Carework Network Awards
2025 AWARDS
The Public Engagement Award
The Carework Network’s Public Engagement Award honors efforts that connect academic discussions on carework with the broader public, fostering dialogue among scholars, policymakers, and other key stakeholders.
This year we celebrated co-recipients, Dr. Ethel Tungohan and a team of researchers from the National System of Researchers in Mexico, Dr. Amanda Hernandez Perez, Dr. Lorena Osorio, and Dr. María Elena Meza de Luna.
Dr. Ethel Tungohan’s work combines academic rigor with deep public engagement, particularly in advocating for Filipina migrant care workers in Canada. Her work includes her podcast, Academic Aunties, and her recent collaborative photo exhibit, Matatag: Filipina Care Workers During COVID-19. Dr. Tungohan’s work stands as a model of socially engaged scholarship.
Dr. Amanda Hernandez Perez, Dr. Lorena Osorio, and Dr. María Elena Meza de Luna study Cuidados y políticas públicas (Care and public policies), carried out with support and funding from UN Women and CLASCO, provided a critical examination of the living and working conditions of caregivers for children in residential care homes, revealing that this labor is both highly feminized and deeply precarious. Their research highlights how society undervalues this essential and demanding work.
The Care in Action Award
The Carework Network’s Care in Action Award recognizes a local organization from the host city of the Global Carework Summit that embodies the Carework Network’s commitment to supporting the self-determination of careworkers, whether through advocacy, organizing, or mutual aid activities.
We are delighted to honor the local chapter of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) We Dream in Black (WeDiB), North Carolina Chapter.
The NDWA launched WeDib 10 years ago to build the collective power and visibility of Black caregivers, nannies, and professional cleaners. The North Carolina NDWA-WeDiB Dream in Black Chapter organizes domestic workers throughout the state for better wages, improved working conditions, recognition and safety for all low-wage workers.
The Founders Award
The Founders’ Award honors an individual who exemplifies the founders’ commitment to building the Carework Network.
The Carework Network honored Cynthia Cranford with the Founders’ Award for her extensive labor on behalf of the Network over almost a decade. As a member of the leadership team, Cynthia has been critical to building the success of all three Global Summits. As one nominator wrote, “Cynthia exemplifies the best of feminist organizing. [She] has been a critical force in moving the Carework Network towards a more global, more equitable, and more relevant organization …She is a visionary thinker and strong feminist and equity driven leader, and we have been very lucky that she has devoted her time and energy to growing our organization.”
2023 AWARDS
Visionary Care Studies
Ling Ng Yu Ling from the University of Victoria, Canada, won the Visionary Care Studies Award for her paper Choosing Whom to Care For: Children vs. Elderly, published in the Journal of Aging and Social Change 2023 Vol. 13, Issue 1.
The Public Engagement Award
From its very beginnings, the network’s founders were determined that it would not just be a place for academics but for people engaged in policy, advocacy, and community-based work. To honor that mission, the Public Engagement Award recognizes contributions that engage with the broader public and that bridge carework conversations between scholars, policymakers, and stakeholders.
It gives us great pleasure to celebrate two co-winners for the 2023 Public Engagement Award.
El Colectivo 506, a bilingual media outlet that empowers and connects voices in Costa Rica, published “Las Titas”, an edition that makes visible the contribution of older adults in the work of caring for children and other older adults. Please join us in congratulating El Colectivo 506’s cofounders Katherine Stanley Obando and Mónica Quesada Cordero as they celebrate this honor with the @elcolectivo506 team!
The Shape of Care Podcast is a podcast that focuses each episode on stories from and about care workers and the people they care for, and links these experiences with salient work from academics, policymakers, labor activists, policymakers, and leaders of social welfare programs. Please join us in congratulating @Mindy_Fried, the podcast creator and host, as she celebrates with @theshapeofcare team!
We also awarded an Honorable Mention to The Care Lab, a space within the Whitworth Collection’s Care Centre. The Care Lab promotes the idea that “the care we give and receive is improved if we attend to its art-like qualities, and that art making is improved when care is central to its ethos.” Please join us in congratulating the entire CARE Aesthetics Research Exploration Project (AHRC) team at the University of Manchester @CareAesths!
The Care in Action Award
The Network’s Third Global Summit would never have gotten off the ground without the efforts of the local organizing committee and the support of the larger community of San José. The Network wanted to show our appreciation by honoring a local organization that embodies the Carework Network’s commitment to supporting the self-determination of careworkers, whether through advocacy, organizing, or mutual aid activities.
This year we awarded the first Care in Action Award to the Asociación de Trabajadoras Domésticas de Costa Rica (ASTRADOMES). Astradomes is a grassroots organization that fights for the rights and visibility of domestic workers. Please join us in congratulating @astradomes!
The Founders Award
We are thrilled to announce that Mignon Duffy is the inaugural Carework Network Founders’ Award recipient. The Founders’ Award recognizes someone who embodies the founders’ efforts to establish the Network. To quote two Steering Committee members, “Mignon’s vision has always been expansive and inclusive;” she “is an extremely gifted leader who inspires others with her passion and tireless commitment to the Network.” We also want to highlight her instrumental role in developing Carework Network innovations, like establishing a stand-alone Summit and the Carework Network Responds Website. Please join us in congratulating Mignon Duffy!