The UCSC Alumni Awards honorees for this year are being presented with pride by the Alumni Association at the University of Santa Cruz. These honors and awards are given to alumni who have excelled professionally, made notable contributions to society, had a significant impact on UCSC, and have embodied the values and nature of the school.
Bettina Aptheker received the Ethos Award on October 27, 2023, in recognition of her commitment to causes that advance social justice, variety, capital, and participation.
Bettina Aptheker, Ph.D. D. ’83, History of Consciousness ), is a leader in extreme lessons, an artist, civil rights and anti-war advocate, and Distinguished Professor Emerita of UC Santa Cruz’s Feminist Studies Department.
Aptheker, a scholar-activist, co-led the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1964 to 1965. He also served as the chairman of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam and the national united committee to Free Angela Davis ( 1970–1972 ), which was responsible for putting together the international movement for her freedom. She was a fervent supporter of the Gay community as well.
Aptheker received the UCSC Ethos Award in honor of her unwavering dedication to causes of social justice, variety, capital, and participation.
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According to Aptheker, her culture had an earlier impact on her morals and values.
Her kids were socialists, and many of her parents ‘ friends were writers, artists, Jews, or Black Communist scholars. According to Aptheker, the ideals she was taught included fights for social justice and equality as well as against racism, antisemitism, and authoritarianism.
” All of these associates were incredibly loving and kind to me. The principles of social justice and peace are ingrained in my earliest thoughts. In this sense, it was only natural for me to take part in anti-war and civil rights movements while I was a scholar at UC Berkeley.
A few years after receiving her bachelor degree from UC Berkeley, she got involved in the Free Angela Davis activity.
According to Aptheker,” The creation of a multinational movement to Free Angela Davis in the early 1970s was enlightening for me in antiracist, cultural justice, and international organizing.” She continues,” My advocacy and my academic work are intertwined.”
She and Davis co-edited and contributed essays to the first text she published, If They Come in the Morning: Tones of Resistance. In 1971, it was released in England and the United States, and several other nations translated it for publications. The Academic Rebellion in the United States: A Marxist Appraisal ( 1972 ) was her second book to be published.
This was a more academic job that was heavily influenced by my involvement in the student moves of the 1960s.
She holds a special place in her heart for her most recent book, Socialists in Closets: Queering the Past, 1930s–1990s.
According to Aptheker,” I was able to combine my gay identification with cultural justice politics.” The struggle of lesbian and gay individuals in Communist and Left movements that were incredibly racist even after the Stonewall revolt for LGBT Rights in 1969 is the subject of this book, which is based on ten years of archive research.
Influences of Graduate School, Academics, and Professionals
Aptheker selected the History of Consciousness graduate program at UCSC because it gave her the most freedom to pursue female and Socialist works that piqued her interest. Additionally, she believed Santa Cruz was a great match for her in 1979 because she was struggling to assert her gay identity as the sole caregiver of two young children.
Aptheker’s journey was influenced by a large number of previous UCSC faculty and staff. She lists Donna Haraway, Nicolette Czarrunchick, Billie Harris, Hayden White, Diane Lewis Chaney, and all other notable individuals from her day at UC Santa Cruz.
” Hist Con’s office manager for many years, Billy Harris, was hospitable, motivating, and loving.” My thinking about past and traditional methods was greatly influenced by Hayden White, who was a fantastic leader. He also made it easier for me to move quickly through the Heritage Con software. By 1983, I had earned my degree. Donna Haraway, an amazing intellectual existence, leader, but motivating, and early, was/is a very important leader. and health archaeologist Diane Lewis Chaney, who has enthusiastically endorsed my labor on the history of African American feminists. For many years, Nicolette Czarrunchick oversaw the Women’s Studies program ( and later the department ). For 25 years, we collaborated daily and as a team to develop Women’s Studies ( renamed Feminist Studies in 2004 ). She was amazing.
Career as a teacher
Aptheker was able to train both there and at UCSC thanks to his master’s in conversation reports from San Jose State University. In 1978, she taught this course for Kresge College after first teaching Black Women’s History for Afro American Studies and Womens Research at San Jose State. This was before she enrolled as a graduate student studying story of perception.
She started teaching as a teacher for the Women’s Studies system, which was just getting started at the time, after enrolling in graduate school at UCSC. Entry to Feminism was her first book in Winter 1981. The first course was a lecture for 35 students. Each year, it became more well-liked: 100 individuals in 1982, 200 or more in 1983, and finally 475–500. With the exception of two journey years, she taught it every drop.
Over 16, 000 Intro to Fem students were taught by Aptheker at UCSC over the course of her job, according to the Humanities Division.
” Training it was a great pleasure for me. The training changed over the years as female, anti-racist, and liberatory problems also changed. In 2008, I taught it for the final day. A DVD of every lecture from the school is available at the McHenry Library.
Aptheker began teaching the new entry-level training Feminism &, Social Justice, in 2009 and continued to do so until she retired.
According to Aptheker, 112, 000 people had taken the online edition of this course as of October 2023, essentially creating a global lesbian community.
She is astounded by the emails she has received from individuals taking this course. ” I have written to people in the United States, including India, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Turkey, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil.” S..”
Aptheker, 79, retired in 2018, but he still mentors kids, particularly graduate ones.
After she retired, UCSC established an endowed fellowship in Aptheker’s recognition. Students who work on intimate, sexist, or racial violence are supported by the scholarship to further their studies or engage in community service.
Accolades and Honours
Aptheker has won numerous honors, including the Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation Presidential Chair for Feminist Studies ( 2017–2021 ), the California chapter of the National Organization for Women’s 2004 Award for Excellence in Education, and the 2017 John Dizikes Teaching Award in Humanities.
She said,” I am honored and sincerely happy of all the honors I’ve received.
Aptheker added that she and Karen Tei Yamashita were especially happy to share the UC Presidential Chair in Critical Race &, Ethnic Studies ( CRES ). Through 2012–15, they received$ 75, 000 annually, which enabled them to enroll in several programs at CRES, a comparatively new software key at the time.
” We sponsored seminars and brought poets, writers, and performers to UCSC.” The Living Writers Program at the Literature Department, the Science & study grouping, Justice, The Humanities Institute, and other organizations worked with us. Sponsoring Anita Hill in February 2015 was one of our most popular activities. With the help of this kind honor, we were able to help a very large number of students, workers, and faculty.
Family
Aptheker and her family Kate Miller reside in Santa Cruz. They have been dating for 44 times. Their brother Sasha, a senior in high school, and their child Jenny live in Santa Cruz with her lover Andrea. Jacob, their brother, is a student at Arizona State. Their brother Joshua resides in Berkeley with his wife Eka and their son Luca, who attends the University of Washington in Seattle. Lisa, their child, and her father Conrad reside in British Columbia.
Advice
Asked if she has any advice for alumni or current UCSC students, she replied with this suggestion “for everyone: Follow your passions insofar as you can so that you feel life to be full and deeply satisfying to you intellectually and emotionally. And be of as much service and benefit to others as you can.”
