Women's Research Institute's Distinguished Research Award
The Institute celebrated the 25th anniversary of its establishment by honoring scholars who have made significant research contributions to the understanding of women, their lives, and their contributions to families, religions, and societies. It was anticipated that these distinguished scholars would play a critical role as exemplars of excellence in their research publications, thus setting a superior standard for other faculty and students to seek. In this way it was hoped that the works of these scholars would continue to leaven the work of many others.
Today, the Women's Research Institute gives the WRI Distinguished Research Award annually to honor those who have contributed substantially to the scholarly study of women.
Distinguished Research Award Recipient — 2009
Brandie R. Siegfried is an associate professor of English at Brigham Young University. She teaches courses in 16th- and 17th-century English literature and specializes in Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, early modern women writers, gender studies, and Irish literary history.
Dr. Siegfried publishes on women writers and rulers of 16th- and 17th-century England, giving special attention to Aemilia Lanyer, Mary Sidney, and Margaret Cavendish. She is known as an expert on Elizabeth Tudor and Gráinne Uí Mháille and has shared her work in radio interviews, film projects, conferences, and invited keynote addresses. Currently, her work includes a fully annotated modernized edition of Margaret Cavendish's Poems and Fancies (1668) and a book on the political, theological, and philosophical implications of the written works of Elizabeth Tudor (1558-1603). Already, her shorter publications have posed significant challenges to previous assumptions about women's aesthetic and political contributions to early modern culture and society.
Dr. Siegfried is the recipient of several academic honors and awards including the Karl G. Maeser Excellence in Teaching Award and the Alcuin Teaching Fellowship. Dr. Siegfried has also served as president of the International Margaret Cavendish Society and is currently president-elect of the Queen Elizabeth Society.
In fall semester, Dr. Siegfried will present her research at a Women's Research Institute luncheon in her honor.
Distinguished Research Award Recipient — 2008
Donna Lee Bowen is a professor of political science and Middle East studies at BYU where she teaches courses in comparative politics, Middle East politics and area studies, and gender politics.
Professor Bowen writes on the intersection of religion, tradition, and politics in the Middle East and has authored articles and a forthcoming book on attempts to construct policy which reflects Muslim sensibilities, specifically social policy concerning family planning and abortion. Her edited book, Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East, with Evelyn A. Early, is widely used in universities. She has traveled and lived in North Africa and the Middle East, and has received two Fulbright grants, as well as funding from the Ford Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the David M. Kennedy Center.
Professor Bowen has served in numerous administrative capacities at BYU, as well as nationally and internationally, including associate and acting director of the Women’s Research Institute. She currently directs the Middle East Studies/Arabic program in the David M. Kennedy Center for International Affairs and serves on the Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. In addition to her academic work, she has completed consulting projects on aspects of population, politics, development, and women’s status for the World Bank, the Ford Foundation, and the United States Agency for International Development.
Distinguished Research Award Recipient — 2007
Cheryl B. Preston is the Edwin M. Thomas Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University. She teaches contracts, business associations, commercial law, Internet regulation, legal theory and gender and law. Before teaching, she was in private practice with O’Melvany and Myers in Los Angeles, and Holme Roberts and Owen in Salt Lake City. She was also Senior Counsel for First Interstate Bank of Utah for two years. Following graduation from law school, she clerked for Hon. Monroe G. McKay of the Federal Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Professor Preston publishes in the fields of popular culture and law, law and religion, and feminist legal theory – primarily addressing the issue of how images of women relate to violence against women and to the lack of professional opportunities for women. She recently released an educational DVD, entitled Fashioning Women in Law, using images from advertising and interviews with leading women in the legal profession to expose how stereotypes about women continue to affect law. The DVD is useful in training professionals to overcome biases. Her DVD won the prestigious Chris Award at the Columbus International Film Festival.
Professor Preston is currently a member of the American Law Institute and is in the Consultative Group for the Principles of the Law of Software Contracts. She is involved in legal education and has served on site inspection teams and on various Association of American Law Schools committees and in section leadership.
Distinguished Research Award Recipient — 2006
Valerie M. Hudson is a professor of political science at Brigham Young University, having taught previously at Northwestern and Rutgers University. Her areas of research include national security affairs, foreign policy analysis, and gender in international relations, and she is the author of numerous journal articles and books. Her latest book (with Andrea Den Boer), entitled Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population and published by MIT Press, won the Association of American Publishers Award for best book in political science in 2004, as well as the Otis Dudley Duncan Award for best book in social demography that year. Hudson is also recipient of the Karl G. Maeser Excellence in Teaching Award, served as president of the Foreign Policy Analysis Section of the International Studies Association, and directed the graduate program in International Relations at the David M. Kennedy Center for eight years. Dr. Hudson now heads an interdisciplinary research team constructing what is already the most comprehensive database on the status of women cross-nationally. Already over 50% complete, when finished it will cover over 200 variables for 179 nations with populations greater than 100,000 persons. Variables include those relating to women’s health, security, education, legal status, and human rights, among others.
Distinguished Research Award Recipient — 2005
Martha Moffit Peacock earned a PhD in History of Art from Ohio State
University in 1989 and is now a professor of Art History at Brigham Young University. Dr. Peacock has received College and University awards for excellence in teaching and research. She serves as the graduate coordinator for Art History and has been the advisor to thirty six masters theses, many of which have been related to women’s studies.
Her research has centered on the relationship of art to the lives of women (both
as artists and subjects in art) in the Dutch Republic, being published in numerous international and national art historical journals and books. Her work on images of Dutch Revolutionary heroines was published in “Proverbial Reframing--Rebuking and Revering Women in Trousers.” Dr. Peacock has published and presented extensively on the female artists Gheertruydt Roghman and Anna Maria Van Schurman. Most recently, she contributed a chapter on domestic images to the text Saints, Sinners, and Sisters: Gender and Northern Art in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Dr. Peacock has published two exhibition catalogs and is working on another exhibition for 2007--Women of Consequence in the Dutch Golden Age: Heroines, Harpies, and Housewives.
Distinguished Research Award Recipient — 2004
Marie Cornwall has been a professor of Sociology at Brigham Young University for 19 years. She received a BA in English from the University of Utah (1971), with a minor in History. She earned both an MS and PhD in Sociology from Brigham Young University (1976) and the University of Minnesota (1985), respectively.
Dr. Cornwall’s current research on the women’s suffrage movement explores changing gender relations in achieving the right to vote for women in the U.S. Dr. Cornwall’s other research interests include the coping strategies of laid off Utah steelworkers, as well as the impact of large macro-processes on family life. Dr. Cornwall also teaches courses on family and social change.
Prior to her position at BYU, Dr. Cornwall worked for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints researching and evaluating religious socialization, focusing on the reasons adults and adolescents remain actively involved in the Church. Dr. Cornwall has also served as an executive officer of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (1996-2000), and as a Belle S. Spafford Chair, Graduate School of Social Work, University of Utah (1993). Her publications include Utah Women Considered: What the Numbers Tell Us (a documentary video) and “The Mormon Practice of Plural Marriage: The Social Construction of Religious Identity and Commitment,” in Religion and the Social Order.