Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval Author Event

Reminisce with Professor Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval as he signs his newest book, Starving for Justice: Hunger Strikes, Spectacular Speech, and the Struggle for Dignity.

In the 1990s, students at UCSB, UCLA and Stanford University went on hunger strikes to demand the establishment and expansion of Chicana/o Studies departments and, despite great odds, they produced substantive change. Through courageous self-sacrifice, these students risked their lives to challenge racial neoliberalism, budget cuts, and fee increases. They also had even broader aspirations–to obtain dignity and justice for all people. These students spoke eloquently, making their bodies and concerns visible. They challenged anti-immigrant politics. They scrutinized the rapid growth of the prison-industrial complex, racial and class polarization, and the university’s neoliberalization. Though they did not fully succeed in having all their demands met, they helped generate long-lasting social change on their respective campuses, making those learning institutions more just.

Social movement scholars have raised the question of why some people risk their lives to create a better world. In Starving for Justice, Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval uses interviews and archival material to examine people’s willingness to make the extreme sacrifice and give their lives in order to create a more just society.

Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval is an associate professor in the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department at UCSB. He is the author of Globalization and Cross-Border Labor Solidarity in the Americas: The Anti-Sweatshop Movement and the Struggle for Social Justice. He has been actively involved in struggles for human rights, labor rights, and social justice on the national, state, and local level.