Center for the Study of Women

A Place of Rage: Women and Anger on Screen
2025-10-26 - 2025-12-06 | Billy Wilder Theater, 10899 Wilshire Blvd.,, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, United States
Post-#MeToo, films and television — many by women — have redefined female anger not as pathology or threat but as, in Lorde’s words, “loaded with information and energy.” This series, inspired by the work of scholar and UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Professor Kathleen McHugh, explores how women’s rage, long silenced, can be reclaimed through feminist filmmaking, challenging familiar tropes and reframing women’s anger as purposeful.
The series , A Place of Rage, examines anger as a site of clarity, resistance and transformation and considers how genres once hostile to female subjectivity have become platforms for feminist disruption. This collection serves as a visual conjuring of the uses of anger: when wielded with precision, on women’s own terms, our rage can move beyond catharsis to radical change.
Series programmed and notes written by UCLA Professor Kathleen McHugh and Public Programmer Beandrea July
Community partners: UCLA Center for the Study of Women | Barbra Streisand Center, Women in Media

Women's Daily Life in Exile Lecture
2025-11-17 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Where: UCLA Bunche Hall, Rm 10383
When: Monday, November 17, 2025 / 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Pacific Time)
After being deported from their homes, Armenian women experienced vastly different fates depending on where they were sent within the Arab-speaking provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Those on the eastern deportation route faced famine and disease but largely avoided mass killings, while those sent north were confined in desert tent camps and many were massacred in 1916. This lecture, led by Dr. Anna Aleksanyan and Dr. Taner Akçam of UCLA’s Promise Armenian Institute, will explore the varied experiences of these women and the gendered dimensions of the Armenian Genocide. This event is organized by The Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA.
Join the Zoom Webinar here.

Fiebre de carnaval: una conversación con Yuliana Ortiz Ruano
2025-11-18 16:00 - 17:00
The Spanish & Portuguese Department would like to invite you to a conversation with Ecuadorian novelist and poet Yuliana Ortiz Ruano. In this conversation, Ortiz Ruano will discuss her recently translated novel Carnival Fever (Fiebre de Carnaval), her practice as a writer, and the intersections of decolonial thought and Black and Caribbean intellectual traditions in Latin America.
When: November 18, 2025, 4:00 PM
Where: Lydeen Library, Rolfe Hall 4302
This event will be in Spanish. Light refreshments will be served.
Yuliana Ortiz Ruano is an Afro-Ecuadorian writer, poet, and teacher, as well as a DJ of Afro-Caribbean music. She has published several books of poetry and prose, including the multi award-winning Fiebre de carnaval (Carnaval Fever), which was chosen as one of the 50 best books of 2022 by El País. She is also the author of the poetry books Sovoz, Canciones del fin del mundo, y Cuaderno del imposible retorno a Pangea, and the book of short stories Litorales. She was selected by the International Writers in Residence program in Granada, Spain in 2023, and was chosen for the Translator Choice II award at the LATINALE Latin America Literature Festival in Berlin. Her first novel, Carnaval Fever, won the Joaquín Gallegos Lara Award (Ecuador), the Primo Romanzo Latinoamericano Award (Italy), and the PEN Translation Award (UK).

Lynn Hershman Leeson: Private I
2025-11-18 19:30 - 21:30
When: Tuesday, November 18, 2025, at 7:30 PM
Where: Hammer Museum
Pioneering conceptual artist Lynn Hershman Leeson, known for her six-decade exploration of technology, identity, and surveillance, joins Margot Norton, Chief Curator at BAMPFA, for an evening of video screenings and discussion. Leeson will reflect on her visionary works including the Roberta Breitmore series to her innovative interactive installations and her new book Private I, which examines the intersections of art, technology, and selfhood in today’s hyper-connected world.
No registration required. Seat is first come.

Faculty Writing Retreat - December 2025
2025-12-05 10:00 - 16:00
Join CSW|Streisand Center for a day-long retreat where you can concentrate on your own work alongside like-minded colleagues!

Friday, December 5th
10 am – 4 pm Hershey Hall Salon (Room 158)
Do you want to block out a day for writing and contemplation? The Faculty Writing Retreat is your solution. Join us for a day-long retreat where you can concentrate on your own work alongside like-minded colleagues—we will hold the world at bay for you. Breakfast and lunch will be provided in the beautiful setting of Hershey Hall Salon.
The writing retreat provides a peaceful place to write as well as meals; please bring your computer and any other materials you may need to work. If you have an extension cord, please bring it, as power outlets are limited. Also bring some extra clothes for layers, as the space sometimes tends to be cool.
We also offer a parallel virtual retreat with brief introductions and check-ins.
During lunch, there will be an optional conversation about the writing process.
If you register to attend in person and your plans change, please let us know immediately so that we may offer your spot to the long waitlist. No-shows will not be granted an in-person spot at future writing retreats.
If you are no longer able to attend in person, please e-mail csw@csw.ucla.edu to let us know.
Cosponsored by: CSW|Streisand Center, the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research & Creative Activities (ORCA), UCLA Humanities, UCLA Social Sciences, UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television
Save the date for future Faculty Writing Retreats:
Registration will be available the week following the most recent retreat.
Friday February 20
Friday March 6
Friday May 15

Surrealism & Antifascism: A Symposium
2025-12-06 14:00 - 18:00
Where: 3910 Los Feliz Boulevard
When: Dec 6th, 2pm-6pm PST
This unique gathering brings together artists, scholars, UCLA students and the public to explore the power of surrealist methods—past and present—as tools for resisting systems of domination and imagining new possibilities for being. From spiritual resistance to cultural subversion, surrealism has long offered a way to sidestep the normative, the colonial, and the fascistic in pursuit of radical freedom. Together, we will examine the contradictions and complexities within the Surrealist tradition and its entanglements with institutional power, gender, and race. This symposium is a call to those who believe that art, performance, spirituality, and speculation can resist the flattening forces of fascism and imagine other worlds.
Get tickets here! Tickets are free to UCLA students & PRS members with code UCLAstudent11 / $10 general admission

Cozy Book Swap + Books to Jails Drive
2025-12-08 - 2025-12-11
Join us for the CSW|Streisand Center Cozy Book Swap! Bring a wrapped book, add a hint note, and swap with others!
Additionally, donate a popular book to LA County Jails in partnership with LA County Library as a part of our Books to Jails Drive.

What kinds of books to donate to the Books to Jails Drive (per LA County Library Guidelines)

Fantasy novels
Adventure novels
Mystery novels
Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels
Spiritual books
Poetry
Self-help books
Books in Spanish

Donation guidelines

NO hardcovers – ONLY paperback books
NO textbooks or academic books
NO depictions or descriptions on how to commit crimes
MUST be in good condition / shape

Learn more about our mini library and the books to jails partnership.
When: Monday, December 8th – Thursday, December 11th, 10 am- 2 pm
Where: CSW|Streisand Center Office, 1500 Public Affairs (Located across from Jimmy’s Coffee House)

Cinema's First Nasty Women: Breaking Plates and Smashing the Patriarchy
2026-01-23 19:30 - 21:30 | Billy Wilder Theater, 10899 Wilshire Blvd.,, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, United States
When: January 23, 2026 7:30 pm
Where: Billy Wilder Theater
Admission: Free; no registration required.
Cinema’s First Nasty Women returns to the Billy Wilder Theater! Its name a riff on the feminist cri de cœur that arose during the 2016 presidential election, Cinema’s First Nasty Women is an ongoing, curated project to rediscover and revel in the anarchic spirit of women comedians who brought a rebellious energy to the early silent screen. Organized by an international team of film archivists and scholars, Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak and Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, this new travelling program of restored titles from the project comes with a special twist. Archival collections can inspire new research which in turn helps grow new audiences, but they can also inspire new films. Based in Australia, with The Physical TV Company, filmmaker and author Karen Pearlman has built a feminist film practice that puts cinema’s past and present in dialogue in brilliantly constructed, canon-busting short film essays. For “Cinema’s First Nasty Women: Breaking Plates and Smashing the Patriarchy,” Pearlman drew on the project’s images and energy for her latest short, Breaking Plates. The Archive is thrilled to have Pearlman as our guest at the Billy Wilder Theater with a selection of her work along with the Los Angeles premiere of Breaking Plates and the silent slapstick female performers that inspired it.
Programmed by Paul Malcolm with Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak, Karen Pearlman and Richard James Allen. Notes written by Senior Public Programmer Paul Malcolm.
Presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Total runtime: 103 min.

From Pitch to Publish in the Public Humanities
2026-02-02 - 2026-02-03 | Royce 314
Join award-winning writers and journalists Lauren Markham and Chris Feliciano Arnold for two days of panels and workshops.

From Pitch to Publish in the Public Humanities
When: February 2–3, 2026
Location: Royce 314
Free and open to the public.

Today, it is vital that scholars’ work is made widely available and accessible to the public. Is your research part of the public discourse? Do you have stories the public at large would benefit from knowing? Do you want to reach a broader audience, an audience beyond the peer-reviewed academic outlets? Do you want to learn how to pitch your specific story and research to non-academic publications? We have invited two writers and journalists, Lauren Markham and Chris Feliciano Arnold, to offer insights on the public humanities writing, pitching, and publication process in a series of panels, workshops, and individual feedback sessions.
Public Events
Monday, February 2, 10:30AM–12:00 PM (Royce 314)
Workshop: “Enliven Your Prose with Research Details: Public Workshop with Chris Feliciano Arnold and Lauren Markham.”
Discover how vivid storytelling and well-chosen details can transform scholarly work into engaging, resonant prose. This hands-on workshop explores how to integrate research into narrative writing—making complex ideas accessible without sacrificing depth or rigor. Through interactive exercises, close reading, and discussion, participants will learn strategies for bringing their data, fieldwork, and analysis to life on the page.
Monday, February 2, 4:00–5:00 PM (Royce 314)
Conversation: “Pitching and Working with Opinion Editors with Chris Feliciano Arnold and New York Times Opinion Staff Editor Isvett Verde.”
Explore strategies and best practices for effectively pitching and collaborating with newspaper editors on op-eds and opinion pieces. Gain insight into the editorial process, from crafting compelling and concise pitches that capture an editor’s attention to understanding the nuances of tone, timing, and topic relevance. This session will cover how to balance academic rigor with public accessibility, navigate editorial feedback, and establish long-term relationships with editors to amplify scholarly perspectives in the media.
Tuesday February 3, 4:00–6:00 PM (Royce 314)
Panel: “Writing for the Public in Times of Peril, a panel with Chris Feliciano Arnold, Lauren Markham, The Atlantic Senior Editor Honor Jones and VQR Editor Paul Reyes.”
This panel of authors and editors will address the crucial role of academics in bridging the gap between scholarly research and public discourse during times of crisis, uncertainty, and societal upheaval, including the ethical, intellectual, and practical challenges that scholars face when translating complex ideas into accessible language for broader audiences. Refreshments will be provided.
Panelist & Writer Bios

Chris Feliciano Arnold is the author of The Third Bank of the River: Power and Survival in the Twenty-First-Century Amazon (Picador 2018). He directs the MFA in Creative Writing program at Saint Mary’s College of California.

Lauren Markham is an award-winning writer and journalist based in California whose work regularly appears in outlets such as Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine and VQR, where she is a contributing editor. She is the author of the award-winning The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life, the California Book Award shortlisted A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging (2024) and the recently-released Immemorial.

Isvett Verde is a staff editor in the Opinion section of The New York Times, where she helps shape conversations on immigration, culture and identity. She is also an adjunct professor of Latinx Media studies at The City College of New York. She earned a B.A. in French from Florida International University, and an M.A. in Spanish-language Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Her writing has been featured in the anthology titled, “Home in Florida: Latinx Writers and the Literature of Uprootedness.”

Honor Jones is a senior editor at The Atlantic, and previously at The New York Times Opinion section, where she edited cover stories and special issues for the Sunday Review. She is also the author of a novel, Sleep.

Paul Reyes is the editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, where he develops a variety of content, including investigative reporting, essays, photography portfolios, poetry, criticism, and fiction. Before joining VQR, he was a senior editor with The Oxford American. His work as an editor has led to two National Magazine Awards (as well as several nominations), the Overseas Press Club Award, inclusion in the Pushcart Prize anthology along with regular appearances in the Best American anthologies. His book, Exiles in Eden, an investigative narrative of the 2008 housing crisis, was praised as “a wrenching chronicle of our new hard times” (Publishers Weekly) and “an engrossing memoir of American dreaming and financial devastation” (Mother Jones). His essays and reporting have appeared in VQR, The Oxford American, Harper’s, The New York Times, Literary Hub, Mother Jones, and elsewhere. His writing has earned him a Literature Fellowship in Nonfiction from the National Endowment for the Arts, a nomination for the Harry Chapin Media Award, and a nomination for the National Magazine Award in Feature Writing.

Cosponsored by:
Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center, Division of Social Sciences, Division of Humanities, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activities, School of Music, School of Arts and Architecture, and School of Theater, Film, and Television.

Fire Tender Film Screening
2026-02-10 12:15 - 13:15 | Center for the Study of Women, 1500 Public Affairs
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
12:15–1:15 PM
Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center (Google Maps)
Join us for a screening of Fire Tender, directed by Roni Jo Draper (Yurok) and Marissa Lila, followed by a discussion.
Fire Tender tells the story of Yurok tribal members returning to traditional fire practices as an essential form of land stewardship. The film centers on Margo Robbins—grandmother, cultural educator, healer, and Indigenous fire practitioner—who is leading efforts to restore Yurok fire sovereignty: the right to use fire for tribal land care, a practice outlawed under settler colonial policies. Through her work, Robbins challenges more than a century of environmentally destructive anti-fire policies that have endangered Yurok lands and restricted access to the natural resources necessary for clean water, food, and traditional lifeways.
Seating is first come, first served. No registration required.
Attendees are welcome to bring their lunch for the 30-minute screening and discussion to follow.
This event is part of programming for Thinking Gender 2026: “Feminist & Queer Ecologies.” Register for the conference.
About the Filmmakers
Director: Roni Jo Draper, PhD (Yurok, she/they), is an emerita professor in the Department of Teacher Education at the David O. McKay School of Education, Brigham Young University, where she taught courses in multicultural education, women’s studies, and literacy. Dr. Draper began her work as a scholar investigating disciplinary literacies and seeking to uncover the texts and literacies needed to participate and learn in disciplinary settings such as mathematics, science, and the arts. Her work has appeared in various journals for researchers and teachers including the Harvard Educational Review, the American Educational Research Journal, the Journal of Teacher Education, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and the Mathematics Teacher. Currently, her research interest has focused on the challenge to prepare teachers to create classrooms that allow our most minoritized children to thrive. She is a former high school mathematics teacher and is proud of her work serving students at risk of not completing high school. In her recent work, she has turned to Indigenous storytelling to share stories that center the lives of Indigenous peoples. She has produced the film Scenes from the Glittering World, about the lives of three Navajo young people attending a remote high school on the Navajo Nation. Draper is also the writer, producer, and director of the documentary Fire Tender, which centers on the lives of Yurok fire practitioners.
Co-director: Marissa Lila (she/they) is a Thai-American documentarian who grew up in Hong Kong and Thailand and is now based in Salt Lake City. As a multicultural filmmaker, she directs and produces projects with characters who cross boundaries set by dominant cultures or identities. Lila’s projects have been selected to play at international film festivals (DOC NYC, Camden, IFF, Big Sky Documentary FF, and MountainFilm). Two projects she produced, Transmormon and Oxygen to Fly, went viral with over 160 million total views. These projects were featured in The Huffington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, People Magazine, and Dazed. Lila is co-founder of OHO Media, a creative content agency for which Lila creates documentaries and documentary-based branded content. Lila directed, produced, and wrote for the docu-reality television series The Generations Project, for which one of the episodes she produced won a Regional Emmy. Lila also spent six years creating educational content to increase equitable outcomes for students inclusive of race, ethnicity, language, cultural, sexual orientation, or ability.
Producer: Jenn Lee is an immigrant from Taiwan who grew up in Utah and has worked over 20 years in social impact. Besides Fire Tender, she has produced and supported award-winning narrative and documentary films such as “The Dating Game” (2025), “Home Court” (2024), “Mija” (2022), “The Dilemma of Desire” (2020), “Jane and Emma” (2018), and LGBTQ+ films “Pray Away” (2021) and “Faithful” (2017). Prior to film work, she was a UCLA graduate student studying gender (sex-ratio) imbalance in China and attending Thinking Gender conferences.
Learn more about the film.

Calling In: Navigating Challenging Conversations with Dr. Loretta Ross
2026-02-10 19:30 - 21:30 | UCLA Hammer Museum – Galleries, 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, United States
Presented by the Hammer Museum.
Copresented with the Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center at UCLA and the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute

Join renowned activist, professor, and 2022 MacArthur Fellow Loretta J. Ross to explore the powerful practice of “Calling In.” With five decades in the human rights movement, Ross offers a transformative approach to move from conflict to constructive dialogue. In her new book, Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel, Ross addresses the challenge of building coalitions and community in a polarized world, and offers a compassionate alternative through accountability, empathy, and connection.
ATTENDING THIS PROGRAM?
Ticketing: Admission is free. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis, limit one per visitor. Box office opens one hour before the event.
Member Benefit: Subject to availability, Hammer Members can choose their preferred seats and pick up tickets for one additional guest. Members receive priority ticketing until 15 minutes before the program. Learn more about membership.
Parking: Self-parking is available under the museum. Rates are $8 for the first three hours with museum validation, and $3 for each additional 20 minutes, with a $22 daily maximum. There is an $8 flat rate after 6 p.m. on weekdays, and all day on weekends.

Bibliotactics: Libraries and the Colonial Public in Vietnam Book talk with Cindy Anh Nguyen (UCLA)
2026-02-12 14:30 - 16:30
When: Thursday, February 12, 2026 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM (Pacific Time)
Where: DataX Impact Forum Murphy Hall, Rm 3312
Bibliotactics examines the Hanoi and Saigon state libraries in colonial and postcolonial Vietnam, uncovering the emergence of a colonial public who reimagined the political meaning and social space of the library through public critique and day-to-day practice.
RSVP here.

Book Talk: The Homosexual and the Oligarch: Perverse Figurations and Social Reproduction
2026-02-13 11:00 - 12:30 | Hybrid
When: Friday, February 13, 11 am-12:30 pm
Where: Hybrid | UCLA Center for the Study of Women| Barbra Streisand Center, 1500 Public Affairs Building
Based on Dr. Tamar Shirinian’s recent book, Survival of a Perverse Nation: Morality and Queer Possibility in Armenia (Duke University Press, 2024), this talk will introduce the audience to two perverse figures: the homosexual and the oligarch.
Both figured prominently in national anxieties in the 2010s in Armenia as dangerous to the nation and its survival, and formed particular rhetorics of the nation’s perversion toward annihilation. Focusing on these two figures, the talk reflects upon neoliberalization’s threats against social reproduction by examining the moralization of political-economic processes and asks what a queer theory of political economy offers to the critique of late capitalism.

Graduate Lecture & Mixer: War, Migration, and Asymmetrical Gender Transformations in Ukrainian Households
2026-02-25 16:30 - 18:00 | 10383 Bunche Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Where: Bunche Hall, Rm 10383
When: Wednesday, February 25, 2026 from 4:15 PM – 5:45 PM
RSVP Here

Join the Center for European and Russian Studies for their quarterly Graduate Student Lecture by Natasha Bluth (PhD candidate in Sociology Department) and Mixer, open to all UCLA students, staff and faculty. The lecture by Natasha Bluth (Department of Sociology) is entitled “War, Migration, and Asymmetrical Gender Transformations in Ukrainian Households” and will include a presentation, time for Q&A, culminating in an informal mixer for students of all disciplines with an interest in Europe and/or Russia. This event is cosponsored by the UCLA Department of Sociology and UCLA Center for the Study of Women | Streisand Center and will be held in Bunche Hall Room 10383 on Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 4:15 pm.

Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has generated profound demographic shifts in Ukrainian society and the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. These dynamics are also deeply gendered: international protection policies and Ukrainian mobilization laws have facilitated the mass displacement of Ukrainian women and children while restricting the mobility of men. Drawing on fieldwork with Ukrainian families in Krakow, Poland, and Ukraine, between 2022 and 2025, this talk explores how these gendered processes are shaping three dimensions of household life: wartime migratory decision-making, marital relations, and coming-of-age experiences for young adults. I show that while war and displacement tighten traditional gender norms, they also create new opportunities for women to transcend these norms—at the same time that horizons narrow for men. These results carry important implications for Ukrainian families and for the future of Ukraine, where gender politics have become a key terrain of differentiation from Russia. In response, The Center for European and Russian Studies hosts a quarterly graduate student lecture and mixer.

Otro Corazón 3: Queering Sor Juana: A Symposium
2026-02-26 | Northwest Campus Auditorium
“Sor Juana the Younger and the Elder,” digital photograph by Alma Lopez @2019(models: Alicia Gaspar de Alba as the Elder, and Alicia Billalobos, UCLA Chicana/o Studies alumna, as the Younger)
When: February 26, 2026
Where: Northwest Campus Auditorium, UCLA

Organized by the UCLA Center for Musical Humanities in partnership with the Dean of Social Sciences and the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies
Co-sponsored by The Center for 17th & 18th Century Studies, the Chicano Studies Research Center, and the Center for the Study of Women/Barbara Streisand Center
Free and open to the public, but all attendees, including participants and audience members, must register online. Lunch and reception will be provided for registered guests only.
“Otro Corazón 3: Queering Sor Juana” builds on past symposia organized by Alicia Gaspar de Alba in her “Corazón” series,1 and is offered as part of a year-long celebration of her 32-year academic career at UCLA, focusing on her lifetime of research and creative engagement with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 17th-century Mexican nun/poet/scholar who is hailed all over the world as the “first feminist of the Americas” and the Mexican “Tenth Muse.”
OTRO CORAZON 3: QUEERING SOR JUANA
SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM
9 am: Registration
9:30 am: Welcome and Introductory Remarks by Professor Raymond Knapp and Dean Abel Valenzuela
10:30-12 noon: Panel 1. La Décima Musa: Classic Sor Juana
Speaker: Cesar Favila, UCLA
Speaker: Charlene Villaseñor Black, Oxford University
Speaker: Emilie Bergman, UC Berkeley
Moderator: Gabriela Rodriguez Gomez (UCLA Chicana/o Studies PhD)
12-1 pm: Boxed Lunch
1:30-3 pm: Panel 2. “La Peor de Todas”: Sapphic Sor Juana
Speaker: Emma Perez, University of Arizona
Speaker: Alma López, UCLA
Speaker: Carla Lucero, Independent Opera Composer
Moderator: Ariel Hernandez (UCLA Chicana/o Studies grad student)
Coffee Break
4-5:30 pm: Performances
4 Arias from “JUANA”– A Spanish-language chamber opera based on the historical novel, Sor Juana’s Second Dream3 by Alicia Gaspar de Alba. Music by Carla Lucero.
Libretto by Carla Lucero and Alicia Gaspar de Alba
Showcase Program
“Fili”, performed by Meagan Martin (Mezzo-Soprano) as Sor Juana
“Hombres necios” performed by Meagan Martin and Maria Valdes-Gomez (Soprano) as la Condesa
“Sin vos” (abbreviated version) performed by Maria Valdes-Gomez
“Amor eterno” performed by Meagan Martin and Maria Valdes-Gomez
Accompanied by pianist, Peter Walsh
Screening of “Sin Vos” video (opera on film, recorded at the Ebell of Los Angeles, sung by Michelle Allie Drever as la Condesa. María Dominique Lopez portrays Sor Juana. Film created by Carson Gilmore of Vox Visceralis. Music recorded in Prague with BNO Chamber Orchestra through PARMA Recordings and is available on Navona Records)
Q&A: Carla Lucero and Alicia Gaspar de Alba
6 pm: Reception

Lecture: Intersectional Environmental Justice with Amelia Moore, Cornell University
2026-02-26 12:30 - 14:00 | 352 Haines Hall
Where: 353 Haines Hall
When: Thursday, February 26th, 2026 from 12:15pm-1:45pm
In this talk, Professor Moore will share her ideas about how engaged scholars can utilize intersectional environmental justice theory and praxis to combat our era of political polarization, ecological precarity, generational social inequity, and planetary uncertainty. Drawing examples from two decades of inter and anti-disciplinary island-based research, she describes both problematic and promising forms of socioecological knowledge production, the frameworks that can inform our methodologies, and the implications of this work for the future.

Lecture: Kinship as Method: Rethinking Ethics, Collaboration, and Knowledge Production in Anthropology
2026-03-12 13:00 - 14:30 | Haines 352
Where: 353 Haines Hall
When: Thursday, March 12th, 2026 from 1 pm-2:30 pm
Lunch provided.
This lecture examines how long-term Indigenous collaboration in Papua New Guinea unsettles conventional anthropological approaches to ethics, method, and authorship. Grounded in kinship, reciprocity, and relational accountability, the work challenges extractive research models, short-term field engagements, and institutionalized ethics frameworks that separate knowledge production from moral obligation and social life. By treating kinship not as metaphor but as a methodological and ethical infrastructure, the lecture proposes alternative forms of collaboration, co-authorship, consent, and responsibility. These practices extend anthropology’s commitments to decolonial scholarship by reconfiguring what counts as evidence, expertise, and accountability in engaged environmental research.

Spring Book Swap + Books to Jails Drive
2026-03-17 - 2026-03-18
When: Tuesday March 17 – Wednesday, March 18, 10 am- 2 pm
Where: CSW|Streisand Center Office, 1500 Public Affairs (Located across from Jimmy’s Coffee House)
Join us for the CSW|Streisand Center Spring Book Swap! Bring a wrapped book, add a hint note, and swap with others!

Additionally, donate a popular book to LA County Jails in partnership with LA County Library as a part of our Books to Jails Drive.

What kinds of books to donate to the Books to Jails Drive (per LA County Library Guidelines)

Fantasy novels
Adventure novels
Mystery novels
Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels
Spiritual books
Poetry
Self-help books
Books in Spanish

Donation guidelines

NO hardcovers – ONLY paperback books
NO textbooks or academic books
NO depictions or descriptions on how to commit crimes
MUST be in good condition / shape

Learn more about our mini library and the books to jails partnership.

"Nakba as Wounding Ecology" with Dr. Sherena Razek
2026-04-02 12:00 - 13:45 | Haines 352
Culture, Power, Social Change presents “Nakba as Wounding Ecology” with Dr. Sherena Razek, President’s and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLA, Gender Studies.
When: Thursday, April 2
Lunch: 12 pm. Talk: 12:15 – 1:45 pm
Where: Haines Hall 352
No registration required. First come, first served for lunch.
Join a talk by Dr. Sherena Razek, Nakba as Wounding Ecology, with lunch provided.
In this talk, Sherena reflects on how the Palestinian condition can reshape the way we understand the climate crisis, approaching the Nakba as a form of “wounding ecology.” Moving across land and body, symbol and materiality, she brings together questions of settler colonialism, indigenous resistance, and environmental catastrophe in ways that highlight their deep interconnectedness and urgency.
Dr. Sherena Razek is a diasporic Palestinian feminist educator, scholar, activist, and labor organizer. She is currently a President’s and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Gender Studies at UCLA and earned her PhD in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University. Her research engages Palestinian visual culture, anti-imperialist struggle, and decolonial feminist ecologies, and her writing has appeared in The Journal of Palestine Studies, Women & Performance, InVisible Culture, and Social Text.

Conversation with Sara Porkalob
2026-04-06 15:30 - 17:00 | East Melnitz Hall, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, 235 Charles E Young Dr N, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
When: Monday, April 6, 3:30 – 5 pm
Where: East Melnitz Hall 302

Join us for a causal conversation with playwright and performer Sara Porkalob, whose work explores Filipina-American identity, family history, and intergenerational storytelling. The discussion will focus on Dragon Mama, the second installment of The Dragon Cycle, following students’ viewing at the Geffen Playhouse.

Gender, Criminalization, Authoritarianism, and Agency with Andrea Ritchie
2026-04-08 11:00 - 12:30 | Rolfe 2125
When: April 8th from 11:00AM -12:30PM
Where: Rolfe 2125
Join us for a powerful conversation on gender criminalization, authoritarianism, and agency with Andrea Ritchie. This event will explore how systems of policing and surveillance disproportionately impact marginalized communities while examining the broader rise of authoritarian practices.
Andrea Ritchie is a writer, lawyer, and activist for women of color, especially LGBTQ women of color, who have been victims of police violence. Drawing on her extensive work as a scholar, organizer, and author, Ritchie will unpack the ways in which gender is used as a tool of control within legal and social systems.

UCLA Center for Reproductive Science, Health and Education Distinguished Speaker Series ft. Teresa K. Woodruff
2026-04-08 16:00 | CNSI Auditorium
Where: California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), UCLA Campus

When: Wednesday, April 8th at 4pm PT
Teresa K. Woodruff, Ph.D. is a leader in higher education and an internationally recognized biologist specializing in reproductive science. Woodruff is president emerita of Michigan StateUniversity (MSU) and MSU Research Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Obstetrics,Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology as well as in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at MSU. In 2006, she coined the term “oncofertility” to describe the merging of two fields: oncology and fertility preservation. Working at the national level, Woodruff championed a new National Institutes of Health Policy mandating the inclusion of both male and female biological variables in fundamental research. As a leading research scientist, teacher and mentor, Woodruff was awarded the National Medal of Science byPresident Joe Biden in 2025 and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science
RSVP Here

Dreaming Together: California Student Survivors Reimagining Campus Responses to Sexual Violence
2026-04-10 10:00 - 12:00 | Royce Hall
Event Video

Event Details
Where: Royce 314 + Zoom
When: Friday, April 10th from 10:00 AM-12:00 PM PT
Survivors + Allies is a UCLA-student organization within the CSW|Barbra Streisand Center dedicated to advocating with and for survivors of sexual violence and sexual harassment (SVSH). Over the past year, we conducted a mixed-methods research study across California college campuses, including the University of California (UC), California State University (CSU), and community college systems, to better understand the conditions that enable or prevent student-survivor healing.

Beyond the Concrete: A Conversation About the Lost Art of Letter Writing with John Rodriguez
2026-04-14 16:00 - 17:00 | Virtual
When: April 14, 2026 at 4 pm PST
Where: Virtual
John Rodriguez is a UCLA alumnus whose sentence was commuted by the California Governor in 2017 after he discovered a life-changing passion for education while incarcerated. Today, he serves as the Education and Communications Manager at Root & Rebound, leveraging storytelling to bring visibility to overlooked narratives. John dreams of returning to prison someday—not as an inmate, but as a teacher with the power to help others find their way out through education. Prabhat Gautam will be introducing and interviewing John Rodriguez.
The event is part of a Fiat Lux Seminar “Law, Justice, Literary Production, and Education Behind Bar” in the Department of English. This talk is co-sponsored by the CSW|Streisand Center.
All all welcome to attend via zoom.
Meeting ID: 927 8244 7447
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Thinking Gender 2026: Feminist and Queer Ecologies
2026-04-17 | James West Alumni Center, 325 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Thinking Gender 2026
36th Annual Graduate Student Research Conference
“Feminist and Queer Ecologies”
Friday, April 17, 2026
James West Alumni Center, UCLA Campus
View Conference Program and Schedule
Watch Videos from Thinking Gender 2026

Join us for a day of graduate student presentations highlighting innovative research at the intersections of gender, sexuality, environment, and justice. The conference will feature keynote speaker Cutcha Risling Baldy (Cal Poly Humboldt; NAS Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab & Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute), whose work centers Indigenous feminisms, land relations, and food sovereignty.
“Feminist and Queer Ecologies,” explores how environments and ecologies are shaped, understood, and contested through relations of sex, gender, and sexuality. The theme also considers how feminist and queer theorists, artists, and organizers have drawn on ecological processes and environmental knowledge to build new insights, movements, and practices.
Gendered and colonial ideas of wilderness, domesticity, and reproduction have historically shaped landscapes and environmental policy. At the same time, feminist and queer methodologies—from place-based storytelling to multimodal practice—offer critical tools for climate resilience, environmental justice, and community well-being. Around the world, social movements resisting environmental injustice—from Standing Rock to Flint, from the Everglades to rural India—have been led by women and gender-expansive people. Climate change and climate justice continue to affect communities differentially along lines of gender, sexuality, race, and class, revealing how struggles for ecological flourishing are inseparable from feminist and queer justice.
Feminist and queer ecologies demand multidisciplinary collaboration. This year’s theme invites environmental scientists, humanists, social scientists, artists, organizers, and practitioners to come together across methods, disciplines, temporalities, species, and geographies. It encourages experimentation with scientific inquiry, ethnography, storytelling, political theory, environmental history, modeling, and other forms of knowledge-making and truth-telling.

Conference Keynote:
“Indigenous Women Know How to Save the World: Framing a California Indigenous Ecofeminist Ethic.”

This talk builds a California Indigenous ecofeminist ethic grounded in place, fugitivity, resistance, and humor. It asks what it means to rethink how we talk about climate change and to recognize how land, water, and more than human relatives model resilience, refusal, and justice. By examining examples from California such as the damming, diversion, and even paving over of rivers, this talk argues that environmental devastation is not a future fear but an ongoing history that Indigenous peoples have survived and theorized for generations. Green colonialism, conservation land grabs, and the expectation that Indigenous communities must solve climate change while contributing the least to it exposes the absurdity and gaslighting in contemporary environmental discourse and policy. At the same time, Indigenous women who have long been leaders in ecological knowledge and restoration are kept busy navigating patriarchal structures rather than being supported as the scientific and cultural leaders they already are. Ultimately, this talk explores how the world around us is already feminist, already resistant, and already offering models for collective thriving beyond capitalism, patriarchy, and extraction. Indigenous peoples carry structures and methodologies that are sustainable, relational, and deeply grounded in place. We have lived them. And we are still building these futures now.
Cutcha Risling Baldy, Associate Professor of Native American Studies at Cal Poly Humboldt researches Indigenous feminisms, California Indians, Environmental Justice, Traditional Ecological Knowledge and decolonization. She is also the Co-Director of the NAS Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab & Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute.
In 2025 Dr. Risling Baldy along with Co-Director Dr. Kaitlin Reed were awarded the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for their work with the lab. Her book: We Are Dancing For You: Native feminisms and the revitalization of women’s coming-of-age ceremonies received “Best First Book in Native American and Indigenous Studies” at the 2019 Native American Indigenous Studies Association Conference. She received her Ph.D. in Native American Studies at UC Davis; her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from San Diego State University; and her B.A. in Psychology with a Specialization in Health and Development from Stanford University. She is also the volunteer Executive Director for the Native Women’s Collective, a nonprofit organization that focuses on the continued revitalization of Native American arts and culture. She is Hupa, Karuk, and Yurok and enrolled in the Hoopa Valley Tribe.
Thinking Gender Blog Posts

Fire Tender Film Screening
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
12:15–1:15 PM | CSW|Streisand Center
Join us for a screening of Fire Tender, directed by Roni Jo Draper (Yurok), followed by a discussion.
Fire Tender tells the story of Yurok tribal members returning to traditional fire practices as an essential form of land stewardship. The film centers on Margo Robbins—grandmother, cultural educator, healer, and Indigenous fire practitioner—who is leading efforts to restore Yurok fire sovereignty: the right to use fire for tribal land care, a practice outlawed under settler colonial policies.

Cosponsors
African American Studies Department
American Indian Studies Center
American Indian Studies Department
Anthropology Department
Asian American Studies Center
Asian American Studies Department
Bixby Center to Advance Sexual and Reproductive Health Equity
Center for Community Engagement
Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health
Chicana/o and Central American Studies Department
Chicano Studies Research Center
Critical Race Studies Program (Law)
Department of Geography
Disability Studies
English Department
Gender Studies Department
Graduate Division
Humanities Division
Information Studies Department
Institute of American Cultures
Institute of Society and Genetics
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin
International Institute
Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center
Labor Center
Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies
LGBTQ Campus Resource Center
LGBTQ Studies Program
Luskin Center for Innovation
Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies
School of Engineering
School of the Arts and Architecture
School of Theater, Film and Television
Social Welfare Department
Sociology Department
Water Resources Group
Friendly Reminder: Seating is first-come, first-served. Due to frequent no-shows, we overbook our events; a reservation does not guarantee a seat. Please arrive early. We appreciate your understanding.

Book Event: Queer Throughlines: Spaces of Queer Activism in South Korea and the Korean Diaspora
2026-04-21 14:00 - 16:00 | 10383 Bunche Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Prof. Ju Hui Judy Han (UCLA) joined by Prof. Giancarlo Cornejo Salinas (UCLA), Prof. Grace Kyung-won Hong (UCLA), Laura Hyun Yi Kang (UC Irvine), and Dr. Yeong Ran Kim
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Bunche Hall, Room 10383

About the Book
Queer Throughlines draws on years of direct participation, interviews, and ethnography to examine transnational Korean LGBTQ+ activism since the 1990s. Han maps the sites and routes of leftist and queer political movements, highlighting challenges posed by Christian conservatives in both South Korea and the United States. The book uses the concept of “throughlines” to weave together a web of movement stories across time and space: a coalition of Los Angeles-based LGBTQ+ activists and allies fighting an anti-gay petition campaign led by Korean immigrant churches; queer activists involved in anti-war protests in Seoul; progressive clergy embracing inclusivity and risking heresy charges and excommunication; and queer and trans activists refusing to be sidelined form visions of political change underway. These moments do not always line up in a straightforward narrative of victory of progress, yet they create powerful lines of solidarity, community, and kinship.
Moderated by Grace Kyung-won Hong (Asian American Studies and Gender Studies at UCLA, it will begin with brief comments by Ju Hui Judy Han (Gender Studies at UCLA) and then shift to an open ended dialogue among panelists, with Giancarlo Cornejo Salinas (Gender Studies at UCLA), Laura Hyun Yi Kang (Gender & Sexuality Studies at UC Irvine), and Yeong Ran Kim.
Discussion
Moderated by Prof. Grace Kyung-won Hong, Dept. of Asian American Studies, UCLA

Our Universities on the Brink: The Institution and the Commons
2026-04-23 12:00 - 13:30 | Haines 352
CULTURE, POWER, SOCIAL CHANGE PRESENTS…
Charlie Hale, Dean of Social Sciences,
UC Santa Barbara
Our Universities on the Brink: The Institution and the Commons
Thursday 4.23.26
Haines Hall 352
12:15 PM
This paper builds from the premise that, to confront the multiple forces of disruption, all who inhabit universities are called upon to engage critical university studies. This is especially crucial for those who belong to the imagined “we” that Dean Hale invokes at the outset, since “our” efforts to advance and defend an alternative social purpose of the public university are most vulnerable to these forces. His analysis explores the general contours and contradictions of this work, and more specifically, what happens when the efforts are supported by the dean’s office.
Both the analysis, and his ideas for possible ways forward, rest on a distinction between the institution and the commons. This notion of the commons offers a means to fortify our defenses and inspire a collective sense of purpose as we engage in a necessary, and hopefully short-lived, strategic retreat.
Charlie Hale is the author of Resistance and Contradiction: Miskitu Indians and the Nicaraguan State, 1894-1987 (1994); and “Más que un indio…” Racial Ambivalence and Neoliberal Multiculturalism in Guatemala (2006); editor of Engaging Contradictions: Theory, Politics and Methods of Activist Scholarship (2008); co-editor (with Lynn Stephen) of Otros Saberes: Collaborative Research with Black and Indigenous Peoples in Latin America (2014); author of articles on activist scholarship, identity politics, racism, land rights and territorial autonomy, resistance to neoliberalism among Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples of Latin America. Director of LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections (UT Austin, 2009-16) and President of the Latin American Studies Association (2006-7).

"Dolores": Free Spring Film Screening by CSW|Streisand Center
2026-04-23 14:00 - 15:30 | 1500 Public Affairs
When: Thursday, April 23rd from 2-3:30pm
Where: Center for the Study of Women | Streisand Center, 1500 Public Affairs
Join us at CSW|Streisand Center for our Spring Film Screening of Dolores.
Dolores (2017) is a documentary directed by Peter Bratt that chronicles the life of Dolores Huerta, the undervalued co-founder of the United Farm Workers union. The film highlights her crucial role in fighting for labor rights, racial justice, and feminism, while exploring her life as a mother of 11 and her battle against sexism.
This event is FREE of cost! Additionally, popcorn and tea will be provided at the screening. We would love to see you there!

Political Ontology of the Closet with Sinan Birdal, Gender and Diversity Researcher, Freie Universitat Berlin
2026-04-30 12:30 - 14:00 | Rolfe Hall 2125
Political Ontology of the Closet: Elite Minorities and Sectarian Majorities in the Wilhemine Empire
When: Thursday, April 30, 12:30-1:45 pm
Where: 2125 Rolfe Hall
This talk develops a political ontology of minority articulation by examining divisions within the 19th century homosexual movement under conditions of repression. Sedgwick’s analysis of this movement emphasized the epistemological impasse between minoritizing and universalizing discourses of sexuality.
This talk shifts the focus from epistemology to political ontology.
Drawing on historical reconstruction and critical discourse analysis, the talk examines divisions within the German homosexual movement by focusing on the political thought and activism of Benedict Friedlaender, who attempted to mobilize a political field linking SPD revisionists, extra-parliamentary socialist critics, and left liberals in opposition to his main rival Hirschfeld’s SPD-loyal reform strategy. Friedlaender’s interventions demonstrate how competing sexual epistemologies reflected movement cleavages and contending strategies of minority and majority building. In this context, the talk develops a theory of political articulation by analyzing the relationship between party politics, social movement fragmentation, and coalition

Dean’s Lecture in Humanistic Inquiry: Kate Manne on Sensitivity and Survival
2026-04-30 16:00 - 18:00 | Royce 314
The Inaugural Dean’s Lecture in Humanistic Inquiry
Thursday, April 30
4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Royce Hall Room 314
Free admission. Reception with light refreshments to follow lecture. Advance registration strongly recommended.
Presented by the UCLA College Division of Humanities
The Dean’s Lecture in Humanistic Inquiry is a biennial lecture dedicated to exploring cross-cutting topics and ideas in humanistic research and examining how humanistic inquiry connects to the most pressing questions of the day.
About our inaugural speaker
Kate Manne is a professor at the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University. She specializes in moral, social and feminist philosophy, and has written three books: DOWN GIRL: The Logic of Misogyny (Oxford University Press, 2018), ENTITLED: How Male Privilege Hurts Women (Crown, 2020) and UNSHRINKING: How to Face Fatphobia (Crown, 2024). In addition to her academic work, she regularly writes opinion pieces and essays for a wider audience, including in outlets such as The New York Times, The Cut, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation and Time. She writes a Substack newsletter, More to Hate, exploring misogyny, fatphobia and their intersection.
About Professor Manne’s lecture
Sensitivity and Survival
Accusations of oversensitivity are nowadays very common. Are they typically warranted? Is there in fact a scourge of snowflakes?
In this lecture, Kate Manne will distinguish three things that are commonly meant by “oversensitivity”: over-identification of instances, over-extension of the relevant concepts and over-reactions to the relevant harms or forms of injustice, such as sexism, misogyny and racism. Her talk will draw on two rich humanistic traditions: feminist epistemology and non-ideal theory.
While acknowledging that oversensitivity of all three kinds can and does occur, Manne will highlight and explore the comparatively under-emphasized converse dangers: the under-identification of instances, the under-extension of concepts, and under-reactions or the undermining of warranted reactions, respectively. In view of this, she concludes that what is called oversensitivity is often simply sensitivity: a normatively valuable and justified way of reacting to harms and injustices that often go under the radar in society as we know it.
Please visit this page to register.
Event cosponsors
Thank you to our cosponsors: UCLA Department of Philosophy, UCLA Department of Gender Studies, UCLA Center for the Study of Women | Streisand Center, and UCLA Program in Experimental Critical Theory
