Jennifer Pritzker's Foundation Gives $2 Million for Transgender Studies at Canadian University
The University of Victoria in British Columbia now has what is believed to be the world’s first endowed academic chair of transgender studies thanks to a $2 million donation by Chicago philanthropist Jennifer Pritzker via her foundation, the Chicago Tribune reported on Tuesday. Pritzker, a retired Army lieutenant colonel whose family launched the Hyatt Hotels Corporation in 1957, founded the Tawani Foundation in an effort to preserve military history and better the lives of military personnel, among other related causes.
Dr. Aaron Devor, a sociology professor who has studied transgender issues since the 1980s and founded the university’s transgender archives in 2012, has been named the inaugural chair; both Pritzker and Devor are transgender. According to the Tribune, “half of the money will support the chair position for five years, and the other half is pledged to match other donations to the program.”