Diversity

DEI Statement, Land Acknowledgement, and DEI Officers

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Statement

The UCSB Department of Film and Media Studies is committed to principles and practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom and beyond. Many faculty members in the department have been influenced by and focus their own research and teaching in areas such as critical race/ethnicity theory, postcolonial criticism, post-structuralist feminism, queer studies, and intersectional modes of critique. Because of this, we approach the terms and practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our curriculum and conduct from critically informed perspectives. We share a profound concern about the ways social differences of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, religion, ability, and nationality have been mobilized historically to exclude, discriminate, and perpetrate violence.

As an institutional member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, we uphold the statement issued by
their Committee on Antiracism, Equity and Diversity: https://www.cmstudies.org/page/comm_AED
UCSB Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Office: https://diversity.ucsb.edu/
University of California Diversity Statement, Board of Regents Policy 4400: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/policies/4400.html
UC Natural Reserve System Land Acknowledgement: https://ucnrs.org/land-acknowledgement/

Land Acknowledgement 

When we walk along the hiking trails, past the lagoon, and onto the bluffs, we must also remember that this picturesque campus where we work was founded upon exclusions and erasures of many Indigenous peoples, including those on whose lands UC Santa Barbara is located: the villages and unceded lands of the Chumash peoples. While the University of California’s salutary mission has been enabled, among other factors, by histories of violent dispossession, the motto Fiat Lux cannot be realized without making those histories legible as a part of everyday consciousness, or without engaging in the difficult conversations about reparative justice. This is not simply a matter of the past. The Chumash remain active in the struggle to be heard and recognized and maintain an  active role in educating the campus communities  that inhabit the unceded land upon which UC Santa Barbara exists. Keeping this in mind, the Department of Film and Media Studies acknowledges our location on indigenous territory, not simply as a gesture mandated by protocol but more as a historical necessity. We pay our respects to the Chumash elders, past, present, and future, who call this place, Anisq’oyo, the land that Isla Vista sits upon, their home. We hope to proudly continue their tradition of coming together and growing as a community. We remain open to learning from the Chumash, while unlearning familiar modes of knowing geared primarily towards capture and exploitation. This acknowledgment, though brief and in no way complete, is part of a commitment to continue to develop our relationship with the local Chumash and Indigenous communities and work to dismantle the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism. Thank you to Mia Lopez and the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation for informing the language used in this land acknowledgment.

DEI Departmental Officers

Professor Alenda Chang (Departmental Faculty DEI Officer )

Updated:
Feb 27, 2024