UCLA Center for the Study of Women

UCLA Center for the Study of Women
Name	UCLA Center for the Study of Women
Established	1989
Location	Los Angeles, California, United States
Type	Research center
Director	Notable scholars (see Notable Scholars and Alumni)
Affiliation	University of California, Los Angeles

UCLA Center for the Study of Women is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of California, Los Angeles that focuses on feminist scholarship, gender studies, and social justice. The center engages faculty, students, and community partners through research, teaching, public programs, and policy advocacy involving scholars linked to Duke University, Harvard University, Columbia University, Stanford University, New York University, University of Chicago, Princeton University, Yale University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, San Diego, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Brown University, Northwestern University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Rutgers University, University of Toronto, McGill University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, London School of Economics, Australian National University, University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, Peking University, Tsinghua University, National University of Singapore, Seoul National University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, University of Cape Town, University of São Paulo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, University of Buenos Aires.

History

The center was founded amid late 20th‑century feminist organizing and academic institutionalization involving figures associated with Second-wave feminism, Women's Liberation Movement, Equal Rights Amendment, National Organization for Women, Ms. (magazine), Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, bell hooks, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Judith Butler, Gayle Rubin, Carole Pateman, Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Antonio Gramsci, Cornel West, Paulo Freire, Edward Said, Stuart Hall, Michel de Certeau, Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva, Helene Cixous, Luce Irigaray, Nancy Fraser, Iris Marion Young, bell hooks (again), Cheryl Clark to create institutional spaces paralleling initiatives at Berkeley Feminist Studies, Columbia Women's Center, Harvard Center for Women and Public Policy, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Barnard College, Spelman College, Wellesley College, Scripps College, Bryn Mawr College, Swarthmore College, Vassar College, University of California, Santa Cruz, University of California, Davis, University of California, Irvine, California State University, Long Beach, Los Angeles Trade–Technical College, ArtCenter College of Design, California Institute of the Arts. Over successive directorates the center built partnerships with institutions such as National Women's Studies Association, American Association of University Professors, American Anthropological Association, Modern Language Association, Social Science Research Council, Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Foundations.

Mission and Programs

The center's mission aligns with movements and institutions including LGBTQ+ activism, Reproductive Rights Movement, Black Lives Matter, Me Too movement, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Planned Parenthood, ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, UN Women, UNICEF, World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, California Department of Public Health, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Mayor of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles City Council, California State Legislature, United States Congress, providing programs that intersect with scholarship produced at The Getty Research Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, Getty Museum, LACMA, The Broad.

Research and Publications

Faculty and affiliated researchers publish in venues and series tied to Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Feminist Studies, Gender & Society, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Differences (journal), Social Text, Cultural Anthropology, American Anthropologist, American Journal of Sociology, Critical Inquiry, PMLA, Journal of American History, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, Duke University Press, Princeton University Press, Harvard University Press, Columbia University Press, Stanford University Press, MIT Press, Yale University Press. Research spans collaborations with scholars connected to National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Kaiser Family Foundation, Annenberg School for Communication, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, UCLA School of Law, UCLA School of Public Affairs, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, UCLA School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA Anderson School of Management, UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.

Education, Fellowships, and Student Engagement

The center administers fellowships, visiting scholar appointments, and student research grants similar to programs at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Kroc Institute for Peace Studies, Mellon Foundation fellowships, Humboldt Foundation, Fulbright Program, Rhodes Scholarship, Marshall Scholarship, Guggenheim Fellowship, MacArthur Fellows Program, and partners with campus groups like Associated Students UCLA, Graduate Students Association, UCLA Student Affairs, UCLA Women of Color Collective, Stonewall Democrats, Queer Student Union, Bruin Republicans, Black Student Union, Latinx Student Union, Asian Pacific Coalition, UCLA Law Students Association to integrate teaching in curricula such as those in Gender Studies, Chicana and Chicano Studies, African American Studies, Asian American Studies at UCLA.

Public Events, Outreach, and Advocacy

Public programming includes conferences, symposia, film series, and workshops in collaboration with entities like Sundance Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, LA Film Festival, Los Angeles Times, NPR, KPCC, KCRW, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Time (magazine), Newsweek, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, addressing topics engaged by activists and scholars associated with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Simone de Beauvoir (again), bell hooks (again), Angela Davis (again), Patricia Hill Collins, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Dorothy Roberts, Naomi Wolf.

Organizational Structure and Funding

The center operates within the administrative frameworks of University of California, University of California Regents, Office of the President (University of California), UCLA Academic Senate, UCLA Chancellor's Office, UCLA Office of Research, with funding sources including grants from National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, Ford Foundation (again), Mellon Foundation (again), corporate donors, private philanthropists, and university allocations, and maintains advisory boards with members drawn from institutions such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Google, Microsoft, Apple Inc., Meta Platforms, Amazon (company), Disney, Paramount Global.

Notable Scholars and Alumni

Affiliated scholars and alumni include faculty and public intellectuals connected to Judith Butler (again), bell hooks (again), Angela Davis (again), Kimberlé Crenshaw (again), Patricia Hill Collins (again), Cherríe Moraga, Gloria Anzaldúa, Eve Ensler, Sally Kempton, Loretta Ross, Winona LaDuke, Ava DuVernay, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Gloria Steinem (again), Kate Millett, Andrea Dworkin, Joan Wallach Scott, Cornel West (again), Rita Dove, Adrienne Rich (again), Zadie Smith, Margaret Atwood, Alice Walker, Ursula K. Le Guin, bell hooks (third mention), Adrienne Rich (again), Julia Kristeva (again).

Category:University of California, Los Angeles