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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.

Give to CSWS

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Research

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.

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Funding

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

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Initiatives

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.

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Media

As a research center, we disseminate new knowledge across media platforms on the complicated nature of gender identities and inequalities with other scholars and educators, the public, policymakers, and activists. 

Upcoming Events

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New Faculty Welcome & Holiday Party
The Center for the Study of Women in Society and the Office of the Provost invite you to our annual New Faculty Welcome and Holiday Party for women, feminist-identified, and allied faculty of all genders. Come to the welcome reception to meet new and current faculty, to learn about one another’s research and work, and to inspire collaboration, community, and support across campus.
Dec 01 - 4:00pm
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Grant Writing Workshop

CSWS is hosting a Grant Writing Workshop with Michael Murashige, writing consultant for the Center on Diversity and Community (CoDaC), at 12 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 9, in the Knight Library DREAM Lab (Room 122). 

Dec 09 - 12:00pm
Knight Library
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1973
CSWS Established
$3.5m
1983 Harris Endowment Received
$3m+
Given for Gender Research at UO
900+
CSWS Research Grants Funded
220+
CSWS Faculty Affiliates at UO

CSWS Impacts

Features

Sitting around the CSWS Jane Grant Room conference table, students offer both generative and critical feedback on their op-ed assignment drafts in the HIST 416 Calderwood Seminar last spring / photo by Owen Garvey.

Encountering Women’s History in a CSWS Calderwood Seminar

by Jenée Wilde, Associate Teaching Professor, Department of English
In the Jane Grant Room at CSWS, a dozen students gather around the conference table as their instructor gets the workshop started. This week, classmates in group A are the editors, providing detailed critical and generative feedback to the op-ed writers in group B. Next week, their roles will be reversed.
The 2025 CSWS-OVPRI Undergraduate Steam Summer Fellows are, from left, Cing Dim, Sophia Foerster, Anisha Srinivasan, and Alex Underwood / photos provided by the fellows.

Personal Stories Inspire Summer Undergraduate Research Projects

by Jenée Wilde, Associate Teaching Professor, Department of English
The Center for the Study of Women in Society has launched a new student-centered research initiative—the CSWS Undergraduate STEAM Summer Fellowship. Over the summer, undergraduate fellows collaborated with University of Oregon faculty mentors to develop interdisciplinary research and creative projects that engage with STEAM fields—science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Our STEAM fellows approach their inquiry with gender and intersectionality as an analytical framework.
Over the course of ten days, Anthony Schrag and Marjorie Celona (pictured left) created several works from Edie X.’s career at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall in Edinburgh / photo provided Celona.

Finding Edie X. A Writer Explores Gender, Motherhood, and Disability through Art

by Jori Celona, Associate Professor, Creative Writing Program
My third novel, The Year of X, begins with Edie X., a mid-career artist, leaving her husband to attend a yearlong artist residency in upstate New York, bringing her young daughter, Lou, along for the ride. Her proposed project is a reimagining of Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, in which she plans to document her own top surgery in a series of photographs. But shortly after arriving at the residency, she begins to have bizarre seizures, which hijack her life and art, and alter her sense of personhood in the world.

News

Front and back covers of the 2025 Annual Review.

2025 Annual Review now available

Thanks to your continued support, CSWS is uniquely privileged in offering space, time, and resources that enable faculty and students to attend to the unfinished projects of feminism. Enjoy the articles and interviews featured in this issue that provide a window into the field-changing work undertaken by our associates as they shape just and egalitarian feminist futures.
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Registration open for Dec. 9 grant writing workshop

The grant writing workshop with Michael Murashige, writing consultant for the Center on Diversity and Community, will be held 12–1 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 9, in the Knight Library DREAM Lab (Room 122). The workshop will help graduate students write a strong CSWS grant application by reviewing important elements and some common oversights. Registration required.
Students studying at a table.

Worried About Graduate-level Writing? You’re Not Alone

Writing is a foundational skill for success in graduate school. Unlike undergraduate writing, which often focuses on summarizing research, graduate-level writing asks students to develop and articulate new knowledge, adding to scholarship and inspiring change. Many incoming graduate students, even at top institutions, are not prepared for this level of academic writing. Innovative and accessible writing resources address this disconnect, strengthening essential writing skills and expanding meaningful mentorship opportunities.
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Videos

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CSWS Spotlight: Stephanie Mastrostefano
CSWS Spotlight: Jina Kim on 2024 Nobel Laureate Han Kang
CSWS Spotlight: Michael Kuhn on 2023 Nobel Laureate Claudia Goldin
Interview with 2023 Acker-Morgen Memorial Lecturer, Dr. M Murphy
All Videos

History of CSWS

For more than 50 years, CSWS has supported 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.

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Learn More CSWS History