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For five decades CSWS has funded feminist scholarship at the University of Oregon. Our mission is simple: we create, fund, share, and support research that addresses the complicated nature of gender identities and inequalities.

Barbara Sutton
VIDEO OF THE WEEK: University at Albany Professor Barbara Sutton discusses the importance of decolonial feminist research.
Bryant Taylor
Q&A with Bryant Taylor—watch the video clip and read the full story here.
CSWS affiliates at the 2023 New Faculty Welcome Reception.
WATCH: Faculty affiliates speak about the impacts of CSWS on their careers and research.
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Create

Our faculty and student affiliates generate wide-ranging research on the complexity of women’s lives and the intersecting nature of gender identities and inequalities. Discover what we are working on.

Fund

For five decades, we have funded feminist scholarship at the University of Oregon. Read about our present opportunities and past awards

Share

As a research center, we disseminate new knowledge on the complicated nature of gender identities and inequalities with other scholars and educators, the public, policymakers, and activists. Keep in touch with the latest news, publications, and media.

Support

Through event programming and special initiatives, we foster networking, collaboration, and mentorship within our vibrant community of feminist scholars.  Learn more about how to get involved.

Upcoming Events

A Decolonial Reading: The Case of Latin American Antígonas at Lillis Business Complex

Moira Fradinger is Associate Professor in the department of Comparative Literature at Yale University. She is the author of Antígonas: Writing From Latin America (Oxford University Press, 2023), the first book in the English language to approach classical reception through the study of one classical fragment as it circulates throughout Latin America. This interdisciplinary research engages comparative literature, Latin American studies, classical reception, history, feminist theory, political philosophy, and theatre history.

Oct 18 - 3:00pm

Madakarani as Screen Pleasure: Scandal and Soft-porn Imaginary at Straub Hall

In Malayalam soft-porn cinema of the 1990s, female leads were cast as madakarani (sex-siren), a label that symbolized both their narrative role and professional distinction as second-tier contract laborers. In this talk, Dr. Darshana Sreedhar Mini explores soft-porn’s invocation of the figure of madakarani to chart out different spectatorial relations built through her presence as an embodiment of screen pleasures.

Oct 25 - 3:00pm

The Future of Multiracial Democracy at Knight Law Center

Featuring Sara Sadhwani, assistant professor of politics at Pomona College. Sadhwani specializes in Asian American and Latino voting behavior, elections, interest groups and representation. Her analysis of politics and elections has been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, NPR, Bloomberg, Politico, The Guardian, Vox, The Los Angeles Times, NBC News, The HuffPost and many more.

Oct 29 - 5:15pm

News

Oct. 25 talk looks at soft-porn in South Asian cinema

Darshana Sreedhar Mini, assistant professor of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will be giving a talk Friday, Oct. 25, on "Madakarani as Screen Pleasure: Scandal and Soft-porn Imaginary." The free lecture will be held 3–5 p.m. in 145 Straub Hall, 1451 Onyx St, at the University of Oregon, Eugene. 

Oct. 18 talk to explore a decolonial reading of Antigonas

Yale Professor Moira Fradinger will be presenting "A Decolonial Reading: The Case of Latin American Antígonas" on Friday, October 18, 2024. The event will be held 3–5 p.m. in 182 Lillis Hall, 955 E 13th Ave, University of Oregon.

Camisha Russell is first at UO to win coveted Mellon Fellowship

From Around the O—Camisha Russell, an associate professor of philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at University of Oregon, has been named a Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellow  for 2024. 

Each year, approximately 12 scholars are selected for the prize, and Russell is the UO’s first faculty member to receive this honor.

Videos

CSWS Alumni Testimonials | Barbara Sutton
CSWS Alumni Testimonials | Cecilia Enjuto Rangel
CSWS Alumni Testimonials | Jon Jaramillo

History of CSWS

For 50 years CSWS has funded feminist scholarship at the University of Oregon. Our mission is simple: we create, fund, and share research that addresses the complicated nature of gender identities and inequalities.

Our ability to do this resulted from an incredible act of generosity. In 1983, the hard work and vision of faculty members working in what was then called the Center for the Sociological Study of Women attracted the attention of Fortune magazine editor William Harris. His endowment, the largest single gift ever given to the university at that time, was given in memory of his wife, Jane Grant, an early feminist and co-founder of The New Yorker.

historical photo, group shot