A Retrospective on the Directorship of Professor Grace Hong

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UCLA Center for the Study of Women | Streisand Center
July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2025

As Professor Grace Kyungwon Hong concludes her five-year tenure as Director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center, we reflect with immense gratitude on her visionary leadership, transformative scholarship, and deep commitment to social justice.

A long-standing member of the UCLA faculty and a dedicated contributor to CSW programs long before assuming the role of Director, Professor Hong brought to her directorship a legacy of feminist, anti-carceral, and intersectional leadership. Her directorship marked a time of expansive growth, innovation, and institutional transformation.

One of the most defining milestones of Professor Hong’s tenure was her role in the creation of the UCLA Barbra Streisand Center. Officially launched in 2021 through the vision and generosity of artist and activist Barbra Streisand, the Streisand Center emerged under Professor Hong’s guidance as a forward-thinking hub for addressing some of the most urgent social issues of our time. With the formation of the Streisand Center, CSW took on its current identity as the UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center, becoming a national leader in intersectional feminist research and advocacy.

One of her priorities as Director was to make community-led research central to CSW|Streisand Center’s mission. As such, she championed the Feminist Anti-Carceral Studies research stream, initially established by Dr. Sarah Haley. Professor Hong was a driving force behind projects such as the University of California Sentencing Project and the Special Circumstances Conviction Project, both of which center the voices and experiences of people incarcerated in California’s women’s prisons. With a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, these initiatives convene organizers, scholars, and artists—inside and outside of prisons—to challenge the racialized and gendered narratives that uphold carceral systems. 

In addition to anti-carceral research, she supported the development of Just Research?: Trans Futures in Health and Scientific Knowledge, a TGI-led collaboration that centers the knowledge production practices of TGI communities. 

Throughout her term, Professor Hong remained a powerful advocate for student-led movements and intersectional organizing. She championed groups such as Survivors and Allies, a UCLA student organization working to improve UC-wide policies and support for survivors of sexual violence. She also nurtured the ongoing work of the Black Feminism Initiative (BFI), established in 2019 by Dr. Haley. Under her leadership, BFI deepened its commitment to supporting research and praxis grounded in Black feminist and queer frameworks, foregrounding the power of refusal, collective organizing, and transformative justice. She also established emergency funding mechanisms for international and undocumented graduate students affected by the pandemic and the LA fires.

During her directorship, CSW|Streisand Center launched several cross-campus collaborations, including the Transnational Gender and Labor Working Group, led by Dr. Jennifer Chun, a joint venture with the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, and the Reproductive Justice Working Group in partnership with the Bixby Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health Equity, the Center for Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy, and the Center for Reproductive Science, Health, and Education.

She also established the Scholars-in-Residence program which convenes a group of UCLA faculty and graduate students for intensive study around specific topics of interest. She also brought CSW|Streisand Center as a partner into the Activist-In-Residence program, which seeks to support community organizers with university resources.

Her directorship has left an indelible mark on the CSW|Streisand Center. Through her leadership, the Center not only expanded its institutional impact, but also reaffirmed its commitments to being a refuge for research in social justice and community collaboration. 

As we move into a new chapter, we carry forward Professor Hong’s legacy with deep appreciation and ongoing inspiration.