NEWS RELEASE
FOR RELEASE: Thursday, April 16, 2020
CONTACT: Frances Hannan |[email protected] | (201) 587-4755
Jeré Hogans | Program Officer | [email protected]

2020 Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellows in Women’s Studies Named

New Class of 10 Fellows Continues Legacy of Outstanding Scholarship, Strengthening Field of Women’s and Gender Studies

PRINCETON, NJ (April 16, 2020)—The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is pleased to recognize 10 outstanding scholars as Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellows in Women’s Studies for 2020.

Continuing its commitment to fostering the field of women’s studies, the WW Women’s Studies Fellowship program supports promising humanities and social science Ph.D. candidates whose work address women’s and gendered issues in interdisciplinary and original ways. Each Fellow will receive a $5,000 stipend to use towards research related expenses—travel, data work/collection, supplies, and others.

Fellows in the 2020 class are completing their studies at some of the nation’s top institutions. They are working in departments such as sociology, anthropology, English, and classics. Some of the dissertation topics include an exploration of the political history of rain in a key water catchment area of Tanzania, the radical possibilities of fashion as a storytelling strategy in women’s historical fiction, representations of Black girls across genres and artistic media in the 20th and 21st century, and an ethnographic engagement with histories and practices of sanctuary along the Sonora-Arizona borderlands.

Fellows join an international network of WW Women’s Studies Fellows who have become distinguished faculty members, artists and novelists, and (in some cases) leaders in business, government, and the nonprofit sector. They include a Pulitzer Prize winner, two MacArthur Fellows, numerous Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellows, and many others who have achieved significant distinctions.

“Since its inception in 1974, the Woodrow Wilson Women’s Studies Fellowship has truly helped to create and shape gender studies, not just as a field of its own, but also across disciplines,” said Beverly Sanford, the Foundation’s Vice President. “We take tremendous pride in the Women’s Studies Fellows and their extraordinary accomplishments, and we’re delighted to be able to support the work of these emerging scholars.”

This competitive Fellowship program remains the only national program of its kind. Over the course of its 46-year history, the WW Women’s Studies Dissertation Fellowship has named more than 600 Fellows. A number of these Fellows volunteer their time as reviewers to help select new Women’s Studies Fellows and enthusiastically support the next generation of scholars in their fields.

More information about the Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship in Women’s Studies can be found online at https://woodrow.org/fellowships/womens-studies/.

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About the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (www.woodrow.org) identifies and develops the nation’s best minds to meet its most critical challenges. The Foundation supports its Fellows as the next generation of leaders shaping American society.

 

WW Dissertation Fellows in Women’s Studies, 2020

Sarah Brothers  •  Yale University, sociology
Expertise, Gender, and Marginality: Health-Related Practices Among People Who Inject Drugs in the United States

Jessie Fredlund  •  The Graduate Center, CUNY, anthropology
Ancestors and Rain in a Changing Climate: The Politics of Water, Knowledge and Time in a Catchment Area, Uluguru, Tanzania

Siobhan Meï   •  University of Massachusetts, Amherst, comparative literature
Refashioning History: Women as Sartorial Storytellers

Emma Mishel  •  New York University, sociology
Determinants of Labor Market Discrimination Against Sexual Minorities in the US:  An Intersectional and Experimental Analysis of Common Stereotypes

Kiana Murphy  •  University of Pennsylvania, English
Speculative Black Girl Ethics: Reading Practices, Visual Culture, and the Urgency of the Present

Nicole Nowbahar  •  Rutgers University, classics
Dress and Transgressions of Roman Women

Nithya Rajan  •  University of Minnesota, women and gender studies
The Politics of Labor, Livelihoods, and Living: Afghan refugee women’s experiences in India

Maryam Rokhideh  •  University of Notre Dame, anthropology
“Everything is on My Back”: Women, Work, and Welfare on the Congo-Rwanda Border

Barbara Sostaita  •  University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, religious studies
Sanctuary Everywhere: Practicing Care on the Migrant Trail

Annie Wilkinson  •  University of California–Irvine, anthropology
Securing the Family: Transnational Anti-Gender Activism in Mexico

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