Departmental Prizes
For Undergraduate Students
The Ruth Simmons Prize in Gender and Women's Studies

The Pembroke Center is pleased and honored to offer the Ruth Simmons Prize in Gender and Women’s Studies. The prize is awarded annually for an outstanding honors thesis on questions having to do with women or gender. In the spring, the Pembroke Center invites faculty in all fields to nominate honors theses for the prize. A committee of faculty who teach and write in the area of gender studies will make the selection.
If you wish to make a nomination, please send the following to Box 1958 by May 1:
- thesis adviser’s evaluation
- a copy of the thesis
The Ruth Simmons Prize carries with it an award of $1,000.
Ruth Simmons Prize in Gender and Women's Studies recipients
Nandini Jayakrishna "A Critical Convergence: Gender Development This thesis examined the ways in which Gender and Development, a widely known theoretical model for women's empowerment, has converged with the philosophy and practice of the Self-Employed Women's Association, an Indian grassroots organization. By illustrating a convergence between GAD and SEWA,
this study offered evidence for the merits of the GAD framework, while noting that it can be revised to better reflect ground realities. It concluded that GAD is a viable model for development. |
Joan Wallach Scott Prize
The Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women annually awards the Joan Wallach Scott Prize for an outstanding honors thesis in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Joan Wallach Scott is the Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study. Among her many books are Gender and the Politics of History (1988), Only Paradoxes to Offer: French Feminists and the Rights of Man (1996), Parité: Sexual Equality and the Crisis of French Universalism (2005), and The Politics of the Veil: Banning Islamic Headscarves in French Public Schools (2007). Professor Scott taught at Brown from 1980-1985, where she was Nancy Duke Lewis Professor and Professor of History. She was the founding director of the Pembroke Center.
Each year the Pembroke Center awards this prize for an outstanding thesis by a Gender and Sexuality Studies Concentrator. If you wish to nominate a dissertation, please send to Box 1958:
- A nominating letter including a brief description of the thesis
- A letter of support from a second member of the dissertation committee
- A copy of the dissertation
Click for a list of all Joan Wallach Scott Prize recipients
Congratulations to the 2010 Joan Wallach Scott Prize recipients |
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Gender and Sexuality Studies "Redefining Waves: Reconceptualizing |
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Gender and Sexuality Studies "Paradox-Absorbing Lady Parts: |
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For Graduate Students
Marie J. Langlois Dissertation Prize
The Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women annually awards the Marie J. Langlois Dissertation Prize for an outstanding dissertation in the area of feminist studies. Marie J. Langlois served as Vice Chancellor and Trustee of Brown University through June 2007. She previously served as a member of the Board of Fellows from 1992 to 1998, as a trustee and treasurer of the University from 1988 to 1992, and as a member of the Pembroke Center Associates Council from 1983 to 1995, where she chaired the Center's endowment campaign for eight years. Langlois is a managing director of Washington Trust Investors, a division of the Washington Trust Company. She earned her bachelor of arts degree from Brown University in 1964 and a master of business administration degree from Harvard University in 1967.
Each year the Pembroke Center awards this prize for a dissertation in areas related to gender studies or feminist analysis. If you wish to nominate a dissertation, please send to Box 1958 by current nomination deadline date (May 1):
- A nominating letter including a brief description of the thesis
- A letter of support from a second member of the dissertation committee
- A copy of the dissertation
The Marie J. Langlois Prize carries with it an award of $1,000.
Marie J. Langlois Dissertation Prize recipients
Congratulations to the 2010 Marie J. Langlois Dissertation Prize recipient
Maya D. Judd "Gendering Men: Masculinities and Demographic Change in Contemporary Italy" “Gendering Men: Masculinities and Demographic Change in Contemporary Italy,” uses a gender lens to explore contemporary low birthrates in Italy, a nation which had the among lowest fertility rates in the world in the 1990s. Although much research has explored demographic behavior in Europe, surprisingly few studies look at the ways assumptions about gender, especially those concerning male identity and heterosexual masculinity, influence demographic patterns. This work shows the ways news forms of masculinity are embedded within the particular socio-cultural context of Italy, broadening scholarly discussions of gendered understandings of men and masculinity, demographic theories of low fertility in Italy and Southern Europe, and the links between the two. |
Helen Terry MacLeod Prize
From 1995-2007 the Pembroke Center awarded this prize for an outstanding undergraduate honors thesis that addressed questions of gender or women, or that brought a feminist analysis to bear on a topic of study.
MacLeod Prize recipients 1995-2007
In 2007, this award was changed from a prize for a completed honors thesis to a research grant available to support undergraduate honors research. Please click here for information on the grant.


