Chicana and Chicano Studies

Established in Fall 1970, the Chicana/o Studies Department emerged from Black and Chicana/o student activism, most notably the North Hall building take-over in 1968 and the El Plan de Santa Barbara conference held at the Francisco Torres residential hall in April 1969.

The UCSB Chicana/o Studies Department was the first such unit in the entire UC system. Chicanx/Latinx student organizing, namely the 1989 and 1994 hunger strikes, strengthened the Department over time, leading to the creation of the world's first doctoral program in Chicana/o Studies which began in 2003. The Chicana/o Studies Department engages students in the interdisciplinary study of Chicana and Chicano history, culture, and politics.

The Department is fully committed to social justice and uprooting all systems of inequality. In partnership with affiliated faculty from across campus and Feminist and Black Studies Ph.D. emphasis programs, the Department's B.A./M.A./Ph.D. programs challenge students to link theory with practice, scholarship.

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