INSTITUTE OF WOMEN'S STUDIES OF BIR ZEIT UNIVERSITY

Palestinian research center on women and gender.

The Institute of Women's Studies (IWS) at Bir Zeit University was established in 1994 by a group of female academics. The principal researchers affailiated with the institute include: Lamis Abu Nahleh, Rema Hammami, Islah Jad, Penny Johnson, Eileen Kuttab, and Lisa Taraki. Founded initially as the Women's Studies Program in the university's faculty of arts, it became an institute in 1997 with a full-time staff and graduate studies program. Its overall goals are to develop women's studies as an academic discipline, to conduct scholarly research on women and gender relations in Palestinian society, and to facilitate more equitable policies and legislation.

The IWS is involved in teaching, research, training, and advocacy. It offers an undergraduate curriculum of core courses leading to a minor in women's studies. In partnership with the Institute of Law at Bir Zeit, it offers an interdisciplinary master's program in gender, law, and development to increase awareness of the cultural and practical implications of gender divisions and inequalities.

Broad political and economic trends in the West Bank and Gaza Strip influence the institute's research priorities. Between 1994 and 1999 IWS research comprised a series of studies concerning health, education, law, the labor market, and other sectors during a period when institution and capacity-building of governmental and nongovernmental agencies dominated development activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. With the collapse of the Oslo Accord, the advent of the second Palestinian uprising of September 2000, and an economic downturn, IWS research began to center on poverty, political violence, and militarism.

IWS faculty members participate in regional research projects contributing to the discourse and scholarship on women and gender in Arab society. Members also engage in consulting and gender training in order to influence policy and increase the institute's sustainability.

See also aqsa intifada, al-; bir zeit university; gaza strip; gender: gender and education; gender: study of; intifada (1987–1991); oslo accord (1993); palestine; palestinian authority; west bank.

Bibliography

Institute of Women's Studies as Birzeit University. Available from <http://home.birzeit.edu/wsi/index.htm>.

mona ghali