Teacher, Writer and Activist

Gina Dent is an American activist, author, and teacher. Professor of Feminist Studies and History of Counsciousness at the University of Santa Cruz in California, Dent was also the Director of the Institute for Advanced Feminist Research at the same institution. Her main research themes are race, feminism, justice, legal theory and popular culture, which makes her one of the leading American activists on these topics. 


A graduate in Comparative Literature from the University of California, and master in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, New York, Dent received her Ph.D. in the same area. Internationally, Dent has taught courses on race and black feminism, in institutions as diverse as the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil, the National University of Colombia in Colombia and also the University of Linköping in Sweden.


In 2019, Dent received the John Dizikes Teaching Award in Humanities, an award that recognizes the merits of humanities teachers at the University of Santa Cruz. Author and co-author of several academic papers, including the acclaimed Prison as a Border: A Conversation on Gender, Globalization, and Punishment, which she wrote with Angela Davis.  Dent is the co-author of the book Abolition. Feminism, feminism. Now, with Angela Davis, Erica Meiners and Beth Richie, a book published in January this year that stands for the abolitionist movement of prisons and police forces, advocating that it is possible to create a safe community without these systems of coercion, repression and punishment.


Dent edited Black Popular Culture, a literary project by the american feminist author and cultural critic Michelle Wallace - a north-american feminist author and cultural critic - and has two books to be published: Anchored to the Real: Black Literature in the Wake of Anthropology and Prison as a Border and Other Essays


In 2020, she participated in the Visualizing Abolition event with Angela Davis. Organized by the Institute for the Arts and Sciences of the University of California, Santa Cruz, (UCSC), the lecture aims to analyze how people understand mass incarceration and policing in the United States and other countries, promoting a collective debate from a social, political, cultural and economic point of view.


Gina Dent and Angela Davis are also active supporters of the Palestinian cause. In 2011, they participated, with the Indigenous and Women of Color Feminist Delegation, in a visit to the occupied territories. This group of 11 anti-Israel feminists met with academics, youth, political leaders, artists, activists and village residents who had been attacked by Israeli forces to witness the living conditions of the Palestinian people. After the trip, the group wrote a statement titled Justice for Palestine: A Call to Action from Indigenous and Women of Color Feminists. In 2021, ten years after this historic visit, participants attended a virtual meeting where they remembered the memories of Palestine and shared the impact that this visit continues to have on their lives.


Dent has also promoted the BDS (The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign, a global movement founded by Omar Barghouti that stands for equality, freedom and justice in the Gaza Strip. In 2014, the Academic Professor signed a petition to end the Gaza massacre and boycott Israel.