Egypt: Gender and Refuge: what kind of dance partners? (15 – 19 July, 2018)

Gender and Refuge: what kind of dance partners? (15 – 19 July , 2018)

In the past thirty years, women went from being ignored to taking a central place in the humanitarian discourse on refugees and becoming the main focus point of refugee policies. The violence perpetrated against women fleeing and seeking asylum was officially revealed for the first time by the “First World Survey on the Role of Women in Development” at the first United Nations World Conference on Women held in Mexico in 1975. In 1990, the UNHCR adopted its first Policy on Refugee Women, and twenty years later all UN actors, many government donors and many larger humanitarian NGOs had developed their own gender policies. Humanitarian aid in general, and international refugee protection in particular, have left gender-blindness behind. A considerable collection of policy documents, field handbooks and programmatic responses have been developed.

This course will study how gender is impacting refugee policy and refugees’ experience from a multidisciplinary perspective: sociological, historical and public policy analysis. For instance, the course will examine how gender is taken into account by outlining practices, goals, and benchmarks that encourage the implementation of programs that explicitly address women’s protection and needs in post-conflict humanitarian and refugee resettlement efforts. We will also look at how refugee women are represented as requiring specific protection, or sometimes are targeted as crucial actors in the establishment of refugee support programs, particularly those that involve food and education, and comport some nurturing elements.

The course will also critically reflect on the meaning of certain concepts, such as vulnerability, labelling or culturalization/sexualization of citizenship.

It will focus on cases studies from the MENA region and the EU.

About the instructor: Alexandra Parrs is a visiting professor at the American University in Belgium and a research associate at the Center for Migration and Intercultural Studies (CeMIS), at Antwerp University. Prior to that, she taught for the American University in Cairo department of Sociology and Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS). The main focus of her research is gender and refuge, integration policies in Europe, ethnic and religious minorities’ identity construction and diasporic practices. She has lived and taught in Belgium, Egypt, Burma and the Sultanate of Oman.

Eligibility for all courses

Requirements: These courses are offered for graduate and postgraduate students, and researchers as well as practitioners working with migrants and refugees. A minimum knowledge of displacement and migration terminologies and context is a requirement for participation in any of the four courses.

All courses are conducted in English and no translation facilities are provided. Participants should have a very good command of the English language. Each course will run from 9.30 am till 4pm for five days.

Interested applicants can apply for one course or for all courses.

Number of Participants: minimum of 12 in each course

NB: Non- Egyptian applicants are strongly encouraged to apply early because it takes more than one month to obtain Egyptian visa.

Dates and Location:

Courses will take place at AUC Tahrir Campus. The exact location and room numbers will be forwarded to accepted participants before the start of the courses.

Application Information:

To apply for the courses:

1. Fill out the application form. The form is available on CMRS website: http://www.aucegypt.edu/GAPP/cmrs/outreach/Pages/ShortCourses.aspx

2. Send the application form to cmrscourses@aucegypt.edu with your most recent C.V; Att. Naseem Hashim

Applicants may apply to and be accepted in more than one course. Please do not hesitate to contact cmrscourses@aucegypt.edu if you have any difficulty with the application process.
Applicants accepted for the course will be notified by email within a week after the deadline for submitting the application.