Feminist studies is an interdisciplinary field of analysis that investigates how relations of gender are embedded in social, political, and cultural formations. The undergraduate program in feminist studies provides students with a unique interdisciplinary and transnational perspective. The department emphasizes theories and practices derived from multiracial and multicultural contexts.

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Study and Research Opportunities

• B.A. with concentrations in culture, power, and representation; law, politics, and social change; science, technology, and medicine; and sexuality studies
• Established as a major in 1974, feminist studies (formerly women’s studies) at UC Santa Cruz is one of the oldest and largest such programs in the country.

Feminist_Studies09.pdf

High School Preparation
High school students who plan to major in feminist studies need no special preparation other than the courses required for UC admission.

While it is not a condition of admission, students from California community colleges may complete the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) in preparation for transfer to UC Santa Cruz.

Transfer course agreements and articulation between the University of California and California community colleges can be accessed on the ASSIST web site.

Careers

Affirmative action
Business
Career counseling
Community organizing
Health care
Higher education
Human resources
Law
Lobbying
Politics
Public policy
Research
Social services
Social work
Teaching
Union organizing
Women’s health services

These are only samples of the field’s many possibilities.

Faculty Research
Bettina Aptheker, Professor of Feminist Studies and History: Feminist histories, feminist oral history and memoir, feminist pedagogy, African-American women’s history, queer studies, feminist Jewish studies, feminist critical race studies

Anjali Arondekar, Associate Professor of Feminist Studies: South Asian studies, colonial historiography, feminist theories, queer theory, critical race studies, 19th-century interdisciplinary studies

Neda Atanasoski, Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies: U.S. and Eastern European film and media, cultural studies and critical theory, war and nationalism, gender, ethnicity, and religion

Karen Barad, Professor of Feminist Studies, Philosophy, and History of Consciousness: Science studies, poststructuralist theory, feminist theory, queer theory, 20th-century continental philosophy, philosophy of science, and physics

Gina Dent, Associate Professor of Feminist Studies, History of Consciousness, and Legal Studies: Africana literary and cultural studies, legal theory, popular culture

Felicity Schaeffer-Grabiel, Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies: Transnational feminism, migration, Latin American/Latino studies, Chicana/o studies, Internet, technology and the body, sexuality, gender and globalization

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Angela Y. Davis, Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies

Carla Freccero, Professor of Literature, Feminist Studies, and History of Consciousness: Renaissance studies, French and Italian language and literature, early modern studies, postcolonial theories and literature, contemporary feminist theories and politics, queer theory, U.S. popular culture

Rosa-Linda Fregoso, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, Feminist Studies, and Film and Digital Media: Cultural studies, transnational feminist theories, Chicana/o and Latina/o cinema, issues of human rights and gender violence

Jody Greene, Associate Professor of Literature and Feminist Studies: Seventeenth- and 18th-century British and French literature and culture, pre- and early modern studies, early modern colonialisms, gay and lesbian cultural studies, gender studies, history of authorship, history of the book

Donna J. Haraway, Professor of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies: Feminist theory, cultural and historical studies of science and technology, relation of life and human sciences, human-animal relations, and animal studies

Helene Moglen, Professor Emerita of Literature and Feminist Studies

Requirements for the Major
Feminist studies majors must complete 10 courses and a senior comprehensive exit requirement in the feminist studies program (as noted below). All students are required to select a concentration within the major from the following: culture, power, and representation; law, politics, and social change; science, technology, and medicine; and sexuality studies. Courses appropriate for each concentration are listed on the web at: feministstudies.ucsc.edu.

A proposal for an independent concentration will be approved only when a student presents a clear, coherent, and rigorous plan of study that does not fit the existing concentrations. Both the student’s adviser and the Feminist Studies Department chair must approve a proposal for an independent concentration.

Required courses include course 1, Introduction to Feminisms, FMST 80 or another 80 course taught by Feminist Studies affiliate faculty; course 100, Feminist Theories (must be taken at UC Santa Cruz); five additional upper-division courses in the student’s chosen concentration; two additional upper-division electives from among the other concentrations; and an exit (comprehensive) requirement course.

Because feminist studies is an interdisciplinary major and lists courses taught by affiliate faculty in other departments, feminist studies majors must take a minimum of five courses at UC Santa Cruz taught directly in the Feminist Studies Department, i.e., courses designated FMST, not including internships (FMST 193 or 198) or tutorials (FMST 199).

One five-unit individual study tutorial (FMST 199) can be used to fulfill a FMST major concentration or elective requirement, and one five-unit internship can be used to fulfill a FMST major elective requirement.

Two Education Abroad Program (EAP) courses may count towards the major; three transfer courses may count towards the major; and the total combined number of EAP and transfer courses that may count towards the major is a maximum of three.

Exit requirement options include a senior seminar (course 194, Senior Seminar) taught by core or affiliate faculty or a senior thesis or project (course 195, Senior Thesis or Project). Course 1, Introduction to Feminisms, course 100, Feminist Theories, and the composition (general education code C) requirement are prerequisite to courses 194 and 195. Guidelines for completion of the exit requirement are available on the web at: feministstudies.ucsc.edu.