News

CSWS affiliate H. Leslie Steeves, senior associate dean in the School of Journalism and Communication, received the B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award from the International Communication Association. The award recognizes outstanding scholars, teachers and advisers who serve as role models and have made a major impact on the field of communication through their mentorship. Steves is a former member of the CSWS Advisory Board.

Alisa Freedman, professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures, has been named a 2026 Williams Fellow by the UO Office of the Provost. This prestigious award recognizes innovative teachers who have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to undergraduate education by challenging their students academically, creating an engaged and inclusive learning environment, striving to improve the learning process, and fostering collaboration within or beyond their departments. 

University of Oregon students Claire Jones and Michelle Rogers have been named 2026 Undergraduate STEAM Summer Fellows by the Center for the Study of Women in Society.

Launched in 2025 with funding from our 50th anniversary Duckfunder campaign, this undergraduate fellowship creates opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaborations among science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) faculty and students on campus and to enhance pathways for underrepresented students in STEAM to succeed. 

The Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS) awarded $94,000 for scholarship, research, and creative work on women and gender at the University of Oregon for AY 2026–27. A total of 20 grants and fellowships were given to 16 graduate students and four faculty members.

On May 13, Harvard scholar Durba Mitra will be presenting the 2026 Acker-Morgen Lecture, "What if Gathering Together Liberated Us?" Mitra is the Richard B. Wolf Associate Professor in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University. 

Graduate students and faculty are invited to apply for up to $1,000 in funding to organize CSWS Research Interest Groups (RIGs) for the 2026-27 academic year. 

RIGs provide participants the opportunity to discuss readings of emerging and established feminist scholars and share their research. Funding may be used to pay for reading materials, catering, visits by scholars, on-campus symposia and conferences, and similar campus events. Groups are encouraged to use RIGs as the foundation for future conferences and symposia, course development, and publications. 

The Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies (CLLAS) is pleased to host a research colloquium, "Latine Worldmaking: Queer Ecologies, Migration, and Belonging," featuring faculty and graduate student scholars whose work explores how migration, embodiment, environment, and cultural production shape Latine experiences of belonging. Through literature, media, performance, and critical theory, this event highlights interdisciplinary approaches to identity, place, and community across Latinx and Latin American contexts.

University of Oregon faculty and CSWS affiliates Mattie Burkert and Sara Hodges were interviewed recently for media stories related to their research.

Graduate students and faculty are invited to apply for up to $1,000 in funding to organize CSWS Research Interest Groups (RIGs) for the 2026-27 academic year. An info session for prospective and returning RIG applicants will be held 4–5 p.m. Wednesday, April 8 in the CSWS Acker Room (340A Hendricks Hall).

CSWS is pleased to announce that Smadar Ben-Natan, assistant professor of global studies, and Hannah Thomas, assistant professor of dance, are the first recipients of a competitive new Faculty Research Fellowship that provides one course release for 2026-27 to pursue work on any aspect of the study of women and/or gender. 

CSWS is hosting an Information Session for students an faculty mentors interested in applying for our newest research initiative—the CSWS Undergraduate STEAM Summer Fellowship.

Over summer, undergraduate fellows collaborate 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. 

CSWS affiliate Kate Kelp-Stebbins, associate professor of English and director of comics and cartoon studies, has curated the grand opening exhibit for the new Northwest Museum of Comic Arts (NWMOCA) in Portland.

According to NWMOCA, the Pacific Northwest is recognized as one of the most vital comics hubs in the United States. Portland has one of the highest population of professional cartoonists per capita of any major city, and its status as a cartoon capital has grown steadily since the early 2000s.

Excerpted from June 9 CAS Connection, story by Jenny Brooks — Going to the theater in London in the 18th century was a good time—and a transformative time. Playhouses across the city were bursting with activity as crowd-pleasing favorites from the heyday of Shakespeare mixed with slapstick entertainments and boundary-pushing artistic experimentation. These shows drew lively, often raucous audiences from a mix of social and economic classes that seldom crossed paths elsewhere. 

For AY 2026-27, the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS) is launching a new research fellowship that provides University of Oregon faculty with one course release for a term of reduced or no teaching to pursue work on any aspect of the study of women and/or gender.

From Oregon News — CSWS affiliate Karen Guillemin, Biology, has been named to the National Academy of Inventors, a designation that recognizes visionaries and innovators whose technologies brought, or aspire to bring, a real impact on society.

CSWS is awarding grant support to four new and three renewing Research Interest Groups (RIGs) spanning the social sciences, humanities, law, and education for the 2025-26 academic year.