The Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS) at the University of Oregon in the United States supports feminist research, teaching, activism and creativity.
[5] Thus in 1973, university president Robert D. Clark supported Acker and other faculty in founding the Center for the Sociological Study of Women;[4] its initial budget was approved for three years, amounting to US$5,244 annually, and was "woefully underfunded" for its first decade.
"[6] During that same period, the university's Acquisitions Librarian Edward Kemp had been acquiring manuscripts related to women's roles in society as leaders, writers, and artists.
[7] He became interested in the papers of a feminist and writer, the late Jane Grant, a co-founder of The New Yorker, and wife of William B. Harris, an editor at Fortune magazine.
[7] Harris was interested in establishing an endowment to honor his wife, and by 1975 he met twice with President Clark in New York, and visited in Eugene, meeting over dinner with faculty Joan Acker, Miriam Johnson, Marilyn Farwell, and Richard Hill.
[10] The bequest made possible annual awards totaling US$100,000 "to support research by faculty and graduate students", as well as "visiting scholars, conferences and course planning".
[11] By the late 1980s, CSWS had cooperative projects with the art museum, the women's studies curriculum, and the campus library's special collections.