"Hands On Roundtables"

Participants ate at tables organized around specific themes led by experts in the area:

Judy Touchton (Office of Women in Higher Education, ACE), Issues in Higher Education Leadership; Carolyn Farrel, Archives; Alice Dan (Center for Research on Woman, University of Illinois, Chicago), Technology; Sue Kaufman (Center for the Education of Women, University of Michigan), Private Fundraising; Beth Willinger, Issues in University-based Research Centers

Organizers: Cynthia Secor (Director, HERS, Mid-America), Caryn McTighe Musil, Donna Shavlik (Senior Fellow, American Council on Education)

Global Initiative Scholars: Biljana Kasic (Centre for Women's Studies, Zagreb); Ruth Meena (University of Dar es Salaam); Penina Mlama (Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Dar es Salaam); Miglena Nikolchina (Program for Gender and Culture, Central European University in Budapest); Nomcebo Olive Simelane (Department of Geography, Environmental Science and Planning, University of Swaziland)

An exchange between U.S. and international researchers focused on research agendas that emerge in different global contexts and identified areas for future collaboration. Special attention was directed to conditions and strategies that enable gender to become an agenda item in democratizing contexts.

Biljana Kasic explained that within the context of the devastation of wars in the ex-Yugoslavian region, questions with respect to patterns of collaboration and to locating Eastern European feminist perspectives must be re-examined, due to a lack of apparent "sameness" of experience. In other words, while Western feminists frequently impose frameworks/topics/issues on Eastern European women's lives, they often have more in common with Third World women. Additionally, as a result of the reduction in women's human rights after the wars, feminism is no longer fashionable, and a new concept of misogyny/ patriarchy has emerged. Kasic stated that within this context, what is needed are autonomous women's centers, new activism, and good networking. She would like to implement an oral history project regarding women's lives under socialism in order to better understand the era prior to 1945 and the present, and to collaborate on a theoretical analysis of East vs. West vs. Third World perspectives.

In terms of gaps in current research and potential future collaborations, Ruth Meena said that what needs to be addressed is the impact of globalization and privitization on health and education, women's social location in industry, and youth reproduction rights. Additionally, she sees a need to collaborate on a political economy approach to analyzing development, as well as defining theoretical foundations linking academic and activist life.

Nomcebo Simelane explained that at the University of Swaziland, they have had difficulties establishing a women's studies program, despite the fact that this initiative has been spearheaded by the Vice Chancellor, a women chemist. She also said that often, scholars are pushed to action-based research due to being confronted by politicians who need immediate answers, and are therefore not able to address problems in a more holistic way. Simelane sees the Council as a potential model for organizations in Swaziland to collaborate and network, to move beyond the regional networks that have been sucessful and toward the international.

Penina Mlama began her remarks by noting the difficulty of prioritizing issues for research agendas due to, among other problems, the effects of structural adjustment programs. For her, what is paramount is research into global and local economic processes and their impact on girls and women, especially with respect to access to education, and new technologies; girls are not being encouraged to enter disciplines where new skills are introduced.

Miglena Nikolchina echoed some of Biljana Kasic's remarks, and spoke about the difficulties involved in developing graduate programs in women's/gender studies in Eastern Europe. This is a theme she is interested in pursuing further, and will address as a panelist at the 7th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women in Tromso, Norway in 1999.

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