Penny Kanner Dissertation Research Fellowship


Description

Made possible through the generosity of Barbara “Penny” Kanner, PhD, the Penny Kanner Dissertation Research Fellowship funds an exceptional dissertation research project that pertains to women or gender and uses historical materials and methods.

Amount

Three awards at $4,000 each

Deadline

Friday, February 27, 2026

Criteria

  • The object of study may derive from the social sciences, literature, or the arts
  • Applicant must be registered in a doctoral program at UCLA during the quarter when the application is due and during fall quarter 2026.
  • Dissertation prospectus must pertain to women and/or gender
  • Research must use historical materials

Special Note

  • Students who are qualified under the CA Dream Act of 2011 are eligible to apply. Find detailed information on the Dream Act at www.financialaid.ucla.edu.
  • Applicants receiving financial aid are advised to consult with the Financial Aid Office about the potential effect of this award on their financial aid package.

To Apply

The application requires the following documents:

  1. Dissertation Abstract or Proposal (maximum 5 single-spaced pages, including works cited)
  2. Curriculum Vitae
  3. Unofficial UCLA Transcripts (with most recent coursework)
  4. One Letter of Recommendation from faculty members of any university

Letters of Recommendation

Your application will require the name and email of your faculty recommender. They will receive a survey link to submit their letter of recommendation. Your faculty member should know which award you are applying for. Faculty letters of recommendation are due Friday, February 27, 2026. Any application without a faculty letter will be considered incomplete and not be reviewed by the award committee.

Apply for the Penny Kanner Dissertation Research Fellowship

Questions

For questions regarding CSW|Streisand Center awards, fellowships, and grants, please contact the Administrative Specialist, Eva Amarillas Diaz, eva@women.ucla.edu.

Past Recipients

  • Kristen Dorsey: Kristen Dorsey is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Gender Studies at UCLA. As an artist, curator, and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, her research addresses settler capitalism, Indigenous labor, and land return in the context of Native arts’ production, circulation, and consumption. She recently co-curated Future Imaginaries: Indigenous Art, Fashion, Technology for the Autry Museum of the American West. Her past curatorial collaborations include Matriarchs for the El Segundo Museum of Art, and the traveling exhibition: Visual Voices: Contemporary Chickasaw Art.
  • Janine Sun Rogers: Janine Sun Rogers is a PhD candidate in theater and performance studies with a concentration in Asian American studies. Her dissertation project focuses on the agencies and animacies of canned goods in order to explore ecologies of militarization and performance across Asian America and the Pacific. In all, Janine’s work seeks to explore how paradigms of militarization, imperialism, and racial capitalism are rehearsed and performed through nonhuman subjects. Her writing can be found in Theatre Journal and in the forthcoming volume Staging Visitation: Tourism as Geographic Performance.
  • Yu Shi: Yu Shi is a PhD candidate in the Department of History. Her current research centers on the social and cultural history of late imperial and modern China, with a particular focus on the global media industry, folk performance, urban society, and gender studies. Adopting a bottom-up perspective, her dissertation seeks to explore the survival strategies and cultural practices of grassroots performers, especially their interplays with the bourgeoning global entertainment capitalism, which aims to offer insights into an underrepresented narrative of China’s modernization during the early 20th century.

View all 2024-2025 recipients (PDF).