image of a woman reaching up toward a red sun with left hand with a group of feathers in her right hand. Original artwork done in the sytle of a woodblock print.
Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) is celebrating its 40th anniversary at UC Davis where it was founded. Elyse Doyle-Martinez, a Woodland-based artist, created this cover image “Healing the Warriors” for MALCS' summer institute.

Activist Scholar Group Founded at UC Davis Back for 40th Anniversary

  • by Jeffrey A Day

The first meeting of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS), a professional organization for self-identified Chicana, Latina, Native American, Indigenous and gender non-conforming academics, students and activists, took place at UC Davis in 1982. Forty years later, the organization, founded by Adaljiza Sosa Riddell, professor emerita of Chicana and Chicano studies, is back on campus for its 2023 summer institute.

Image of head and shoulders of a women with jaw length graying hair and glasses.
Yvette Flores, Distinguished Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies

“We are honored to celebrate the 40th anniversary of MALCS at UC Davis, where it began,” said Yvette Flores, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. “This year's institute is critical given the recent attacks on women's reproductive rights, voting rights, transgendered and gender nonconforming individuals, the Supreme Court decision regarding Affirmative Action, and the continuing attacks against immigrants, including Latinx.” 

MALCS translates in English to Women Active in Letters and Sciences, with “active” referring to activism for social justice.

Through July 15, the institute will host numerous sessions on topics including queer Indigena artists and feminists of color scholars; resistance against public health disparities; Chicanx feminist memory keeping; writing about queer Chicana childhoods; Indigenous knowledge as resistance; and art making as resistance. There will also be film screenings, an awards ceremony and performances. About 300 scholars from around the nation are attending.

Many members of the Chicana and Chicano studies department helped organize the summer institute with Professor Natalia Deed-Sossa serving as site chair. Several faculty members are presenting, including Yvette Flores, Lorena Marquez and Susy Zepeda, as well as Inés Hernandez-Avila from the Department of Native American Studies. 

Support was provided by many internal and external departments, centers and programs, including the Office of the Chancellor and the College of Letters and Science.

The full schedule of events is available online.

MALCS also publishes Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social.

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Society and Culture