Professor Sharon Cowan awarded prestigious Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust
Mon 5 January 2026
Professor Sharon Cowan has been awarded a prestigious three-year Major Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust. Major Research Fellowships are awarded to outstanding researchers in the humanities and social sciences to enable them to complete original research.
The Fellowship will support her new project, ‘Legally Speaking: Understanding Gender and Sex in the Shadow of Law’, which explores the role of law in shaping our understanding of gender and sex in the UK.
The project will provide the first comprehensive, in-depth analysis of law’s role in constructing gender and sex, asking: when, why and how the legal system became a central forum for contesting the meaning and salience of gender and sex in the UK. The project explores the enabling and constraining aspects of the legal regulation of gender and sex, and the impact of law’s engagement in complex gender and sex disputes on those whose rights are at stake.
Sharon said: "I am thrilled by this news. It’s a project I’ve been working towards across my whole academic career, so it is a privilege to have this time and space to devote to it."
About the Leverhulme Trust
The Leverhulme Trust is an independent charity that seeks to fund ambitious blue skies research and scholarship, which has the potential to generate new ideas and research breakthroughs that benefit society. The Trust also aims to support a diverse range of scholars in their educational endeavours. It focuses its efforts mainly in the UK, which has a world-class higher education research sector. Since its foundation in 1925, the Trust has provided grants and scholarships for research and education, funding research projects, fellowships, studentships, bursaries and prizes; it operates across all academic disciplines to support talented individuals as they realise their vision in research and professional training. Today, it is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK, distributing approximately £120 million a year.
Visit the website: www.leverhulme.ac.uk