Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo Selected as SMC’s Professor of the Year for 2024–25
This history educator experienced many of life’s ups and downs before landing at Saint Mary’s. Her learned wisdom and appreciation for the unique characteristics of every student have earned her admiration of peers and gratitude from generations of Gaels.
Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo sheds a tear of happiness when she thinks about her initial visit to Saint Mary’s more than 30 years ago—and not just because a series of unsatisfying jobs were now a distant memory. “Every single person I saw just looked me in the eye and smiled,” she recalls fondly. “That was my first impression, that this is a welcoming, friendly place.”
Lemke-Santangelo is a professor of History in the School of Liberal Arts—and the SMC Professor of the Year for 2024-25. Her beginning at Saint Mary’s that fall day in 1993 marked the culmination of a journey that included a series of odd jobs that she took in Southern California after finishing high school in Palo Alto. Included among them were detailing work at an auto body shop, minimum wage retail sales, and, finally, a job at a massage parlor that lasted only as long as it took to learn that she was expected to give more than backrubs. “But I did gain a great deal of respect for women who need to support families and have run out of other options,” she says.
An “unimaginable luxury”
“I’m one of those people who postponed going to college right out of high school,” Lemke-Santangelo says. The reasons were mostly economic, she explains, as her family didn’t have the resources to put her through college. Finally, tired of hustling small jobs, she joined a collective of like-minded young people who shared an interest in the environment, politics, and alternatives to traditional economic and political systems. “This was still the early 1970s and many young people had largely given up on the political process,” she says.
Those living in the collective supported themselves by working with their hands and learning various trades, including agriculture and the establishment of a printing collective that produced publicity material for various left-leaning and environmental causes. Lemke-Santangelo herself became skilled at every aspect of carpentry, “the only part of the collective that ended up making any money,” she says with a laugh.
It was during this period, she says, that her interest in environmental matters began to take shape. She and a few friends from the collective converted a house into a model of urban self-sufficiency; for instance, they turned the backyard swimming pool into an aquaculture system, built a greenhouse to heat the interior of their building, constructed a solar water heater and wind generator, and established an organic garden and sophisticated composting and rainwater collection systems.
“This was still the early 1970s and many young people had largely given up on the political process."
— Professor Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo
“We even had a composting toilet and a parabolic mirror on the roof to generate steam and electricity,” she proudly notes. Her environmental interests remain strong today and her experience in the collective shaped the narrative of her 2009 book, Daughters of Aquarius: Women of the Sixties Counterculture.
Having earned enough money to go to college, she enrolled at San Diego State at age 25. She characterizes that initial opportunity to study US history and other topics as an “unimaginable luxury.”
“I wasn’t challenged in high school, so to be at a place that offered a smorgasbord of liberal arts courses was amazing to me,” she says. “All I wanted to do at that point was learn.”
And learn she did, eventually heading back to the Bay Area and completing her BS and master’s at San Francisco State after her husband, Anthony Santangelo—a fellow social activist—began a graduate program at the University of California, Berkeley. She credits “wonderful mentors” at both San Diego State and SF State with giving her the confidence and know-how to continue with her higher education aspirations.
Memorable encounters and warm smiles
Those aspirations continued. This time, work toward a PhD took her across the country to North Carolina, where she had earned a full fellowship—including tuition and a stipend—at Duke University. Lemke-Santangelo could hardly believe her good fortune. “It was so nice, maybe even a bit indulgent,” she says. “Juggling work and studying throughout my undergrad and master’s studies was tough at times. So getting a full ride for my doctorate, not having to earn an income, and having two full years to focus on my coursework was a dream.”
After returning to the Bay Area and finishing her dissertation, Lemke-Santangelo was ready to hit the job market—and found her way to Moraga and Saint Mary’s. She remembers the “little suit” she wore to her first interview, and she was struck by the campus’s natural beauty. More than that, she says, she was touched by her encounters with various faculty and staff members, and her memories of the warmth and smiles from people she met make her emotional even today. “Plus, when I revealed that I had an arrest record for committing civil disobedience at nuclear weapons protests with other Catholic workers, no one saw that as an issue,” she says with a smile. “I knew I had landed at a good place.”
Her early days at Saint Mary’s reinforced her decision to accept an offer. She recalls the supportive faculty members who took her under their wing, introduced her to various aspects of campus life, and emphasized the role of faculty in shared governance. More than 30 years later, in fact, she calls her own role in advocating for shared governance one of her proudest achievements.
Examining history from a personal perspective
“I accepted the job at Saint Mary’s because I wanted to be part of a small liberal arts college where faculty and students pursue knowledge in community with each other, and view shared inquiry as an end in and of itself and not just as the means to an end,” she says now, looking back on her decision. “I never wanted to be a ‘sage on a stage’, nor did I ever think that I had a great store of knowledge to impart to young people. I came here wanting to be part of a learning community and eager to pass that enthusiasm and passion onto others.”
That passion is, indeed, a prevalent theme for those who have taken her classes.
“She helped me think in new ways and consider the histories of those who are typically overlooked in our textbooks,” remarked one student. “I could sense that she’s really passionate about what she teaches and studies, and she wants her students to feel the same.” Another student noted how “every period was engaging, and you could just tell how much African American history means to her by taking one of her classes or even just engaging in conversation with her.”
Professor Lemke-Santangelo’s students learn quickly that she’s not just teaching them about the importance of US history and how it continues to shape the present; she teaches them to think critically, to care about what they’re learning, to ask questions, and to grow as they employ those practices. “Her attentiveness to each student’s question exemplifies her dedication to them and to her subject,” says one colleague.
Professor Lemke-Santangelo’s personal connection to her students can be seen in her now-legendary California History final assignment. She encourages students to explore their own identities, families, and experiences within a historical context, prompting them to reconsider their world through that lens. As part of this process, they research and write about the history of their hometowns, making history feel immediate and personally meaningful. “It invites them to be actors in their own backyards and to develop not only a curiosity for their surroundings but also a love of place that may lead them to become the engaged citizens that we aspire them to be,” says a colleague.
Professor Lemke-Santangelo’s students learn quickly that she’s not just teaching them about the importance of US history and how it continues to shape the present; she teaches them to think critically, to care about what they’re learning, to ask questions, and to grow as they employ those practices.
“I’ve always found it rewarding to help them understand the historical roots of contemporary problems,” says Professor Lemke-Santangelo. “It’s easy for any of us to have superficial views about societal issues and problems, so getting students to think about their complexities, origins, and various layers is richly rewarding.”
Striving to truly “see” her students is another of Professor Lemke-Santango’s hallmark approaches as an educator.
“I try hard to be present with them and to regard each as a unique individual with their own story,” she says. “When you acknowledge students as multidimensional individuals with value that extends beyond their grade or performance on any given test or assignment, you create a learning environment that’s conducive to taking creative and intellectual risks—to moving beyond memorizing the ‘facts’ to interrogating the assumptions that undergird them.”
Historical scholarship, research, and service
In addition to her teaching prowess, Professor Lemke-Santangelo’s distinguishing achievements include productive research, meaningful public outreach, service, and leadership. Her work on California and women’s history has earned respect and recognition from peers and educators nationwide. She has lectured at the Oakland Museum, consulted on documentary films, appeared on C-SPAN at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting to discuss 1960s counterculture, and delivered countless presentations and oral histories.
She is the author of several books, including Abiding Courage (which examines the experiences of the African American women who migrated west and built communities there) and Daughters of Aquarius: Women of the Sixties Counterculture (which looks at the impact of “Hippie women” of Haight-Ashbury and country communes). She also co-authored the textbook Competing Visions: A History of California (another of her proudest achievements, she says), which forges a narrative that is refreshingly inclusive of the regional Indigenous peoples who shaped the state. Its full text is available for download .
Back to the future
Professor Lemke-Santango began to wind down her Saint Mary’s career more than four years ago when she began phased retirement. Her full retirement is set to begin at the end of June.
With a lighter courseload these past few years and more free time coming with retirement, she continues to devote time to an issue that sparked her interest decades ago and still simmers: climate activism. Specifically, she helps to create artwork that is used during demonstrations and rallies in the Bay Area that call attention to environmental and climate matters. She anticipates this work to continue or even expand in the future.
As she pondered how best to frame the Professor of the Year celebration event on April 10, she decided to forego a traditional speech and was, instead, inspired to center the event around her environmental interests. She designed a 12’ by 12’ canvas mural and will soon invite students, faculty, staff, and other members of the campus community to join her for a painting session in the Soda Center’s Orinda room on April 8 (8–11 a.m. will be reserved for students, while others can come pick up a brush between 1–4 p.m.). The finished mural will then be unveiled at the April 10 Professor of the Year reception. She also hopes to have the mural displayed on campus on Earth Day on April 22.
“I wanted to do something that reflects how much I care about young people and how much I value working with my students and colleagues to build and sustain our learning community,” she says. “The most rewarding and meaningful work that I've done at the College has been done in tandem with others, often under the leadership of colleagues more able and committed than I. And I wanted to honor them by creating something of lasting purpose and beauty.”
