The University of California, Santa Cruz recently awarded its first Ph.D.s in its feminist studies program. The university’s feminist studies program was established in 1974 and began its first graduate programs in 2013. Veronika Zablotsky and Erin McElroy are the first two students to receive a Ph.D. in feminist studies at the university.
Erin McElroy’s dissertation was entitled “Unbecoming Silicon Valley: Techno Imaginaries and Materialities in Postsocialist Romania.” Her book, Counterpoints: Bay Area Data and Stories for Resisting Displacement, is scheduled to be published by PM Press in Spring 2020. Dr. McElroy is the co-founder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, a data visualization, digital humanities, and critical cartography collective that produces maps and analyses to support on-the-ground housing justice struggles. She will be conducting postdoctoral research at New York University.
Veronika Zablotsky’s dissertation was entitled “Governing Armenia: The Making of Global Diaspora in West Asia.” During her fieldwork in Yerevan, Zablotsky was a Research Fellow in the Political Science and International Affairs Program at the American University of Armenia. She is currently developing a new project on refugee autonomy, mobile technology, and crossborder solidarity between diasporic and displaced South-West Asian and North African communities in North America and Europe. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Free University of Berlin in Germany.