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The Global Women’s Research Institute (GWRI) will officially launch at the inaugural Global Women’s Research Conference which will take place from January 13 -15, 2009 at the Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt. The conference is a collaborative effort between the world renowned Library of Alexandria, Yale University and Claremont Graduate University, which will bring together government leaders, heads of NGOs, university researchers, and international organizations focusing on critical issues for women’s advancement, particularly taking into account regional needs.
“This is a transdisciplinary model for social change,” said conference organizers.
Generous funders include The BLAIS Foundation Challenge Fund and the American Embassy, Cairo.
The GWRI ‘s mission, in line with the conference, will be dedicated to activist participation in research directed towards social, political and economic changes that improve the status of women. The ultimate goal of the GWRI is to influence policy makers and policy centers such as the World Bank, United Nations and the influential think tanks on women’s issues. Governments and development agencies must address women’s issues according to their national, religious, and cultural contexts in order to be effective. Consequently the work of GWRI will be carried on by a network of regional centers in the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe directed toward improving the status of women within those regions. Thus, the research findings will aim to translate successes on the ground for NGOs into recommendations on the policy level that can be adopted by decision makers and supported by the populace. The purpose of this organizational model is to keep the work of the GWRI connected to the work of local activists while drawing on both regional and global research expertise.
The GWRI at Claremont will be supported by the collaboration of three centers of study and research: Intercollegiate Women’s Studies (Sue Castagnetto), Applied Women’s Studies at CGU (Linda Perkins) Women’s Studies in Religion program at CGU (Religion Dean Karen Torjesen). Over the past two years this planning group, along with the guidance of former visiting professor Ambassador Sallama Shaker who has recently moved on to The Yale Divinity School, have worked on strategies to take women’s studies at Claremont to the global level. The first step was a two-year reading group on transnational feminism which included graduate students, undergraduate students and faculty from the Colleges as well as CGU.
A Faculty Advisory Group has also been formed adding their expertise on gender analysis in their fields to oversee the development of the GWRI. Dean Cecilia Conrad (SC) an economist working on gender, race and ethnicity and President of the International Association of Feminist Economics; Nita Kumar, (CMC) historian and ethnographer whose research area is gender in South Asia with strong ties to India; Kebokile Zvobogo (PI) director of International Exchanges with experience with NGOs and strong ties to Africa; Zayn Kassam (PO) an Islamic scholar with expertise in South Asian and Middle Eastern Islam; Jean Schroedel (CGU) is a political scientist with research expertise on gender and sexuality, Jean Lipman-Blumen (CGU) is a sociologist with expertise on women’s leadership and Pardis Mahdavi (PO) is an anthropologist who focuses on trafficking, sexuality and human rights in the Iran, Dubai and Jordan as well as other areas of the Middle East. Ambassador Sallama Shaker Egyptian minister of foreign affairs and current visiting professor at The Yale Divinity School, with expertise in economic development of the Middle East and the respective impact on gender. The Faculty Advisory Group will oversee the development of the infrastructure for the GWRI at Claremont, and participate in the regional conference for the Middle East in 2009 and organize the regional conference for the Americas in 2009.
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Karen Torjesen and Jean Lipman-Blumen are part of the CGU team.
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