Bessie Stak Schiffman Award for Excellence in Women’s Studies
The Bessie Stak Schiffman Award is given annually to a graduating senior who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in both academic work in women’s studies and in campus or community activism. This award was created through the generosity of Prof. Ann Saltzman, Dept. of Psychology, the 1994 recipient of the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. The award is named in memory of Ann’s grandmother who, as a young woman, learned Hebrew and became the “prayer reader” for the women of her small synagogue, enabling them to participate in activities otherwise restricted to men. Her story embodies the ways in which women’s knowledge can transform community. The first Schiffman was awarded in May of 1995.
Raval Prize in Women’s Studies and the Humanities
Established by her family and friends in memory of Shilpa Raval (1969-2004), the prize is awarded annually to a junior or senior whose interdisciplinary work, like Shilpa’s lively and innovative scholarship on gender and sexuality in the ancient world, connects women’s studies with study in an area of the humanities, languages or literature. As an undergraduate at Drew, Shilpa studied English, classics and women’s studies, receiving her B.A. in 1991. She subsequently received a Ph.D. in classics from Brown University and was an assistant professor of Classics at Yale, where she also directed the Yale Women Faculty Forum.
Helen Charlotte Brown Scholarship
The Helen Charlotte Brown Scholarship was endowed in 2001 by Professor of Sociology Jonathan Reader in honor of his mother. The scholarship is awarded annually to a Women’s Studies student who has demonstrated promise for continued academic achievement.