Establishment of an interdisciplinary Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University was approved by U-M Regents in September.
The new institute will be a valuable component of the Michigan Agenda for Women, President James J. Duderstadt's plan to make the U-M a leader among US universities in promoting and achieving the success of women of diverse backgrounds as faculty, students and staff by the year 2000.
The institute will serve three key functions:
Providing an institutional umbrella for ongoing faculty research efforts focusing on women and gender.
Offering coordination, stimulation and support for effective interdisciplinary research.
Heightening Michigan's national profile as a major source of knowledge about women and gender.
Abigail J. Stewart, professor of psychology and of women's studies, will serve as the inaugural director of the institute, which is temporarily housed in West Quadrangle.
Stewart called establishment of the institute "a very important step in
recognizing and validating the tremendous resource of scholarly expertise on this campus." Research on women and gender "grew without resources" on campus for many years, and "the time has come to support scholarship with appropriate resources and administrative structures."
. . . December 1995