Bonnie Thornton Dill Dean’s Graduate Research Award Announced

The annual award will support a graduate student in the college whose research or creative practice is in the area of intersectionality.

By ARHU Staff 

The College of Arts and Humanities is pleased to announce its new Bonnie Thornton Dill Dean’s Graduate Research Award, named after the pioneering scholar of intersectionality, who served as dean of the college from 2011 to 2022.  

In line with Thornton Dill’s area of expertise, the award will support graduate students in the college whose research or creative practice is in the area of intersectionality, which is defined as scholarship that examines the interconnectedness of race, gender and inequality, in such areas as ethnicity, class, disability, sexuality, religion and nationality. 

Thornton Dill came to Maryland in 1991 as a professor in the women's studies department and an affiliate professor of sociology and African American studies. She helped found and direct the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity, and served as chair of the Department of Women’s Studies, now The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, from 2003 to 2011 when she was tapped to become dean of the college. 

Before coming to UMD, Thornton Dill co-founded the Center for Research on Women at Memphis State in 1982, directing it until 1988. One of the first-ever institutional homes for studies of race, class and gender, the center focused on ushering forward the next generation of scholars and activists studying and working for social change for women of color and working-class southern women.

The Bonnie Thornton Dill Dean’s Graduate Research Award will be made annually in the minimum amount of $1,500. The first call for nominations will be announced in Fall 2023, with an application deadline on December 1.