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Georgia State University

Women’s Studies Professor Receives Prestigious National Award

Prof. Layli Phillips MaparyanProf. Layli Phillips Maparyan, of GSU’s Women’s Studies Institute, is one of 15 professors from across the United States to be awarded the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award, with a prize of $25,000. The awards were presented at a ceremony on Saturday at the Carter Center here in Atlanta. Maparyan is the only Georgia educator to receive this award this year. The award recognizes current or former academic faculty who have inspired students to establish a concept, procedure, or movement that benefits the community at large. Click here for GSU’s full press release about Maparyan and this award.

Prof. Maparyan is an associate professor in the Women’s Studies Institute and the Women’s Studies graduate director. She is the editor of the collection The Womanist Reader, and the co-author of chapters in the Handbook of Feminist Family Studies and The Human Tradition and the Civil Rights Movement, 1865-1980 and author of a chapter in Defining Difference: Race and Racism in the History of Psychology, in addition to articles in the Journal of African American Studies, the Journal of African American History, and the Journal of Homosexuality.

Additionally, Maparyan co-hosted a 10-part TV series called “Faith and Feminism” for Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters (AIB-TV). She currently co-hosts a new spirituality-focused current affairs talk show, “The Circle,” airing monthly on AIB-TV (weekly schedule available here). Prof. Maparyan is also co-founder of the Liberia Working Group of Metro Atlanta, first established in 2008.

Congratulations to Prof. Maparyan for her outstanding work!