Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Workshop on Gender Issues Atlanta: CALL FOR PARTICIPATION



Dear Members:



Call for Participation

ISA-Global South Caucus Gender Workshop: Meeting on Global South Women in IR

This meeting is a follow-up to the first ISA-Global South Caucus Global South Gender Networking Workshop, held in Singapore, January 9, 2015, and constitutes a preparatory session to the second such workshop to be held at the Third IS-Global South Conference (2017, TBA).

The Caucus is inviting participation in this discussion session in Atlanta from all persons interested in the status of GS women in academia, whether those working in the south or those who occupy academic positions in the north. We will be particularly pleased to welcome and hear from Adriana Abdenur who has been organizing fellow academics in Brazil.

Note: Participants in the GS Workshop, Singapore, are specially invited!

For Your Information, the results of the Singapore discussions are available here: http://gscis.blogspot.com/2016/02/workshop-on-gender-issues-atlanta.html

When? Friday, March 18 9:00-10:15am
Where? Crystal Boardroom (Please note: NOT the Ballroom), Hilton Hotel, Atlanta.

RSVP by March 7 to GSC Communications Secretary marianakalil@gmail.com (we would be grateful if you can send a short bio as well)
Issues to be discussed include networking, mentorship, barriers to success, publication, employment, social media etc.


The following is a summary of our discussions in Singapore:
Global South Gender Networking Workshop, Singapore, January 9, 2015

Among issues highlighted were the following:
1    1. Collegiality and marginalization: Interaction with male members of departments is often difficult. Women faculty often feel isolated (because of identity, cultural, family and other issues). There is often disrespect for women’s achievements, no matter what the level and quality of publications produced. Women faculty are often decried as “aggressive” or self-promoting.   Some women are the only ones in their department and feel particularly estranged, not to mention in some instances there is sexual harassment or the threat of it. Foreign professors in northern situations have the additional problem of being perceived as the “other.”  (On the other hand, it was noted that in Iran women are not so much marginalized as desexualized – which raises its own problems.)
Solution discussed: need to form networks both with allies in a department and with institutional allies. (Of course we recognize that in some instances female faculty do not support their colleagues but this is a conversation better left for the future.)  Both south-south and north-south mentoring are desirable. Female faculty need to seek male allies as well as female. There is a need to find out what/ how the south’s men are doing.  There is a need to pressure universities regarding sexual harassment (here the north is more advanced than the south overall).
2.    Research: Research on south issues and work employing critical pedagogy are often devalued in the north. Moreover, northern scholarship on the south is often presumed to be more valid than southern scholarship on south areas and issues. This attitude pervades even the professional elites and hiring authorities IN the south. Patronizing attitudes toward south scholars and scholarship are common in many places. This also means that access to mainstream publishing outlets is limited.
Solution (JBW’s comments): This is a major issue which the Global South Caucus is seeking to address  via workshops, mentorship, and discussions with ISA journal editors.  Discussions are underway about whether to pursue the ideal of impacting the northern discourse or develop more south-oriented  outlets or how best to meld the two. As the world structure changes toward more inclusiveness, it is to be hoped that specialists of the south will be more in demand. The furor that erupted when ISA offered a series on current events in New Orleans, featuring only northern scholars, predominantly male (The Sapphire Series), is perhaps indicative of a move toward greater concern about diversity overall.

3.  Family life: Finding the appropriate balance between family life and work is a much-mentioned issue which actually pertains to men as well, in a world which strives for gender equality). When it comes to work, it was noted by one participant, “your family does not exist.”
Related to this, maternity leave is not a given.
A special note on online universities: while online teaching may help ease the family life problem, it was noted that it also harms women in that such work is usually non-tenure track.

Solution: There is no easy solution to this. Labor legislation in the north helps; workshops for young faculty help. Inclusive gender networking is needed.

4. Burden of work:  women, and southern women in particular, tend to be overburdened with student mentorship duties and undergraduate teaching . Neither of these areas are as important for tenure and promotion (usually) as research. Requirements for tenure in particular are often ambiguous.
Solution discussed: networking, being proactive, making sure you receive clear guidelines, seeking senior external allies who will be helpful as evaluators of your work for promotion and tenure.
   5.    Left for the future: a discussion of whether ethnic issues and issues of inequality are more problematic than gender issues in the south.

Thank you for your participation. We will continue the conversation.
jbw

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Event at ISA Atlanta

The Caucus Chairs and Executive Committee invite you to attend several events in Atlanta, including the Business Meeting, the Luncheon, and a meeting of female GS academics (following on the workshop we held in Singapore: time to be announced). In addition please note the following Call.



Call for Participation

ISA-Global South Caucus Dialogue

The International Studies Association’s (ISA) Headquarters and the Global South Caucus (GSC) wish to invite participation in the “ISA Global South Caucus Dialogue” to be held on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at the Annual Convention in Atlanta. This dialogue will address the GSC’s emphasis on raising the profile and involvement of scholars and scholarship from the Global South in the work of the ISA.

The ISA-Global South Caucus Dialogue will raise probing questions about:

·         The involvement of scholars from the Global South in the governing bodies and leadership positions in the ISA;
·         The participation of Global South scholars and graduate students in the research activities and publications of the ISA (e.g. research workshops, publications in ISA journals);
·         Logistical concerns related to involvement of scholars and students from the Global South in the ISA (e.g. allocation of travel grants, location and scheduling of panels at conferences);
·         Greater cooperation between scholars from the “North and “South” (e.g. in publications, panels, research workshops), and
·         The English language focus of the ISA.

The active involvement of members of the GSC, and of ISA members working in the Global South or on Global South issues, is needed in order to produce a meaningful conversation about these issues. Therefore, we invite interested persons to apply to serve as panelists who will frame this dialogue. Interested persons should submit questions, perspectives or concerns related to the themes (noted above) no later than February 19, 2016.  Submissions should be no longer than 125 words in length and should be sent to tiky@isanet.org. Five conveners will be selected to speak briefly about their submissions. The selected conveners will be drawn, one each, from the following geographical areas in order to reflect the focus of the GSC: Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Developing Eurasia.

We encourage your submissions to this high level dialogue which will be attended by the ISA President, Paul Diehl, and Vice President, Aseem Prakash, as well as the Chairs and members of the GS Executive Committee, in an effort to raise the profile of Global South perspectives.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

ELECTIONS! NOMINATIONS SOLICITED!

 For previous blog post  re Luncheon:
http://gscis.blogspot.com/2016/01/attention-caucus-events-in-atlanta.html


Dear Colleagues:
NOMINATIONS SOLICITED:

Please first review the following post from last year:
http://gscis.blogspot.com/2015/07/summer-notifications-election-results.html

In keeping with last summer's decision and in accord with our charter which calls for elections either before the annual convention or within 30 days of the convention, the Nominations Committee of the GSCIS alerts you to the following:

Open slots on the Executive Committee (2015-2017 OR 2016-2018):**
Chair and Vice Chair
Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean
Representative for Africa
Representative for Asia
Representative for the Middle East
Representative for  Developing Eurasia


Newsletter Editor
Treasurer
Communications Director
 Other:***
Head, Developing Eurasia Initiative
Head, Africa Initiative

**Explanation: In keeping with last year's decision, the following persons currently serving a one-year term will be automatically nominated for a second year, along with anyone else nominated by the membership and deemed to be qualified by the Nominating Committee. A threshold of 15% of members voting is required for a valid election.
***"Other" members are technically not EXCOM members but are included without a vote in all deliberations of the council. Heads of the Africa and DEI Initiatives are for one year terms renewable for another year by the Nominating Committee and Executive Committee based on performance and other criteria.

Automatic Nominees (currently serving; needing affirmation for another year). These slots are declared open for competition again this year.
Nanette Svenson for Chair (Nanette is currently the Co-Chair)
Imad Mansour for Vice Chair
Paul Adogamhe (Africa slot on EXCOM)
Kristina Hinds (Latin America/Caribbean slot on EXCOM)
Serkan Bulut, Middle East slot on EXCOM
Aigul Kulnazarova, , Developing Eurasia slot on EXCOM
Mariana Kalil,  Communications Director of caucus


Any person not currently serving who is elected in this round will serve a new two-year term, that is 2016-2018. 
EXCOM and other terms are not normally renewable past two years unless the Nominating Committee and Executive Committee find that extraordinary circumstances prevail.




If you would like to serve the caucus, or would like to nominate someone for ANY position, please write to the Chair ASAP at
jbraveboy-wagner@gc.cuny.edu. The Chair will forward your nomination to the Nominations Committee composed this time of EXCOM members who are not running for election this year.


Please respond by February 15th. Please send bios of candidates when you respond. The election slate, their bios, and balloting process will be sent out soon after.

In nominating persons, please take note of the following sections of the Charter of the GSCIS
(Amended Charter as of March 2015: for full charter click here)

ARTICLE IV: OFFICERS
1. The officers of the Global South Caucus for International Studies shall be as follows: Chair, a Vice Chair who will also serve as the Program Chair, a Secretary/Communications Manager, a Treasurer and a Newsletter Editor.
2. The term of office for the Chair and Vice Chair shall be two (2) years, unless the Executive Committee votes, under extraordinary circumstances, to extend these terms for no more than two additional years.
3. The term of office of the Secretary and the Treasurer shall be two (2) years. These two officers may stand for re-election to one other term, with the concurrence of the Executive Committee.
4. The term of office of the Newsletter Editor shall be two (2) years. This officer may stand for re-election to one other term, with the concurrence of the Executive Committee.
Executive Committee
5a. The Executive Committee shall consist of all current officers (as in Article IV.1), the immediate past chair of GSCIS serving ex-officio, and five (5) at-large members representing the following areas:
i) Latin America and the Caribbean; ii) South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific; iii) Africa; iv) Middle East/North Africa; v) developing Eurasia and/or North-South. The designation ‘North-South” refers to scholars working on issues linking North America and Europe with the global south.
5b. In so far as is possible, the Caucus shall endeavor to rotate the at-large membership among the various sub-regions of the broader regions of the global south.
6. At-large members shall serve a non-renewable term of two (2) years unless the Executive Committee votes, under extraordinary circumstances, to extend these terms for no more than two additional years.  However, three at-large members will initially serve a one-year term (renewable for another year by election), in order to allow for rotating terms and the maintenance of institutional memory.
...

ARTICLE VI: NOMINATIONS AND ELECTIONS
The Executive Committee serves as the nominating committee for committees other than itself. For membership of the Executive Committee, a nominating committee composed of three to five members of the Global South Caucus chosen by the Chair shall nominate candidates. Self-nominations are encouraged. The Chair and Vice Chair may also submit their own nominations to the committee.
The Vice Chair is eligible to serve as Chair as is any member who is deemed to have played a sufficiently active role in the caucus.
Candidates nominated should meet the required criteria of geographic and disciplinary diversity. The committee should take into account the contributions of nominees to the Caucus and the ISA.
Bios of prospective candidates shall be e-mailed to members before the annual election (which normally coincides with the annual business meeting) or before any by-election. Ballots shall be returned by e-mail within a specified period of time. New officers shall normally be presented to the membership at the annual meeting. 
In extraordinary circumstances, elections may take place no more than thirty (30) days after the annual meeting. In such a case, the terms of members of the EXCOM will expire with new elections rather than at the annual meeting.


Thank you,
jbw