Sociologists for Women in Society

Awards

Congratulations to the 2024 Winter Award Winners!

Awards with the October 15 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm Eastern Time deadline are: 

  • Feminist Mentoring Award
  • Feminist Activism Award
  • Feminist Lecturer Award
  • Undergraduate Social Action Award
  • Cheryl Allyn Miller Award
  • Social Actions Initiative Awards
  • SWS Applied Sociology Award

Awards with the April 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm Eastern Time deadline are: 

  • Esther Ngan-ling Chow and Mareyjoyce Green Dissertation Scholarship
  • Beth B. Hess Memorial Dissertation Scholarship
  • Barbara Rosenblum Dissertation Scholarship
  • Social Actions Initiative Awards

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Submit applications through the SWS Member Portal.
You do not need to be an SWS member to apply or nominate someone for these awards, but you need to use the portal.

SWS is pleased to recognize many forms of outstanding feminist work. SWS gives awards at the Awards Reception during the Summer Meeting, held each August, and at the Winter Meeting​, held each January/February. Awards with an October 1 ​deadline are given at the Winter Meeting. Awards with an April 1 ​deadline are given at the Summer Meeting.

The Awards Committee is comprised of an elected chair, three elected members (who chair the Feminist Activism, Feminist Lecturer, and Feminist Mentoring Award Subcommittees), and the chairs of each other award subcommittee, listed below. The Awards Committee has three elected members. 

Awards Committee Chair: Ophra Leyser-Whalen, oleyserwhalen@utep.edu

Ophra Leyser-Whalen (Ph.D., 2009, University of Kansas) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at the University of Texas El Paso. Dr. Leyser-Whalen is a medical sociologist whose scholarship and activism focuses on reproductive justice, including during times of natural disasters. She has examined topics such as infertility, sterilization, and contraception, with a current focus on abortion funds.

 

Elected Committee Members:

Feminist Lecturer Award Subcommittee Chair, Jaime Hartless, hartlejn@farmingdale.edu. Term is from 2023-2026

Feminist Activism Award Subcommittee Chair, Koyel Khan, kkhan@tamu.edu. Term is from 2023-2025

Feminist Mentoring Award Subcommittee Chair, Vrinda Marwah, marwahv@usf.edu Term is from 2024-2026

 

SWS Awards (for both non-students and students)

Natalie Allon Research Award*

The award, started in 2018, supports research on institutional gender-based discrimination (e.g., discrimination based on sex, gender, gender identity, sexual identity, or sexual orientation).

*Availability and dollar amount varies each year

Contact: Co-Chairs of Committee on Discrimination: Beatriz Padilla padilla.beatriz@gmail.com and Roberta Villalón villalon.sws.presidency@gmail.com

Selection Committee: TBD

*SWS is not taking applications for the Natalie Allon Research Award in the next award cycle because there is a need for these funds to be used for the first and second priorities of the Natalie Allon Fund. The first priority is to assist in the payment of legal fees for members who are fighting sex discrimination claims or claims relating to gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation The second priority is legal assistance in fighting cases of institutional discrimination that disproportionately affect women such as threats to tenure or the exploitation of adjuncts. 

Social Actions Initiative Awards

The Social Action Initiative Awards is SAC’s efforts to directly support and encourage the social activism of SWS members. Awards are given out twice per year on a competitive basis until funds are fully dispersed.  The social actions represented by this initiative are central to advancing the mission of SWS.

Contact:

Co-Chairs of the Social Action Committee, Evonnia Woods: evonniawoods@gmail.com and Christina Chica: cchica24@ucla.edu

Selection Subcommittee of the calendar year: Wynn Strange, Cynthia Pelak, Colleen Schoenfeld, and Asmita Aasaavari

Deadlines: April 1 and October 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm ET

SWS Applied Sociology Award

This award supports aspiring applied sociologists and supports emerging and experienced applied sociologists.

Each year, the recipient will be featured in Winter Meeting programming that emphasizes the relevance of this avenue for sociologists to pursue. The format of the session will be developed in conjunction with the Career Development Committee. For example, the awardee may prepare an address, be interviewed about their trajectory and contributions by another SWS applied sociologist or be introduced by a panel discussing their works’ relevance for feminist sociology.

Contact:

Co-Chairs of the Career Development Committee: Sharla Alegria: sharla.alegria@utoronto.ca and Stephanie Wilson wils9231@gmail.com

Deadline: October 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm ET

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SWS Academic Transformation Award

Award Purpose: Feminist praxis aimed at the structures, policies, practices, and interactions within one’s own institution is oftentimes invisible, overlooked, regarded as “service,” or framed as troublemaking. This is especially the case with structurally vulnerable scholars. As an organization committed to the transformation of the academy, SWS recognizes early career scholars, part-time and temporary faculty, and graduate students engaged in social justice advocacy and activism related to race, gender, ability, SES, age, and other minoritized categories on their college/university campuses or elsewhere in higher education (e.g., professional organizations, advisory boards, grant review committees).

The primary purpose of these awards is to make visible and celebrate the institutional labor performed by women and gender expansive individuals who aim to transform the academy toward a more inclusive and just social institution.

Sponsors: Social Action and Academic Justice Committees

Deadline: October 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm ET

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SWS Student Awards 

Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate Social Action Award

Given at the Winter meeting, this award carries on the tradition of acknowledging, affirming and inviting students to participate in SWS.

Co-Chairs of the Social Action Committee, Evonnia Woods, evonniawoods@gmail.com and Christina Chica: cchica24@ucla.edu

Selection Subcommittee of the calendar year: Kristy Kelly and Nicole Bedera

Deadline: October 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm ET

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Graduate Students

Esther Ngan-ling Chow and Mareyjoyce Green Dissertation Scholarship

This scholarship offers support to women and non-binary scholars of color who are from underrepresented groups and are studying concerns that women of color face domestically and/or internationally.

Contact: Co-Chairs of the Sister to Sister Committee:

Committee Chairs: sws.sister-to-sister@socwomen.org

Selection Subcommittee of the calendar year: Christobel Asiedu, and Mahala Stewart 

Liaison for Applicants: Katherine Maldonado Fabela kmaldonado@umail.ucsb.edu

Deadline: April 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm ET 

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Beth B. Hess Memorial Scholarship

This scholarship is awarded to a ​PhD student who has studied for at least one full academic year at a two-year college in the U.S., before transferring to complete a BA. Students who attended the international equivalent of a U.S two-year college are also welcome to apply. Candidates who are already in the writing stage and apparently close to completion will be preferred

Contact: Subcommittee Chair, Mairead Moloney, moloney75@gmail.com

Selection Subcommittee of the calendar year: Sarah Bruch, Nancy Naples, Myra Marx Ferree, Gul Adikacti

Deadline: April 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm ET

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Cheryl Allyn Miller Award

This award recognizes a sociology graduate student, or a recent doctorate, whose research or activism constitutes an outstanding contribution to the field of women and work.

Contact: Chair, Laura Bunyan, laura.bunyan@uconn.edu

Selection Subcommittee of the calendar year: Asmita Aasaavari, Rianka Roy, and Sarah A. Robert

Deadline: October 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm ET

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Barbara Rosenblum Dissertation Scholarship for the Study of Women and Cancer

The purpose of the scholarship is to encourage doctoral research in sociology, anthropology, psychology and related fields on women’s experience of breast cancer and other reproductive cancers and the prevention of these cancers. Another goal of the scholarship is to encourage scholars to make this type of research accessible to the public through speaking and publishing for lay audiences.

Contact: 
Subcommittee Chair: Angela Vergara, angela.vergara@ucf.edu

Selection Subcommittee of the calendar year: Adelle Monteblanco, Salema Mohamed, and Estefany Londoño

Deadline: April 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm ET

SWS-ASA Minority Fellows (MFP)

Please click HERE to visit the American Sociological Association Website for more information. SWS sponsors two MFPs each year who are honored at the ASA Meeting.

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SWS Faculty/Non-Student Awards 

SWS Feminist Activism Award

This annual award recognizes an SWS member who has made notable contributions to improving the lives of women in society, especially through activism.

Contact:

Subcommittee Chair: Koyel Khan, kkhan@tamu.edu

Selection Subcommittee of the calendar year: TBD

Deadline: October 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm ET

SWS Feminist Lecturer Award

Founded in 1985, this lectureship was created to recognize those whose scholarship employs a feminist perspective. The goal is to make these scholars more available to campuses where such a voice is unusual and/or unwelcome.

Contact: Subcommittee Chair: Jaime Hartless, hartlejn@farmingdale.edu

Selection Subcommittee of the calendar year: Pamela Neumann, Sara Tyberg, and Jinsun Yang

Deadline: October 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm ET

SWS Mentoring Award

This award honors an SWS member who is an outstanding feminist mentor.

Contact Chair: Vrinda Marwah, marwahv@usf.edu

Selection Subcommittee of the calendar year: Heather Laube, LaToya Council, and Emily Mann

Deadline: October 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm ET

SWS AWARDS COMMITTEE
PROTOCOLS FOR CAMPUS SELECTION AND VISIT
FEMINIST ACTIVIST AWARDEE & SWS DISTINGUISHED FEMINIST LECTURER AWARDEE

Recognizing that some campuses are hostile to feminist and intersectional perspectives and/or that personal experiences and relationships could contribute to an unwelcoming environment, the SWS Awards Committee has agreed upon the following protocols to ensure safety of visiting speakers as well as their preparation before a campus visit.

  • The awardee will be advised once all applications have been received and informed of the campuses that have applied for a campus visit. 
  • In the case that the awardee is uncomfortable with visiting any of the campuses, they will inform the chair of the selection subcommittee and that campus will be removed from the application pool.
  • After the campus has been selected and before the campus visit, the Executive Officer will arrange a Zoom Meeting between the awardee, the campus nominator, and the chair of the pertinent subcommittee. The Executive Officer will attend to answer any questions about funding, travel logistics, and publicity for the event. 

Sociologists for Women in Society Awards Revocation Procedure – Procedure Effective February 27, 2019 –