We hope you can join us on June 6 for a special event honoring 50 years of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz. Register here!

Feminist Studies was established as the Women's Studies program at UC Santa Cruz in 1974. Since its founding, this pioneering department has been home to some of the field’s most prominent thinkers and has produced scores of alumni who have gone on to make contributions in a range of professions. 

For this celebratory event, we have assembled a panel of eight alums who will engage with Distinguished Feminist Studies Professor Emerita Bettina Aptheker to discuss what Feminist Studies has meant to their careers, their lives, and society at large. Our panelists: 

Nancy Lemon (Kresge ’75, women's studies) - Retired Director of the Domestic Violence Practicum and Seminar at UC Berkeley School of Law and member of the first graduating class  
Blanca Tavera (Oakes ’86, women's studies) - Domestic violence activist who founded Defensa de Mujeres, and retired professor at the San Jose State University School of Social Work  
 
Nicole Nichols (nee Nasser) (Cowell ’99, literature and women's studies) - Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner in Trauma Surgery and Surgical Critical Care at UC Davis Medical Center, and adjunct faculty at University of Nevada, Reno 
 
Naomi Marks (Merrill ’00, Earth sciences and women's studies) - Geochemist, Associate Program Leader for Nuclear Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation, and Deputy Director of the Glenn T. Seaborg Institute at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Kate Schatz (Stevenson ’03, literature and creative writing) - New York Times bestselling author of the Rad Women series and Do the Work: An Anti-Racist Activity Book, with W. Kamau Bell 

Kim Angulo (Merrill ’13, feminist studies) - Assistant Public Defender at the Sacramento County Public Defender's Office

Sarah Elkotbeid (Crown ’18, environmental studies and feminist studies) - Environmental Health Equity and Community Partnerships Advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council

Halima Kazem (Ph.D. ’22, feminist studies) - Associate Director of Stanford's Program in Feminist, Gender & Sexualities Studies

We hope to see you as we mark the passage of 50 years and celebrate the generations of activists and feminist scholars who have contributed to the passionate pursuit and expansion of feminist thought and advocacy at UCSC!