Arney Robinson Childs Student Award

Each year one student is presented a $250 award in honor of Dr. Arney Robinson Childs, a lifelong educator and trailblazer for women. 

Eligibility: Students who are eligible for this award should: 

• Be a senior.
• Have a record of extraordinary achievement and contributions to Women's and Gender Studies classes.
• Demonstrate exemplary commitment to women's issues on campus or in the community.

Award Amount: $250. Awardees will be recognized at the Women's and Gender Studies Awards Ceremony.

Nomination Process: Nominations can be by WGST core, adjunct or affiliate faculty or student self-nominations. Faculty nominations must include the nominee’s name and a detailed letter of nomination. Self-nominees must provide a letter addressing their achievements related to the awards criteria.

The link to the application form is available here.

Nominees with be asked to provide unofficial transcripts and a resume.

Nominations deadline: November 1

Dr. Lynn Weber Award

Each year, WGST faculty nominate one student for a $1,000 award in honor of former WGST Director Dr. Lynn Weber. Dr. Weber, who passed away in 2021, was a brilliant scholar and leader who shaped the WGST Department and championed intersectionality and community engagement. The Dr. Lynn Weber Award was established in 2022 in her honor.

Eligibility: This award will be presented to an academically talented undergraduate student pursuing a WGST major or minor, with an emphasis on nominating recipients from underrepresented student populations and socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

Award Amount: $1,000. Award funds will be applied directly to recipient's tuition for the following year. Please be aware that receipt of this money may have an impact on the recipient’s financial aid. Awardees will be recognized at the Women's and Gender Studies Awards Ceremony.

Application Process: The WGST Department Chair, in coordination with Department faculty, will nominate a student for the award. The selected student will be asked to submit an application form.

Nomination deadline: March 1

Harriott Hampton Faucette Award

The Harriott Hampton Faucette Award is designed to assist Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Certificate students with research and professional development. Proposals should be consistent with the research mission of Women’s and Gender Studies to reconceptualize knowledge, create new knowledge, and/or reinterpret existing knowledge through the lens of gender and the prism of diversity.

Eligibility: This award is open to all Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Certificate students and students currently enrolled in Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Certificate courses.

Award amount: Maximum of $500. Award is for research/professional development expenses (travel expenses, books, supplies, equipment). Awardees will be recognized at the Women's and Gender Studies Awards Ceremony. Please be aware that receipt of this money may affect the recipient's financial aid.

Application Process: The application consists of the following:

• A cover page that includes the project title, your name, email address, postal address, and telephone number.
• A two-page proposal that addresses the aim and purpose of the research, the methodology and the significance of the research to the research mission of Women’s and Gender Studies.
• An itemized budget of expenses to be covered by the award.
• A one-page curriculum vita/resume.

The link to the application form is available here.

Application deadline: November 1

Emily Thompson Student Award

The Emily Thompson Award in Women’s and Gender Studies is designed to recognize the best graduate student research paper or project focusing on some aspect of women’s health.

Eligibility: The award is open to any research papers or projects completed in 2024 produced by graduate students who are enrolled at USC at the time of application and receipt of the award.

Award amount: $250. Awardees will be recognized at the Women's and Gender Studies Awards Ceremony. Please be aware that receipt of this money may have an impact on your financial aid.

Application Process: The application consists of the following:

• A cover page that includes the project title, your name, email address, postal address and telephone number.
• A cover letter that addresses the aim and purpose of the research, the methodology and the significance of the research to the research mission of Women’s and Gender Studies.
•  A one-page curriculum vita/resume.
• The completed research paper or project – page limit 25 pages.

The link to the application form is available here.

Application Deadline: November 1

Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Student Teaching Award

This award was established to recognize outstanding teaching in Women’s and Gender Studies undergraduate courses by graduate student instructors.

Eligibility: Nominees must have:

• taught at least one undergraduate WGST (or WGST cross-listed) course within one semester of the time of nomination.
• demonstrated a history of effective and sustained integration of race, class, gender, and sexuality issues into course materials and requirements.
• evidence of teaching effectiveness via student teaching evaluations.

Award Amount: A $250 one-time scholarship award will be presented to a graduate student. Awardees will be recognized at the Women's and Gender Studies Awards Ceremony.

Application Process: Nominations (which may be self-nominations) will be sought from students and faculty members on all USC campuses offering WGST courses. Nominees will be asked to provide copies of student evaluations, peer evaluations, and course syllabi.

The link to the application form is available here.

Application Deadline: January 31

Josephine Abney Faculty 

The Josephine Abney Faculty  is designed to encourage cutting edge research that is solidly grounded in women's and gender studies perspectives. Proposals are invited which are consistent with the research mission of Women's and Gender Studies to reconceptualize knowledge, create new knowledge, and/or reinterpret existing knowledge about women and other underrepresented groups and their experiences through the lens of gender and the prism of diversity. The research should be interdisciplinary in nature or have interdisciplinary implications and should reflect a commitment to improving the status of women and other underrepresented groups.

Eligibility: This award is open to any full-time, permanent faculty or professional staff member within the USC system. Selections are made by a Women's and Gender Studies committee.

Award Amount: The $5,000 award may be used for research expenses or for summer salary. Spending must follow university policy. Any publications that result from this work should contain an acknowledgment such as "This work is partially supported by the Josephine Abney Faculty Award for Research in Women's and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina." Awardees will be recognized at the Women's and Gender Studies Awards Ceremony.

Application Process: Proposals will consist of a five-page (double spaced) description of the research and its relationship to the mission of Women's and Gender Studies. An itemized budget of expenses this award will cover must also be submitted (this is not part of the five-page limit), and a one-page curriculum vita/resume. Please merge all documents into one PDF file.

The link to the application form is available here.

Application Deadline: November 1

Carol Jones Carlisle Faculty Award

The Carol Jones Carlisle Award in Women's Studies was created by friends, colleagues, family, and students of Dr. Carlisle, who taught at USC for nearly 40 years. She was an English Professor Emeritus and one of the first women at USC to achieve the rank of full professor. She is internationally known as an important Shakespeare scholar and the author of a book-length biography of Helen Faucit, the great Shakespearean actress of the 19th century.

This award is designed to assist faculty and professional staff in the conduct of women-centered research, which is consistent with the research mission of Women's and Gender Studies to reconceptualize knowledge, create new knowledge, and/or reinterpret existing knowledge about women and their experiences through the lens of gender and the prism of diversity.

Eligibility: This award is open to any full-time, permanent faculty or professional staff member within the USC system.

Award Amount: The $2,500 award can be used for travel, software, books, supplies, and/or equipment. Funds must be spent by the end of the fiscal year following receipt of award and must follow university policy. Awardees will be recognized at the Women's and Gender Studies Awards Ceremony.

Application Process: Proposals will consist of a three-page (double spaced) description of the research and its relationship to the mission of Women's and Gender Studies. An itemized budget of expenses this award will cover must also be submitted (this is not part of the three-page limit), and a one-page curriculum vita/resume.

Please merge all documents into one PDF file. 

The link to the application form is available here.

Application Deadline: March 1

Dr. Mary Baskin-Waters Faculty Service-Learning Award

The Dr. Mary Baskin-Waters Service-Learning Award recognizes USC faculty who have demonstrated a sustained commitment to excellence in service-learning and are recognized for their leadership in academic service-learning coursework and their commitment to the local community. 

Eligibility: Faculty nominees can be full-time or temporary instructors in any program or department across the University of South Carolina campus system. The award will recognize outstanding accomplishments and general impact in any or all of the following areas:

• Teaching: development and implementation of effective strategies for teaching that advance understanding for meaningful integration of the service experience with course content structure of the service experience, selection of community partners, and use of critical reflection.
• Research or Creative Work: new knowledge or creative work implemented that advances the understanding of gender justice in the nominee’s field of study and/or has the potential to improve the quality of life of individuals served by local nonprofits that have participated in service-learning projects.
• Service/Outreach: activities that promote the professional and/or academic advancement of service-learning initiatives and projects. Exhibits ongoing commitments to the needs of community partners and has significantly impacted the needs of the local community.

Award Amount: $1,000. Awardees will be recognized at the Service Leadership Awards Ceremony and the Women's and Gender Studies Awards Ceremony.

Application Process: Nominations (which may be self-nominations) must include a nomination letter and contact information. The Women’s and Gender Studies Awards Committee will evaluate applications, select finalists, and recommend one faculty award winner.

A link to the application form is available here.

Application deadline: March 1

Women’s and Gender Studies Faculty Teaching Award

This award was established to recognize outstanding teaching in Women’s and Gender Studies undergraduate and graduate courses.

Eligibility: Nominees must have:

• taught at least one undergraduate or graduate WGST (or WGST cross-listed) course within one academic year of the time of nomination.
• demonstrated a history of effective and sustained integration of race, class, gender, and sexuality issues into course materials and requirements.
• evidence of teaching effectiveness via student and peer teaching evaluations.

Award Amount: A $1,000 award will be presented to a faculty member (tenure-track, teaching faculty, or adjunct). Awardees will be recognized at the Women's and Gender Studies Awards Ceremony.

Application Process: Nominations (which may be self-nominations) will be sought from students and faculty members on all USC campuses offering WGST courses. Nominees will be asked to provide copies of student evaluations, peer evaluations, and course syllabi. 

A link to the application form is available here.

Application Deadline: January 31

The National Women's Studies Association offers several graduate student awards and prizes for scholarship throughout the year.

Learn more and apply

The WW Women’s Studies Fellowships support the final year of dissertation writing for Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences whose work addresses topics of women and gender in interdisciplinary and original ways. Since the first Women’s Studies Fellows were named in 1974, over 500 emerging scholars have been funded, many now prominent in their fields.

Learn more and apply

2024: Tristan Johnson 

2023: Lanie Berrigan

2022: Samantha A. Johnson

2021: Zola Jane Aplin

2020: Emily McBryde

2019: Hannah Quire and Madison Baker

2017: Elizabeth Poche

2015: Denisha Kriven and Maxine Todd

2013: Kayla Caston and Erin Lewis

2011: Crystal Marie Bolder

2010: Sydney Daigle

2009: Annie Boiter-Jolley

2008: Maria T. Reyes

2007: Hannah Dykes Markwardt

2006: Wanda Collier

2005: Ashley Paige

2004: Barbara (Bobbie) Wofford

2003: Laura L. Edwards

2023: Dr. Jennifer Augustine - "“Gender Inequalities in Mothers’ and Fathers’ Experiences of Remote Work”

2022: Dr. Kaitlin Boyle - "Gender Based Mass Violence"

2021: Dr. Jaclyn S. Wong - “Piloting a Housework Gender Equality Intervention”

2019: Dr. Suzanne Swan

2014: Dr. Laura Woliver - “Pushing Back: the National Council of Women’s Organizations and Coalition Lobbying”

2012: Dr. Paula Feldman

2013: Dr. Alyssa Robilliard - “Differential Perceptions of Sexual Victimization (Assault) Based on Race and Ethnicity”

2011: Dr. Laura Kissel - "Cotton Road" documentary

Lucy Annang, Ph.D. - “Using the Nominal Group Technique to Understand How Daughters and Mothers Communicate about Cervical Cancer Health in the African American Family”

2010: Dr. Ed Madden - “Feminist Organizing and the Gay Rights Movement in Ireland”

Dr. Shauna Cooper - “Utilizing Mixed-Method Approaches to Understand the Socio-Cultural Context of African American Adolescent Girl’s Mental Health.”

2009: Dr. Erica Gibson - “Perinatal Care Access: A Cross-Cultural Study of Mexican and Mexican-American Women” 

Dr. Agnes Mueller - “Jews and Gender in Contemporary German Literature”

2008: Dr. Ann Kingsolver - “Crossing the Line: Women and FTZ Employment in South Carolina, USA” 

2007: Dr. Suzanne Swan - project focusing on women's aggression and violence in intimate relationships

Dr. Alice B. Kasakoff - research into online geneological research sites.

2006: Dr. Tawanda Greer - "Multidimensional Inventory of African American Functioning"

2005: Lawyer Ann Bartow - "Open Access, Law, Knowledge, Copyrights, Dominance and Subordination"

2004: Dr. Ramona Lagos - "Invisible Citizens and the Backlash of Middle-Class Values"

2003: Dr. Susan Schramm-Pate - "Feminist Perspectives of Male Mentors in Educational Administration"

Dr. Daniela Di Cecco - "Novels for Dutiful Daughters: The Brigette Series in France"

2002: Dr. Jeanne Garane - "Imagined Geographies, Subjective Cartographies, Colonialism, Autobiography, and the Cartographic"

Dr. Mary E. Stylinger - "A Voice for Women's Studies in the High School Classroom"

Dr. Fran Gardner Perry - "Language and Landscape: An Exploration of Art and Poetry"

2001: Dr. Ed Madden - research relating to "The Well of Loneliness" by Radclyffe Hall published in The Journal of Homosexuality

1998: Dr. Joanna Casey - a chapter in "Gender in African Prehistory" 

1992: Dr. Elizabeth S. Bell - a chapter on women aviatrices in "Heroines of Popular Culture"

2024: Jayla Porcha

2023: Ayaan Hawkins Regis

2022: A'Mia Hill

2024: Dr. Hyunji Kwon

2023: Dr. Olga Ivashkevich

2022: Dr. Tia Stevens Andersen

2024: Kelsey I. M. Chapates

2022: Elizabeth Cates Collins

2020: Travis Wagner

2019: Jennifer Mandelbaum

               Nik Lampe

2017: Jillian Hinderliter

2013: Kristin Van de Griend

2011: Alexis Koskan

2010: Sasikumar Balasundaram

2009: Chinelo Ogbuanu

2008: Imelda Cuison

Fall 2024: Anne-Laure Sabathier - “The Expression of Self: Gender and Sexuality on Women College's Students' Diaries”

Fall 2023: Jessica Pomerantz- “Intimate Partner Violence Victims’ Lived Experiences with Civil Legal Intervention”

Fall 2022: Atticus Wolfe - “Stress, Coping, and Equity: LGBTQ+ Health Care Professionals During COVID-19” 

Fall 2021: Samantha Moser - "Our Debt or Your Debt? How Couples’ Manage Student Loan Debt"

Spring 2021: Tamara Grimm - "Psychiatrists' Perspectives on the Role of Physician Gender Bias in Twofold Prevalence of Anxietyand Depression Diagnoses in Women"

Fall 2020: Nik Lampe

Spring 2020: Mia Brantley

Fall 2019: Mattie Atwell

Spring 2019: Julian M. Hinderliter

                Kierra Jones

Spring 2018: Jennifer Martin

Fall 2017: Chigozie Nkwonta

Spring 2014: Ebru Cayir - “Understanding Historical Trauma among American Indians in a Southeastern Tribe: An Intergenerational Perspective”

Fall 2013: Travis Wagner - “Where’s Your Plug?: Nationalism and Consumption of Non-Human Gendered Bodies in Contemporary East Asian Cinema”

Spring 2013: Marc Demont - “Schizophrenic Masculinities.”

Spring 2011: Alexis Stratton - short story collection focusing on relationships among gender, sexuality, embodiment, and belonging in South Korea

Sasikumar Balasundaram - “Collaborating With Refugee Women: Theorizing Gendered Violence in an Indian Refugee Camp through a Collaborative Project”

Fall 2010: Christy Kollath - “Reinterpreting Reproduction: An Ethnography on Discourses, Ideologies, and Practices among Midwifery Participants in South Carolina”

Susan Ryan - “Breaking Silence and Questioning Disorder"

Spring 2010: Charis Davidson - “Research into Family Planning in Belize”

Fall 2009: Stacy Haney - “Split Consciousness: The Post-Gendered Body in Trans-Colonial Times”

Annie Boiter-Jolley - “National Council of Women’s Organization’s Voter Outreach through the Church Ladies Project” 

Spring 2009: Sarah Gareau - "Public Health Impact of Criminal Justice Referral on Substance Abuse Treatment for Women in South Carolina prior to and after the Whitner Decision"

Fall 2008: Christina Griffin - "Gender and Social Capital in the Recovery Stages of Disasters"

2024: Cara Delay - “Abortion and Black Women's Health Networks in Pre-Roe South Carolina (1883-1973)”

Ashley Williard - “Raving Mad: White Womanhood, Criminality, and Carework”

2023: Sarah Waheed -  “The Warrior Queen Who Died Thrice: Gender, Islam, and Sovereignty in Early Modern India”

2022: Alyssa Collins - “Cellular Blackness: Black Feminist Posthuman Ontologies” 

Tarlan Chahardovali - “College Athletics after the overturning of Roe v. Wade: The Impact of Reproductive Rights Restrictions on Women Sport Programs in the National Collegiate Athletic Association”

2021: Dr. Jaclyn S. Wong - “Piloting a Housework Gender Equality Intervention”

2020: Dr. Lisa Martin - “Access to Civil Justice to Remedy Gender-Based Violence in South Carolina”

2016: Dr. Sara L. Schwebel - “Lone Woman and Last Indians”

2015: Dr. Emily Mann - “Reproductive Counseling to Young Women Seeking Family Planning Services”

2014: Dr. Katrina Walsemann - “The health of undocumented immigrants at the intersection of gender and country of origin”

2013: Dr. Daniel Jenkins - “A Chapter of Leonard Bernstein’s Musical Identities”

Dr. Nicole Zarrett - “Off the Sidelines and into the Game: Addressing African American Girls’ Social Motivations for Participating in Physical Activity within Afterschool Programs"

2012: Dr. Rhonda Johnson - investigation into how class, community, and other aspects of social oppression factor into the mental well being of African American women

2011: Gretchen Woertendyke, Ph.D. “Novel to Romance in Early America” in “Buccaneers and Girl Pirates: Cuba, Periódicos, and the Popular Romance”

2010: Dr. Sarah Williams - "Representations of Early Modern English Witchcraft in Broadside Balladry and Popular Song"

Dr. Federica Clementi - “Entr’actes: Sarah Kofman’s Art of Memory”

2009: Marjorie J. Spruill “Remembering International Women’s Year 1977: A Feminist History Preservation Project” 

2008: Dr. Jeanne Garane - "Autoethnography as Translations Pélandrova Dréo's Pélandrova" in "Translating Africa: Francophone Literature and the Transfer of Cultures"

Dr. Jihong Liu and Dr. Kathryn Luchok  - “Developing a Model of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Birth Outcomes: A Life Course Perspective” 

2007: Holly Crocker - "Conductive Subjects: Engendering Virtue in England, 1350-1623" 

Louise Jennings - "Women Educators as Agents of Change: Working Toward Radical Democratization of Brazilian Schools"

2006: Dawn Hunter - "Spectacle Spectacular"

Cynthia Davis - "Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Living Biography" 

Sadye Logan - "Narratives on Race, Gender, and Civil Rights: Exploring the Role of African American Older Women"

2005: Dr. Elaine Lacy and Dr. Suzanne Swan - "Mexican Immigrants in South Carolina: A Profile"

Dr. Susan Courtney - "Regional Projections: The Cultural Work of Cinema in Mapping the U.S.A." 

2004: Dr. Lisa Hammond Rashley - "Cultural Perceptions of Breastfeeding Online: Support, Community, Judgments" 

2003: Dr. Juliann Sivulka - "Ad Women"

2002: Dr. Pamela Barnett - "Dangerous Desire: Literature of Sexual Freedom and and Sexual Violence Since the Sixties"

Dr. Kathryn Edwards - "Visitations: The Haunting of an Early Modern Town"

2001: Dr. Manuel Kress-Shull, Dr. Angela Glover and Dr. Barbara Koons-Witt - guidelines and initiatives to improve accessibility to South Carolina’s domestic violence shelters

1994: Dr. Dianna Johnson-Feelings -  “The New Seed: Depictions of the Middle Class in Recent African American Young Adult Literature” in "African American Voices: Tradition, Transition, Transformation"

1991: Dr. Patricia Gilmartin - “Mary Jobe Akeley’s Exploration of the Colorado Rockies”

2023: Dr. Ed Madden

2022: Dr. F.K. Schoeman

2021: Dr. Kathryn Luchok

2020: Dr. Ann Ramsdell

2019: Dr. Dawn Campbell

2018: Dr. Emily Mann

2017: Dr. Marjorie Spruill

2015: Dr. Lisa Johnson

2012: Dr. Susan Schramm-Pate

2011: Dr. Mary Baskin Waters

2008: Dr. Majorie Spruill

2007: Dr. Cassie Premo Steele and Dr. Becky Lewis

2006: Dr. DeAnne K. Hillfinger Messias

2003: Dr. Ingrid Reneau

2023: Archie Crowley

2021: Nik Lampe

2011: Michelle Deming

2009: Sharon White

2007: Jessie Labbé

2003: Emily Aleshire