Monday, February 24, 2014

Women’s contributions to LA Social Movements


Bernita Ruth Walker: LA native and community activist, Bernita Ruth Walker has championed a community movement against the widespread disease of domestic violence. She has established the Jenesse center, Project Peacemakers Inc., and the Oluremi Longhouse sober living facility, in addition to numerous other contributions through her appointments at the city, county, and state levels. She has dedicated over thirty years of her life to the city and continues to push her cause in order to create a safer LA for men, women, and their families.

Myrna Hant: a fellow Bruin, Dr. Hant received her PhD in Higher Education from UCLA, where she later became a college administrator, and an instructor in Women’s studies at Chapman University. She has also graciously created a CSW fellowship, named The Renaissance Award, that rewards the rebirth of academic aspirations among women whose college careers were interrupted or delayed by family and/or career obligations and encourages achievement in the pursuit of a bachelor's degree at UCLA. Her research, which focuses on the politics of aging and its representation on television, as well as on examining the lives of several iconic African American women including: Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Mary McLeod Bethune, Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, and Bell Hooks, are her latest endeavors.

Sherna Berger Gluck: long time anti-war and anti-Zionist activist, Sherna Berger Gluck pioneered the Feminist Oral History project, has taught oral history at UCLA and Cal State Long Beach, and has directed the Cal State Long Beach Oral History program. She was also a member of the Women’s Liberation movement, volunteered at the Crenshaw Women’s center, and co-founded the Westside Women’s Center in 1972. Her relentless dedication to women and their stories make her a true treasure for the city.

Jane Bayes: Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute of Gender, Globalization, and Democracy at California State University, Northridge, Dr. Bayes is also the Director of the International Social Science Council’s Research Program on Gender, Globalization and Democratization (ISSC-GGD). Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of women and politics, political economy, and globalization and gender. She was honored with the “Phenomenal Woman Award” from the Gender and Women’s Studies Department at California State University, Northridge in October 2008, and has lead an exemplary academic-activist life and will continue to inspire generations to come.

Karen Brodkin: Professor Emerita of the Anthropology and Women’s Studies at University of California, Los Angeles, Karen Brodkin is one of the founders of feminist anthropology. After teaching at Fordham, Duke, American, and Oberlin universities, Brodkin was hired in 1987 by UCLA as the Director of the Women’s Studies program and as a Professor of Anthropology. In California, her activism efforts involved: labor unionization, the Lincoln Place tenants, and Common Threads; on campus, Brodkin vocally opposed Proposition 209 and SP-1/SP-2 initiatives and U.S. military involvement in Iraq, as well as rallied for LGBT equality and for the establishment of a Department of Chicana/o studies. She is also the recipient of Society for the Anthropology of North America’s Prize for Distinguished Achievement in the Critical Study of North America.

All of these distinguished women will be panelists at the Celebrating Los Angeles' Women's Social Movements on February 24, 2014 at UCLA.

--Radhika Mehlotra

Radhika Mehlotra is a Public Policy graduate student and a Researcher at the CSW

Source:
http://www.csw.ucla.edu/research/projects/womens-social-movement-activities-1960-1999/oral-histories





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