UNITWIN
L-R Nandini Dey, Chandana Dey – One of the Founders of the UNITWIN Network,
UNITWIN Co-Coordinators:
WGS Director Deborah Belle and
WGS Professor Brenda Gael McSweeney,
UNITWIN blog and BU Grad Katherine Lochery
The UNESCO initiative was launched in 1991. The Boston University’s Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program was awarded the UNESCO UNITWIN (University Twinning) Network on Gender, Culture, and People-Centered Development in 2007. Dr. Deborah Belle and Dr. Brenda Gael McSweeney are the co-coordinators at BU of the Network that links with three prestigious universities and social activist non-governmental organizations in India. Network highlights of the academic year included the launching of a Women’s Studies Centre at Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan, West Bengal; research and publication by the Cultural Resource Conservation Initiative of a calendar showcasing heritage conservation and restoration in Punjab; and the preparation at Punjabi University at Patiala of a first Women of Vision – India essay featuring Dalip Kaur Tiwana, the leading Punjabi novelist and short story writer. http://unitwin.blogspot.com/
This year too, our UNITWIN’s partnership with Burkina Faso evolved, mainly through the preparation of essays by a team at WSP/BU with a team in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on Women of Vision – Burkina. The Equality Burkina team also undertook compilation of substantive and activist work on promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in the country. Do visit equalityburkina.blogspot.com, which is a forum for the sharing of ideas, research, and action on these gender justice themes.
Brenda Gale McSweeney
