Center for the Study of Women

Faculty Writing Retreat: May 2025
2025-05-09 10:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hershey Salon
Do you want to block out a day for writing and contemplation? The quarterly 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.
When: Friday, May 9, 2025, 10 am-4 pm
Where: Hershey Hall Salon Room 158
On-site space is limited. Virtual option available.
RSVP Here:
https://facultywritingretreat2025.eventbrite.com

"From Ground Zero" Screening
2025-05-09 14:00 - 17:00
Where: Kinsey Pavilion 1220B
When: Friday, May 9, 2 pm
Join us for a screening of From Ground Zero, an anthology project comprised of 22 short films created by filmmakers from Gaza. Launched by renowned Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, the initiative was created during the current 2023/2024 conflict and aims to provide a platform for young Palestinian artists to express themselves through their craft.
Each film, ranging in length from three to six minutes, presents a unique perspective on the current reality in Gaza. The project captures the diverse experiences of life in the Palestinian enclave, including the challenges, tragedies, and moments of resilience faced by its people. Using a mix of genres including fiction, documentary, docu-fiction, animation, and experimental cinema, From Ground Zero presents a rich diversity of stories that reflect the sorrow, joy and hope inherent in Gazan life.

Symposium – Women and Goddesses in Jainism
2025-05-23 08:00 - 17:00 | Hershey Salon
Photo credit: Samyak Modi
When: Friday, May 23
Where: Hershey Hall Salon
Throughout the history of Jainism, one of the world’s oldest living religions, Jain women have played a crucial role. Jain renouncers, whose self-denying lifestyle is revered as the highest ideal, are predominantly female, while Jain laywomen tend to be significantly more religiously active than their male counterparts. In this symposium, speakers will provide a range of perspectives on human and divine womanhood in Jain life and thought. Talks will cover the definition of gender in Jain philosophical texts, Jain goddess-worship and changing gender roles in the contemporary Jain diaspora.
RSVP here for this in-person event.
Register here for a Zoom link.

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE:
2:00 – 2:05: Welcome and introduction, Anahita Hoose (UCLA), symposium organizer & moderator
2:05 – 2:45: Ana Bajželj (UC Riverside): Defining Gender in Śvetāmbara Texts
2:45 – 3:30: Venu Mehta (Claremont School of Theology): Reconceptualizing “Goddess” in Jainism: Devotional Practices for the Jain Goddess Padmāvatī among the Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains in Gujarat
3:30 – 3:45: Break
3:45 – 4:30: Shivani Bothra (Cal State Long Beach): Spiritual Equality or Social Boundaries: Redefining Gender Roles in Diasporic Jainism
4:30 – 5:00: Concluding Discussion

SYMPOSIUM PRESENTERS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THEIR PAPERS:
Ana Bajželj is Associate Professor and Shrimad Rajchandra Endowed Chair in Jain Studies in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of California, Riverside. She was previously a research fellow at the University of Rajasthan and the Polonsky Academy (Van Leer Jerusalem Institute), and she taught at the University of Ljubljana and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on Jain philosophy, particularly metaphysics, ethics, and philosophy of mind. She is the author of The Nature of Change in Jaina Philosophy (Ljubljana University Press, 2016, in Slovenian) and the co-author of Insistent Life: Principles for Bioethics in the Jain Tradition (UC Press, 2021). She is currently working on a monograph study of the Tattvārthasūtra and its commentaries.
“Defining Gender in Śvetāmbara Texts”
This presentation analyzes Jain canonical definitions of the term “man” (puruṣa) from a set of standpoints listed in the Sthānāṅga (Ṭhāṇaṃga). These include (1) name (nāman), representation (sthāpanā), and potentiality (dravya); (2) knowledge (jñāna), view (darśana), and conduct (caritra); (3) sexual orientation (veda), mark (cihna), and (verbal) expression (abhilāpa); and (4) superiority (uttamapuruṣa), mediocrity (madhyamapuruṣa), and inferiority (jaghanyapuruṣa), each with three further subcategories. The presentation explores the semantic range of the term indicated by these standpoints by examining similar passages in other Śvetāmbara texts and considers its significance within the broader context of the Jain discussions on gender.
Dr. Venu Mehta is an Assistant Professor of Jainism and Comparative Spiritualities at the Claremont School of Theology. Her research primarily focuses on Jainism, with a specialization in Jain regional-vernacular devotional literature, narratives, and practices. Her doctoral dissertation examines the devotion to the Jain goddess Padmāvatī among Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains in Gujarat, highlighting the interplay between regional devotional expressions and broader Jain theological frameworks.
Beyond her work on Jain goddess traditions, Dr. Mehta’s scholarship extends to the Jain concept of forgiveness and the intersections of aparigraha (non-possessiveness) with human dignity, sustainability, and Gandhian economic thought. Her recent research and publications also engage in Jain-Hindu comparative theologies and spiritualities, particularly in relation to goddess traditions.
In addition to her expertise in Jain studies, Dr. Mehta teaches courses on South Asian religious traditions, comparative spiritualities, and gender and women in spiritual practices. Her methodological approach integrates ethnographic research with textual analysis, emphasizing the lived experiences, devotional expressions, and ritual practices of Jain communities.
“Reconceptualizing “Goddess” in Jainism: Devotional Practices for the Jain Goddess Padmāvatī among the Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains in Gujarat”
This presentation explores how Śvetāmbar Mūrtipūjak Jains in Gujarat reconceptualize the goddess Padmāvatī through their devotional practices, positioning her as a central female form of divinity within Jain religious tradition. Though Jainism primarily emphasizes the worship of the Tīrthaṅkars, Padmāvatī, a śāsanadevatā (guardian deity) and yakṣī of Pārśvanāth, has been accorded exceptional devotion. By examining vernacular literature, narratives, and regional practices from the late sixteenth century to contemporary times, I argue that Jains in Gujarat have actively shaped a distinct space for goddess worship, elevating Padmāvatī from an attendant deity to Śakti, the Great Goddess, and the Mother Goddess. This process of reimagining Padmāvatī involves a synthesis of universal Jain values with regional devotional expressions, contributing to the dynamics of democratization, universalization, and regionalization in Jain religious life. Lay Jains play a crucial role in this transformation, engaging with Padmāvatī’s legacy through non-esoteric devotional practices and literature, thus reaffirming her place within their religious framework. Ultimately, this presentation highlights how Padmāvatī’s evolving identity reflects broader patterns of Jain devotionalism, redefining the boundaries of feminine divinity within the Jain tradition in Gujarat.
Shivani Bothra is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at California State University, Long Beach. Before this, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Rice University in Houston, USA, and taught as a lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She earned her doctorate from the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Her focus is South Asian traditions, Jainism, and Nonviolence. Shivani’s primary research areas are religious education and transnational Jainism, emphasizing Contemporary Jains.
“Spiritual Equality or Social Boundaries: Redefining Gender Roles in Diasporic Jainism”
This paper critically examines how gender roles in Jain diasporic communities are being redefined or reframed in ways distinct from traditional Indian contexts. How do education, modern professions, business ethics, and transnational networks influence the agency and status of Jain laywomen? In what ways do diasporic Jain women navigate their identities, negotiating between Indian religious traditions and evolving feminist discourses in their new sociocultural environments? Drawing on structured interviews with early Jain diaspora women, this research aims to shed light on the evolving spiritual and social roles of Jain women in a transnational context, assessing the extent to which diasporic Jainism fosters new models of gender participation and leadership.
This event is presented by the UCLA Center for the Study of Religion. It is co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for the Study of Women | Barbra Streisand Center.

Fighting Two Battles: Inside California’s Inmate Firefighting Program
2025-05-27 19:30 - 21:30 | UCLA Hammer Museum – Galleries, 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, United States
When: Tuesday May 27, 2025, 7:30 PM
Where: Hammer Museum
Learn more.
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. Box office opens one hour before the event.
Among those fighting the L.A. fires earlier this year were incarcerated individuals participating in California’s controversial inmate firefighting program. This forum examines the program from the perspectives of formerly incarcerated firefighters, including issues around compensation and potential program reforms.
Moderator Romarilyn Ralston, a black feminist abolitionist who served 23 years in prison and now leads the Justice Education Center for the Claremont Colleges, will guide a discussion with panelists Cody Ridley, Lead Captain of the Golden Eagles Hotshots at Sycuan Indian Reservation and a former inmate firefighter; Brooks Tims, combat veteran, EMT, and Lead Wildland Firefighter with the inmate firefighters program; and Amika Mota, Executive Director of Sister Warriors Freedom Coalition and former incarcerated firefighter who authored a moving op-ed in Teen Vogue on her experiences.

Photo caption: A line of inmates dressed in orange firefighting gear, digging a trench Inmate firefighters dig a containment line as they battle the Palisades Fire on January 11, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

Cristina Pérez Díaz to present “From the Founding of the Country” on May 29
2025-05-29 17:00 - 19:00 | Dodd Room 248
The UCLA Departments of Classics, English, Spanish & Portuguese, Chicano/a & Central American Studies, as well as the Center for the Study of Women proudly present a reading of “From the Founding of the Country” by classicist, writer, and translator Cristina Pérez Díaz (University of Puerto Rico) followed by a conversation with UCLA Professor Patrícia Lino (Department of Spanish & Portuguese) on May 29 in Dodd 248 at 5pm.

Book Swap and Mini Library Launch
2025-06-02 10:30 - 2025-06-04 16:30 | Center for the Study of Women, 1500 Public Affairs
Join us for the CSW|Streisand Center Spring Book Swap! Bring a wrapped book or wrap one at our center; add a hint note, and swap with others. We will provide wrapping paper and gift tags for adding yours to the mix. Any genre is welcome.
We are also excited to announce the launch of our new mini library! Visitors are welcome to donate and check out books around social justice.
Come and enjoy a free book, refreshments, stickers, and good vibes!
When: Monday June 2-Wednesday, June 4
10:30 am-4:30 pm
Where: CSWIStreisand Center Office

Activists-in-Residence Closing Reception
2025-06-03 17:00 - 19:00 | James West Alumni Center, 325 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join us for the UCLA Activists-in-Residence closing reception.
When: Tuesday, June 3 · 5 – 7pm PDT
Where: James West Alumni Center 325 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles, CA 90095
RSVP here.
With a shared commitment to “turn the university inside out” and invite artists, community organizers, and movement leaders to undertake power-shifting scholarship and pedagogy focused on social change, the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy, the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, cityLAB-UCLA, and the UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Barbra Streisand Center are pleased to celebrate the 2025 UCLA Activists-in-Residence: Lupita Limón Corrales, Kaya Dantzler, Kari Okubo, Romarilyn Ralston, and James Suazo.
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Parking information: The nearest parking lot is Parking Structure 8 (501 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095). Pay-by-space parking is available on level 4 (rooftop) of Parking Structure 8. Structure 8 has a pedestrian bridge on the 3rd level.
Only cash and credit cards may be used at campus payment stations/kiosks. Pay stations accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express for your convenience. Pay stations only accept $1, $5, and $10 bills and do not give change in the form of cash or credit. Park in an unmarked space and place the permit on your car dashboard so it is visible.

Live Performance: Miguel Gutierrez's "Super Nothing"
2025-06-13 - 2025-06-14
Super Nothing Dance Performance
CAP/UCLA presents
Super Nothing
Friday June 13 and Saturday June 14
Freud Playhouse
245 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Information/Tickets
What can a dance do to confront the constant grief that we experience in our lives? Super Nothing presents four dancers whose actions and choreographic relationships are analogues for how people support each other to survive. Interdependence takes multiple forms, as the performers move through representations of the past to create a blueprint for a new future. This piece extends Gutierrez’s interest over the past few years in creating “choreography for the end of the world.”
Choreography/Direction Miguel Gutierrez
Performer/Collaborators: Jay Carlon, Evelyn Lilian Sanchez Narvaez, Justin Faircloth, Wendell Gray II
Lighting Designer: Carolina Ortiz (UCLA Alum!)
Composer: Rosana Cabán, with contributions from Miguel Gutierrez
Costume Designer: Jeremy Wood
Dramaturgical Assistance: Stephanie Acosta
Production Stage Manager: Cat Urquhart
Management: Michelle Fletcher

Auto-Correct: Fantasies & Failures of AI Ethics in the Driverless Car
2025-09-08 11:00 - 12:30 | Murphy Hall 3312
Join us for a book talk and workshop.

Book Talk
When: Monday, September 8 · 11 am – 12:30 pm PDT
Where: DataX, Murphy Hall 3312, 410 Charles E Young Drive East Los Angeles, CA 90095
RSVP for the book talk here.

This is a book talk by Dr Maya Indira Ganesh (Leverhulme Center for Futures of Intelligence, Cambridge) based on her first monograph. The “trolley problem” remains a useful exercise in drawing out the differences between utilitarian and deontological approaches to ethics in analytic philosophy. However, the thought experiment also determined imagining what AI-infused artefacts should be capable of, suggesting that ethical decision-making becomes a data-driven enterprise rather than a human, social, or individualised practice. Maya Indira Ganesh tracks the language, materiality, and culture of epistemic tools that establish safety and automobility as problems to be solved by the driverless car, examining outputs of AI systems versus what constitutes our social and technological presents and futures.
Workshop
When: Tuesday, September 9 · 10 am – 1 pm PDT
Where: Center for the Study of Women|Barbra Streisand Center, 1500 public affairs building, UCLA (Entry from Jimmy’s Coffeeshop side) Los Angeles, CA 90095
RSVP for the workshop.
Join us for a free workshop on AI, Time & Futurity at UCLA with Dr Maya Indira Ganesh (Leverhulme CFI, UK). Time haunts AI. An origin story in the summer of 1955 that has acquired the status of myth and fact; geopolitical races; the contradictions and entanglements of longtermist and accelerationist ideologies; law and regulation that fail to keep up; promised breakthroughs from the driverless car to superintelligence that fail to arrive, or seem eternally just around the corner. Computational time is also infrastructural: the lag in software updates pushed to the cloud and then to fleets of driverless cars and mobile phones (Mattern, 2017). Temporality works unevenly affording ‘just in time’ deliveries for the busy, but at the cost of bio-social control of delivery workers and on-demand mobility service providers (Sharma, 2014).
Presented by:
UCLA Department of Information Studies
Cosponsored by:
UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Barbra Streisand Center

UCLA's True Bruin Welcome: Academic Open House
2025-09-24
When: Wednesday, September 24, 9 am – 4 pm
Where: 1500 Public Affairs Building

The main entrance is located on the south side of the Public Affairs Building, facing the north side of LuValle Commons (Jimmy’s Coffeeshop).

Join the Center for the Study of Women | Streisand Center for a day of exploration, learning, and connection at UCLA’s True Bruin Welcome! As part of the campus-wide Academic Open Houses, we invite you to stop by, meet our passionate staff, enjoy some snacks, and take a guided tour of our center. Discover opportunities to engage with groundbreaking research, explore academic funding options, and learn how we contribute to advancing gender equity and social justice.
Whether you’re a new student or returning, this is a great opportunity to connect with faculty, learn about our current projects, and find ways to get involved.

Faculty Writing Retreat: October
2025-10-10 10:00 - 16:00 | Hershey Salon
Friday, October 10
10 am – 4 pm Hershey Hall Salon (Room 158)
Register here.
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 November 14
Friday December 5
Friday February 20
Friday March 6
Friday May 15

SAHQ, DIRT, SHAHEED: Queer Poetics and Palestinian Resistance
2025-10-14 12:30 - 14:00 | Center for the Study of Women, 1500 Public Affairs
Date: Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Time: 12:30 – 2 pm
Location: Center for the Study of Women (map) 1500 Public Affairs
RSVP to recieve event updates.
Seating is first come. Lunch will be provided.
This talk uses a combination of poetry, research, and prose to consider some of the discursive and material facets of Palestinian liberation theories and practices, with special attention to forms of affective and embodied resistance.
Mejdulene Bernard Shomali is a queer Palestinian poet and associate professor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Williams College. She received an MA in Women’s Studies from the Ohio State University and a PhD in American Culture from the University of Michigan. Her research and creative writing occur at the intersection of transnational feminist thought, queer of color critique, and Arab and diasporic Arab cultural production.
Meidulene was a fellow in the Institute for Citizens and Scholars and the Cornell Society for the Humanities. She is the author of Between Banat: Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives (Duke University Press 2023) which won the 2024 Association for Middle East Women’s Studies book award honorable mention. She is also the author of the poetry chapbook agriculture of grief: prayers for my father’s dementia (Finishing Line Press 2024). Her current research concerns affect and embodiment in Palestinian resistance.
Cosponsored by: Center for the Study of Women, UCLA English, UCLA LGBTQ Studies, UCLA Asian American Studies Center, UCLA Gender Studies, UCLA American Indian Studies Center, UCLA Asian American Studies Department

Center for Reproductive Science, Health and Education (CRSHE) Distinguished Speaker Series
2025-10-20 16:00 - 17:00 | California Nanosystems Institute, UCLA
Attend the UCLA Center for Reproductive Science, Health and Education (CRSHE) Distinguished Speaker Series featuring Diana E. Ramos.
When: Monday, October 20, 2025 4:00 p.m. PT
Where: California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). UCLA Campus
Register here.
Registration is required.Seating is first come, first served and is not guaranteed.
About the speaker : Dr. Diana E. Ramos, was appointed Surgeon General of California in 2022. She is avisionary public health leader dedicated to advancing the wellbeing of all communities. Dr. Ramoschampions efforts to address reproductive and maternal health outcomes, adverse childhood experiences,and mental health, shaping policies that leave a lasting impact across the state. As an alumna of UCLA’sFielding School of Public Health with more than three decades as an Obstetrician Gynecologist, Dr.Ramos has also held leadership roles at the local, state, and national levels. A recipient of the Latino SpiritAward and the Public Health Leadership Award, she is a powerful voice for health equity.

Barbra Streisand Center Annual Lecture feat. Timothy Snyder
2025-10-23 18:00 - 20:00 | California Nanosystems Institute, UCLA
Date: Thursday, October 23rd
Time: 6 pm, Reception to follow
Location: UCLA California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at 570 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles, CA 90095
Register to join virtually.
Talk
Timothy Snyder, Chair in Modern European History is giving a public lecture at UCLA CNSI on the topic, The Truth about Freedom: How Lies Oppress and How Facts Liberate. He is supported by the Temerty Endowment for Ukrainian Studies Director and is involved with Public History, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy University of Toronto. Additionally, Synder is the bestselling author of “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” and “On Freedom”. Copies of Timothy Snyder’s book “On Freedom” will be available for purchase and signature.
Panel
The talk will be followed by a panel discussion on the topic of Global Lessons on Authoritarianism and Resistance, featuring
Ju Hui Judy Han, Associate Professor, Gender Studies, UCLA
Shannon Speed, Director, American Indian Studies Center, Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Native American and Indigenous Affairs, Professor, American Indian Studies, Anthropology and Gender Studies, UCLA
Moderated by Jessica Cattelino, Director, UCLA Barbra Streisand Center

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

Academic Freedom and The Crisis of the Democratic University
2025-10-29 10:00 - 17:00
Date: October 29th, 2025
Time: 10am – 5pm
Location: Royce 314
Attend the Academic Freedom and The Criss of the Democratic University program, a symposium on higher education in honor of Michael Meranze.

"Wanda": Free Screening by UCLA Film & Television Archive
2025-11-02 19:00 - 22:00 | Billy Wilder Theater, James Bridges Theater
Date: Sunday, November 2nd
Time: 7pm
Location: Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum
UCLA Film & Television Archive is hosting a free screening of Wanda along with a Q&A and book signing with Elena Gorfinkel, author of “BFI Classics: Wanda,” moderated by Archive Research and Study Center Officer Maya Montañez Smukler.
In 1970, Wanda screened at the Venice Film Festival as the sole U.S. entry winning the International Critics Prize. Actor-turned-filmmaker, Barbara Loden, directed, produced and co-starred in the production of Wanda, also being her directorial debut. The film follows Loden in a quiet and captivating portrayal of an apathetic young woman on a journey through a bleak and rural Pennsylvanian landscape. On her filmmaking approach, Loden said, “I’ve got more movies in me, but they will have to be done my way. I’m not interested in entertaining people. I only want to do things that mean something to me, that I can say about a human being on film and then communicate that feeling to others.”
In her new book, Elena Gorfinkel draws on archival sources to trace the film’s feminist legacies, and its lasting influence on contemporary filmmakers, artists and writers.—Archive Research and Study Center Officer Maya Montañez Smukler
Cosponsored by: Center for the Study of Women

Embryonic and Fetal Rights? What it Would Mean for Pregnant People and Reproductive Rights, Health, and Research
2025-11-13 10:00 - 11:00
When: November 13, 10- 11 am PST
Where: Virtual. RSVP to attend.
Join a discussion featuring:
Professor Mary Ziegler
Panelist
UC Davis School of Law
Author, Personhood: The New Civil War Over Reproduction
Heather Shumaker
Panelist
Senior Director State Abortion Policy, National Women’s Law Center
Dr. Amander Clark
Panelist
Founding Director UCLA Center for Reproductive Science, Health, and Education
Diana Kasdan
Moderator
Legal and Policy Director, UCLA Law Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy
RSVP here
Cosponsors: CSW|Streisand Center, UCLA Network for Reproductive Health & Gender Equity, the Center for Reproductive Science, Health and Education (CRSHE), the Bixby Center, and the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy at UCLA Law.

Noura Erakat on Revisiting Zionism as a Form of Racism and Racial Discrimination
2025-11-13 17:30 - 18:30
When: Thursday, November 13 at 5:30 pm
Where: On the UCLA campus
RSVP for the address.
On November 10, 1975, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 3379 declaring Zionism as a Form of Racism and Racial Discrimination. A coalition of states introduced the resolution at the start of the 30th session of the General Assembly as an amendment to the Decade Against Racism in the context of Third World Revolt against imperialism; Palestinian liberation was central to this agenda. This lecture will explore the historical context that led to the introduction of this resolution, its drafting history, including racial theories of Zionism that were introduced during the deliberations as well as the intense procedural maneuvers that aimed to subvert it all together. Though a hard won victory, the PLO rescinded the resolution in 1991 as a precondition for entering the Oslo Accords. This discussion will both mark the 50th year anniversary of the resolution as well as its contemporary relevance.
Professor Erakat’s talk will be followed by a panel discussion with Professor Nour Joudah (Asian American Studies) and Professor Robin D.G. Kelley (History).
Bio:
Noura Erakat is Professor of Africana Studies and Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She is the author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019), which received the Palestine Book Award and the Bronze Medal for the Independent Publishers Book Award in Current Events/Foreign Affairs. In 2023, Noura co-chaired an Independent Task Force on the Application of National Security Memorandum-20 to Israel, a report documenting how U.S. arms to Israel have been used in violation of U.S. and international law and which was submitted to the White House. She is co-founding editor of Jadaliyya and an editorial board member of the Journal of Palestine Studies as well as Human Geography. She is a co-founding board member of the DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival. She has served as Legal Counsel for a Congressional Subcommittee in the US House of Representatives, as Legal Advocate for the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights, and as National Organizer and Legal Advocate of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. Noura has also produced video documentaries, including “Gaza In Context” and “Black Palestinian Solidarity.” Noura completed a non-resident fellowship of the Religious Literacy Project at Harvard Divinity School as well as a Mahmoud Darwish Visiting Professorship at Brown University. In 2022, she was selected as a Freedom Fellow by the Marguerite Casey Foundation. In 2025, the University of Ghent awarded the Amnesty International Chair in recognition of her contribution to human rights and scholarship.

Faculty Writing Retreat - November 2025
2025-11-14 10:00 - 16:00 | Hershey Salon
RSVP Here

Join CSW|Streisand Center for a day-long retreat where you can concentrate on your own work alongside like-minded colleagues.

Friday, November 14
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 December 5
Friday February 20
Friday March 6
Friday May 15

Beyond Sanctuary: UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy
2025-11-14 10:00 - 16:30
When: Friday, November 14th from 10am to 4:30pm
Where: 2355 Public Affairs Building, UCLA
RSVP Here
UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy presents “Beyond Sanctuary”, a series of dialogues intended to restituate the imperial vest in the global histories — and posssibilites — of decolonization and abolition.

Women's Daily Life in Exile Lecture
2025-11-17 18:00 - 20:00
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.
