Arts & Activism

Women have long used artistic expression as a method of liberation and feminist activism. From Renaissance painters and poets to today’s critics, actors, playwrights, musicians and filmmakers, art provides an important outlet for women’s creativity and resistance to the status quo. Women are present in growing numbers across genres of music, literature, and visual and performing arts, and they are breaking new ground at all levels of production, performance and industry management. Arts institutions, museums and galleries are displaying feminist work and promoting more female artists. Feminist organizations such as Guerrilla Girls are spurring collectors, curators, historians and institutions to recognize women artists and provide equal access and opportunities for success.

Women's Studies Research Center

Contact

515 South Street
Waltham, MA 02453
Ph. (781) 736-8100
Fx. (781) 736-8117
http://www.brandeis.edu/centers/wsrc
jparlon@brandeis.edu
reinharz@brandeis.edu

The Women's Studies Research Center is an interdisciplinary think-and-action tank of faculty, staff and affiliated scholars. The WSRC provides researchers and artists with the opportunity to conduct studies, produce works of art, write books, and experiment with ideas, all of which address the basic concerns of women in the home, the workplace, the media and the economy. The goal of the WSRC is to build a self-governing community of feminist scholars - women and men - who enhance the university while undertaking research and initiating thoughtful cross-disciplinary projects of the highest quality.

Recently Posted

Employment Opportunities

Principal Staff

Shulamit Reinharz, Founding Director
E-mail: reinharz@brandeis.edu

Jessica Parlon, Assistant to Shulamit Reinharz
E-mail: jparlon@brandeis.edu

Sarah JM Hough-Napierata, Assistant Director
E-mail: shough@brandeis.edu

Rosa Di Virgilio Taormina, Scholars Program Director
E-mail: rdivir@brandeis.edu

Michele L'Heureux, Curator and Director of the Arts
E-mail: mlheur@brandeis.edu

Kristen Mullin, Student Scholar Partnership Program Coordinator
E-mail: mullin@brandeis.edu

Abby Rosenberg, Librarian
E-mail: asr@brandeis.edu

Areas of Expertise:

Access & Disparities, Advancing Women's Leadership, Arts & Activism, Awareness & Education, Barriers & Opportunities, Human Rights & Security, Discrimination, Culture & Identity, Family & Society, Religion & Spirituality, Women in History, Women's Movements, Women's, Gender & Feminist Studies, Women's Networks, Work:life Balance

Member Experts:


Projects & Campaigns

* The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute 

The WSRC houses The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) - the world's first university-based research institute devoted to the study of Jews and gender. The mission of HBI is to produce and promote scholarly and artistic projects and to build a strong, international network of Jewish women.

* Student-Scholar Partnership Program

The goal of the Student-Scholar Partnership is to match undergraduate women and men with scholars at the WSRC and faculty affiliated with the Women's Studies Program to work collaboratively on research or artistic projects. The emphasis of the program is to enable students and scholars/faculty to work collectively on projects that focus on women and women's issues in many different fields. Two unique aspects of the program include emphasis on mentoring and students' contributions to the projects. The program supports the important work that the scholars/faculty are conducting on women's lives and provides Brandeis undergraduates with a unique opportunity to work closely with established professionals in their field of interest.

* The Arts Program

The Arts Program creates a space for the display of and education about women's art. The Program presents exhibitions in the Kniznick Gallery with a particular focus on the display of women's artwork, and provide information on women artists and their achievements. The program also makes studio space, "a space of one's own," available to women artists, and offers educational opportunities and programming to Brandeis students, outside schools, and adult groups.

* The Scholars Program

The Scholars Program of the WSRC is an innovative and mutually supportive community of qualified scholars engaged in significant research and artistic endeavors. Working in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences and their intersections, our mission is to focus on questions related to women's lives and gender dynamics. The scholars make intellectual contributions to the local, national, and international communities and advance the social justice mission of the University.

* C-Change: National Initiative on Gender, Culture, & Leadership in Medicine 

The Women’s Studies Research Center, in partnership with five of the country’s leading medical schools, the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), and Brandeis’ Sociology Department is conducting a landmark study to better understand the intransigent under-representation of women and minority faculty in leadership and senior roles in academic medicine, and to develop effective solutions to the long-standing problem.  Recognizing the under-representation of women in leadership positions to be a problem in its own right but also a model for the marginalization of others in academic medicine, the study also examines lack of advancement for under-represented minority and generalist medical faculty.  The study is led by Dr. Linda Pololi, Senior Scientist and Scholar.
 
 
Founded and directed by WSRC Scholar, Paula Doress-Worters, The Ernestine Rose Society works to revive the legacy of "America's first feminist leader."  Recognizing Ernestine Rose's pioneering role in the first wave of feminism, the Society is committed to raising awareness about Ernestine, who did so much to promote women's rights in the United States and internationally. For more information about Ernestine Rose or the Ernestine Rose Society, please visit our website.
 
 
Founded by WSRC Resident Scholar, Liane Curtis, The Rebecca Clarke Society honors the life and work of composer and violist Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979). The Society encourages and supports performances, recordings, publications, writings, and scholarship concerning Clarke and her music.
 
 
The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, the nation’s first independent reporting center based at a university, was launched in September 2004.  Here, seasoned journalists (including WSRC Resident Scholar E.J. Graff, who heads the Institute’s Gender & Justice Project) investigate suspected injustices—and then take our results public, via mainstream and thought-leader publications, broadcasts, and web magazines. We identify, investigate, and cover urgent social issues that aren’t reported, are under-reported, or are mis-reported. We thereby help shape the nation’s public policy agenda. 
 
 
The WAGE Project, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to end wage discrimination against women in the American workplace in the near future.  Our nickname, WAGE, reminds us of the goal we pursue: Women Are Getting Even.  WAGE inspires and helps working women take the steps needed so that every woman is paid what she’s worth.  The organization is led by WSRC Scholar Evelyn F. Murphy, author of Getting Even: Why Women Don’t Get Paid Like Men and What To Do About It. 
 

Reports & Resources

ReSearch - the e-zine of the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, where research, art and activism converge.

Adelman, Penina, Ali Feldman, and Shulamit Reinharz.The JGirl's Guide: The Young Jewish Woman's Handbook For Coming Of Age. 2005. Jewish Lights Publishing.

Reinharz, Shulamit. 2004. American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise. Brandeis University Press.  

 

Center News

Opportunities, Grants & Fellowships

Scholars Program

The mission of the Scholars Program of the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center is to be an innovative and mutually supportive community of Scholars engaged in research and artistic activity. Working in the arts, humanities, sciences and social sciences and their intersections, these researchers and artists focus on questions related to women’s lives and gender dynamics. Advancing the social justice mission of Brandeis University, Scholars contribute intellectually to the University as well as to the broader local, national and international communities.

Student Scholar Partnership

The WSRC Internship Program: Student-Scholar Partners (SSP), currently coordinated by Kristen Mullin, was launched in the spring of 1997 as a project of the Women’s Studies Program at Brandeis University.  Today, the Program continues as an important component of the Women’s Studies Research Center (WSRC).  This paid internship opportunity is designed to give undergraduate students a unique learning experience by allowing them to work side by side with a Scholar or faculty member in an interdisciplinary environment.

 


Multimedia

Video

Photos

Audio


THE GIRLS REPORT: What We Know & Need to Know About Growing Up Female

"Seven years ago the National Council for Research on Women and its member centers issued major reports on the status of girls in society, in schools, and in youth organizations in the United States. Since then, university researchers and popular writers have focussed attention on girls. The Girls Report is a fresh and timely look at every aspect of life for girls as we look toward the new millenium.

"If the reports in the early 1990s struck a chord of concern and a call to action, the tone of this report is optimism and activism. As we say at Girls Incorporated, girls are strong, smart and bold unless society puts barriers in their way. Lynn Phillips and the National Council staff have captured the strength, the energy, and the possibilities of girls on their way to becoming young women, while calling on the rest of us to be vigilant in supporting girls' high hopes and expectations for their own achievement."

Teaser: 

The Girls Report surveys current studies on girls, mapping theoretical debates, countering popular myths with recent research findings, and highlighting successful programs serving diverse populations. Chapters on education, health, self-esteem, violence, sexuality, and economic realities conclude with clear recommendations for action. A comprehensive bibliography offers resources to educators, researchers, policymakers, and all concerned with increasing opportunities for girls.

Cover Image: 
Post Date: 
08/05/2009

Balancing the Equation: Where are Women and Girls in Science, Engineering, and Technology?

Balancing the Equation identifies the gains made in science, engineering and technology, the key challenges that remain, the lessons learned, and new issues that must be addressed. A Resource Guide in the report provides the reader with material to pursue further research about successful programs, many of which were established by NCRW member centers. Also included are Recommendations, which emphasize that an increase in women and girls' participation in all levels of science, engineering and technology requires strong leadership, changes in cultural values and practices, and systemic reform.

Click here to order a copy.

Teaser: 

Balancing the Equation identifies the gains made in science, engineering and technology, the key challenges that remain, the lessons learned, and new issues that must be addressed. A Resource Guide in the report provides the reader with material to pursue further research about successful programs, many of which were established by NCRW member centers. Also included are Recommendations, which emphasize that an increase in women and girls' participation in all levels of science, engineering and technology requires strong leadership, changes in cultural values and practices, and systemic reform.

TO ORDER A COPY, Download Order Form.

 

Cover Image: 
Post Date: 
08/06/2009

MISSING Information About Women's Lives

National researchers, policymakers, and the media have voiced major concerns in recent weeks about a pattern of distorting knowledge-based information and science in the service of political goals under the current administration. Now, the National Council for Research on Women brings you the story from the women's research and policy perspective.

The Report
MISSING: Information About Women's Lives is a 24-page report that documents how crucial data on women and girls is disappearing. Download the report in PDF format (PDF, 408 KB) or order a copy ($10 plus shipping).

Executive Summary
To download the executive summary in PDF format, click here (PDF, 172 KB).

Press Release

Teaser: 

Over the past few years, vital data has been deleted, buried, distorted, or has otherwise gone missing from government websites and publications. The National Council for Research on Women has documented in this report, the deletion and omission of such information and outlined how these actions directly affect women's lives.

Cover Image: 
Post Date: 
10/19/2012

Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice

Volume 16, Number 1, March 2004

Symposium: Women, Human Security
and Globalization

Special Editor: Linda Basch, National Council for Research on Women

Contents:

Linda Basch, Human Security, Globalization, and Feminist Visions
Mary Robinson, An Ethical, Human-Rights Approach to Globalization
Kristen Timothy, Human Security Discourse at the United Nations
Sadako Ogata, The Human Security Commission's Strategy
Charlotte Bunch, A Feminist Human Rights Lens
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Gender, Globalization and New Threats to Human Security
J. Ann Tickner, Feminist Responses to International Security Studies
Deborah L. Rhode, Gender and the U.S. Human Rights Record
Leith Mullings, Domestic Policy and Human Security in the U.S.
Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey, Women Opposing U.S. Militarism in East Asia
Sally L. Kitch and Margaret A. Mills, Appropriating Women's Agendas

Teaser: 

Symposium: Women, Human Security and Globalization

Cover Image: 
Post Date: 
08/08/2009

New Film—Not Yet Rain—Tells the Stories of Women Who Have Sought Abortion Care

Submitted by ncrw on Wed, 03/11/2009 - 11:47am

March 11, 2009 posted by Kyla Bender-Baird Yesterday, the fantastic international reproductive rights organization, IPAS contacted the Council, announcing the launch of an important new film: Not Yet Rain.  Here’s the scoop:


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