As an Organized Research Unit of the University of California dedicated to the study of the deep history of structures, mechanisms, and representations of society, and with it the causes of power differentials, marginalization, violence, persecution, and intolerance, the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (UCLA-CMRS) voices its strongest support for the national movement Black Lives Matter, UCLA Black faculty, staff, and students, and Black scholars nationally, and for civil protest as a fundamental right of American democracy. CMRS condemns the use of UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium as a processing center by the LAPD for protesters against police brutality and racism. UCLA is a public institution and we join our concerned colleagues in calling on the administration to provide full and ongoing public accounting of events as part of its responsibility to all of its faculty, staff, students, and the public. CMRS reaffirms its commitment to continuing the systemic and programmatic changes toward the inclusive study of the globe in the periods under its purview, from late antiquity to the mid-seventeeth century, and to promoting research, teaching, and new methodologies in underrepresented and non-traditional areas of study.
