We invite applications for the 2025 Esther Ngan-ling Chow and Mareyjoyce Green Scholarship, formerly known as the Women of Color Dissertation Scholarship.

Esther Ngan-Ling Chow

Photo of Esther Ngan-Ling Chow

Professor Emeritus of Sociology at American University, Esther Ngan-Ling Chow, pioneered the analysis of the intersectionality of race, class, and gender in the lives of Asian American women.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Dr. Chow moved to the United States in 1966 to pursue her PhD in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Upon completing her PhD, she joined the faculty at American University where she taught and researched a range of topics that included the intersectionality of race/ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality; work and family; migration and globalization; feminist methodology and pedagogy; economy and society; and Chinese American studies. She was a pioneer in the intersectional investigation of Asian American women and Asian immigrant communities.

Dr. Chow’s service to the broader sociological community is prodigious. She chaired the Asia and Asian American Section of the American Sociological Association and Vice President of the Eastern Sociological Society. She has also served on the editorial boards of Gender & Society, International Sociology, and Rose Series Monograph on Sociology and Social Policy.

In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Dr. Chow has not only been at the forefront of the analysis of gender, work, family, and policy, but also brought attention to the relative lack of attention paid to Asian American women in feminist scholarship. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors for teaching and her pioneering work, including the SWS Feminist Activism Award (2008) and SWS Mentoring Award (2000) as well as the Jessie Bernard Award from the American Sociological Association. She has also been the recipient of numerous research grant awards from the National Institute of Mental Health, the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Science Foundation. Esther was a Fulbright New Century Scholar in 2004, an award she personally considered her highest honor.

Esther was deeply devoted to her family and passionate about making a difference. She founded the True Light Foundation—an organization aimed at reducing poverty and increasing educational opportunities for young women in rural China.

Mareyjoyce Green

Photo of Mareyjoyce Green

Professor Mareyjoyce Green, Associate Professor at Cleveland State University (CSU), known to most as Mareyjoyce, was an enormously influential figure in sociology whose work united the critical analyses of race and gender. Mareyjoyce was one of the founding faculty of CSU, and she served in the Sociology Department from 1966 until she retired in 2009. In 1978 she became the coordinator of the Women’s Comprehensive Program, and she was its director from 1992 until her retirement.

During her tenure at CSU, Mareyjoyce’s work profoundly affected the development of research on the status of women in society. In addition to serving as chair of Cleveland’s Women’s Equity Planning Project, a multi-organizational effort to assess and address the challenges women in the region faced, Mareyjoyce directed two noteworthy oral history projects, the Oral History of Ethnic Women and the Women of Fenn Project, that highlighted the contributions of women to the founding of Fenn College.

Mareyjoyce served as President of the Association of Black Sociologists and Vice President of Sociologists for Women in Society. In addition, she chaired the Minority Fellowship Program committee and the Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities and co-chaired the Committee on the Status of Women in Sociology for the American Sociological Association. She held the position of Treasurer of the North Central Sociological Association, Chair of its Committee on the Status of Women and Minorities, and several elected offices in the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Mareyjoyce’s success was all the more remarkable because of her humble beginnings. Raised on a small farm that lacked electricity and running water in East Texas with her seven siblings, Mareyjoyce graduated from high school at the age of 15 and earned a degree in sociology from Wiley College in 1947. After a brief, successful career as a modern dance performer, she returned her attention to sociology and received a master’s degree from Western Reserve University (now CWRU) in 1960.

Mareyjoyce’s work extended beyond the university. Her community service in Cleveland included Vice President of the Federation for Community Planning; member of the Monitoring Commission for School Desegregation and Community Relations, as well as numerous Board memberships, including the League of Women Voters, the YWCA, the Center for Families and Children, Goodwill Industries, St. Ann’s Foundation, League Park Center, and Women Space.

Mareyjoyce was equally committed to pioneering the development of educational programs. She founded CSU’s Women’s Comprehensive Program which lives on today as The Mareyjoyce Green Women’s Center and Women’s Studies Program. Mareyjoyce also co-founded the Push to Achievement Program with CSU colleague Dr. Roberta Steinbacher; it is the only program in Ohio that helps students receiving public assistance earn a baccalaureate degree.

In 2009, she was recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives for her civic accomplishments, and she was honored again that same year when CSU renamed the Women’s Center as The Mareyjoyce Green Women’s Center. In 2019, we mourned her passing while celebrating her life.

All applications are due no later than April 1 of the calendar year at 11:59 pm ET.

Submit applications through the SWS Member Portal. You do not need to be an SWS member to apply for this award, but you need to use the Member Portal.
Please email [email protected] with questions.

Scholarship Purpose & Criteria

Sociologists for Women in Society has worked hard to build a coalition of women scholars who share concerns about the status of women both domestically and internationally and transnationally. In keeping with that purpose, SWS established a Women of Color Scholarship at its annual meeting in February 2007. The name of the scholarship changed to the Esther Ngan-ling Chow and Mareyjoyce Green Scholarship in 2010, to honor two incredible women of color members of SWS. The two primary goals of the scholarship are the following:

To offer support to women and non-binary scholars of color who are from underrepresented or marginalized groups and are studying concerns that women of color face domestically and/or internationally or transnationally. 

1. To increase the network and participation of students and professionals of color in SWS and other professional spaces.

   Selection Criteria

• Applicants must identify as a woman or non-binary scholar of color from a racial/ethnic group facing racial discrimination in the United States.

• Dissertation must be sociologically relevant scholarship that addresses the concerns of women of color, in the United States and/or abroad.

• Applicants must have completed their research and be in the early stages of writing a dissertation (have not exceeded 12 months of writing). Applicants must be “All But Dissertation” (ABD) by the time the term of the award begins and on schedule to complete their dissertation by the end of the academic year. The ABD status and schedule for completion must be certified by the student’s advisor or Graduate Director in the recommendation letter. 

• Applicants must demonstrate a financial need for the award.

• Domestic and international students are eligible to apply. (U.S. citizenship is not required to be eligible for this award).

Student Application Process

Complete application packets should be submitted via the SWS Membership Portal: sws.memberclicks.net where there is an Awards Submission Form. Please address any questions to the Awards Committee Chair at [email protected].  

Each packet must include:

• A two-page (double-spaced, 12-point font) personal statement that details short and long term career and research goals. The statement must also state which racial/ethnic group(s) the applicant represents.

• A Curriculum Vitae

• Two letters of recommendation addressing the content and quality of the student’s work and progress in the program. One of these letters must be from the Graduate Director or Dissertation Advisor. 

  • Their letter must certify the date on which the applicant became or will become ABD. Please have letter writers submit the letters via the Member Portal.

• Proposal (not to exceed 5 pages, double-spaced, 12 point font) for the dissertation research which outlines:All of these documents (with the exception of the letters of recommendation) must be combined into one PDF file and submitted via the Awards Submission form that can be accessed at: sws.memberclicks.net. Applicants do not need to be an SWS Member to submit, but applicants will be asked to create a profile in the system.  

  • Description of dissertation research and how it advances women of color scholarship.
  • Explanation of work to be accomplished as a scholarship recipient.
  • Timeline for completing dissertation.

Responsibilities of Recipient

• Attend the SWS annual Winter Meeting. The recipient receives complimentary registration and a $500 stipend to cover travel expenses to the annual meeting.

• Submit a brief report (3 pages max) on the work completed during the scholarship year, no later than August 30th, about 1 month after the end of the award period. This report should be emailed to the Awards Chair at: [email protected].

Award Funding and Benefits

The award recipient will receive an $18,000 scholarship (for the academic year), a certificate, and complimentary SWS membership for one-year. In addition the recipient will receive complimentary registration for the SWS annual Winter Meeting and a $500 travel stipend. The $18,000 is disbursed in two payments during the academic year ($9000 by August 31st and $9000 at the annual Winter Meeting). If the award recipient needs assistance with arranging their travel to the annual meeting, they can contact the Executive Office and the travel arrangements will be made on their behalf using the travel stipend.

A Note on Honorable Mention Awardees
Up to two honorable mention awardees may be selected. A total of $3,500 award is available for the honorable mention awardee (an amount shared if two awardees are selected). Honorable mention awardees receive a complimentary one-year SWS membership and are celebrated at the SWS annual meeting. Honorable mention awardees are required to submit a report (1 page max) on the work completed during the scholarship year and how the funds were spent no later than August 30 of the year following the award. This report should be emailed to the Awards Chair at: [email protected].

Responsibilities of Recipients

• Attend the SWS annual Winter Meeting. The recipient receives complimentary registration and a $500 stipend to cover travel expenses to this meeting. If the award recipient needs assistance with arranging their travel to the annual meeting, they can contact the Executive Officer and the travel arrangements will be made on their behalf using the travel stipend. 

• Submit a brief report (3 pages max) on the work completed during the scholarship year and how the funds were spent no later than August 30 of the year following the award, about 1 month after the end of the award period. This report should be emailed to the Awards Chair at: [email protected].

Click HERE to see previous award recipients.

From the SWS Archives: Announcing the 1st Women of Color Dissertation Scholarship Award in Network News in 2007.