The GEST Podcast: Recent Episodes
The GEST Podcast
The Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme (GEST) promotes gender equality and social justice in low income countries, conflict and post-conflict societies, through research, training, and education at a postgraduate level. Its main target group is professionals working for government and civil society organisations in low income countries and post-conflict societies undergoing reconstruction. GEST is part of GRÓ, the Centre for Capacity Development, Sustainability and Societal Change. We operate under the auspices of UNESCO, aligning our fields of specialisation in teaching and research and contributing to the implementation of UNESCO's strategic programme objectives. Every week we speak to one of our many students about their lives, aspirations or what they‘re up to in Iceland. Or we speak to one of the many international experts, who contribute to our programme.
Today’s episode is looking at epistemologies in pandemic inequalities and applying feminist consciousness to address violence against women during global pandemic. We close this year’s 16 days of activism campaign against gender-based violence by asking the question: Where are the feminists? And we point to the gaps in pandemic response from a public health and feminist perspective.
Kalevera Imungu is a Kenyan Feminist, Gender and Diversity Specialist and Consultant. She has experience in feminist advocacy, programming and policy analysis in the areas of economic justice, women’s leadership and a host of others. When she is not smashing the patriarchy in her work, she is a struggling plan mom.
Zainab Chisenga is a gender and women’s rights specialist and consultant from Malawi. Her areas of expertise are in women’s political and civic participation, economic justice, movement building, positive masculinities and gender-based violence thematic areas. Outside her activism, she enjoys books and serene spaces.
Jessy Gondwe is health practitioner and gender advocate from Malawi. She has experience in health research, front line health care delivery, sexual and reproductive health and gender programming in Southern and Eastern Africa. She is passionate in applying gender lens in addressing health problems and health systems strengthening. Aside her work, she enjoys hanging out with friends and family.
Myriam Sfeir Murad is joining us from Lebanon via the ERASMUS staff exchange program. Myriam joined the Arab Institute for Women (AiW) in 1996 and is currently the institute's Director. Previously she served as senior managing editor of Al-Raida, the double-blind peer-reviewed journal published by AiW. On this episode we talk about AiW and their work in Lebanon and the Arab Region more broadly.
The new Netflix original movie Moxie is about a shy 16-year-old girl, who is inspired by her mum's rebellious past and a confident new friend to publish an anonymous zine calling out sexism at her school. So what is this movie? An honest attempt at making feminism edible for the masses or just another example of white women being pushed to foreground of the feminist movement? We talked to Nikkita Hamar Patterson, lecturer in film studies at the University of Iceland, and our resident senior researcher Giti Chandra to find out.
This episode is dedicated to the tireless work of the GEST alumni. We present current projects that former GEST fellows are currently involved in, and we speak to the recipient of the GEST Alumni Fund grant 2020 Chinenye Anekwe, who explains how and why she became involved in the field of gender and energy.
Dr Islah Jad is Associate Professor in Gender, Development and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University where she began teaching in 1984. She is a founding member of the Women’s Studies Institute at Birzeit University and its MA programme. We speak to her about her latest book 'Palestinian Women's Activism: Nationalism, Secularism, Islamism' in which Jad explores the women's movement in Palestine against the backdrop of a historical and political landscape marked by internal tensions and contradictions, as well as an all-encompassing Israeli occupation.
In our third installment of our ERASMUS+ series, we speak to Linda Gusia, who is a feminist activist and lecturer at the department of Sociology at the University of Prishtina in Kosovo. Her research has focused on topics of gender, nationalism, activism, representation, public space, memory and violence. As part of her PhD thesis she interrogated ambiguities of nationalism and gender by looking both at the women's movement in Kosovo and sexual violence as a strategy of war, centering on the politics of gender representation visually and textually. She holds a PhD from University of Prishtina (2016) and MA from NYU (2003). Linda was co-curator and researcher in the multimedia art exhibition on women’s peaceful resistance in Kosovo. She co-founded the University Program for Gender Studies and Research, UP. She was visiting research scholar and fellow at the Gender Research Institute, Dartmouth College, and fellow for five years of the Academic Fellowship Program OSI. She is currently a PI of the Changing the Story Phase 2 ECR project: The Making of the Museum of Education: Memory, violence and resistance as seen by artists, youth and institutions.
Linda is the Principal Investigator of the Phase 2 Kosovo project The Making of the Museum of Education and Co-Investigator of the Phase 2 Large Grant Project ‘ReSpace.’
Myriam Sfeir is the director of the Arab Institute for Women (AiW) at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Previously she served as senior managing editor of Al-Raida, the double-blind peer-reviewed journal published by AiW. She has over twenty five years of experience working in the area of women’s rights and gender equality and ample experience doing research, expert analysis, trainings, and teaching. She is an authority on the women’s movement in Lebanon and has worked extensively on several groundbreaking projects related to oral history, movement building, marginalized groups and has organized several international and regional conferences, film festivals, and panels that address gender rights and justice. She earned her Bachelor degree in Philosophy from the American University of Beirut and her Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Women’s Studies from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom.
In the first of a series of podcasts in which we engage in conversation with some of the brightest minds in gender and diversity studies from our ERASMUS+ partner universities, we speak to Tonya Haynes, lecturer and interim Head and Coordinator of Graduate Programmes at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Nita Barrow Unit, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus in Barbados. Her projects and research is animated around the liberatory potential of Carribbean feminist thought, and her institute is involved in a range of projects that not only address gender issues, but are part of a much larger movement that ties in with the decolonization of the west indies.
Marai Larasi is one of the contributors to the 'Routledge Handbook of the Politics of MeToo Movement'. She is an advocate, community organiser, consultant, and educator, whose work deliberately centres the journeys, narratives, knowledge and expertise of Black / Global Majority women and girls. For over 25 years, her social justice practice and activism has focused primarily on ending violence against women and girls. Today we talk to her about the tension between the poetic flow of activist expression and the linearity of academic writing, plantation feminism (a term she coins in the book), and the importance of getting comfortable with discomfort when we’re trying to build solidarity with one another.
Photo credit: Michelle Beatty
To celebrate the coming publication of The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of the #MeToo movement, we speak to a series of activists from around the world about what the #MeToo movement looks like in different national contexts. On this episode we speak to former GEST fellow Thelma Kaliu from Malawi. Thelma is a practitioner in gender, education, child protection, youth empowerment, and development. She has worked for a number of prolific organisations, including UN Women and Girls Empowerment Network. Today she is a project coordinator at Plan International.
A former fellow of the GEST Programme, Masha Durkalić is a researcher, editor and one of the authors of the book #WomenOfBiH. She graduated in journalism from the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Sarajevo and started working as a journalist in 2008, focusing on women’s and LGBTQI rights. She obtained her MA degree within the European Regional Master in Democracy and Human Rights (ERMA) programme. She lives and works in Sarajevo where she works in communications and public relations and researches social movements focusing on feminist activism in southeast Europe.
To celebrate the coming publication of The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of the #MeToo movement, we speak to a series of activists from around the world about what the #MeToo movement looks like in different national contexts. On this episode we speak to Kinita Shenoy. She is a writer and communications specialist who has worked with the UN, the European Climate Foundation, and the World Bank Group. She has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan Sri Lanka and Yamu, and her work has been published globally, including on Condé Nast Traveler and Harper's Bazaar. Her focus is on fostering equitable communities via campaigns and communications on gender and women's rights.
On this episode we speak to assistant professor Suhaila Mubariz Qaderi about the Kabul University bombings and how they tie in with gender roles in Afghanistan and the disciplining measures of a patriarchal society.
To celebrate the publication of the 'Routledge Handbook of the #MeToo Movement' we will spend the next 5 weeks speaking to activists from around the world about how the #MeToo movement takes shape in different contexts.
This week we speak to Bisharo Ali Hussein from Somalia. Bisharo is pursuing her Masters of Public Policy in Barcelona and MBA program in the UK. Bisharo is a humanitarian and a development and gender expert. She is an activist who is passionate about gender equality, peace and security, human rights and fights specifically for youths and women rights and sexual reproductive health rights
Pontus Järvstad is a local activist and PhD student in History at the University of Iceland. He is also one of the most knowledgeable people in Iceland on historical issues of communism and fascism. Today Giti and I interrogate this man's towering intellect aboiut gender issues in fascist and anti-fascist movements. And of course we can't interview a Swedish historian without talking about vikings.
Today we speak to Randi Stebbins from the University of Iceland Writing Center about our experiences with teaching in the GEST Programme and how to bring yourself and your identity into your writing.
What do we do when our favorite artists, authors and film makers get called out for problematic or even violent and abuse behavior? Today Giti and Thomas are joined by extreme film expert Nikkita Hamar Patterson, and together we attempt to provide a definitive answer to the question: Can you separate art from the artist?
This week Giti and Thomas discuss sexual harassment (hence the long faces)and the gendering of the female mentrual cycle. Good times.
Take our online course: https://www.edx.org/course/gender-and-intersectionality
This week Giti and Thomas discuss the phenomenon of cultural appropriation, starting with the use of Sanskrit chanting in Battlestar Galactica. But when is something cultural appropriation? And what does it have to do with race, racism and gender?
Enroll in our online course here: https://www.edx.org/course/gender-and-intersectionality
Continuing our series of discussions around our new online course 'Gender and Intersectionality, Giti and Thomas tackle issues around feminism, versus capitalism, the issue of doing 'perfect' activism, gender in the time of COVID19 and gender/class based disparities in academia.
Enroll in our brand new online course here: https://www.edx.org/course/gender-and-intersectionality
The podcast is back after a 2 month hiatus. We still can't invite students or visiting lecturers on to the podcast, so Giti and Thomas decided to use this opportunity to make a podcast at the end of each week of GEST's new online course Gender and Intersectionality.
Gideon Adjei-Mawutor holds a degree in Economics and Philosophy and is currently an MPhil student in the Department of Philosophy and Classics at the University of Ghana. His areas of interest include identity politics, feminist epistemologies and the role of (information) technology in construing identities in an increasing global sphere.
Vinita Chandra is an Associate Professor at Ramjas College, Delhi University, India, where she has been teaching English Literature since 1986. She also teaches courses on Women’s Writing and Feminism and is the Convener of the syllabus development committee for the Women’s Writing course that is taught by 45 colleges in Delhi University. She is also one of the founding members of the Gender Forum at Ramjas College and sdhe is the Chairperson of the Sexual Harassment Complaints Committee at her university, where she routinely conducts workshops, orientations, lectures, and discussions on sexual harassment.
How do gender roles in the family and community impact career choices and overall economic outcomes in Uganda?
Hassan Waddimba is a GEST graduate from 2019, who works professionally as an economic inclusion advocate. He has worked in several positions with non-governmental organizations including Motivate Africa Initiative, and East Africa Center for Disability Law and Policy. Hassan is an alumni of the United States Department of State Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Disability Employment at the University of Oklahoma
In this two-part series of our conversation with long-standing GEST lecturer Cynthia Enloe, the Clark University professor looks back at half-century long illustrious career as an author, teacher and outspoken feminist activist. In part two, professor Enloe speaks to our senior researcher Dr Giti Chandra about the #MeToo movement and the importance of translation of feminist research.
Brenda Apeta is the Director of Teaching and Learning at Pangea Educational Development (pangeaeducation.org). In this episode Brenda speaks of the importance of addressing gender issues in the classroom and beyond.
In this two-part series of our conversation with long-standing GEST lecturer Cynthia Enloe, the Clark University professor looks back at half-century long illustrious career as an author, teacher and outspoken feminist activist. In part one, professor Enloe speaks about how dedication to curiosity can inform your gendered awake8ning. Taking a starting point in her own experiences, she reminds us that „everybody, no matter how slow a learner they are, can wake up.“ In a surprising turn of events, she also opens our minds to the ethnic and gendered politics of indexing in academic publishing.
This week's guest is Shamim Nampijja of the National Union of Women with Disabilities of Uganda. The podcast was recorded in front of a live audience at Bóksala Stúdenta at the University of Iceland as part of Equality Days.
Today we are speaking to her excellency professor Abena Busia, the ambassador of Ghana to Brazil and professor in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutger’s University. Hosting the podcast this week is senior researcher with the GEST programme Giti Chandra. Before joining us at GEST, Giti was an Associate Professor at the Department of English, St Stephen’s College, Delhi. BUT she has also taught in and been a fellow at Rutgers University, so she and the honorable professor Busia go way back.
Ms. Asiimwe Allen is a gender enthusiast and development program management professional with knowledge and hands-on skills in project conceptualization, development, and implementation. With over 6 years of practical experience gained in reputable governance and civic participation organizations in Uganda, Allen is a strong human rights, civic participation, and social justice advocate, working to contribute to gender equity and equality, empowerment and governance functioning in the interest of the citizens. Previously, Allen has worked with organizations like the Uganda Youth Network as a Program Officer managing the leadership program, People’s progressive party as a communications consultant and StartHub Africa as a University manager. Her academic background is in Humanities currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Gender Studies at Makerere University. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts (Social Sciences) from the same University. Ms. Asiimwe Allen works as an Independent Consultant at CivSource Africa, an advisory firm on Philanthropy providing support to the Executive office, the Art Fund whose main objective is to support artists in Uganda and overseeing and managing the implementation of the Omutima Omugabi Program geared towards redefining and shaping the narrative of African Philanthropy.