UC Santa Cruz is an Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) that is located on unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe (for full land acknowledgement please go here). We acknowledge the harm that settler colonization has caused and acknowledge ways we as a higher education institution and department have benefited from and perpetuated this harm. We are committed to performance, scholarship, and pedagogy that affirms Indegenous sovereignty and transforms the relationships between land and bodies, hearts and minds.
The UCSC Theater Arts Department acknowledges unequivocally that Black Lives Matter. We are committed to an anti-racist and decolonial educational ethos that fosters an artistic environment that is accessible to and in solidarity with communities fighting for justice. We acknowledge that the multiplicity and intersectionality of gender, race, cultural affiliation, citizenship status, disability, neurodiversity, sexuality, religion, and economic class is necessary for excellence in our field. We continue to be critical of how white supremacy, settler colonialism, ableism, transphobia, classism, and hetero-patriarchy show up in our curriculum, productions, and hiring practices, as we acknowledge that oppressive ideas and practices have resulted in past harm and that undoing these practices is vital to our students, scholarship, and performance.