The Institute for Research on Women, with the collaboration of the Women's Studies Program and the Department of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University at Albany, is establishing an academic network with women's studies programs in Latin American and Caribbean higher education institutions. The network will be initiated with the collaboration of the Programa Interdisciplinario de Estudios del Genero (PRIEG) at the National University of Costa Rica at Heredia, and the Program Interdisciplinario de Estudios de la Mujer (PRIEM) at El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City.
The network project scheduled to begin in the Fall of 1988 has the following objectives: 1) to develop a data bank on research on Latin American and Caribbean women in order to make bibliographic and human resource information available to researchers, educators, policy makers and students; 2) to hold a three-year rotating program of scholarly conferences to be held in each of the participating countries; 3) to support an exchange program for faculty from the four institutions who are involved in academic research and teaching on women; 4) to publish IROW News, a newsletter to be distributed internationally; and 5) to provide technical assistance to the participating Latin American and Caribbean institutions that would help them build or expand their programs and library collections in Women's Studies. A proposal has been submitted to the Tinker Foundation by Professors Edna AcostaBelen and Christine Bose requesting support for these activities. Another proposal will be submitted to the Ford Foundation IROW has also submitted an application to become a member of the National Council for Research on Women, and when that is acted on favorably, IROW will also be eligible for future special project funding by Ford and other agencies.