This paper will analyse the development of the Women and
Development programme at the ISS, since 1981, when the first
MA programme was offered, until 2002, when the programme was
drastically changed. The programme was a unique combination
of feminist studies and development studies, offered to an
international student body, and taught by a multicultural
staff. The programme also implemented a number of projects
to institutionalize women’s studies at various universities
in the South, particularly the UWI, Sudan, Namibia and Bangladesh.
Its research focussed on women’s movements, gendered
labour relations, migration and trafficking in women. The
programme combined an emphasis on feminist theories including
epistemology, with gender policy and empirical research. The
paper will analyse the academic context in which it functioned,
its relations with the wider women’s movement, its internal
politics and the factors that led to its eventual demise.
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