The University at Albany project on Internationalizing Women's Studies: Crosscultural Approaches to Gender Research and Teaching promotes crosscultural thematic approaches to the study of women in selected countries of Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the United States. The project has the following components: 1) two faculty development seminars, one at the University at Albany (Summer 1996) and one in Puerto Rico (Spring 1998); 2) a summer 1997 institute at the University at Albany for faculty applicants from various U.S. institutions that will focus on faculty development, curriculum revision, and teaching and research strategies involving international women's studies and the introduction of gender into area studies; 3) a series of conferences accompanying the seminars and the institute aimed at a broader audience of faculty and students; 4) publication and distribution of materials developed during the project, including a volume of conference papers, new and revised course syllabi, and an agenda setting volume on new directions and priorities in gender research and teaching.
GENDER IN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE: CROSSCULTURAL APPROACHES TO RESEARCH AND TEACHING
Conference Themes
Feminisms Around the World: Theory, Research, and Practice
Curriculum Issues in the USA and Abroad
Women's Place in an Increasingly Interdependent World: Democracy, Development, and Technology
Women's Role in the Creation and Transmission of Culture
Guest Speakers
Mary Garcia Castro, UNIVERSITY OF BAHIA, BRAZIL. Author of Muchachas No More: Household Workers in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Norma Stoltz Chinchilla, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY AT LONG BEACH. Articles include "Women's Movements in the Americas" and "Revolutionary Popular Feminism in Nicaragua."
Krassimira Daskalova, SOFIA UNIVERSITY, BULGARIA. Author of "Feminism, Women's History, Gender History" and several other works on women's history in Bulgaria.
Rhoda Kadalie, HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISIONER, SOUTH AFRICA. Articles include "Women in the New South Africa: From Transition to Governance" and "The Need for Academic Feminism in South Africa."
Valentina Konstantinova, MOSCOW CENTER FOR GENDER STUDIES. Publications include "Women's Political Coalitions in Russia" and "Russia's Protrait in the Women's World Gallery."
Nalova Lyonga, UNIVERITY OF BUEA, CAMEROON. Author of Natural Democrats: Women and the Leadership Crisis in Cameroon Literature.
Kornelia, Merdjanska, SOFIA UNIVERSITY, BULGARIA. Co-Editor of Women's Time, a reader in feminist theory, author of "Does Feminism Speak East-European?."
Nombulelo Siqwana-Ndulo, GENDER STUDIES CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF TRANSKEI, SOUTH AFRICA.
GENDER RESEARCH IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Guest Speakers
Cheryl Johnson-Odim, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY, CHICAGO. "The Role of Theory in Feminist Struggle"
Author of For Women and the Nation: A Biography of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti of Nigeria; co-editor of Expanding the Boundaries of Women History.
Asunción Lavrin, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY. "Researching Women and Gender in Latin American History" Author of Women, Feminism and Social Change in the Southern Cone 1890-1940, Sexuality and Marriage in Colonical Latin America, and Latin American Women: Historical Perspective.
Nalova Lyonga, UNIVERSITY OF BUEA, CAMEROON. Author of Natural Democrats: Women and the Leadership Crisis in Cameroon Literature and African Women and Feminist Theories (forthcoming).
Kornelia Merdjanska, SOFIA UNIVERSITY, BULGARIA. "North American Feminism; A View from Eastern Europe," Co-Editor of Women's Time (forthcoming), and "What's in a Name" (forthcoming); author of "Does Feminism Speak East-European?"
Anastasia Posadskaya-Vanderbeck, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY and MOSCOW CENTER FOR GENDER STUDIES. "Women and Politics in Russia and Eastern Europe" Editor of Women in Russia: A New Era in Russia's Feminism; co-author of Democracy Without Women is No Democracy: Women's Struggles in Post-Communist Russia.
Encuentro Feminista: Defining a Research and Teaching Agenda for the New Millennium
The proposed conference, "Encuentro Feminista: Defining a Research and Teaching Agenda for the New Millennium" is part of the third year activities of the Ford Foundation funded project, Internationalizing Women's Studies: Crosscultural Approaches in Gender Research and Teaching (1995-1998). The Encuentro Feminista (a feminist scholars meeting of minds) will bring together leading researchers from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe to continue building on the major themes of the Ford Project. The Ford Project aims at offering faculty development opportunities and supports research and curriculum transformation initiatives that integrate gender/women's studies into area and international studies; and involves several Universaity at Albany departments and faculty.
Other goals of the three-year Ford Foundation Project includes: 1) internationalizing gender/women's studies curricula and research practices in the U.S. ; 2) increasing gender/women's studies research and teaching in other countries, particularly in the Third World; 3) providing opportunities for establishing and expanding international collaborations between women's and area studies scholars and programs; 5) revising the content of existing courses and creating new courses that will enhance both general education and disciplinary offerings; and 6) publishing and disseminating materials developed during the course of the project.
The proposed University at Albany-sponsored Encuentro Feminista will take place on April 22-24, 1998 at the Inter American University in San Germán, Puerto Rico.
Institute for Research on Women (IROW)