Faculty Research Award

The Department of Women & Gender Studies is currently accepting proposals for the 2022 Women's Studies Faculty Research Award, funded by the Mae and Robert Carter Endowment in Women's Studies. This competitive annual award program is open to full-time University of Delaware faculty, and the award provides up to $5,000.00 to support research on women.

The deadline for submissions is June 30, 2022.

All award recipients are expected to present the results of their research in a public lecture at the University of Delaware in October 2023, sponsored by the Department of Women & Gender Studies.

Award funds may be used for travel, research costs, and other expenses directly related to the proposed activities. Salary and stipends are not eligible for funding in this award program. No cost share is required. Faculty teams may also apply for a joint award, but it will not change the maximum amount of $5,000. Preference will be given to faculty who have not received a prior award from the Department of Women & Gender Studies. One award will be given in each award cycle. The current award research period runs from September 1, 2022 through May 31, 2023.

Submission Requirements: Proposals must include: (1) A two-page narrative explaining the significance of the project, potential contributions to the field, and relevance to Women's Studies; (2) A budget page and justification for the line items; (3) A detailed timeline of the project; and (4) A curriculum vitae, not to exceed 2-3 pages.

Proposals must be submitted electronically by June 30, 2022 to Kate Derr (kderr@udel.edu). The members of the Awards Committee of the Department of Women & Gender Studies will review the proposals and select the Award recipient. The Faculty Research Award recipient will be notified by August 31, 2022.

Body Image and Gendered Racial Identity Among Black Young Women: Qualitative Interviews Exploring the Role of Social Media ​

Black young women navigate body image in the context of a complex social media environment, shaped by sociocultural context (e.g., gendered racism) and influenced by gendered racial identity development. However, Black women and girls' unique experiences have historically been underrepresented and undervalued in body image research. The goal of this study was to learn about Black young women's unique experiences related to social media and body image. In this talk, I will discuss preliminary findings from qualitative interviews with ten U.S. Black women in their early 20s. All women identified as cisgender; four identified as straight/heterosexual and six identified as mostly straight, lesbian​ or queer. Preliminary analyses revealed several themes regarding body image and social media: (1) shifts in beauty standards related to social media (e.g., cultural appropriation of Black women's bodies and beauty ideals into mainstream beauty norms); (2) critical awareness of and resistance to unattainable beauty standards; (3) body dissatisfaction related to beauty standards; and (4) positive representation of more diverse bodies through social media. The results suggest that some social media experiences may be specific to gendered racial identity and gendered racism, highlighting the importance of further research investigating Black young women's unique lived experiences. I will discuss these findings through the lens of intersectionality theory and sociocultural–developmental theories regarding media influences on body image. This work was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Jioni A. Lewis and Brianna A. Ladd (University of Maryland).

Sophia Choukas-Bradley, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is affiliated with the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program. She received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Brown University in 2008 and a Ph.D. from UNC Chapel Hill in clinical psychology in 2016. She was an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at UD from 2020­­–2022. Dr. Choukas-Bradley's program of research examines sociocultural influences on the mental health and wellbeing of adolescents and young adults. Using a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research methods and a multidisciplinary approach, she collaborates with scholars in education, medicine, computer science, and communications. One major goal of her work is to identify specific social media experiences that predict adaptive and maladaptive body image, mental health, and identity development. She also aims to understand how gender identities, sexual identities, and racial/ethnic identities affect body image and mental health. Dr. Choukas-Bradley has published over 70 academic publications. Her blog, “Psychology of Adolescence: The Science of Teens, Screens, Gender, and Sexuality," is available through Psychology Today. More information about her work can be found at www.sophiachoukasbradley.com. ​

The 2019 recipient of the Mae and Robert Carter Endowment Women’s Studies Faculty Research Award was Dr. Jaipreet Virdi, Assistant Professor, Department of History at the University of Delaware, received the 2019 Women’s Studies Faculty Research Award for her research “Gendering Deafness: Dorothy Brett’s Lived Experiences with Disability," which she presented for The Carter Series Lecture in November 2020. Dr. Virdi is a historian of medicine, technology, and disability. Her research and teaching interests include the history of medicine, the history of science, disability history, disability technologies, and material/visual culture studies. She received her PhD from the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto (2014). Her research on Dorothy Brett offers an alternative perspective for examining Brett’s biography, focusing on her disability and gender performances.

The 2018 recipient of the Mae and Robert Carter Endowment Women’s Studies Faculty Research Award was Dr. Ann V. Bell, Assistant Professor of Sociology, who presented her research "A Neglected Disparity: Race, Class, Gender, and the Lived Experience of Abortion" during her October 2019 lecture at UD. Dr. Bell's research explored the disconnect between statistics and women's lived experiences of abortion, asking how does the social construction of abortion and its embedded stereotypes influence how women understand and experience abortion? Furthermore, importantly, how does one's life circumstances, including race, class, and gender, shape such an experience? The standing room-only lecture was attended by students, faculty, and the UD community.

The 2017 recipient of the Mae and Robert Carter Endowment Women’s Studies Faculty Research Award was Dr. Mieke Eeckhaut, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice, University of Delaware. The award supported Dr. Eeckhaut's research to investigate the association between economic conditiions and long-acting contraceptive methods such as female sterilization, intrauterine devices, and implants during the Great Recession of 2007-2009. On November 1, 2018, Dr. Eeckhaut presented her research "Women's Sterilization and Contraception During the Great Recession, " as the Women & Gender Studies' Fall Lecture Series in the Trabant University Center Theater.

The 2016 recipient of the Mae and Robert Carter Endowment Women’s Studies Faculty Research Award Program was Dr. Rachael Hutchinson, Associate Professor of Japanese Studies, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Delaware, who presented "The Representation of Women in Japanese War-Themed Video Games." Dr. Hutchinson’s research focused on the representation of women in Japanese war-themed videogames, specifically the highly popular online card game Kantai Collection.

The 2015 Mae and Robert Carter Endowment Women’s Studies Faculty Research Award recipient was Dr. Amanda Bullough, Assistant Professor of Management in the Lerner College of Business and Economics at the University of Delaware, for "Women Entrepreneurs: Resilience and Reducing Fear through Business Ownership." Building on her previous research in countries like Afghanistan, Dr. Bullough presented her newest data on women entrepreneurs' perceptions about culture and adversity, domestically (Chicago) and abroad (Pakistan), and how these perceptions not only affect their business decisions but also how entrepreneurial activity in turn affects their perceptions of adversity. Dr. Bullough's research spans entrepreneurship, leadership, organizational behavior, cross-cultural management, and international development. Her newest streams of research include entrepreneurship in war zones and under adverse conditions, global leadership, and women's entrepreneurship and leadership.