Our Mission
The Institute for Research on Women and Gender supports and catalyzes interdisciplinary research on women, gender, and sexuality at the University of Michigan.
Our research vision is interdisciplinary and broadly inclusive of the creative and performing arts, as well as the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
Research Support
In 2023-24, IRWG awarded grants to 23 faculty research projects related to gender and sexuality, including:
- 14 Faculty Seed Grants,
- 4 Incubator Grants,
- 3 Catalyze Grants for Gender & Firearm Injury Prevention, and
- 2 Feminist Publication Support Grants.
IRWG also provided research development programming, including:
- a workshop on community engagement with the Ginsberg Center,
- monthly write-ins,
- individualized proposal feedback,
- a faculty networking lunch,
- a collaborative research meeting with scholars of Black Girlhood studies from U-M, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University, and
- a spring Writing Retreat at Gallup Park.
FACULTY SEED GRANTS
Established in 1996, IRWG Faculty Seed Grants are designed to stimulate gender research across the university.
Recipients in the 2023-24 academic year included:
- Samia Abdelnabi (Nursing) - Understanding the reproductive and sexual health educational needs in Muslim women residing in the U.S.
- Nazanin Andalibi (School of Information) - An Intersectional Examination of Social Media’s Role in Navigating Life with Endometriosis
- Pamela Aronson (Sociology, Womens & Gender Studies, UM Dearborn) - Reproductive Freedom on the Ballot: How Gender and Demands for Self-Determination are Driving Electoral Politics in the Post-Roe Era
- Adriene Beltz (Psychology) - Individual Variation in the Psychological Correlates of Hormonal Intrauterine Device Use
- Lisa Fedina (Social Work) - Exploring Recovery-Seeking Practices and Voicing Trajectory: A Comprehensive Study Among Sub-Saharan Africa Female University Students Who Have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence
- Shannon Gillen Lipinski (Dance) - COUNTDOWN: an interdisciplinary dance theater research project involving two international creations / performances that research the intersectionality of gender and time/meaning, as well as the societal pressures of ‘wellness’ and ‘productivity’
- Georgina Hickey (History, UM Dearborn) - “We Hope for Better Days”: Maryann Mahaffey, Social Justice, and Electoral Politics in Post-1967 Detroit
- Aliyah Khan (English, Afroamerican and African Studies) - Archiving Guyana: Feminist Digital and Material Preservation and Accessibility in the Caribbean
- Elizabeth King (Public Health) - The influence of gender and social norms on women’s engagement in HIV services in Kazakhstan
- Helen Morgan (Obstetrics & Gynecology) - Why are obstetrician gynecologists leaving clinical medicine? A qualitative exploration
- Seda Saluk (Women's & Gender Studies) - Contesting Vaccines: Reproduction, Race, and Nation in Turkey
- Melisa Scott (Obstetrics & Gynecology) - Our Village: Motherhood was never meant to happen in isolation
- Sara Stein (Public Health) - Testing the Feasibility of Using Daily Diaries to Trace Spillover Effects of Maternal Trauma and Experiences of Racism on Parenting in Mothers of Color
- John Valadez (Film, Television & Media) – Savoca: A Documentary Film
IRWG INCUBATORS
IRWG Incubator grants provide structure for a focused, collective examination of a particular area or topic related to women, gender, and/or sexuality.
2023-24 Incubators included:
- Ni une más (Not one more) - an interdisciplinary performance and research project led by Prof. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra
- Global South Gender and Sexuality (GS2) Collective - a multidisciplinary space for engagement with issues of gender, sexuality, and racialization through postcolonial, decolonial, and critical area studies approaches led by Profs. Rovel Sequeira and Seda Saluk (Women's & Gender Studies)
- MiStory Incubator: Comparative Analysis of Culture and Trauma Recovery - an international research collaborative that examines how internalized cultural perceptions impact survivor recovery, led by Prof. Denise Saint Arnault (Nursing)
- Feminist Theory and Music Conference - a conference exploring intersections in music scholarship between gender/sexuality, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, disability, age/ageism, and others, led by Prof. Karen Fournier (Music)
FEMINIST PUBLICATION SUPPORT
IRWG Feminist Publication Support Grants allow scholars share research findings beyond academic audiences and through non-traditional formats.
2023-24 Recipients and their projects were:
- Heather Tucker, Global Impact Scholar, Center for Global Health Equity, School of Medicine, University of Michigan | Empowerment for Us by Us (E4UBU) Feminist Participatory Dissemination Plan
- Michelle Munro-Kramer, Assistant Professor & Director of Global Program, School of Nursing | SUBVERT: Sub-Saharan Africa University Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response Network
Affiliate Publications
IRWG affiliates represent over 80 departments and make up our core community for building research collaborations and programming.
Below is a non-exhaustive selection of publications linked to IRWG support:
- Sigrid Anderson | Land of Sunshine: Race, Gender, and Regional Development in a California Periodical (University of Nebraska Press, 2024)
- Charli Brissey | “Future Fish” performance, Links Hall in Chicago, March 2023
- Clare Croft | The Essential Jill Johnston Reader (Duke University Press, 2024), and Jill Johnston in Motion: Dance, Writing, and Lesbian Life (Prairie Lights Books, 2024)
- Lisa Fedina, Sarah Peitzmeier, and Richard Tolman | "Help-Seeking and Service Utilization Among Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence in Michigan During the COVID-19 Pandemic," Violence against women, Advance online publication.
- Anna Bonnell Freidin | Birthing Romans: Childbearing and Its Risks in Imperial Rome (Princeton University Press, 2024)
- Oliver L. Haimson | "Gender-Affirming Surgeons’ Attitudes toward Social Media Communication with Patients," Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies (2023)
- Shanna Katz Kattari | "‘I have had several providers who recognize my humanity’: Exploring the overall health and positive healthcare interactions of transgender and gender diverse college students," Journal of LGBT Youth (2023)
- William Lopez | "Large-scale immigration worksite raids: Community disaster, community response" Journal of Community Practice (2024)
- Mary Frances Phillips, IRWG Visiting Scholar | Black Panther Woman: The Political and Spiritual Life of Ericka Huggins (NYU Press, 2025)
- Swapnil Rai | Networked Bollywood: How Star Power Globalized Hindi Cinema (Cambridge Press, 2024)
Public Events
IRWG sponsored or co-sponsored 67 events, ranging from monthly write-ins, to workshops, panel discussions, and public lectures.
IRWG events aim to share scholarship on women, gender and sexuality with the U-M campus and general public.