Events

WID Discussion Series Fall 2008

• Thursday, October 23, 2008

International Affairs Office,

Office of International Research, Education, and Development*,

Conference Room A,

12:00 to 1:00 pm

International Women in Need (IWiN), Virginia Tech Student Organization

Corn Mills for Kenya: Women's work and technology in a Kenyan village

This year IWiN will focus its fundraising and educational efforts on a campaign called CORN MILLS FOR KENYA to raise money so that the Koriko Women's Group  of Ngeta Village can purchase a power mill for grinding maize (corn) and millet, which are the staple foods in the community. IWiN will discuss and explore the various gender and development challenges that the Koriko Moyie Women's Group faces on a daily basis.

• Thursday, November 20, 2008

International Affairs Office,

Office of International Research, Education, and Development*,

Conference Room A,

12:00 to 1:00 pm

Nadezda Amaya, graduate student in Agricultural Economics

Market access and gender roles Jatun Mayu watershed communities (Tiraque, Bolivia)

The starting point of the current study is the widely-held assumption that considers Andean societies to be strongly male-dominated and relegates the role of women to reproductive responsibilities only. This study considers the roles, responsibilities, actions and decision-making of small farmers and merchants in rural Bolivia, and the household dynamics and gendered social networks that facilitate or impede access to local and regional markets.

• Thursday, September 25, 2008

International Affairs Office,

Office of International Research, Education, and Development*,

Conference Room A,

12:00 to 1:00 pm

Kellyn Montgomery, graduate student in Geography

Laura Zseleczky, senior in Sociology and Women's Studies

Women in International Development in Africa

During the summer of 2008, these students traveled to two different regions of Africa to pursue their fields of interest and learn more about the issues affecting women in these areas. Kellyn Montgomery conducted her research in Uganda to determine what problems women famers face in the rural Sub-County of Busukuma, in adopting the farming practices recommended by the Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP) for improving tomato production. Laura Zseleczky traveled to South Africa for five weeks in May and June 2008 to volunteer at a daycare center in Langa, one of Cape Town's surrounding townships. During her stay, she observed the everyday activities of women and children living in the townships and the inequalities they face.

*Office of International Research, Education, and Development is located at the intersection of Tom's Creek and Prices Fork, Blacksburg, VA 24060

 

WID Discussion Group Spring 2008

Save the date: Friday, February 15, 2008 – 1 p.m. Professor Laura Zanotti Human security and Changes in Peacekeeping approaches in the new millennium. Vulnerability and the inclusion of gender.  Thursday, March 13, 2008 – 4 p.m. Dr. Maria Elisa Christie and Dr. Keith Moore Interactive Seminar: Gender Research from Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs)  Friday, April 25, 2008 – 1 p.m. Professor Wilma Dunaway New Directions in the Feminization of Agriculture in Poor Countries Conference Room A International Affairs Building 526 Prices Fork Road  For more information, contact: Dr. Maria Elisa Christie OIRED WID Program Director mechristie@vt.edu 231-4297

• Professor Laura Zanotti

Friday, February 15, 2008

1 p.m.

Conference Room A

International Affairs Building

526 Prices Fork Road

Human security and Changes in Peacekeeping approaches in the new millennium: Vulnerability and the inclusion of gender.

Dr. Laura Zanotti - Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science

Professor Zanotti has received her PhD. from Florida International University. Dr. Zanotti’s research interests include critical political and international relations theory and international organization, security, peacekeeping, and democratization. Zanotti’s research focus reflects her previous nine years work experience with the United Nations (as Deputy to the Head of the UN Liaison Office in Zagreb and as a Political Affairs Advisor in Haiti and Croatia). At Virginia Tech, Dr. Zanotti has taught undergraduate courses in International Relations and National Security. Zanotti is currently working on a new book that explores, through a Foucauldian framework, United Nations peacekeeping in the context of the post-Cold War international security regime.

For a full bibliography check http://www.psci.vt.edu/main/faculty/zanotti.html

For more information, contact:

Dr. Maria Elisa Christie

OIRED WID Program Director

mechristie@vt.edu

231-4297

 

• Dr. Maria Elisa Christie and Dr. Keith Moore

Dr. Keith Moore

Interactive Seminar: Gender Research from Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs)

Thursday, March 13, 2008 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. Conference Room A International Affairs Building 526 Prices Fork Road

Dr. Maria Elisa Christie, Women in International Development Program Director and Dr. Keith M. Moore, Associate Director, SANREM CRSP, both from the Office of International Research, Education and Development (OIRED), will present gender research from Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs). This event will be an interactive seminar and discussion on the role of women in agriculture and natural resource management in developing countries. Virginia Tech works with other U.S. universities, as well as researchers and farmers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America supporting sustainable agriculture, integrated pest management, and natural resource management. (See SANREM and IPM CRSPs on the OIRED website -- http://www.oired.vt.edu/).

In addition to the slide show and posters, there will be an opportunity for questions and answers. Light refreshments will be served. This event in the WID discussion group series also forms part of the Women’s Month Celebration. (For more information on Women’s Month, see the Women’s Center website at: http://www.womenscenter.vt.edu/.)
 

• Professor Wilma Dunaway

Friday, April 25, 2008

1 p.m.

Conference Room A

International Affairs Building

526 Prices Fork Road

New Directions in the Feminization of Agriculture in Poor Countries

 Professor Dunaway is a well respected and recognized scholar of African-American slavery, Appalachian studies, and world systems analysis. Dunaway received her Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee. Her work focuses on those who have been silenced due to race, class, and gender. Dunaway’s research interests include international political economy, world-systems analysis, racial and ethnic conflict, comparative slavery studies, Native American studies, Appalachian Studies, radical feminist perspectives on women’s work, and qualitative research methodologies. At Virginia Tech, Professor Dunaway teaches Women Environment and Development in a Global Perspective; Global Change, Local Impacts; Comparative Social Movements; and Theories of Development and Globalization. In 2005, she received the College of Architecture and Urban Studies’ College Teaching Excellence Award. Dr. Dunaway has received many other awards and distinctions, including the Joseph Campbell Prize in Ethnography. The Joseph Campbell Prize is among the most significant honors for scholars of interdisciplinary ethnographic research. Her latest book is called Women, Work and Family in the Antebellum Mountain South. (Cambridge University Press March, 2008).  For more information on her other books, visit http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/vtpubs/mountain_slavery/index.htm

For more information, contact:

Dr. Maria Elisa Christie

OIRED WID Program Director

mechristie@vt.edu

231-4297

 

Spring 2007 Semester Events

• Friday, April 13 at noon GLC room C

  Improved Pasture Resources in the Madiama Commune of Mali, West Africa: Working with women groups at the village levels.

  Dr. Ozzie Abaye

  Professor in Crop & Soil Environmental Science

• Monday, March 19 at 5:30 p.m. VBI Conference Center

Women in International Development:

Gendered Perspectives from VT Alumni

Photos from the event

Event Sponsors: Alumni Association, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, OIRED, VBI, and Women and Leadership in Philanthropy (Virginia Tech Women Making a Difference).

Discussion Panel:

Dr. Leena Kirjavainen, FAO Representative.

Dr. Eija Pehu, Senior Advisor for Agriculture and Rural Development. World Bank

Dr. Mary Hill Rojas, Director, Women in International Unit, Chemonics International Inc.

Dr. Ginny Seitz, Director, Social and Gender Assessment. Millennium Challenge Corporation 

• Friday, February 9 at noon GLC room B

  Women’s Roles in Development – Links to National Competitiveness

  Dr. Sharron Quisenberry

  Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Fall 2006 Speaker Series

The WID fall speaker series is held the first Friday of each month in the Graduate Life Center, Room B at 1:00 pm.

Sept. 1, Fri.     Dr. Maria Elisa Christie, Director of Women in International Development at OIRED, Gendered Spaces of Food Preparation in Central Mexico: Approaching Environmental Studies from the House-lot Garden

Oct. 6, Fri.       Dr. Ilja Luciak, Professor and Chair of Political Science at Virginia Tech, Unintended Consequences: Gender and Politics in Cuba

Nov. 3, Fri.       Dr. Sarah Karpanty, Assistant Professor, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Science, Planting for the Future: The Role of Women and Children in Natural Resource Conservation in Madagascar

Dec. 1, Fri.       Dr. Wilma Dunaway, Associate Professor, Government and International Affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs, "'The Shrimp Eat Better Than We Do': Philippine Fishing Households Sacrificed for the Global Food Chain"

 

 

WID | Contact WID

Office of International Research, Education & Development
The International Affairs Offices (IAO), 526 Prices Fork Road (0378)
Phone: (540) 231-4297 | Fax: (540) 231-1402