Gina Dent is an associate professor of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz. She is associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the Humanities Division at UC Santa Cruz.[1] She co authored the 2022 book Abolition. Feminism. Now. with her partner, Angela Davis; Erica Meiners; and Beth Richie.
Dent received her B. A. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley,[2] and her M.A.and Ph.D. in English & Comparative Literature from Columbia University.[3][4]
Dent is currently[when?] an associate professor of feminist studies, history of consciousness, and legal studies in the humanities division at the University of California, Santa Cruz.[5][4] In 2019, she received a Dizikes Award for teaching.[6]
Her research interests include Africana studies, legal theory, and popular culture.[4] She is the editor of Black Popular Culture (1992).[5] This collection was named a Village Voice Best Book of the Year.[7] In 2011, Dent served in a delegation to Palestine, and she advocates for human rights in the region.[8][9] She is sought-after internationally as a speaker and educator on Black Feminism and abolitionism.[10][11][12][13]
She has two forthcoming[when?] books, Prison as a Border and Other Essays, and Anchored to the Real: Black Literature in the Wake of Anthropology, which will be published by Duke University Press.[14][15][16] Dent co authored the 2022 book Abolition. Feminism. Now. with Angela Davis, Erica Meiners, and Beth Richie, which argues for a prison abolitionist vision of feminism.[17][18][19][20]
As of 2020, Dent was living with her partner, feminist scholar and activist Angela Y. Davis.[21][22] Together, they have advocated for the abolition of police and prisons, using the concept of abolition feminism.[23]