From Protest to Policy: A History of Women’s Social Movement Activities in Los Angeles, 1960-1999

Professor Kathleen McHugh
April de Stefano, PhD

This major research project is examining the history of women’s social movement activities in mid to late twentieth-century Los Angeles. The outcome of this research will be a history of women’s social activism in Los Angeles during this period based not on an a priori definition of the Women’s Movement but on the history of activities by which women organized demands against discrimination and for access, equal opportunity, and equal representation.

The focus of the project is conducting archival research and oral history interviews; developing publicly accessible data resources; and organizing a public conference to disseminate research findings. This project will document any material effects of women’s social movement activities on public policy and civic institutions in Los Angeles. It will be a major contribution to the historiography on Los Angeles and will provide new resources for scholars, the public, and today’s policy leaders.

Global South Research Initiative (GSRI)

Professor Sondra Hale

GSRI fosters international exchanges between UCLA Department of Women's Studies and the Center for the Study of Women, and women's/gender studies institutions in Middle East/North Africa and Muslim South Asia. Our primary objective is to facilitate dialogue on emerging theories, concepts, pedagogies, and curricula as related to contemporary social and political issues within the field of women's/gender Studies.

An interdisciplinary research group of UC faculty and graduate students from Anthropology, Asian American Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Comparative Literature, English, Ethnic studies, Film Studies, French, and Women’s Studies working on questions of women, difference, and knowledge formations in an era of globalization.

Women in Media Industries

Professor Kathleen McHugh

A group of FTV critical studies faculty and graduate students are working with the UCLA MIAS program and the Oral History project on recording and preserving the experience of women in the film and television industries in Los Angeles. A database of about 1300 records is available for searching. It contains the locations of interviews with prominent women in print, radio, television and film industries.

The format of these interviews vary: some are in a traditional oral history format, others are part of a public speaker series. Some were recorded only on audio equipment, others were shot on video or film. You will not find the interview files on this site. If you would like to listen to or view the interviews, you will need to contact the particular institution.

To add records to the Women in Media database, please email cswpubs@women.ucla.edu so that we can verify your identity and create an account for you.

INSTITUTIONS

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
American Film Institute
Columbia University Oral History Program
Directors Guild of America
Margaret Herrick Library
The Paley Center for Media
UCLA Film and Television Archives
UCLA Young Research Library Special Collections
University of Southern California, Cinematic Arts Library
Writers Guild of America

Women of Color Feminism

A research group of primarily junior UCLA faculty in African American Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicana/o Studies, English, History, and Dance whose research interests converge around questions of the erasure of women of color feminism in current academic concerns with the transnational.

Embodiment Workshop

An interdisciplinary group of UCLA faculty and graduate students working on problems and questions of the body in the disciplines of English, film, performance, dance, and women’s studies.

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Gender and the Environment

Dr. Michael Silverman

This fellowship was created by the Institute of the Environment and in collaboration with the Women’s Studies Program and the Center for the Study of Women to support a two-year postdoctoral stay at UCLA. The scholar selected for 2006-2008 is Dr. Michael Silverman, who will be giving a course, "Gender and Sustainability" through Women's Studies and a public lecture, "Gender Matters: An Analysis of Disaster Relief and Re-development in Tsunami Affected Communities, Thailand," under the auspices of CSW.

The ‘Access Mazer’ Project: Organizing and Digitizing the Lesbian-Feminist Archive in Los Angeles

Professor Kathleen McHugh

CSW received a Competitive Support for Campus Partners grant from the UCLA Center for Community Partnerships. As part of CSW’s large-scale research project on “A History of Women’s Social Movement Activities in Los Angeles, 1960-1999,” CSW partnered with the West Hollywood-based June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives—the sole archival repository on the west coast dedicated to preserving lesbian and feminist history—to inventory, organize, preserve, and digitize several key Los Angeles-themed collections.

An event, Processing the Lesbian Archive: The 'Access Mazer' Project
A Symposium, commemorating the completion of the two-year project was held on May 5, 2009.

A partnership between the Mazer Archives and the library grew out of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women's "Access Mazer" project. The UCLA Library and the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives recently launched an outreach and collection-building partnership that will expand access to collections held by the Mazer Archives and expand the library's holdings in this important area of social and cultural history.

Read an article about the new partnerhip in the UCLA Newsroom.