JOHN FELL OUP RESEARCH FUND: a grant was awarded to Maria Jaschok and Red Chan to prepare for ESRC large grant submission. Project Title: 'Theoretical Issues and Political Implications: the role of translation in the transfer of knowledge in China-UK development projects.'

Oxford University Alumni Weekend 25-27 September 09
Shirley Ardener represented the IGS at the University's Alumni Weekend, a recent , very successful, innovation. Delegates were entertained by their colleges, while the University at large put on a range of programmes for them, including a series of optional special Lectures on a wide range of topics by senior members of the University, held at the Said Business School. Shirley spoke to a large audience on "Money-Go-Rounds: The Importance of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations in Africa and Elsewhere". She considered these clubs in the light of the current global interest in microcredit, drawing on contemporary experience, especially as the recession impacts on people both in the developed and developing countries. At their book display, Blackwell's provided a central table devoted to the IGS book series with Berg Publications which attracted attention; this was supported by posters giving details of IGS programmes.

25th Commemorative Lecture
Professor Haleh Afshar University of York
"Peace and Reconstruction in the Middle East: A Critical Moment for Women"
Date: Wednesday, May 27th, 2009.
Time: 5 p,m,
Venue: St. Anne's College
Followed by reception

CORRESPONDENT for THE TIMES Parminder Bahra (Development and Poverty issues), visited QEH, Department for International Development, on Tuesday, 10th March 2009 to learn about the current work of QEH research centres and programmes.

Among the researchers interviewed were three members of IGS. Each gave a 5-minute overview of her current research project. Posted on this website are images and text from the presentations.

Judith Okely (QEH Research Associate, Deputy Dir of IGS) talked about the
Marie Curie initiative (co-hosted by IGS) which covers the training of a new
generation of researchers on Roma/Gypsies throughout Europe. Presentation

Paula Heinonen (QEH Research Associate, IGS member) introduced her fieldwork in Ethiopia concerning 'youth gang' culture, poverty and violence and pointed to parallels with youth gangs in the UK.

Commemorating the life and work of our late co-founder, Professor Elisabeth Croll, with a Lisa Croll Lecturership in Gender and Development
The IGS has begun a fund-raising campaign to commemorate the life and work of Professor Lisa Croll who died on the 3rd October, 2007. Lisa was a co-founder of our Centre (set up formally in 1983), known then as the Centre for Cross Cultural Research on Women (CCCRW). One of the first scholars in the UK to give a prominent place to Women and Gender both in Sinology and in Development Studies, she was, and still is, an inspirational role model to teachers and researchers alike. We at IGS miss Lisa's support, her mentorship, and her inspirational and warm presence, and we felt we could do no better than mobilise a campaign for the funding of a lecturership which would carry on her legacy of putting exemplary scholarship to use for the benefit of disadvantaged and discriminated girls and women.
Whilst we are receiving much support from family, friends and colleagues of Lisa Croll for a Lisa Croll Lecturership in Gender and Development – which will be placed within the Department of Development, University of Oxford – we are depending on on-going support and donations for accomplishment of this ambitious and worthy cause.
See IGS 25TH ANNIVERSARY APPEAL for more detailed information.

See EVENTS for a description of the Memorial Lecture held to celebrate Lisa’s life and work which was delivered by Professor Deniz Kandiyoti (SOAS, University of London) on November 12th, 2008, at the Taylorian, Oxford.
See a moving obituary written by one of Lisa's many loyal women friends, Harriet Evans, a member of her large circle of Chinese Studies friends: obituary

IGS signs Memorandum of Understanding with Media and Gender Institute, Communication University of China, Beijing

In December 2008, the director of IGS, Dr Maria Jaschok, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Media and Gender Institute, Communication University of China, Beijing. The Memorandum serves to facilitate academic collaboration, exchange visits, sharing of relevant information and fellowship programmes. The new relationship was celebrated with an international workshop, co-hosted by IGS, on ‘International Dialogue and Cooperation on Gender Communication’, which followed the signing ceremony. Altogether 70 members of academic and government institutions as well as faculty and students of the Communication University attended the workshop.

December/January 2008/9 Conferences

Anne Coles spent four days in Israel at the UNESCO/Ben Gurian desertification
conference, and included two field trips -  one on resettlement of all kinds and a short one on Nabotean economies over  the centuries

Janette Davies revisted Georgia for eight days when the new Centre for the Study of the Caucasus and Black Sea Region at the University of Georgia was officially opened. Tamta Khalvashi, a recent Visiting Fellow of the Centre, was appointed Director, four days after the Inaugural Ceremony, at which she and Janette were both keynote speakers.  It is hoped that Prof Nuka Abakelia who is from the University in Tibilisi will  come to the IGS as Visiting Fellow for Hilary 2009

 IGS was represented at the New Zealand meeting of the Association of Social Anthropologists by Jackie Waldren who made a presentation, and Judith Okely gave three lectures in Poland.

The UNITWIN Link Programme with the Women and Gender Studies Department, Buea University, Cameroon,
Since the formal end of the link, Shirley Ardener and members of the Buea University Department have continued to collaborate.
In 2009 Shirley Ardener will visit Buea for editorial discussions and to attend the launch of a festschrift dedicated to her, edited by Drs Ian Fowler and Verkijika Fanso (Berghahn Books 2009).

WEMC Consortium awarded a £3.75m grant An international Research Consortium led by the Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC) at City University of Hong Kong and comprising, among other partners, the International Gender Studies Centre (IGS at QEH), has been awarded a multi-million dollar grant by the UK government to help fight the poverty and inequality experienced by women living in Muslim communities and countries. The grant, worth £3.75m, is funding a five-year research project ( 1 July 2006 – 30 June 2011 ) entitled “Women’s Empowerment in Muslim Contexts: Gender, Poverty and Democratization from the Inside Out” (WEMC). The award came from the Department for International Development (DFID).
The study is being carried out in Muslim communities and countries in four Asian sub-regions – East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia. The aim of the research project is to study women’s strategies for empowerment in ways that can transform unfavourable power relations, to identify sources of support for strengthening women’s agency as insiders challenging disempowering structures, build analytical capacity and strategic alliances that catalyze transformative research, and pinpoint ways of promoting good governance, democratization, and appropriate development. Click here for a more detailed article. 27 September 2006

A new initiative in Gender and Women Studies at Oxford University 
The International Gender Studies Centre (IGS, QEH) has set up an Oxford University Women and Gender Studies Resource Network. The site provides a much needed centralized channel of communication, information and resource. The IGS Network is intended primarily, but not exclusively, for members of the University, teachers, researchers or students with an interest in gender and women studies. The mailing list has multiple functions. Members are able to inform (or ask) each other about existing or forthcoming seminars, lectures, conferences and workshops and keep abreast of each other’s research. We invite all those interest in the Network to subscribe to our mailing list:
 igs-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk or visit the IGS website http://igs.qeh.ox.ac.uk/index.html
Dr. Maria Jaschok (Director) 24 April 2006