About Our Move

CRDJ has transitioned to UCLA School of Law to expand our interdisciplinary work at the intersections of racial justice, disability justice, and critical law & policy. UCLA offers an intellectual and political home that aligns with the Center’s mission.

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UCLA’s Critical Race Studies (CRS) program, one of the first and most influential in the country, creates a foundation for rigorous, community-grounded racial justice work. Within the broader University of California system, this move positions CRDJ inside an ecosystem that has shaped some of the most important movements in disability rights and disability justice.

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In the Bay Area, disability justice emerged from grassroots organizers, artists, and cultural workers in the community who articulated a framework centering intersectionality, culture, queer and trans leadership, and liberatory access. Their work built upon but also pushed beyond the disability rights movement born at UC Berkeley, grounding disability justice in lived experience, critique, art, and community care.

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By relocating to UCLA, CRDJ becomes one of the only university-based centers in the country situated at the convergence of these transformative lineages:

• The birthplace of Critical Race Studies

• The birthplace of the Independent Living Movement

• The birthplace of Disability Justice

 

This transition allows CRDJ to bring these traditions together intentionally and explicitly in a law school context—not as separate movements, but as interconnected frameworks shaped by shared histories of resistance.

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Our new home at UCLA creates space for CRDJ to deepen its commitments to intersectional scholarship, community partnership, and policy transformation. It allows us to grow our work, connect with new collaborators across the UC system, and build a national hub that advances racial justice, disability justice, and collective liberation together rather than in parallel.

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CRDJ’s transition to UCLA strengthens our roots.

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Our Chicago-based disability justice and racial justice communities remain integral to who we are. Chicago has its own rich history of disability organizing. We will continue to maintain a Chicago presence while expanding to Los Angeles, allowing us to grow our geographic reach across three key hubs of movement work: Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC. This tri-coastal structure ensures that CRDJ remains deeply connected to the communities and coalitions that shaped us while building new partnerships across the UC system and nationally.

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We're honored by your continued support of our work and are exciting to open this new chapter with you. Onward.