Courses

Gender, Armed Conflict, and Peacemaking

Spring: Wednesdays, 6:00 - 9:00 pm ~ January 31 - May 9, 2007

Peace Keeping operations involving both military and civilian personnel have been deployed in a number of countries such as Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor and Afghanistan.   These interventions have come about following intense levels of violence, breakdown in law and order, systems of governance and social systems as well as violations of human rights.   This course is designed to review the phenomena of conflict, forced migration and militarization from a gender perspective to highlight the policy and operational implications that arise from this analysis.  

The gendered nature of conflict and intervention will be explored from a multi-disciplinary framework involving anthropology, sociology, policy analysis, philosophy and the arts.   Presenters will utilize literature, poetry, film, witness testimonies from the field, ethnographic narratives and other resources to explore the complex ways in which women and men experience, manage and respond to violence and situations of protracted crisis.

FACULTY

CAROL COHN is the Director of the Boston Consortium on Gender, Security, and Human Rights. Her research and writing has focused on gender and international security, ranging from work on discourse of civilian defense intellectuals, gender integration issues in the US military, and, most extensively, weapons of mass destruction. Her most recent research examines gender mainstreaming in international peace and security institutions; a central focus is the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, and the on-going efforts to ensure its implementation at the international and grassroots levels.

GORDANA RABRENOVIC is Associate Professor of Sociology and Education and Associate Director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University.   Her substantive specialties include community studies, urban education and inter group conflict and violence. Her most recent book is Why We Hate (2004) co-authored with Jack Levin.

LISA RIVERA is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her areas of specialization are moral and political theory, feminist philosophy and ethics in international affairs. Her recent work defends transnational rights to subsistence and considers moral responsibility in war.

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Contact Us

Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 14N-211
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: 617-324-2085