UCSC faculty mourn loss of feminist studies department 

Current and former faculty of the feminist studies department at UC Santa Cruz say they’re disheartened by the decision to shut down the department after its remaining faculty said the loss of professors over the years left them with an unsustainable workload. 

The 50-year-old feminist studies department at UC Santa Cruz will be dissolved after its five remaining professors voted to disestablish the program, the university announced Nov. 25. The department is slated to officially close down next year on July 1.

Felicity Schaeffer, a faculty member in the department since 2005, said it was a difficult decision to disestablish, but the loss of faculty over the years made it hard on those who remain. 

The department had 12 full-time-equivalent faculty in 2017. This year, the department is down to just one full-time faculty member along with four others whose appointments are split between feminist studies and critical race and ethnic studies. 

“It’s devastating that that particular structure no longer works,” Schaeffer said. 

She emphasized that incoming students will continue to be able enroll in UCSC to earn an undergraduate degree in feminist studies, even after the department is dissolved on July 1, because there are still many faculty teaching enough feminist studies courses for students to earn credits for a degree. While the Ph.D. program is suspended, graduate students in other departments can still earn a designated emphasis in feminist studies — similar to a minor, but with fewer required credits.

“I’m actually really looking forward to another configuration of feminist studies, teaching and research and event planning, working with students in another structure,” Schaeffer added.

The vote to disestablish came after the department struggled for several years with departures of faculty members who moved to other departments or left for other universities.

“Feminist Studies will always have a home at UCSC, but the current departmental formation has proven unsustainable and inadequate for providing a responsive space for intellectual exchange and connection on our campus,” department faculty wrote in a statement. 

The department traces its origins back to a program established in 1974 in women’s studies. The program later earned department status in 1996 and became the first in the country to change its name to feminist studies in 2005. Currently, the department has 76 undergraduate students majoring in feminist studies, eight Ph.D. students and 17 graduate students in other departments seeking a designated emphasis in feminist studies. 

Marisol LeBrón, the most recent hire among the tenure-track faculty, said she’s mourning the loss of the department. LeBrón was hired in 2021 as a full-time associate professor, with split appointments between feminist studies and critical race and ethnic studies (CRES). 

“Departments confer a lot of meaning within universities, so to give up departmental status is definitely a hit to the visibility of the department both within and outside of the campus,” she wrote in an email to Lookout. “Ours was one of the few formal Feminist Studies departments in the country and I think all of us recognized the responsibility that came with that.” 

In addition to LeBrón and Schaeffer, Nick Mitchell and Jennifer Kelly are also split between feminist studies and CRES. Anjali Arondekar is the only faculty member appointed fully to feminist studies. The five professors collectively voted to close the department. 

LeBrón said dual appointments are “really taxing” on faculty because even though professors are considered part-time in both departments, they typically end up doing full-time hours in both departments. 

“So, that means attending twice the meetings, doing double advising, increased personnel cases, more events and so on,” she said. “That kind of work is somewhat manageable when you’re in a large department and there’s more people to take up the load, but when four people are split in what eventually became a five-person department, it’s simply impossible.” 

Bettina Aptheker, a distinguished professor of feminist studies and critical race and ethnic studies, helped to develop the department. She said she’s saddened about its disestablishment. 

“I was very disappointed, but it’s something that happens,” she said. “It’s the 50th anniversary of feminist studies, and we’ve been a vibrant department that I helped to build since the early 1980s, and we’ve had thousands and thousands of graduates and thousands of students in our classes. I think we did very, very well – sometimes through very tough times.”

Students have expressed similar dismay over the department’s disestablishment. Tyler Branham graduated in June with degrees in psychology and feminist studies. He said he felt “extremely hurt and disappointed” upon hearing the news. 

“Our department has been a really foundational, fundamental space for the growth of feminist thought and thinking,” he said.

Notable feminists like bell hooks and Angela Davis both spent time at UC Santa Cruz, hooks as a student and professor and Davis as a longtime professor. “These people were extremely influential and seeing that that space has kind of, not fully disappeared but was forced to go almost into hiding in a way, has been really disappointing,” Branham said.

Lookout sought a comment from UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer. University spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason responded to the requests with a comment from Humanities Division dean Jasmine Alinder. 

“I am committed to supporting and promoting Feminist Studies teaching and research at UC Santa Cruz, regardless of departmental status,” Alinder said in the statement. “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.”

It’s been more than a decade since a UCSC department has voted to close down. The American studies faculty voted to disestablish in 2011. In 2018, several departments in the Baskin School of Engineering disestablished as part of a restructuring of the engineering school. 

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