Graduate Prize

A group of students stands outside next to a tree and in front of the red brick wall of the Hull House Museum Residents' Dining Hall. Along the top of the wall is a banner that reads Act Well Your Part. There All The Honor Lies.
GWS Graduate Student Concentrators at the 2026 End of Year Celebration and CECSCO Awards Event (Photo: Katie Klema)

The Gender and Women’s Studies Graduate Prize is awarded annually to one outstanding GWS graduate concentrator in recognition of the student’s commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship in Gender and Women’s Studies. The winner will receive a certificate of recognition, a monetary award of $500, and notice among the University’s award winners.

To apply, we ask that you be an existing UIC GWS graduate student concentrator who has taken at least one of the core courses (GWS 501 or 502).

Applications for the 2026-2027 GWS Graduate Prize likely will open in early March 2027. Please check back here for any updates and the application link.

GWS Graduate Prize Winner 2026

A photograph of Nour Ghobrial smiling with her head tilted to her right and her chin resting on her right hand. She is wearing a loose white tank top and has long brown curly hair.
Nour Ghobrial

Nour Ghobrial is a third year PhD student in Disability Studies with a concentration in Gender and Women’s Studies. Their dissertation uses intersectional approaches to disability and health, utilizing a feminist-of-color disability framework to examine eating-related distress as shaped by broader systems of power, care, and embodiment rather than as pathology. Methodologically, they use arts-based, participatory collage workshops to create space for embodied, affective, and non-linear forms of expression, where participants are co-creators of knowledge rather than research subjects. Their work expands Gender and Women’s Studies by cultivating more relational, justice-oriented approaches to care.