New reimbursement travel grants offered by the TCU Institute on Women and Gender and the TCU Women’s Studies Program will allow students involved in gender or women’s studies to broaden their horizons and gain a new perspective, a university official said.

Laura Prestwood, director of the Women’s Studies Program, said the $400 reimbursement travel grant will give students involved with gender or women’s studies research the opportunity to travel and further their education off campus by offsetting travel costs.

“I think (the grant) will give students the opportunity to present their work or to hear work that is being done by other students and faculty around the world in their discipline,” Prestwood said.

The grant, formed by donations made by the community to the Institute on Women and Gender, will be awarded individually to five students who are in need of financial support for travel, Joanne Green, director of the Institute on Women and Gender and chair of the political science department, said.

All majors are welcomed to apply for the grant, but the emphasis of study must deal with gender or women’s studies in some capacity, Green said.

Awards are available for full-time students from all disciplinary areas including the social sciences, humanities, science, engineering, health sciences, fine arts, communications, ballet and modern dance, business, education, and theological studies, according to a campus-wide e-mail sent to students by the Women’s Studies Program and the Institute on Women and Gender.

Applicants must fill out a form and write a 250-word statement about the significance of their proposed project and purpose of travel. Applicants also must turn in a resume and a tentative budget to Green via e-mail.

Jessica Krzemien, president of the Women’s Network and senior history major, said even though her area of concentration did not qualify her for the grant, she would urge other members of the network who are eligible to apply.

“It gets expensive to go to conferences and to go do research in other places, so it’s important to have grants like this,” Krzemien said.

Fran Huckaby, assistant professor of social studies and member of the Women’s Studies Advisory Board, said the grant would be a great opportunity for students to advance their scholarship and extend the scholarly aspect of the university experience. She said it would allow students to enhance their studies by conducting interviews or visiting places, like historical archives, that might be helpful in improving their research.

Prestwood said she hoped students from every major will apply for the grant, not just women’s studies students, to have the chance to travel when they otherwise could not afford to do so.

Women and Gender Studies Reimbursement Travel Grant 2010

Open to students from all fields of study
Applications are due electronically by 5 p.m. March 5

Awards will be announced by April 23