At UCLA, we are lucky to have so many women professors who are pioneering their fields and breaking down gender barriers. From medicine to law to the arts, UCLA is home to female role models in every discipline. Throughout my years as a Bruin, I have consistently drawn inspiration from the accomplished women in our academic community. Seeing aspects of my identity reflected in my instructors has hugely boosted my confidence in classes! I think that it’s important to honor and celebrate these women for their contributions to higher education and for blazing trails for the rest of us to follow. So, here are five amazing female faculty that all Bruins can keep in mind this International Women’s Day:
- Andrea Ghez
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Dr. Andrea Ghez is a professor in UCLA’s Astronomy Department and has been with the university since 1994. In 2020, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, along with two other scientists, for helping discover a supermassive black hole. Receiving such a prestigious award would be impressive for any scholar, but Ghez’s honor was even more meaningful given she was the first-ever woman to win the Nobel Prize in astrophysics. Talk about paving the way for future female scholars!
- Kara Cooney
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Dr. Kara Cooney is a professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture within UCLA’s Near Eastern Languages & Cultures Department. She is a leading force in her field, with multiple hit books published by National Geographic and features in publications like TIME magazine. Empowering women sits at the heart of Cooney’s scholarship. I personally know that taking her class “Women and Power in the Ancient World,” during my first quarter at UCLA totally changed my understanding of women’s political power throughout history.
- Deborah Nadoolman Landis
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Dr. Landis is both a Distinguished Professor within UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television and the founder of our center for costume design. Landis’s costume design has defined groundbreaking music videos like Micahel Jackson’s “Thriller” and films like Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. She was even nominated for an Academy Award for her work on Coming To America! Landis has also taken on many leadership positions within the costume community, constantly fighting for recognition as a woman leading her craft.
- Kimberlé Crenshaw
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Professor Crenshaw is a Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA. Not only does she teach constitutional law, but Crenshaw has also led the culturally impactful Critical Race Theory movement. In addition to her legal work, she has greatly impacted Gender Studies by coining the term “intersectionality” in the 1980s. So much of how our society currently understands race and gender and how to effectively approach activism comes from her groundbreaking thinking. I highly recommend that you further research her scholarship!
- Linda Liau
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Dr. Liau chairs the Department of Neurosurgery at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. This accomplishment is major, seeing as this makes her the first Asian-American woman to chair an academic neurosurgical department. Liau has also received prestigious awards such as her peer nomination to the National Academy of Medicine in 2018, all the while publishing life-saving research on brain tumors. To this day, neurosurgery is a heavily male-dominated specialty, making Liau’s achievements even more laudable.
Hopefully, you’ve learned something new about the powerhouse women in our college community. Moreover, I hope that reading about their journeys and achievements has motivated you to confidently continue your college endeavors. Researching each of these icons has definitely made me extra proud to be a Bruin and a woman pursuing higher education!