Message from the Chair

Summer is when faculty turn their attention to research. Our department’s output of interdisciplinary research is extraordinarily good. Our fields of interest include political economy; social movements (including conservative movements); colonial discourse; health, disability and debility; sexuality; reproduction; law and justice; masculinities; popular culture; and social theory, spanning the US, colonial Kenya, China, Thailand, South Asia, Eastern Europe and transnational flows. Collectively and including imminently published work, we have produced 21 books (monographs); 90 single-authored journal articles; 59 collaboratively written journal articles; 73 book chapters; and 12 edited volumes. We have been awarded 121 grants and fellowships and have received 55 research-related honors or prizes. We serve on many editorial boards, as associate editors, and in leadership roles in professional organizations. With this level of research activity, we offer a doctoral program in GWS to train the next generation of researchers in the field. It is a distinctive program, offered by only 22 (or fewer) universities in the United States and the only one offered within the SEC. Here are examples of how our faculty have been praised from beyond the department. 

Recent external recognition for research by GWS faculty: 

• Frances Henderson- The Louisville Institute Grant.
• Anastasia Todd- 2022 Tobin Siebers Prize; 2025 Alison Piepmeier Book Prize.
• Aria Halliday- SHF x Cultural Studies Award; 2022-23 Harrington Faculty Fellowship .
• Carol Mason- finalist for 2024 Carnegie Fellowship; 2026 Global Sentimentality Fellowship, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Recent external awards for research by GWS graduate students:

• Reb Lentjes: 2026-27 Mellon ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship; honorable mention finalist for the 2023 Wise-Susman Prize from the American Studies Association.
• Jingxue Zhang:  Feminist Formations/NWSA 2024 paper award. 
• Nelson Meng- winner of 2024 graduate student paper award at the SE Conference of the Association for Asian Studies. 
• Snehal Sharma- Honorable Mention for the 2022 NWSA Graduate Scholarship. 
• Lee Mandelo- Fellowship to attend 2022 Humanities Without Walls Workshop, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Recent UK recognition of research: 

• Aria Halliday, Anastasia Todd, and Elizabeth Williams – 2026 CURATE Awards.
• Ellen Riggle- 2025 winner of the Albert D. and Elizabeth H. Kirwan Memorial Prize. 
• Aria Halliday- A&S Marie Rich Endowed Professor, 2025-2027.
• Anastasia Todd- 2025 Gaines Outstanding Research in the Humanities lecture.
• Carol Mason- Otis A. Singletary Chair in the Humanities, 2024-2027; University Research Professor, 2022.

Best,

Professor Mason