The Ann Early Award is given every year to a Women's and Gender Studies minor in recognition of academic achievement in the minor and service to the program. The award is given in honor of Ann Early, who directed Ë¿¹ÏÊÓÆµ's Women's Studies Program in the 1980s. Professor Early was instrumental in introducing the study of women into the Ë¿¹ÏÊÓÆµ curriculum in the late 1960s, when challenges to male bias in academe (and in life) were still considered revolutionary, and were potentially ruinous to the careers of female scholars.