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Gender In The 21st Century – Focus Of 2003 Mona Academic Conference

“Gender in the 21st Century: Perspectives, Visions and Possibilities” is the theme for the 2003 Mona Academic Conference to be held from August 29 to 31 at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus. The conference is being organised by the Centre for Gender and Development Studies, UWI, as it celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Sponsored by the Office of the Principal, the conference also commemorates the institutionalization of Gender Studies at the university. Chair of the planning committee, Pro Vice Chancellor, Professor Elsa Leo-Rhynie noted that from 1982 to 1993 when the Centre came into being, Women and Development Studies groups on all three campuses of the university have carried out research, taught courses, sought funding and worked with a variety of organisations, all with the common objectives of introducing a programme of Women’s Studies in the university and improving women’s lives.

The conference, to be held in the Social Science Lecture Theatre, Faculty of Social Sciences at Mona, will bring together academics and researchers in the field of gender studies, government officials and private sector interests to discuss gender issues under the sub-themes Pushing Boundaries: Redefining Masculinities and Femininities; Pushing Boundaries: Images, Representation and Identities; Pushing Boundaries: New and Emerging Issues; Bridging Epistemologies, Constructing New Paradigms; Setting New Agendas: The Scholarship of a New Generation and Setting New Agendas: Within and Beyond the Academy.

The conference’s opening ceremony on Friday, August 29 at the Undercroft, Senate Building at Mona will feature a keynote address by the Attorney General and Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados, the Hon. Mia Mottley. Also slated to address the audience, which will include local, regional and international luminaries as well as new and returning students, will be Jamaica’s Minister of Education, Youth and Culture, the Hon. Maxine Henry Wilson.

Plenary presenters on Saturday, August 30 will be former Regional Programme Director of UNIFEM, Dr Joycelin Massiah, and former Tutor/Coordinator of the Women and Development Unit (WAND), Dr. Peggy Anthrobus. On Sunday, August 31 the day will start with plenary presentations by Dr. Saskia Wieringa of the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and Mrs Hermione McKenzie of UWI Mona.

Over thirty interesting presentations will take place during the conference. For example, Professor Rhoda Reddock of UWI St. Augustine will speak on Caribbean Masculinities and Femininities: the Impact of Globalisation on Cultural Representations while Professor Errol Miller will revisit the Male Marginalisation Thesis. Dr. John Campbell, Lecturer in History at Mona is one of five presenters from a new generation of scholars and his presentation is titled “Not Without Meh Man” Notes Towards the Creation of a 21st Century Caribbean Feminist Methodology.

Three books will also be unveiled at the conference. At the opening ceremony Minister Henry Wilson will launch Governance in the Age of Globalisation, edited by Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal of UWI, Mona, Professor Kenneth Hall and the Michael Manley Professor of Public Policy and Public Affairs, Professor Dennis Benn. Dr. Joycelin Massiah will launch Gender Equality in the Caribbean: Reality or Illusion, edited by Coordinator of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies, UWI, Professor Barbara Bailey and Ms. Gemma Tang-Nain of CARICOM, on behalf of the Secretariat. During a break in the conference proceedings on Saturday, August 30 at 4:00 p.m. Professor Neville Duncan, Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, Mona will present the third book, Standing Tall: Affirmation of the Jamaican Male – 24 self portraits, written by Erna Brodber.

The public is invited to attend the conference which is free of cost. For more detailed information on the conference visit the conference website at www.mona.uwi.edu/notices/monaconf.


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