2012 CSW Award Winners!

The UCLA Center for the Study of Women is dedicated to advancing the research of undergraduate and graduate students at UCLA in the areas of gender, sexuality, and women's issues. Each year CSW gives out a number of awards to students in an effort to support exciting, thought-provoking, and important research projects. We would like to take this opportunity to share with you this year's fantastic group of award winners!

Renaissance Awards

Made possible through the generosity of Myrna A. Hant, this award supports the renewed academic aspirations of women whose college careers were interrupted or delayed by family and/or career obligations. The recipients are UCLA undergraduate women who returned or are returning to college after a period of years. We are proud to announce this year's winners:

• Emnet Habebo is majoring in International Development with a minor in Public Health at UCLA. 
• Cynthia Avalos is working towards a B.A. with a major in Sociology and a minor in Political Science at UCLA. 

Elizabeth Blackwell, MD, AWARDs

Named for the first woman to graduate from medical school and made possible by the generosity of Barbara “Penny” Kanner, Ph.D., these awards honor a publishable research report, thesis, dissertation, or published article relating to women, health, or women in health-related sciences. We are proud to announce this year's winners for both the graduate and undergraduate awards:

• Tara McKay is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at UCLA. She received this award for her paper titled "Local Understandings and Implementations of Sexual Rights in Africa." 
• Caitlin Walter is graduating  from UCLA this year with a major in Sociology and minors in Political Science and Accounting. She received this award for her paper titled "Able to Influence?  An Analysis of the Corn Refiners Association." 

George Eliot Dissertation RESEARCH Award

Named for the nineteenth-century author of Middlemarch and made possible by the generosity of Barbara “Penny” Kanner, Ph.D., this fellowship funds an exceptional graduate student dissertation research project pertaining to women or gender that utilizes a historical perspective in literature or the arts. The criteria for the award changed 2012. Formerly titled the "George Eliot Dissertation Award," it honored an outstanding completed doctoral dissertation. We are proud to announce this year's winner:

• Kimberly Clair is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Women’s Studies at UCLA. Her dissertation, “The Art of Resistance: Trauma, Gender, and Traditional Performance in Acehnese Communities, 1976-2011,” examines the significance of Acehnese performance—including dance, music, and theater practices—for Acehnese trauma survivors.  Focusing on the separatist conflict, the tsunami, and political and religious oppression as sources of trauma within Aceh, Indonesia, her dissertation also investigates the “everyday” hardships Acehnese encounter while living in the diaspora. 

                                         

Mary Wollstonecraft Dissertation Award

Named for the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and made possible by the generosity of Barbara “Penny” Kanner, Ph.D., this fellowship funds an exceptional dissertation research project pertaining to women or gender that uses historical materials and methods. The criteria for the award changed 2012. Formerly titled the "Mary Wollstonecraft Dissertation Award," it honored an outstanding completed doctoral dissertation. We are proud to announce this year's winner:

• Elizabeth Everton received her Ph.D. in European history from UCLA in the fall of 2011. Her dissertation, titled “Sisters and Soldiers: The Representation and Participation of Women in the Antidreyfusard Movement,” explores gender relations in the early French extreme Right through a study of gendered images, narratives, and roles in nationalist and antisemitic milieux during the Dreyfus Affair. 

Jean Stone Dissertation Research Fellowship

Made possible by the generosity of Mrs. Jean Stone, this fellowship helps fund an exceptional graduate student dissertation research project focusing on women or gender. We are proud to announce this year's winner: 

• Marie Berry is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at UCLA. Her dissertation, “From Violence to Mobilization: War, Women, and Political Empowerment in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Beyond,” explores the effects of mass violence on women’s participation in politics and community organizations in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

Paula Stone LEGAL Research Fellowship

This fellowship, which was established by Mrs. Jean Stone to honor her daughter Paula Stone, helps fund an exceptional research project focusing on women and the law with preference given to research on women in the criminal/legal justice system. We are proud to announce this year's winners:

• Kolleen Duley received her J.D. from the UCLA School of Law in 2012 and she is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Women's Studies at UCLA. Duley received a specialization from the David. J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and the Critical Race Studies Program. Her dissertation, "Raze the Bar: Breaking Down the Gender Responsive Prison and Building Possibilities for Abolition" takes an anti-racist, feminist, and prison abolitionist perspective on so-called "gender-sensitive" and “identity-based” reform efforts in U.S. prisons and jails.                                                       

Constance Coiner Awards

Created to honor the memory and continue the work of Constance Coiner, Ph.D., and her daughter Ana Duarte-Coiner and made possible through donations of family and friends, the Constance Coiner Awards support research on feminist and working-class issues and honor excellence in teaching and a commitment to teaching as activism. We are proud to announce this years graduate and undergraduate winners:

• Laura Enriquez is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at UCLA. Her dissertation project explores the ways in which legal status, gender, and education affect how undocumented young adults participate in U.S. society and feel a sense of belonging. 
• Liza Taylor is a Ph.D. student studying feminist political theory in the Department of Political Science at UCLA. Her dissertation research critically examines the legacy of deconstructive feminism within contemporary feminist theory in an attempt to recenter politics. By turning to women of color feminism, her research aims to recover a form of feminist political theory that is theoretically equipped to appreciate the unstable category "women," without forsaking a feminist political project rooted in the everyday needs and concerns of differently situated women.
• Shelby Schemerhorn is a third-year undergraduate at UCLA with a Women’s Studies major and a Labor and Workplace Studies minor. She has done a variety of research including researching both men and women who work in occupations dominated by the opposite sex. This summer, she will be conducting further research through an internship through the Labor and Work Studies department.               

POLICY BRIEF Awards

Funded by a generous anonymous donor, the Policy Brief Award, which made its debut in 2011 recognizes outstanding applied feminist scholarship by graduate students. We are proud to announce this year's winners:

• Steven Carrasco is a first-year Master’s student in Community Health Sciences in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. 
• Patty Chung is a Master’s candidate in the Department of Social Welfare in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. 
• Ashley DeBaun is working towards her Master’s in the Department of Social Welfare in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. 
• Saba Malik is a first-year Master’s student in Community Health Sciences in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
• Alexander Martos is a first-year Master’s student in Community Health Sciences in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
• Lauren Permenter is a first-year Master’s student in the Department of Social Welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.
• Marisol Sanchez is a first-year Master’s student in the Department of Social Welfare in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. 
• Jeffery Williams is a first-year Master’s student in Community Health Sciences in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.