An Open Call to UCLA Graduate Students Join the Black Feminism Initiative (BFI) at UCLA (AY 2025-26)
Deadline: Friday, November 7th, by 5 p.m. PST
This letter is an open call to graduate students from the social sciences, humanities, and physical sciences to join us in our efforts to address a whole range of social oppressions through the collaborative work of the Black Feminism Initiative (BFI) here at UCLA. “The Black Feminism Initiative (BFI) was established in Fall 2019 to honor and encourage Black feminist thought and visions for political transformation. BFI supports interdisciplinary research and social engagements that are grounded in Black feminist and Black queer frameworks of analysis, challenge state and interpersonal violence, consider intramural forms of relation, and engage everyday forms of refusal, Black feminist assembly, and collective organizing practice.”
We seek graduate students who have a working knowledge of some of the seminal writings in Black feminism (from across the Black diaspora) and contemporary work in the field, or who are eager to learn more about Black feminism. We invite students who seek a place to share in a group committed to rigorous black intellectual thought, but we also seek students who desire to be part of our community.
BFI supports research on subjects including anti-blackness, gender, abolition, and state violence through two fellowships for graduate students here at UCLA (The Alisa Bierria Graduate Fellowship in Black Feminist Research and the Mariame Kaba Graduate Fellowship in Black Feminist Research) through the Center for the Study of Women (CSW). Both fellowships fund research in the tradition of the anti-carceral feminist work of the intellectuals whose names they bear. The BFI also supports emerging scholars and their work through the Black Feminism Faculty-Graduate Working Group. The working group celebrates and supports the research of graduate students and faculty from across the social sciences and humanities.
In the past, BFI has hosted and collaborated on generative workshops and events featuring leading black feminist scholars such as Charlene Carruthers and Professors C. Riley Snorton, Kevin Quashie, Saidiya V. Hartman, Terrion L. Williamson, and Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, to name a few. The group supports students and faculty as they produce new work that is grounded in black feminist thought. Perhaps, most importantly, the BFI Faculty-Graduate working group is a place of support for students and faculty who wish to dismantle the systems both within and outside of the university that impede freedom for black femme and black queer people. This year the BFI plans to host regular co-working sessions, reading engagements, outdoor events, retreats, and social gatherings.
Are you committed to doing this radical work? Please click on the link below to complete a brief form. In the form, you will introduce yourself to the coordinators of the Black Feminism Initiative. You will have an opportunity to share a bit about your work and the work that has inspired your intellectual trajectory.
Please submit your responses here by Friday, November 7th, by 5:00 p.m. PST.
Timeline: Our Notification of Acceptance will be released on Friday, November 14th. New members are encouraged to attend the New Member Meet + Greet / Fall Mixer on Friday, November 14th (Venue TBD).
**Please note that BFI monthly meetings have historically occurred on Friday afternoons**
For questions, contact:
Salem Martinez | salemjamesmartinez@gmail.com
Application Deadline: Friday, November 7th, by 5 p.m. PST
