Duke Feminist Theory Workshop Travel Grant
The UB Gender Institute provides support for doctoral students to attend Duke’s Feminist Theory Workshop (FTW), held annually in March. The FTW is a two-day long conference that combines small seminars and roundtable discussions with keynote lectures. The conference encourages collaborative conversations and sustained dialogue about feminist theory.
The UB Gender Institute will award travel grant(s) (up to $700) to Durham, North Carolina to pay for transportation and accommodation. There is no charge to participate in the workshop or for some meals during the event.
For more information about FTW, visit the workshop website.
Check back for the 2027 Application Due Date.
Application Information
It is the student’s responsibility to register directly with FTW and to make travel and lodging arrangements. Receipts must be submitted for reimbursement. The travel grant is only available to PhD students who have completed their oral exams.
Application for the Gender Institute travel grant can be sent to ub-irewg@buffalo.edu and must include:
1. Application cover sheet, available here
2. Essay (500 words) that describes your dissertation project and how it would benefit from the workshop; and what you believe you can contribute to FTW.
3. Two-page CV, including date oral exams completed and names of dissertation committee members.
4. Letter of support from dissertation chair (which can be sent separately).
2026 Duke Feminist Theory Workshop Travel Grant Recipients
Surabhi Pant
PhD Candidate,
Sociology and Criminology,
University at Buffalo
Surabhi Pant (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at UB. Her research sits at the intersections of environmental sociology, labor, feminist political ecology, and feminist methodology. Her dissertation examines the sociality of the climate crisis in the Northern Indian Himalayas. She argues that what is often framed as a “natural” crisis is, in fact, deeply embedded in the region’s historical, political, and social processes. Her work shows that the climate crisis in the Himalayas is fundamentally a crisis of women’s labor—one that is (re)shaping the material constructions of gender, and the mechanisms through which it is socially organized and controlled.
Vandana Sharma
Third-year PhD Student,
Educational Administration,
University at Buffalo
Vandana Sharma is a Barbara Jackson Scholar and a third-year Ph.D. student in the Educational Administration- Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Her research purpose is to examine how intersecting identities of (dis)ability, gender, and race contribute to the increased vulnerability to gender-based violence (GBV) for Black high school girls with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in the United States. Specifically, her study explores how organizational practices and policies affect, and to what end address, the learning experiences of black adolescent girls with IDD who are at risk for GBV. Sharma has also been awarded the "Margaret & Paul Bacon Scholarship" from the Graduate School of Education.
Past Awardees
2025: Sam King-Shaw, Global Gender and Sexuality Studies; Srushti Upadhyay, Sociology and Criminology
2024: Amelia Gayle, Romance Languages and Literatures; Kailey McDonald, Global Gender and Sexuality Studies
2023: Gabriela Cordoba Vivas, Media Studies; Yuyun Sriwahyuni, Global Gender and Sexuality Studies
2022: Kathleen Naughton, English; Jocelyn E. Marshall, English
2020: Gabriela Cordoba Vivas, Media Studies
2019: Gabriella Nassif, Global Gender & Sexuality Studies
2018: Naila Sahar, English; Cheryl Emerson, Comparative Literature
2016: Sarah Robert, Learning and Instruction; Anne Martell, Learning and Instruction; Catherine Dawson, Visual Studies; Morani Kornberg-Weiss, English; Mopelolade Oreoluwa Ogunbowale, American Studies
2015: Fremio Sepulveda, English; Yoonha Shin, English; Elif Ege, Global Gender Studies
2014: Sangeeta Chatterji, Social Work; Kristina Darling, English; Alison Fraser, English; Yitian Zhai, Comparative Literature