Bio

Bettina Aptheker is Distinguished Professor Emerita, Feminist Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, where she has taught for 40 years. Her class, Introduction to Feminisms, which she taught for 30 years, was among her most popular. She is holder of the Jack and Peggy Baskin Foundation Presidential Chair for Feminist Studies, 2017-2020, and held a UC Presidential Chair in Feminist Critical Race & Ethnic Studies (with Karen Tei Yamashita), 2012-2015. She is author of several books, including The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis (2nd edition, 1999) and Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech and Became a Feminist Rebel (2006). Her current research is on “Queering the History of the Communist Left in the United States.” A scholar-activist, she is currently involved in anti-racist work, and speaking widely about the #metoo movement.