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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.

Anita Hill
WATCH: Reflections on Anita Hill's 2024 Lorwin Lecture
Feminist Futures event
WATCH: Feminist Futures, an evening of song and dance by SOMD faculty
JSMA Feminist Futures exhibit
WATCH: Feminist Futures at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
Tina Brown
WATCH: Reflections on Tina Brown, 2024 Johnston Lecture

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

CSWS Research Interest Group Info Session

Graduate students and faculty are invited to apply for up to $1,000 in funding to organize CSWS Research Interest Groups (RIGs) for the 2025-26 academic year. An info session for prospective and returning RIG applicants will be held 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 9 in the CSWS Jane Grant Room (330 Hendricks Hall).

Apr 09 - 3:00pm
Hendricks 330 (CSWS Jane Grant Room)

CSWS Noon Talk: Moe Gámez and Madison Fowler

"Remembering Queer and Trans of Color Resistance at Stonewall National Monument" — This project contends with the National Park Service’s investment in constructing a liberal, multicultural American national identity through the 2016 designation of Stonewall National Monument.

Apr 11 - 12:00pm
Hendricks 330 (CSWS Jane Grant Room)

CSWS Noon Talk: Malvya Chintakindi

"In Pursuit of 'Good Life': Gender, Caste and Class in India's Shadow Economy" – This ethnographic inquiry investigates how class, caste and gender intersect in urban slums of Hyderabad, South India, to shape aspirations for “good life” for lower caste (Dalit, historically categorized as untouchables) women engaged in the informal labor sector which constitutes a whopping 80 percent of the Indian workforce.

Apr 16 - 12:00pm
Hendricks 330 (CSWS Jane Grant Room)
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News

Faith Barter

Faith Barter explores antebellum Black authorship in new book

A new book by CSWS affiliate Faith Barter, assistant professor of English at the UO, explores Black writers as architects of legal possibility in the antebellum South. Her book, Black Pro Se: Authorship and the Limits of Law in Nineteenth-Century African American Literature (2025) was published by University of North Carolina Press. She received a 2019-20 CSWS Faculty Research Grant for this project.

Publisher's description:

Graphic illustration.

Info session for CSWS research interest groups set for April 9

Graduate students and faculty are invited to apply for up to $1,000 in funding to organize CSWS Research Interest Groups (RIGs) for the 2025-26 academic year. An info session for prospective and returning RIG applicants will be held 3–4 p.m. Wednesday, April 9 in the CSWS Jane Grant Room (330 Hendricks Hall).

Graphic illustration.

Feb. 28 teach-in to address post-election politics impacting minority groups

On Feb. 28, the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS) presents “Gender as Target: US 2024 Elections and Aftermath,” a teach-in featuring University of Oregon faculty and GTFF representatives discussing how gender and race discourses informed the recent election cycle and ways we can collectively respond to the barrage of policies impacting immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities today. 

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Videos

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CSWS Alumni Testimonials | Barbara Pope
CSWS Alumni Testimonials | Barbara Sutton
CSWS Alumni Testimonials | Cecilia Enjuto Rangel

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
Learn more about history of CSWS