
taught. Audience comments added to the
richness of the program as many were also
longtime Santa Cruz residents and activists. A
quality videotape of this event is available and
runs about one and a half hours.
Women’s Studies also hosted Visiting
Scholars Vicki Ruiz and Darlene Clark Hine
the first week in May, with generous support
from the Chicano/Latino Research Center,
EOP, History, Oakes College, the Office of
Admissions Outreach Fund, Center for
Cultural Studies, and others. Professors Ruiz
Vicki Ruiz and
Darlene Clark Hine
presented A Roundtable
Discussion with Bettina
Aptheker, Judy Yung,
Alice Yang Murray,
and Akasha Hull (not
shown) “Towards a
Multi-Cultural
Women’s History”
and Hine are leading scholars in the fields of
Chicana/Mexicana and African American
women’s history respectively. They each visited
several classes, gave individual lectures, and
participated in a Round Table, “Towards a
Multi-Cultural Women’s History” with UCSC
scholars Judy Yung (American Studies) and
Alice Yang Murray (History). Women’s
Studies Professor Akasha Hull facilitated the
discussion, and I also participated. Professors
Ruiz and Hine are vigorous, inspired scholars
in conversation with each other, and in deepening
our understandings of vital areas of
women’s history, and the contemporary
struggles of women of color.
Late in May, Women’s Studies also
sponsored a guest lecture by Losang Rabgey, a
young scholar of Tibetan heritage, who is
completing a doctorate in Anthropology at the
School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London. Ms. Rabgey spoke on
“The Culture of Tibetan Women.” She is
widely known for her human rights activism on
behalf of Tibetan women, and has spoken
before the United Nations on several occasions.
The evening included a stirring musical
performance of traditional Tibetan songs by
Tsering Wangmo and Nyima Gyalpo.
Women’s Studies also co-sponsored two
major conferences on the UCSC campus this
Spring. “The Color of Violence: Violence
continued on page 6
Ronnie Gilbert (fourth from the
right) and friends at Roundtable on
Peace and Social Justice, Nov. ‘99
5

After the Last Sky by Eman Desouky
After the Last Sky, in solidarity
with the Palestinian Struggle for
human justice, was a week in
May dedicated to generating an
awareness about the Palestinian
struggle against decades of occupation
and exile. The event was
born through the joint efforts of
fourth year students Eman
Desouky (women’s studies) and
Manal Elkarra (community studies)
who had just returned from a
Manal Elkarra and Eman Desouky
six month field study in the
Occupied Territories of Palestine. After having faced tremendous ignorance
regarding the Palestinian struggle upon their return from the Territories, Eman
and Manal decided to organize an event that would work toward combatting
the growing misconceptions of the Middle East peace process, and the
brutal stereotypes of Palestinian people.
The main goal of After the Last Sky, named after a famous poem by
Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish, was to transcend the rhetoric of politicians
and the U.S. media, to bring to the UC Santa Cruz community the
human face of the Palestinian struggle and highlight the real people
behind the stereotypes of brutal terrorists and Islamic fundamentalists. The
week included a Women In Black Vigil (Women in Black began in Israel
in 1988, when Israeli Jewish feminists joined together in solidarity with the
Palestinian struggle to protest the illegal occupation), photography and art
by Palestinian children, film and documentary showings, a large scale
teach-in, an Arab-Palestinian cultural night, and various prominent political
speakers.
After the Last Sky was made possible by the generous sponsorship of the
Women's Studies Department, the Women's Center, Community Studies,
History, EOP, Porter, Stevenson, Oakes, and Kresge Colleges, the American
Asian/Pacific Islander Resource Center, and the Kresge and Oakes student
governments.
From the Chair continued from page 5
Against Women of Color,” (April 28-29) and
“Sovereignty 2000” (May 19-20), as well as the
Ninth Annual Women of Color Film and Arts
Festival. The conferences were historic
occasions because they brought together such
diverse groups of women, and combined
scholars and activists in dialogue with each
other. (see pages 4, 13 and 14 for detailed
accounts).
Women’s Studies has successfully
recruited two new young scholars to its faculty.
Anjali Arondekar will begin her appointment
in January 2001 and Radhika Mongia will
begin her appointment in Fall, 2000. (see page 4
for details).
This Spring Women’s Studies also
sponsored a series of Seminars in Feminist
Theory attendant to its search for a senior
scholar in that field. Stimulating and brilliant
presentations were offered by: Professor Inderpal
Grewal, San Francisco State University;
Professor Lauren Berlant, University of
Chicago; Professor Susan Lurie, Rice University;
Professor Judith Halberstam, University
of California, San Diego; and Professor Ella
Shohat, City University of New York.
Seminars were crowded, discussions vibrant.
We expect to make a senior appointment
within the coming months, and express
tremendous gratitude to our colleague, Carla
Freccero for Chairing this Search Committee
and organizing the seminars. Likewise, we
express our profound respect and gratitude to
each of the scholars who came.
This has been a year of immense and
intense activity. Our faculty has made
extraordinary efforts, and I would like to thank
my colleagues on the Executive Committee:
Helene Moglen, Carla Freccero, Jody Greene,
Neferti Tadiar, Tina Campt, Akasha Hull,
Emily Honig and Marge Frantz for all that
they have done to make our successes possible.
I would also like to thank our student representatives
to the Exec: Sarah Miguel and
Denise Diskin. Our esteemed colleague
Wendy Brown left UCSC at the end of the
Fall quarter and has taken up her tenure in the
Political Science and Women’s Studies
departments at UC Berkeley. We miss her
greatly and deeply honor the more than ten
years in which she nurtured and sustained
Women’s Studies. Likewise, our senior
colleague, Akasha Hull has retired, effective
June 30, 2000. She has been with us since l988,
and contributed profoundly to our collective
labors. We wish her every happiness, and
continued success.
Without our devoted staff none of
Women’s Studies accomplishments this year
would have been achieved. Nicolette
Czarrunchick, our Department Manager, was
the recipient of this year’s Alumni Staff Award.
No award was ever more earned or more
deserved. Sherry Phillips, our administrative
assistant, lent us invaluable experience for these
last two years. She has left us for retirement
happiness on the Oregon Coast. She will be
greatly missed, and we are profoundly grateful
for the time she was with us. We also deeply
appreciate the work of the staff in the Kresge
6
Faculty Services, Betsy Wootten and Barbara
Lee, without whose professional expertise we
would not have survived the year.
Finally, I would like to express my
gratitude to all of our Alums, and to our
current students for their energy, vibrancy, and
support of Women’s Studies. —Bettina
Aptheker
Losang Rabgey spoke on the Contemporary
Culture of Tibetan Women on May 25
Tsering Wangmo performed traditional
music: Echoes of Tibet

25TH ANNIVERSARY
UCSC Women’s Studies Program
APRIL 16, 2000
Reflections of a WMST Student Founder by Nancy K. D. Lemon
I started identifying as a feminist in 9th grade,
when my father gave me a copy of Motive
magazine, published by the Methodist church.
That issue was devoted to feminism. It was an
electrifying moment. I still remember reading it
at my babysitting job that night and feeling very
excited about being part of this new movement
which was about our lives.
I came to UCSC in 1971 and took my first
Women’s Studies class in my second quarter
from Ruth Needleman called “Women and
Literature”...
Soon I decided to do an independent
major in Women’s Studies. After meeting other
students doing this, we decided that we would
create an official major...we worked collaboratively
with the faculty who were teaching
women’s studies courses, especially Madeline
Moore (then Hummel) and Pam Roby. We also
focused a lot on the process between all of us.
Additionally, we were very persistent.
...what Women’s Studies has meant to me.
I could go on for hours about this. But I’ll give
you the short version.
On a personal level, it gave me a sense for
the first time that my experiences and viewpoints
as a young woman were valid, that sexism
and internalized sexism really did exist, and
that there was hope for change, for authenticity,
and for real closeness with other women and
with men in the most intimate, personal parts
of my life.
I also learned that it is OK to have
feelings. My faculty advisor, Pam Roby, was
instrumental in teaching me this...
Women’s Studies also gave me a sense that
I was no longer limited to old roles and expectations,
that the possibilities were almost limitless.
On a political level, Women’s Studies
helped me see the larger picture, how the
history of average women was part of human
history, and how even progressive movements
(past and present) generally did not have a
feminist analysis, which limited their
effectiveness. Conversely, we came to see that a
thorough understanding of women’s conditions
could do much to inform future efforts to
transform society.
On an intellectual level, majoring in
Women’s Studies opened up many new fields of
study to me...
I went on to law school in 1977, planning
to work on women’s issues as a attorney and
activist. I soon discovered the very young
domestic violence movement and plunged right
in. I’ve been doing this work since 1979. The
grounding in Women’s Studies has informed
my domestic violence work on a daily basis. I’ve
been teaching Domestic Violence Law since
1988 at Boalt. I take a very interdisciplinary
approach to the class, assigning materials in
sociology, anthropology, etc., which comes out
of my education at UCSC.
Other ways Women’s Studies influences
my daily work as a domestic violence activist: 1)
the sense of hope for change, in the face of a
sometimes very daunting struggle (e.g. there’s a
woman whose case I worked on who is doing a
25-to-life sentence right now); 2) the attention
7

A Welcomed Detour by Sarah Heike Miguel
Throughout the past 25 years, the Department
of Women’s Studies has flourished, and I am
proud to have had the experience of being a
part of that growth and development. Four
years ago I came to the University here in
Santa Cruz. I was fresh out of high school, and
had decided to major in Environmental
Studies. That plan of action, however, took a
sharp detour early in my college career.
In the fall of 1996 I enrolled in a
class called Introduction to Feminism.
Throughout the quarter, I was introduced
to both a history and a way of
thinking that was radically different
from anything I had previously been
taught. From Audre Lorde, to
Adrienne Rich, to Gloria Anzaldúa,
my feminist consciousness regarding
race, class, gender, and sexuality
began to form. It was in this first
quarter of my freshman year that I
decided I wanted to be a Women’s
Studies major and continue the development
of my feminist awareness...
This knowledge I have gained over
my time here has motivated me to activism. In
the fall of 1998 I joined a campus organization
called the Feminist Action Coalition. Started out
by a few Women’s Studies majors, the coalition
focused on a variety of issues, including Women
In Black and the Teaching Assistant strike on campus.
At the time of the Take Back the Night march
in the spring of 1999, the Feminist Action
Coalition produced a feminist journal of student
writings entitled Under
Construction. The journal
consisted of political
topics such as sexuality,
prostitution, and mixed
race heritage.
Over the past year I
have also had the opportunity
to serve as a student
representative on
the Women’s Studies
Executive committee.
This year has been an
especially exciting time
to serve on the committee
because of the
Sarah Heike Miguel
number of searches we have conducted.
As I approach graduation in the spring, I find
myself being constantly bombarded with the
ever present question of, “What are you going to
do with a degree in Women's Studies” Through
my experiences in classes and my involvement in
organizations, I have come to understand that
Women’s Studies is not so much about WHAT
you are going to do, but HOW you are going to
do it. For me Women’s Studies represents a consciousness
about the various constructions within
society in regard to race, class, gender, and
sexuality. A way of thinking critically about
these subjects is highly valuable in the fight
against all forms of oppression. Women’s Studies
is an essential part of academia because it aids in
the development of the tools for battling everyday
injustices.
In closing, I would like to say thank you to the
founders of the Women’s Studies program…
for having the foresight and the endurance to start
a program as diverse and influential as Women’s
Studies here in Santa Cruz…Thank you!
Reflections continued from page 7
to process, and not just the end goal; 3) the understanding that
while women’s issues are key, they are inextricably linked to many
other issues; 4) the understanding that solutions must always come
from the lives of ordinary women, not from superstars; and 5) the
awareness that all women must be included — that if a proposed
solution doesn’t work for immigrant women, or for poor women, or
for lesbians, or for disabled women, or for women of color, or for
older women, or for teen women, it’s not a solution, and we must
go back to the drawing board.
And speaking of women of color, the most glaring gap in my
women’s studies education was the lack of focus on women of
color. I had only one professor of color, Diane Lewis, who taught
us anthropology, and there were no classes focusing on this
topic...I’ve undertaken a self-education project, reading as many
books and articles by women of color as I can, and including these
issues in my own textbook on domestic violence law, which is used
around the country.
…I am glad to see that progress has been made on the issue
of racism in the Women’s Studies department since I left.
However, I suspect that this issue is still one which the department
grapples with, and I charge everyone involved with the Women’s
Studies program to keep working until it is truly inclusive of all
women.
Founding Faculty:
(l-r) Pamela
Roby, Tilly Shaw,
and Madeline
Moore (Hummel)
Founding
Students: (l-r)
Deanne Pernell,
Cheryl Peake,
Kat Benn, Nancy
K.D. Lemon, and
Grace Hammond
8

Through the Years: Memories of the Women’s Studies Program by Tina M. Campt
When I was thinking about what to say at this
event I thought about what an event like this is
about — namely, about commemoration. Commemoration
of 25 years of people’s various
experiences in this program, honoring its beginnings,
its transformations, and remembering
what it stood for, what it stands for, as well as
people’s dreams and hopes for what it might
be/become in the future. And in thinking about
this, I had to reflect on the fact that anniversaries
like this one, like all anniversaries and as
some of the consummate events of commemoration
in all of our lives, are quite centrally
about memory.
As a historian who in some ways is obsessed
with memory, and as someone who is
currently teaching a course called “Feminist
Memories,” the fact that my mind should turn
to this topic will not be at all surprising to
some of you. I have to admit though, that as
the newest and youngest (though only chronologically)
member of the Women’s Studies core
faculty, I felt a little intimidated by this event
because of the fact that I quite simply have
some of the fewest memories to add/contribute
to this commemoration. But this is not to say
that I have none....
I have memories of my arrival here from
Germany after 6 years of living there. I remember
thinking I had landed not in the U.S.
I had left (read: “east coast”) but on another
planet called California. Indeed, I had the literal
sensation of having landed in Oz, and can
remember quite vividly a few very private moments
that I only grudgingly reveal when I
looked at my cats and mumbled aloud, “Toto, I
don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
Yet in the face of the overwhelming sense
of displacement I felt, from the very beginning
I remember encountering an exquisitely warm
welcome from my new colleagues and my now
dear friends. For example, even before moving
here, when my partner and I visited I remember
Emily and Wendy volunteering to host us
in their homes. “In their homes,” I thought,
“What kind of wonderful generous women are
these!” And indeed, when I did arrive for
good, I spent the first week in Emily’s spare
room.
I also have hysterical memories of my first
weeks of classes. Just as I was starting to feel
confident about teaching American students
after so long, one of my students posed one of
“those questions” — in other words, the kind
of question teachers pray they never get. Oddly
these are always the questions that get posed in
the most innocent and endearing and usually
completely disarming of ways, such that they
make you feel like you might actually be able to
answer them. The question that slay me that
day was: “Professor Campt, could you just
briefly define agency for us” And in the split
second that passed between hearing this question
and struggling to conjure up a remotely
coherent response to it, I experienced my own
private “Ally McBeal moment” — a moment
when I literally had an out-of body-experience,
seeing myself as a 7-year-old in the midst of a
tantrum screaming: “Please, please don’t ask me
that! I was doing SO WELL!” And I remember
telling that story to Helene Moglen who, wisest
of women, responded with one of the most
memorable pieces of pedagogical advice. She
said, “Isn’t self-ridicule a wonderfully liberating
thing! Because being able to laugh at oneself is
the most important part of teaching.”
I have fond memories of absurd, inevitable
moments of running into my students
during moments of private reverie (usually in
the company of one Professor Carla Frecerro)
at a downtown bar of my choice, and the sweet
and touching comment that I’ve heard so many
Roundtable:
Tracye Lea
Lawson, Nancy
K.D. Lemon,
Grace Hammond,
Cheryl Peake,
and Kat Benn
Grace Hammond,
Cheryl Peake,
Kat Benn,
Donna Haraway,
May Diaz, and
Tilly Shaw.
Tina Campt
9
times: “Professor Campt, it’s great to see you
here. You know, it's just so GOOD to see that
our professors 'get out'!" I always had to assure
them that I really did have a private and social
life outside of the university.
And in recalling these memories, I recall
them as fond representations of Women's
Studies here at UCSC — specifically as memories
of community: of feminist community
and of women’s communities — two deeply interrelated
things here in Santa Cruz. In this
way, thinking about these memories for this
event made me reflect on the fact that commemorations
are not only about celebrating
one’s past. They are even more crucially about
creating a meaningful past within the present...
Memory and the process of commemoration
are about creating the past from our
vantage point in the present, making it meaningful
not so much for what it was, but for how
it’s of use to us today...It’s about refusing to forget,
and refusing to erase. In this way,
commemorating Women’s Studies is about
bringing together the past and the present;
honoring and connecting the memories of
both those with fewer memories and those
with endless memories of this program. It’s
about celebrating all the different parts of the
history of this program that have been and will
continue to be meaningful to each of us.
Participating in this event is absolutely
representative of working in this program,
which on numerous levels is about creating
forms of community with all their conflicts and
tensions — forms of community that are as
crucial to the project of feminism as they are
and will continue to be to Women’s Studies
here at UCSC.

25th Anniversary Congratulations and Greetings
Congratulations! And best wishes for the next 25 years!
— Helen Mayer, Women’s Center Events Coordinator
Congratulations on your twenty five years of great teaching and support.
— Christiane Medina and Gabriel
Best Wishes to Women’s Studies. 25 down, a
millennium to go! — Carter Wilson (who
was Academic Preceptor in Kresge and
signed the papers to make Women’s Studies
a committee)
Congratulations on 25 years. I am so proud
and grateful to have been part of Women’s
Studies during my time as a student and
hope to continue in the future. — Aly Kim
Thank you for such a deeply satisfying
educational experience. UCSC’s Women
Studies Department will stay in my heart &
my mind for all of my days. — Debra-Joy
(DJ) Brookes
Congratulations Women Studies! You’ve
made my college experience just what I
wanted. You’ve helped me to be the theatre
arts activist that I’ve always wanted to be.
I could never have wished for a more
beautiful, amazing, mind-expanding, fun,
explosive time. I love you. Thank you.
— Sarah Korda
Why oh why wasn’t Intro to Fem my first
class at UCSC Better late than never.
Thank the Goddess for Women’s Studies. It
feels so wonderful to know so many women
who are fighting the good fight and holding
the light of hope alive. Again and again the
truth shines through — Sisterhood is
powerful! — Jinna Wilson, Women’s
Studies, UCSC 2000
Congratulations to all
of the wonderful faculty,
staff and students that
built, sustained and
continue to nourish the
UCSC Women’s Studies
department.
— M.R.C. Greenwood,
Chancellor
My eyes are forever
opening because of the
knowledge I gained as a
Women’s Studies student!
Thank you for
everything! To another
25 years!
— Caroline Reich,
Class of 97
I have been incredibly inspired today and
throughout my time as a student assistant. With
no previous knowledge of the beautiful
Women’s Studies program as a first year student,
I have come to appreciate what a wonderful
thing you are doing for so many students, to
which I hope to be a part, and continue to be a
part. — Lauren Kimball, Student Assistant
Time sure has gone quickly! Many thanks to all
sisters and brothers in women’s studies who’ve
made our campus community so much more
women friendly and aware of class and race.
Congratulations! — Pamela Roby
Wonderful to have this occasion of living
history to revisit it all and be able to talk with
old friends from the different generations, feel
satisfaction that women’s studies is so well
rooted institutionally, and has, I’m sure, a great
future ahead. Congratulations! — Tilly Shaw
Congratulations on 25 years!! I remember the
first year when a group called Women Together
conceptualized the program and talked about our
lives. The major (now program) just gets better
and better. — Madeline Moore (Hummel)
Congratulations Women’s Studies and the
faculty members that believed that organizing
was more rewarding than agonizing and made
the world a better place for all of us who raise
hell! Love and sisterhood, Beatriz Lopez-Flores,
UCSC Women’s Center Director, 1986-94
Wow! Twenty five years!!! ...Nic was instrumental in encouraging me to
take Intro to Fem my first quarter at UCSC. Also my first ever women’s
studies class! Little did I know it would have a very profound effect on
my life. And I am grateful for the experience. I hope I can participate in
the 50th anniversary celebration! Bravo! — Pam Deegan
Dear Bettina, It’s wonderful to be back for my second “show & tell.” I
took your class in the mid-eighties & now I’m in MY mid-eighties!
With love & respect — Dorothy Stone
Bettina Aptheker is a bodhisattva, and Women’s
Studies at UCSC rocks! It’s so wonderful to be welcomed and remembered
by Nicolette, Ekua Omosupe, Akasha Hull, and alumnae. Thank
you! “Women’s Studies” daily informs the way I live and think in my
work and life. Long live Women’s Studies! — Vicki Alcoset, Class of ’91
Congratulations on the 25th year anniversary of Women’s Studies! My
daughter, Christina Varner, will be carrying on your traditions, passion
and enthusiasm building further on your work. Blessings and good
wishes. — Debra Varner
10

It’s wonderful to be back here with all the amazing women that make
up the Women’s Studies program! I feel so blessed to have grown and
learned so much during my time with Women’s Studies. Recently in a
job interview I was asked how I would utilize my degree if I was
working with their project — I answered that
Women’s Studies informs every aspect of my
life — it would be impossible for me to not
utilize my degree! Thank You for Women’s
Studies, for transforming my consciousness,
my life. — Iana Rogers
Wow! Imagine the roar of women’s voices and
the ringing of laughter among the sea of faces
at the 25th anniversary celebration. I am
thrilled to be among this group today. I live
Women’s Studies. Every day in my job, my
relationships, my time alone — I am Women’s
Studies. I am proud to have been a part of the
program at UCSC, and I am thankful to have
found a source of strength, solidarity and
empowerment for every day. Here’s to the next
twenty five years, and to the women who will
join us and our family! Much love and
gratitude. — Gail Grant, Class of 1998
What a wonderful beginning in so very many
ways. Books, ideas, hugs, and spaces of safety
and security. All these I think of when my
thoughts are of Women’s Studies, Bettina, and
Nicolette. Thank you for being an important
beacon for many of us. You have provided
sustenance and foundation fabric to our lives.
Where to from here I suppose to turn the
world on its “right” side, to offer hope and
love, and most of all to continue the struggle
and joyous celebration of our lives. — Shirley
Flores Munoz
Thank you so much to all the faculty and to
my classmates for a life-changing experience. I
had no idea coming to UCSC that my years here would forever
influence every moment of my social life, career, family life, and spiritual
path. It’s an honor to count you all as my mentors, friends, sisters,
teachers. Love, Jackie Cuneo
It’s wonderful to be here amongst the legendary feminists of UC Santa
Cruz. Having been in the pioneer class, class of ’69, there was no
Women’s Studies — just women wandering the halls in wonderment, in
the awakening of the Feminist Mystique. My whole life is now about
women, gender, women in development and at last I have an activistacademic
community to relate to. — Bonita Banducci
Dear Women’s Studies
Folk, Being a part of the
early days of the program
provided me with
the foundations of my
life: patience, persistence,
a belief I can do
anything, an ability to
endure endless meetings,
an appreciation of complexity,
intellectual curiosity,
love of words and
sisterhood. Everything
that I’ve gone on to do
has come from these first
seeds. Thank you for
helping me to bloom.
— Marcy Alancraig,
1976 Graduate
11
I walked into Oakes 105 in the Fall of 1981 to attend Intro to Feminism
with Bettina Aptheker. When I walked out 10 weeks later, I was a different
person. I will never be the same. Thank you Women’s Studies, thank
you Bettina, and thank you to all the incredible women I’ve had the
chance to know. Congratulations UCSC! —
Georgine ‘George’ Balassone
Dear Women’s Studies Alumni, I had no idea
I would be part of such a wonderful group of
women: visionaries, scholars, innovators,
nurturant women, when I came to Santa
Cruz, UCSC in 1985 for graduate school in
literature. I came through the ‘fire’ with three
young children from Colorado Springs to
Santa Cruz to create my new life! I have never
been sorry for that decision, though my
journey has not been without obstacles. I am
glad to be here, to be able to see my values of
freedom, liberation, justice for all of us, reflected
back to me through your (our) work. I
think I will continue on this journey to a
fuller, more creative life, and with a vision
towards greater love and freedom for all of us.
The inspiration has come from you, our
shared vision, and the many women students
who ask daily, “where do we go from here” I
say, “Forward ever, Backwards never!” May we
get to our goals of liberation for all of us
together. Peace and Appreciation, Ekua R.
Omosupe, Ph.D.
I have heard there are certain “teachable moments”
in all of our lives. In Intro to Feminism,
1983, Bettina had come close to wrapping up
her class on Race, and was summarizing the
slide show and various authors /leaders/politicians
she had cited. There had been a lot of
material in that two-hour session and I’d taken
notes as ably as I could. Then Bettina paused,
put her fingers to her lips, looked down, then
looked back up to the 500 or so of us. She said,
“You know what’s wrong with racism You hurt people.”
I’ve been informed by that statement in every breath I have taken
since that moment. It smashed the prevalent paradigms of how leaders
become leaders, it reduced all starting points to simply assessing how
consequent actions would play out ... and it was only one of many
teachable moments I would experience in the remaining year I would
spend getting my Women’s Studies degree. I am forever grateful. —
Nancy Morgan, Kresge ’84
Congratulations! Who would have thought 25 years ago.
— Susan Williams, Class of ’77

The Joy of Women’s Studies at UCSC by Liddy Detar, Graduate Student
“Exhilarating, inspirational, a butt kicker, energizing,
challenging, rich, a joy.” Those are the words
my fellow TAs gave me when I asked how they
would describe their experiences teaching for
Women’s Studies here at UCSC. The one word
among these that echoed for all of us was “joy.”...
Liddy Detar
When we teach for Women’s Studies, the papers,
the section preps, the marathon office hours... these
are the moments that become for us something
else, something more than what they are.
Something like joy.
This past fall, one of my favorite friends took
a Women’s Studies course for the first time in her
life. After the first day of class she called me up.
“Elizabeth,” she said, (for that’s what she calls me),
“I am a woman. I am more than just a mother;
I am more than just a wife. I am a woman.”
This very dear friend is my grandmother, Yolanke
Barnes, and this past March, she turned 90 years
old. Prior to this fall, Yolanke’s formal education
had ended somewhere around the 5th grade.
Now Yolanke has not read Denise Riley, and
she doesn’t know yet what might be problematic
about the new womanhood she has discovered.
For now, she’s 100%, all natural, almighty, phenomenal,
woman. And that’s okay. Because this
woman never turned the key in her own door until
25 years ago when my grandfather died. She
now leaves messages on my answering machine
signed, as if it were a letter, “Love, your feminist
grandma.”
The point of telling you about my grandmother
is that she reminds me of an amazing, joyful
thing about teaching Women’s Studies. And
this too will sound corny, but here it is: Women’s
Studies can change your life. It’s true. We don’t
believe that about much of anything anymore. But
it’s that faith in the ongoing possibility of participating
in changing lives that partly draws us
TAs to it. Sometimes it feels almost possible to
touch the moment in our classrooms where enormous,
life changing transformations take place.
The moment when our students awaken from a
slumber: some gradually, some painfully, some only
briefly, some, astonished, bolt upright, as if suddenly
shot through with a new realization: “I am
a woman.” (Or actually, in Wendy Brown’s
Feminist Theory class, after reading Denise
Riley, the awakening sounds more like, “Oh my
god! I’m not a woman!”)
And that’s just it. Women’s Studies has you
sitting bolt upright, present. Because Women’s
Studies engages the palpable present of your
own life — and of the myriad lives all around you.
At 90, my grandmother describes her life mostly
in terms of the past. Yet she describes her
experience in Women’s Studies this way: “I’ve been
thrown into the world outside me,” she says.
“I’m soaked in the present.”
My graduate student friends and I want to
teach Women’s Studies, but we want to do so in
a department like this one. Here at UCSC
Women’s Studies keeps alive that necessary tension
between theory and practice, academia and
activism. And this department has not forgotten
that theory is always provisional, always inadequate.
Nor has it forgotten that the project of self
discovery and articulation is part of a deeper,
Women’s Studies Exhibit at McHenry Library
by Jacquelyn Marie, WMST/Reference Librarian
richer project of knowing what your experiences
have meant, what your preconceptions may be,
ultimately so that you can get out of your own way
and see through a series of filters, theoretical
and otherwise.
We want to be like all of you, the faculty of
Women’s Studies at UCSC. We want a reputation
for stretching our students beyond their limits
to achieve at levels they felt incapable of, like
Carla Freccero. We want our lectures to be
interactive and vital to our students’ lives like Emily
Honig’s and Tina Campt’s. We want to remember
to learn from our students and give them real
time in our classrooms, like Bettina Apthekar.
We want our offices to welcome students in the
tradition of Marge Frantz whose door is always
open and whose walls are alive with brightly colored
posters bearing witness to a legacy of
women’s lives and activism.
Wendy Brown showed me that if you cultivate
risk in your teaching practice, eventually,
the students will have gathered enough tools
that they don’t need to hold on so tightly to
those props you keep offering. Rather, they start
to give up the anchors, the securities, the false complete
answers...and the student can tolerate and
work and live in the ambiguities of incomplete
answers. I want, like Wendy Brown, to empower
risk-taking in my classroom.
My remarks only mention the faculty I’ve
worked directly with in the past six years. And these
are only some of the ways you’ve profoundly
shaped my intellectual work and my practice as
an educator...my colleagues and fellow TAs
...share my appreciation for the gifts you have all
given. We thank you because these gifts have been
life changing gifts for many of us...this is what we
mean, when we speak of teaching in Women’s
Studies and we speak of joy.
“Putting Women at the Center: 25 years of Women’s Studies at UCSC”
was the exhibit at McHenry Library for Spring Quarter. It consisted of UCSC
Women’s Studies Faculty publications, photos of faculty, staff, students and
WMST graduations, student theses and posters of events.
Two projects housed in McHenry Library Special Collections were
also displayed. One is the Asian Pacific Lesbian Collection donated by Alison
Kim, 1989 UCSC Women’s Studies graduate, consisting of books, articles,
photos, and newsletters. The other is the UC Women’s Studies/History
Consortia California Feminist Presses Project. UCSC Special Collections
houses the archives of local presses, HerBooks and Papier Mache, as well
the early feminist press, Shameless Hussy, from Berkeley, begun by Alta in
1968. Books, manuscripts, mockups, photos, and tee shirts were displayed.
The Exhibit was coordinated and set up by Sally Ann Rodriguez,
2000 UCSC Women's Studies graduate; Cristina Verduzco, UCSC
Anthropology graduate; Jacquelyn Marie, Women's Studies Librarian;
and Irene Reti, McHenry Library exhibits and WMST alum. There was a
reception in the library foyer on April 14 with speakers Bettina Aptheker,
Marge Frantz, Alta, Alison Kim, and others as well as an unveiling of the
Aptheker/Frantz Women’s Studies Endowment for the University Library.
12

The Color of Violence: Violence Against Women of Color by Andrea Smith, Conference Organizer
Over 1000 women of color gathered at University of California, Santa
Cruz on April 28-29, 2000 to attend a national conference co-sponsored
by UCSC Women’s Studie; The Color of Violence: Violence Against
Women of Color. This conference featured over 65 of the most
prominent anti-violence advocates in the country, including Angela Davis
(internationally-known activist),
Urvashi Vaid (National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force), Kimberle
Crenshaw (legal counsel to Anita
Hill), Gail Small (Native Action),
Maria Jimenez (border violence activist),
Loretta Ross (Center for Human
Rights Education), and Haunani
Kay Trask (leader of the
Hawai’i sovereignty
movement). Women’s
Studies chair, Bettina
Aptheker opened the
conference. Issues
addressed at the Color
of Violence conference
included: the
violence of economic
globalization; colonialism;
racism in the
criminal justice system;
organizing against
violence in communities
of color;
racism and homophobia;
media
representations
of violence; hate
crimes; religion/
spirituality and violence;
militarism;
the anti-immigration
backlash;
Indian treaty rights; and
attacks on the reproductive
rights of women
of color.
Women of color live
in the dangerous intersections of
gender and race. Within the mainstream anti-violence movement, women
of color who survive sexual or domestic abuse are often told that they must
pit themselves against their (violent) communities to begin the healing
process.
Communities of color, meanwhile, often advocate that women keep
silent about the sexual and domestic violence in order to maintain a united
front against racism. Clearly, women of color must find a way to transform
these practices within both anti-racist and feminist movements around
issues of violence. In addition, the anti-sexual/domestic violence movements
have been critical in breaking the silence around violence against
women and providing critically needed services to survivors of sexual/
domestic violence. However, these movements have also become increasingly
professionalized, and consequently are often reluctant to address
sexual and domestic violence within the larger context of institutionalized
violence. This conference provided the opportunity for women of color to
address issues of sexual/domestic violence as they relate to all
forms of violence, including racism, colonialism, homophobia,
and economic exploitation. According
to Angela Davis,
“This conference is
a unique opportunity
for women
of color to
organize against
violence in
all its forms in a
manner that goes
beyond social
service delivery.
Ending sexual and
domestic violence cannot
be successful without a transformation
of the institutional
structures of violence that impact
all our lives.”
From this
conference a national
organization
is emerging
that will address
the links between
sexual/domestic
violence and institutional
structures of
violence in the lives of
women of color
from a political
rather than a social
service perspective.
The birth of this
organization was
announced during
the conference. While
the program and
structure of this organization is still in formation, we expect that it will be
open to all women of color, that it will emphasize grassroots organizing
and mobilizing, and that it will tackle all forms of violence that women of
color face from an explicitly feminist perspective.
The demand for the conference was so overwhelming that
registration closed several months before the conference date, and over
2000 people had to be turned away from this historic event. Fortunately,
for those who did not get to attend, we expect to hold another national
conference in Chicago, during the fall of 2001, where we will be able to
finalize the structure of this new organization.
For more information, email: andysm@cats.ucsc.edu
13

Ninth Annual UCSC Women of Color Film and Arts Festival
by Darshan Elena Campos, Festival Coordinator
Darshan Elena Campos, Michelle Erai, and filmmakers Ku'ulei Maunupau
and Anita Khatun David
The ninth annual UCSC Women of Color Film and Arts Festival (May
4 - 6, Kresge Town Hall) presented over thirty films and videos by women
of color and Third World women artists engaged in a common context of
struggle against violence.
Featured films
such as Grace Lee’s
Girl Meets Boy, Sheila
James’ Unmapping
The Coatlicue Theater Company (the Colorado Sisters,
Hortensia and Elvira) performed at the Color of
Violence conference and the Women of Color Film and
Arts Festival
Desire, Lisa Collin’s
Tree Shade, and Osa
Hidalgo-de la Riva’s
Prison Poem: Zone 4
imparted a radical political
vision where we
can live with dignity.
The films and
videos shown in this
year’s UCSC Women
of Color Film and
Arts Festival represented
an incredible
range in media. We shared numerous video documentaries, fictional
films, animated works, and pieces which blend all of these styles and approaches
with the campus and local communities. What united these
films and those of us who dedicated our time, if not our lives, to present
them in a festival context at UCSC is a collective desire for social transformation
and the end to injustice and oppression everywhere.
Not only did festival attendees see incredible films and videos by
women of color and Third World women, but they met a number of exceptional
artists. We were so honored to welcome singer Faith Nolan, the
Coatlicue Theater Company (the Colorado Sisters), and filmmakers Osa
Hidalgo-de la Riva, Grace Lee, Ku’ulei Maunupau, Anita David, Amisha
Patel, Rachel Raimist, Cecilia Sapp, and Ruth Sosa. We were also so happy
to have the Africuties, a local dance troupe, with us over the festival’s three
days. It is artists like them and hopefully activists and scholars like you that
make this world livable and another, more just world, possible.
Our vision is also about reshaping the curriculum of UCSC which
continues to privilege
white scholars and dominant,
elite forms of
media. We want you to
reconsider what kind of
movies you watch on television,
what kind of music
you listen to while driving
to work, what kinds of
films you teach in your
classroom, and what kind
of politics motivates you
when you vote for ballot
measures that attack
communities of color,
youth, women, and lesbians
and gays. Attending
a women of color film and
Faith Nolan performing at the Women of Color
Film and Arts Festival.
arts festival isn’t enough. We continue to demand an overhaul of dominant
media practices and UCSC's curriculum.
Visit our website at www2.ucsc.edu/woc to view a complete festival
program, including contact information for all the artists whose work we
presented and for anti-racist distribution houses such as Arab Film
Distribution and Third World Newsreel. Get copies of this year's featured
films for your classroom and the UCSC library. Contact the artists;
bring them to this campus as resident artists and scholars, if not visiting
or tenure-track professors. Responsible feminism demands it.
For more information, email: darshan@cats.ucsc.edu
(r) Ani Pachen, author of
“Sorrow Mountain: The
Journey of a Tibetan Warrior
Nun,” speaking with WMST
alum, Ellen Kane (l); and
(standing l to r) Nyima and
Palden,Tibetan students from
Cabrillo College at Pachen’s
booksigning in May.
Ani Pachen also participated in
the Walk for Tibet 2000 from
San Francisco to Los Angeles;
as they came through Santa
Cruz in May.
14

Women’s Studies Endowment Launched
The 21st Century Feminist Scholarship Endowment to be administered
by the Chair of Women’s Studies has been established through a generous
personal contribution of $10,000 by UCSC Chancellor M.R.C.
Greenwood.
The Chancellor’s gift was made to celebrate Women’s Studies 25th
Anniversary. Funds from this endowment may be used to support undergraduate,
graduate, and faculty research, visiting feminist
scholars-in-residence, research and related scholarly activities, including
conferences and colloquia to enrich feminist scholarship on our campus in
the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences.
Please contribute as generously as you can to build this Endowment
Fund. We wish to expand our work to benefit our students, the UCSC
campus, and the larger community.
Contributions may be sent to the UC Santa Cruz Foundation, c/o
Women’s Studies Department, Kresge College, University of California,
1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064. Credit-card payments,
pledges, and long-term payment arrangements may also be made
through the UC Santa Cruz Foundation. Please telephone: (831) 459-
2501; (800) 933-SLUG.
In addition to the Endowment, Women’s Studies maintains a Gift
Fund. The difference is that the Gift Fund is available for our immediate
use, while Endowment funds are invested and only the interest is available
as it accumulates. The Endowment is a tremendous, long-term resource
that will ultimately give Women’s Studies a great deal of flexibility in
building its scholarly commitments. The Gift Fund is also of great importance
to us because it supplements our everyday budget needs in
supporting student research, and in providing funds for special student
and faculty initiatives in bringing visiting scholars and activists to the
campus. However much you can contribute to Women’s Studies and to
whichever fund you choose, your generosity and commitment are deeply
appreciated. Thank you for your support.
Special Thanks to Peggy Downes Baskin,
Anne Neufeld Levin, the Gessen family,
the Varner family, and Bettina Aptheker
for contributing to the production of the
WMST Commemorative Journal.
Thank you to 21st Century Feminist
Scholarship Endowment Contributors 2000
$10,000-24,999
Chancellor M.R.C.
Greenwood
Peggy Downes Baskin
$1,000-9,999
Karen Aaltonen
Emily Honig
$500-999
Pamela Roby
$100-499
Julia Armstrong-Zwart
Victoria Morris Byerly
Patricia and Richard
Fitchen
Lynda Goff
Faith Marsted-Elbers
Carole Ruth McCann
Nancy L. Morgan
Phyllis and Charles Peet
Debra Varner
$50-99
Herbert Aptheker
Ruth Fong Chinn
Cynthia and Patrick
Dowling
Mary Bain Hansen
Aida Hurtado
Caren Kaplan
Raghunath and Theresa
Misra
Nicole Patricia Nasser
Rachel Roth
Carol Shennan
Marion and Myrna Smith
Rita E. Walker
Carter Wilson
$10-49
Anne Callahan
Diane Cohen
Maria Gitlin
Lauren J. Hammer
Judy M. Hiramoto
Katie King
Jacquelyn Marie
Samara Marion
Cameron Forest Rabe
Marcy Lee Reiser
Pamela K. Richards
Mary Beth Tyler
Zoe Justin Wood
Thank you to WMST Gift Fund Supporters, 1999-2000!!
Maria Diane Carmel Adkisson
Vicki Alcoset
Gabriel and Rose Aldama
Mary and Joseph Anderson
Craig and Maria Ayala-Marshall
Barbara Bathe
Kristy Brehm
Susan Kathleen Cahn
Ruth Ann Carlisle
Corinne Taylor-Cyngiser and
Yoram Cyngiser
Patricia Lynn Danna
Michelle Davey
Rebecca Denison
Patrick and Cynthia Dowling
Julie Dvorin
Samuel and Lori Elphick
Elaine and William Ernst
Linda Jean Eucalyptus
MaryAnn and Brian George
Edward and Ann Gessen
Paul and Charlyn Gollogly
Jamie Gross
Amy Maria Guthormsen
Susan Marie Haas
Peter and Linda Heylin
David and Laurie Hughes
Robin Imlay and Jeffrey Hing
Eric and Diane Jonkey
April Kane
James and Susan Keith
Jennifer Moore Keith
Alexandra Kidd
Maggie Kraft
Thomas and Susan Krier
LaSalle National Bank
Kenneth and Theresa Lebeiko
Howard and Laura Levin
Socorro Cerda Martinez
Michele Mickela
Chris and LuAnn Miguel
Raghunath and Theresa Misra
Carolyn Moore
Jessica Anne Murray
Kim O’Keefe
Yolanda Padilla
Mary Pearl
Debra and Alan Pinner
Lea D. Queen
Maim Reissman
Mario and Diane Rendon
Ilyse Ring
Kay V. Ruhland
Steven Sardelli
Alix Schwartz
Philip Schwartz and
Andrea Wagner-Schwartz
Carol Ann Stein
Carol Stieber
Ed and Maureen Storck
Theresa and David Tahamont
Susan Takalo
Anina Van Alstine
Kelly M. Vanderlan
Belinda Van Sickle
Michael and Debra Varner
Hilary R. White
Penni Wilson
15

UCSC WOMEN’S STUDIES NEWSLETTER
June 2000 Vol III, No. 1
Become a Friend of Women’s Studies
Regular Individual Annual Membership $25-$50 $_________
Student Membership $8 $_________
*Special Individual Annual Membership $100 $_________
Donation
$_________
TOTAL AMOUNT $_________
Visit our website at
http://humwww.
ucsc.edu/wst
* Special Members will receive the 25th Anniversary Commemorative Journal
Name______________________________________________
Address ____________________________________________
Telephone _______________________________
Email___________________________________
Make checks payable to: Women’s Studies Department. Thank you.
Commemorate the 25th Anniversary:
T-shirts: beige with logo; L or XL (state size) $12 $_________
Commemorative Journal $22 $_________
Founders Luncheon Video (2.5hrs.) $30 $_________
Founders Roundtable Video (1.5hr.) $25 $_________
or both videos $50 $_________
To order, make checks payable to: Women’s Studies Department.
Cost includes shipping; please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.
Please remember
to contribute to the
Endowment and
Gift Fund!
How to subscribe: If you would like to receive the
UCSC Women’s Studies Newsletter, you may
subscribe for one year by mailing this coupon and a
check for $10 to:
Women’s Studies Dept.
University of California
180 Kresge College
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
#323
Women’s Studies Department
University of California
180 Kresge College
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Phone: 831/459-4324
Fax: 831/459-4872
Email: wst@cats.ucsc.edu
Return Service Requested
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PAID
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16