Home / About / Welcome From The Director

Welcome From The Director

Since its founding in 1965, UC Santa Cruz has been known for its commitment to scholarship, values, and action. For more than a generation, UCSC Legal Studies has embodied these commitments through an innovative, interdisciplinary program of teaching, research, and colloquia.

UCSC Legal Studies administers one of the oldest undergraduate law and justice programs in the country. UCSC Legal Studies is also among the largest programs of its kind in the University of California system. Today, nearly three dozen Legal Studies professors teach courses that reach nearly 2000 students every year.

Our core and affiliated faculty include award-winning scholars and award-winning teachers. Our lecturers add valuable expertise to the program; they include current and former government officials and leaders of local non-governmental organizations. Our faculty and lecturers have authored a number of major books representing the depth and breadth of the field. They have conducted research and worked across the U.S. and globally. Some of them were first-generation college graduates; some of them also hold multiple advanced degrees. They all bring their rich experiences to their research and teaching.

The diverse Legal Studies students are the heart of this program. The value of UCSC Legal Studies is exposing students to notions of legality and institutions of law from across disciplinary traditions in the humanities and social sciences. Legal Studies alumni work in many professions, including journalism, politics, law, corporations and technology, writing, non-profits, and public service.

Legal Studies faculty are committed to mentoring the next generation of socio-legal scholars. UCSC graduate students benefit from serving as teaching assistants or graduate student instructors for Legal Studies courses. There are opportunities for Ph.D. students from different departments at UC Santa Cruz to present draft papers or dissertation chapters and to organize speakers, colloquia, and seminars with Legal Studies.