FIPSE Grant Honors Women's Studies

An innovative proposal has won recognition and funding from FIPSE for the Center for Women's Studies. Its project on “Women's Human Rights, Citizenships, and Identities in a North American Context” will put McMicken College on the map as one of the few places in the country where focus on North American women's studies can be pursued through study abroad.

The project will link the college to the University of Arizona, York University and Mount Saint Vincent University in Canada, and El Colegio de la Frontera Norte and Universidad de las Americas in Mexico. Graduate and undergraduate students will be able to study women and gender in different national contexts and examine issues facing women across the North American region.

Anne Sisson Runyan, director of the center, says even though some women are experiencing greater social, economic, political, and physical mobility in these countries, “many more are left behind, so the project is intended to produce cross-border, gender-sensitive knowledge among students and faculty in order to improve women's lives.”

Partner institutions will connect curricula through degree programs and two summer institutes in Canada and Mexico. Runyan notes, “UC students subsidized to study in Mexico or Canada will gain cross-cultural and foreign language skills while interconnecting with women across borders to gain new perspectives and work on shared issues. Students from Mexico or Canada will enrich our program on the campus and in the community through their different perspectives on women's issues and identities.”

McMicken College is an ideal leader for this initiative. The center is one of the country's most established women's studies programs. Cincinnati has seen a 500% increase in Latina/Latino migration, and several graduate students have focused research on Mexican women migrants and their legal rights.

In addition, Runyan and Dean Karen Gould have brought interest and expertise in Canadian women's studies to UC. Runyan taught in Canada and is an expert on gender and NAFTA. Gould, former president of the International Council for Canadian Studies and the Association of Canadian Studies in the United States, is a former women's studies director and is widely recognized for her work on Québécois women writers.

FIPSE funding comes through the North American Mobility in Higher Education Project, which is supported by the governments of the United States, Canada, and Mexico as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).