Bettina Aptheker

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Bettina Aptheker (born c. 1944) is an American, lesbian activist, author, and educator.

Contents

[edit] Childhood

Aptheker was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Fay Philippa Aptheker and Herbert Aptheker, a radical activist and Marxist historian. Her first job as a teenager was in the home of W. E. B. Du Bois, with whom her father was a good friend.

[edit] Education

Aptheker obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a leader in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement of the 1960s.

She completed her Master's degree at San José State University, where she later taught African-American and Women's Studies.

In the early 1980s Aptheker completed her graduate studies in the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

[edit] Family

Aptheker has been with Kate Miller, her life partner, since October 1979. They have three children (both from previous marriages), and Aptheker is a proud grandmother. Prior to this partnership, during her undergraduate years at UC Berkeley, Aptheker was married to fellow student and Communist Jack Kurzweil.

[edit] Career

Aptheker has been teaching in the Santa Cruz Feminist Studies department since 1980. While she teaches many classes, her "Introduction to Feminisms" (sic) course is one of the most popular on campus. What started as a 35 person seminar is now an overflowing lecture course. The course is so popular that in the fall of 2002 the entire course was filmed, with the eventual goal of making the videos accessible to the public.

During the 1970s, Aptheker was actively involved in the trial of Angela Davis, a long-time friend and fellow Marxist.

Aptheker is included in David Horowitz's The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America

[edit] Bibliography

  • Aptheker, Bettina (1976). The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0801485975. 
  • Aptheker, Bettina and Aptheker, Herbert (1979). The Unfolding Drama: Studies in U.S. History. International Publishers. ISBN 0717805018. 
  • Aptheker, Bettina (1982). Woman's Legacy: Essays on Race, Sex and Class in American History. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 0870233653. 
  • Aptheker, Bettina (1989). Tapestries of Life: Women's Work, Women's Consciousness and the Meaning of Daily Life. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 087023658X. 
  • Aptheker, Bettina (2006). Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech, and Became a Feminist Rebel. Seal Press. ISBN 158005160X. 

[edit] External links

University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
Colleges

Cowell College · Stevenson College · Crown College · Merrill College · Porter College · Kresge College · Oakes College · College Eight · College Nine · College Ten

Professional School

Jack Baskin School of Engineering

Research & Services

· Lick Observatory · W. M. Keck Observatory · Dickens Project · NASA Ames Research Center UARC · Silicon Valley Initiatives · Center for Adaptive Optics · Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering · Institute of Marine Sciences & Long Marine Lab · UCSC Arboretum · University of California Police Department · UC Santa Cruz Fire Department

Student Media

City on a Hill Press · Fish Rap Live! · KZSC