Woodrow Wilson News & Publications
FOR RELEASE: April 28, 2009
CONTACT: Susan Billmaier, Assistant Program Director, Women's Fellowships
(609) 452-7007 x310
Beverly Sanford, Vice President for Communications
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WOODROW WILSON AWARDS 35TH ROUND OF WOMEN’S STUDIES FELLOWSHIPS
PRINCETON, NJ—For the 21st-century working class, how do gender and race affect upward mobility, or the ability to manage the risk of downward mobility? What makes minority women more successful than white women, in some states, in running for legislative offices? How do people who transition genders navigate society’s gendered “checkpoints”: which bathroom to use, what sports team to play on, the discrepancy between a passport photo and personal appearance?
These are among the topics explored in the doctoral work of this year’s seven Woodrow Wilson Women’s Studies Dissertation Fellows (see list below). The Women’s Studies Fellowship, now in its 35th year, supports the final year of dissertation writing for Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences whose work addresses topics of women and gender in interdisciplinary and original ways.
The 2009 Fellows received awards of $2,100 to be used for expenses connected with completing their dissertations, such as research-related travel, data work/collection, and supplies. In addition, their dissertation titles will be publicized with leading scholarly publishers at the conclusion of the dissertation year.
Funded by the Ford Foundation, the Hans Rosenhaupt Memorial Endowment, and private donors, the Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowships in Women’s Studies is the only national program supporting doctoral work on women’s and gendered issues. Since its inception in 1974 as the nation’s first such program, the program has supported 501 Ph.D.s in various fields, many of them now on the faculty at such major research institutions as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Stanford, Berkeley, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and Rutgers, as well as noted liberal arts colleges like Amherst, Barnard, Bowdoin, Sarah Lawrence, Spelman, Wellesley, and Williams. The roster includes a Pulitzer Prize winner, two MacArthur Fellows, eight Guggenheim Fellows, a number of Fulbright Fellows, and many others who have achieved significant distinctions.
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The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation identifies and develops the best minds for the nation’s most important challenges. In these areas of challenge, the Foundation awards fellowships to enrich human resources, works to improve public policy, and assists organizations and institutions in enhancing practice in the U.S. and abroad.
Sandra Eder • History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
The Birth of Gender: Intersexuality, gender, and clinical practice in the 1950s
Katherine Gallagher • Political Science, University of Michigan
Understanding Differences in the Electoral Success of Women State Legislature Candidates across Racial Groups and Institutional Contexts
Reese Kelly • Sociology, University at Albany
Borders That Matter: Trans Identity Management
Jennifer Silva • Sociology, University of Virginia
Dreams Deferred: Gender, Race, and the Social Reception of Risk
Tes Slominski • Music, New York University
Woman of the House, Boys of the Town: Women, Music, and the Public Sphere in Twentieth Century Ireland
Ofelia Villero • Cultural and Historical Studies of Religions, Graduate Theological Union
Gender and Religious Identity: The Case of the Philippines’ “Ciudad Mistica de Dios”
Leandra Zarnow • History and Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
Bella Abzug and the Promise of Progressive Change in Cold War United States