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For nearly 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.
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Annie Fukushima
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audience at speaker event

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.

Haunting Ecologies

Image "Killed Tree," by Sarah Grew
“Haunting Ecologies: The Past, Present, and Future of Feminist and Indigenous Approaches to Forest Fire
  • April 24–May 4: “Ghost Forest” – an exhibition by Eugene artist Sarah Grew at the LaVerne Krause Gallery, featuring Jon Bellona’s sound installation “Wildfire”
  • April 25: “Native Ecologies” panel discussion on Indigenous histories and approaches to fire management, knowledge production, and ecological stewardship
  • May 2: Acker-Morgen Memorial Lecture by invited scholar Michelle Murphy, Professor of History, Women and Gender Studies Institute, Canada Research Chair in Science and Technology Studies and Environmental Data Justice, University of Toronto

Sponsored by CSWS and UO Environment Initiative.

Feminist Futures: CSWS 50th Anniversary

During AY 2023-24, the Center for the Study of Women in Society will celebrate 50 years of enriching the University of Oregon community. Our year-long celebration will include invited speakers, exhibits, performances, and events that speak to intersectional feminist research and the ways in which gender, race, class, ability, and sexual orientation intersect and inform our visions of social justice. As the Center looks ahead to our next five decades, we will explore both the promises for and the imperilment of our “feminist futures” within fraught social, political, and environmental landscapes both nationally and globally. 
50 Years

History of CSWS

For more than 45 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

Upcoming Events

“A Place in the Narrative: Telling Underdocumented Stories” at Ford Alumni Center

When in a new country, a place where you can have a meal of familiar food among people who speak encouraging words in your mother tongue can make you feel welcome and safe. That’s exactly the kind of place Doña Natalia Barraza created after she immigrated to Los Angeles from Mexico. Opened in Echo Park in 1951, the Nayarit was a local landmark, popular with Hollywood stars and restaurant workers from across the city and beloved for its fresh, traditionally prepared Mexican food.

5:30pm

Natalia Molina lecture

Natalia Molina is a professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California. Her research explores the intertwined histories of race, place, gender, culture, and citizenship. She is the author of How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts (UC Press, 2014) and Fit to Be Citizens?: Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879–1940 (UC Press, 2006).

7:00pm

Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics at Knight Library

Associate Professor of Sociology Krystale Littlejohn discusses her new book, Just Get on the Pill, which investigates how birth control becomes a fundamentally unbalanced and gendered responsibility. She uncovers how parents, peers, partners, and providers draw on narratives of male and female birth control methods to socialize cisgender women into sex and ultimately into shouldering the burden for preventing pregnancy.

3:00pm
Knight Library

News

Mar 22, 2023

Littlejohn to discuss birth control and reproductive justice April 21

On Friday, April 21, Krystale Littlejohn, associate professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, will be giving a talk on her recent book, Just Get on the Pill: The Uneven Burden of Reproductive Politics (University of California Press, 2021).

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS), the event will also preview the Center's 50th anniversary programming for the 2023-24 academic year.

Feb 24, 2023

Saavedra to discuss masculinity and localized liberalism Mar. 9

The CLLAS Faculty Research Series presents Creating Californios: Masculinity and Localized Liberalism in Mexican California, 1800-1850, with Yvette Saavedra, assistant professor of women's, gender, and sexuality studies. She is also a CSWS faculty affiliate. Please join us for this exciting in-person event on Thursday, March 9, 3:30-4:30pm in the Diamond Lake Room, EMU.