With generous support from the Judith Hardes Fund in the College of the Liberal Arts, the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is pleased to invite its undergraduate majors to apply for funding to support their reproductive justice (RJ) work, including research costs, conference attendance, thesis support, community-based initiatives, internships, creative projects, and trainings. Funds will be awarded and distributed in January 2026 for use in spring semester 2026.
Reproductive Justice (RJ) is both a critical feminist theoretical framework and social-political movement. Developed in the 1990s by Black women and women of color in response to the limitations of the reproductive rights framework, RJ accounts for historical and on-going reproductive injustices experienced by Black women, Indigenous women, women of color, poor women, queer people, individuals with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. As an intersectional framework, RJ focuses on how interlocking institutional forms of racism, sexism, classism, ableism, transphobia, and heterosexism curtail reproductive freedom. The four core principles of RJ are: the right to have a child, the right to not have a child, the right to parent children in safe and healthy environments, and the right to express sexuality freely without threat of coercion or violence. Bodily autonomy and an individual’s ability to control the material conditions of their lives are central to RJ. Scholars and activists identify several broad conditions necessary to ensure RJ, including access to: comprehensive sex education, a full spectrum of reproductive health care options, affordable housing, clean air and water, nutritious food, equitably funded schools and childcare options, living-wage jobs, paid family leave, and protection from interpersonal and institutional violence.
To be eligible for consideration of funding, applicants must a) be undergraduate majors in WGSS* and, b) undertake research or other activities directly related to RJ. Students are encouraged to conceptualize RJ broadly. Possible topics include but are not limited to: unequal access to reproductive health care and/or health information; food insecurity; work with local organizations to provide social services to create sustainable communities; and racialized, interpersonal sexual or gender violence.
To apply, please send the following materials in one file to wgssugprogram@psu.edu with the subject line: Hardes RJ Undergrad Student Award. Please direct any questions to Jill Wood. (jmw193@psu.edu)
- An overview of your project (no longer than one single-spaced page) that directly connects your work to RJ.
- A detailed budget for your requested funds (specify how the award money will be used). Be sure to include other sources and amounts of funding you have raised, if applicable.
- A timeline indicating when your project begins and ends.
- Contact information for one reference (this should be someone who can speak to a student’s ability to complete the proposed project, e., a faculty member, supervisor, community organizer, or similar).
Application deadline: December 5, 2025. Applications will be assessed in the order in which they are received and will continue to be reviewed on a rolling basis until the funds are dispersed.