Giving to the Department

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Financial support to carry on our department's mission to provide the highest quality of education is always greatly appreciated. As we face shrinking budgets in response to economic instability and a growing number of new students each year, the department faces new challenges to find other means to support our teaching mission.

Please consider a donation to one of our specific funds, or to our department's general account. 

In 2011, we established the Leavitt/Whatley/Worcester Fund to honor Judith Walzer Leavitt, Mariamne Henken Whatley, and Nancy Worcester, all professors emeritae of the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies. Judy, Mariamne, and Nancy were instrumental in the development of the then-named Women’s Studies Program; and they touched the lives of thousands of students who took WS 103, Women and Their Bodies in Health and Disease, WS 431 Childbirth in the United States, and other gender and health courses. The fund will be used to advance the research, teaching, and service missions of the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, with a preference for projects in the women and health specialization.

Funds donated to the department's general foundation account are used to support a variety of activities.

Student Scholarships and Awards - We offer a few valuable scholarships for PhD and undergraduate students and donations help to keep these opportunities viable.

Master's Students - We are seeking ways to provide some research support for MA students in our relatively new MA program.  Our MA students are of very high quality, and conduct research on a range of topics, from gender in children's literature to women in informal sector work in Tanzania. Their research and studies would be greatly enhanced by either fellowship funding to finance their coursework or smaller funds to facilitate their thesis research.

Undergraduate Internships -  Your support can help an undergraduate get valuable practical experience through a local or global academic internship.  Dependent on funds, we have traditionally supported one undergraduate each year in our local internship program with scholarship support, so that a working undergraduate can participate in the internship when they otherwise would have to work to support themselves and forego the internship experience. As we have endeavored to globalize our curriculum, we now also offer a few undergraduate students the opportunity for global internships in the summer months.  Your support can help fund the plane fare or some of the project costs of student internships with women's organizations overseas.

Faculty Scholarship and Awards - We support feminist scholarship by providing instructional replacements for faculty who compete in our annual Feminist Scholar competition which earns them a semester of paid research leave so they may concentrate on their current research projects and bring them to fruition.

If you have other questions or would like to talk about other giving opportunities, please contact Ann Dingman, Director of Donor Relations, College of Letters and Science, University of Wisconsin Foundation at Ann.Dingman@supportuw.org or 608-265-9954.

Thank you for your support!