Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) at UCSC was born out of student activism. For many years, UCSC was the only UC without an ethnic studies program. Then on March 2, 2011, students came together at a rally and demanded support for ethnic studies. More than 800 people signed a petition calling for the creation of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UCSC. Undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty then formed collaborative working groups to develop a program that recognized we are not living in a post-racial or color-blind society, but that race and ethnicity continue to fundamentally structure our lived experience and the distribution of power and opportunity in society within the U.S. and around the globe.
Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) provides vital insights into the social, political, cultural, and economic processes that have defined and shaped the modern era—including colonialism and slavery, conquest and displacement, genocide and warfare, migration and creolization, criminalization, imprisonment, disenfranchisement, globalization, and post-9/11 security state policies such as racial profiling and discrimination against immigrants. CRES emphasizes learning through community service and providing students of color with a supportive and safe community on campus.
