The Center for the Study of Gender and Conflict at S-CAR: Events and Projects for 2014 - 2015 Academic Year
The Center for the Study of Gender and Conflict at S-CAR: Events and Projects for 2014 - 2015 Academic Year
The Center for the Study of Gender and Conflict is proud to announce its exciting program of events this academic year. We are thrilled that Dr. Cynthia Enloe will give the keynote address at our annual conference in April 2015. Dr. Enloe is the Director of International Development, Community, and Environment at Clark University, and faculty in the Women’s and Gender Studies, and the Department of Political Science. She is a visionary in the field of feminist international relations and the author of numerous books, including Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (2000), Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (2004), and recently The Real State of America: Mapping the Myths and Truths about the United States (2011). The CGC invites abstracts for the conference ‘Critical Intersections: Conflict, Gender, and Power’ by December 1, 2014.
The conference marks the culmination of this year’s program at the Center for the Study of Gender and Conflict (CGC). Our Brown Bag series began on October 9, 2014, with Dr. Jennifer McCleary-Sills, a Gender Based Violence (GBV) specialist at the World Bank Group, who presented on GBV and the overlapping deprivations that increase a woman’s risk of experiencing violence. On November 9th, the series welcomes Dr. Supriya Bailey, Assistant Professor in International Education at George Mason University, who will speak about grassroots gender empowerment in India. This series will continue in the spring with Dr. Aisling Swaine, who will lead a discussion on gender violence and security.
As well as Brown Bags, the CGC also hosts monthly Gender Salons – an informal event that provides students an opportunity to discuss and debate contentious issues in the field, practice skills, and develop relationships in a casual environment. The format of the salon is intended to provide an open space for dialogue and debate around a given topic. The first salon of the semester last month was titled Ferguson, Masculinity and Violence. Our next Gender Salon will meet at S-CAR on the 29th of October to discuss reproductive justice and reproductive rights.
Finally, CGC is holding two panels this year. The first addresses the challenges facing women in STEM fields, and will take place on January 12th. The second panel, on February 12, 2015, will look at legal responses to sexual violence. Both panels feature speakers from diverse fields and backgrounds. For more information about the CGC’s program of events, visit gmu.edu/gender.
Background to CGC
Conceived during a discussion over lunch, the Center for the Study of Gender and Conflict (CGC) was founded in 2012 at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR). CGC is an intellectual community of faculty, students, and professional practitioners committed to addressing the gendered dynamics of conflict, including the direct violence of war, sexual assault, and genocide and pressing issues of political and economic marginalization. Drawing upon a decade of intensive engagement in gender-related work at S-CAR, the CGC serves as a link between the academy and the field to deepen and expand our understanding of the gendered dimensions of conflict. Recognizing that gender impacts all facets of life for both women and men, the CGC offers innovative and comprehensive approaches to understanding and transforming gendered conflicts.
Staff
CGC is composed of both students and faculty. The Director of the center is Leslie Dwyer, Assistant Professor of Conflict Analysis and Anthropology at S-CAR. Her academic expertise focuses on violence, gender, post-conflict social life and transitional justice. Dr. Sandra Cheldelin, the Vernon M. and Minnie I. Lynch Professor of Conflict Resolution, is the principal. A specialist in group and organisational conflict, Dr. Cheldelin has worked on gender-related issues and conflict interventions in Bosnia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Georgia, the Middle East, Turkey, Liberia, and China. Elizabeth Mount, a PhD student at S-CAR, is the Executive Director. Elizabeth manages programming, development, and public/private partnerships, and her research focuses on masculinity and sexual violence. Lisa McLean is the Dean’s Fellow at CGC and a new PhD student at S-CAR. As the director of CGC’s program, Lisa’s goals are to broaden the awareness of feminist and gendered analyses of conflict, and to directly contribute to the body of knowledge and scholarship concerning these issues. Alice Peck is a Master’s student at S-CAR and the Program Officer at CGC. Responsible for overseeing the financial and administrative programming of CGC, Alice’s research interests include gender and access to justice, masculinity in humanitarian intervention and discourse surrounding victimhood and vulnerability. Mel Weyant, a Master’s student at S-CAR, is the media intern at CGC and works to publicise the work of CGC within S-CAR, GMU and to the broader DC community, as well as students and external partners in our projects. Mel is interested in domestic community building and the intersection of race, gender, and poverty, as well as juvenile-justice issues.
For more information on events and to get involved with our work, please visit scar.gmu.edu/gender or email us at [email protected].