The Five College Women's Studies Research Center has received an $11,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts to support the creation of a Women's Research Roundtable. It will link community agencies serving the needs of women and girls with Five College faculty working on issues relevant to these groups.
Roundtable coordinator Diane Palladino said representatives of community agencies attended a lunch discussion on December 10 at which they suggested areas in which they'd like to see research conducted by the center's scholars. A series of discussions between agency representatives and Five College women's studies researchers is planned to explore topics identified at the December 10 meeting.
Last year the foundation supported creating the Five College Women's Studies Research Center's Community Associates Program, which provides residencies for women working in community agencies and schools in Western Massachusetts working on research projects in women's studies. The Women's Research Roundtable will build on the success of this existing program and help encourage connections between the center and the community agencies themselves. In addition, it will provide modest research stipends to community associates, giving them some of the support faculty members often receive for their research. The roundtable will help agencies identify researchable issues, connect to women's studies researchers, and gain access to a range of seminars and networks at the Center.
"This new program will provide the crucial next step in creating an ongoing structure to link community agencies to women's studies research in the Five Colleges," said center director Gail Hornstein. "The groups that will participate in this program are working on issues of compelling interest to all women--issues of education, poverty, discrimination, health, and equity. The connections between agencies and faculty will bring fresh perspectives to research on women and girls in the whole western Massachusetts region."
![[Index]](../index3.gif){kind=small}