Oakland, CA–November 4, 2009. More than forty years after students staged sit-ins at Mills and other Bay Area colleges to demand that academia include the perspective of students of color in the classroom, the Mills College Ethnic Studies Department has evolved into one of the longest-running and most innovative in the field.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of ethnic studies at Mills, the College will host a special event on Thursday, Nov. 12 beginning at 5:30 pm with a reception in the Mills College Student Union. The evening’s program will begin with a keynote address from the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs of Spelman College, Johnnella Butler, on "Ethnic Studies' Potential: Transforming Liberal Education for the 21st Century." All members of the public are invited to attend. For event details, visit ethnic studies.

The field of ethnic studies grew out of student protests in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1968, with Mills College, San Francisco State University, and UC Berkeley at the center of an activist movement to incorporate the experiences and insights of people of color into higher education.

Since its pioneering debut in the fall of 1969, the Mills ethnic studies program has developed into an independent academic department with major and minor areas of study, tenured faculty, distinguished visiting professors, community-based service learning programs, and an extensive calendar of public events.

“The Mills ethnic studies curriculum continues to lead the field today by examining the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in a transnational and diasporic context,” said Julia Sudbury, professor of ethnic studies, department head, and leading scholar-activist on gender and the prison-industrial complex.

“It’s critical that our students understand and analyze race and racism in the broadest context possible as they go out to work in a globally integrated world community and try to create positive social change,” she continued.

The introduction of this burgeoning discipline into the Mills curriculum helped transform the College into one of the most diverse private liberal arts colleges in the nation. More than 50 percent of the current undergraduate student body self identify as students or color or multiracial, supported by approximately 25 percent faculty of color.

Mills ethnic studies faculty includes several activist-scholars renowned for their work in environmental justice and sustainable development, globalization and women’s imprisonment, indigenous identities, gender and the social sciences in Africa, Asian diasporic literatures, and the racial and gender politics of militarism.

Mills ethnic studies students are actively involved in community service learning programs, working with local social justice organizations on issues ranging from immigrant rights to medical neglect in women’s prisons.

Recent ethnic studies student Silvia Kim commented, “After taking an ethnic studies course my first semester, I was encouraged to see that Mills had a field that not only taught but incorporated social action into my personal life. After I graduate, I want to be able to learn about and discover the needs of marginalized communities.”

The Ethnic Studies Department also hosts a series of public events that showcase the contributions of people of color, including: Black History Month, Latina Heritage Month, Native American Heritage Month, and South Asian Middle Eastern Asian Pacific Islander Awareness Now! For more information visit ethnic studies events.

About Mills College

Nestled in the foothills of Oakland, California, Mills College is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college offering a dynamic progressive education that fosters leadership, social responsibility, and creativity to approximately 950 undergraduate women and 550 graduate women and men. Since 2000, applications to Mills College have more than doubled. The College is named one of the top colleges in the West by U.S. News & World Report, and ranks as one of the Best 371 Colleges by the Princeton Review. Forbes.com ranked Mills 55th among America's best colleges and named it a "Top Ten: Best of the All-Women's Colleges." Visit us at www.mills.edu.

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