- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock professor joins international gender, justice, and security research hub funded by nearly $20 million grant

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 19:13:57 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor is part of an international research network that has been awarded more than £15 million pounds, or $19.6 million, to address gendered dimensions of injustice and insecurity around the world. Over the past two years, Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm, associate professor in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, has traveled to war-affected countries across the world as part of the Justice, Conflict and Development Network. The international research team investigated how peace can be achieved in societies emerging from conflict. That project was funded by a 2016 grant worth approximately £150,000 British pounds by the, which supports cutting edge research and innovation that addresses the global issues faced by developing countries. Through the team’s study of justice initiatives and economic development challenges in Colombia, Sri Lanka, Syria, and Uganda, the researchers developed new research questions and applied for additional funding to continue their research. The London School of Economics (LSE) Centre for Women, Peace, and Security, which will lead the new coalition of research institutions, was awarded a from the Global Challenges Research Fund to create the Gender, Justice, and Security Hub. The new Hub is part of the, a pioneering new approach to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges through investment across 12 global research hubs. Over the next five years, these Interdisciplinary Research Hubs will work across 85 countries with governments, international agencies, partners, and nongovernmental organizations on the ground in developing countries and around the globe to develop creative and sustainable solutions which help make the world, and the UK, safer, healthier, and more prosperous. “This is building upon our previous research of the that was trying to accomplish two things. The first was to identify important research questions about the interplay of three issues: economic development issues and challenge, justice issues, and conflict dynamics,” Wiebelhaus-Brahm said. “We are trying to establish policies that might help to ensure peace in the long run, even in conflict-affected countries where the people might never see justice. The second thing we are trying to do is facilitate collaboration among academics, activists, nonprofits, and policy makers across the world.” The LSE-led Hub seeks to advance sustainable peace by developing an evidence base around gender, justice, and inclusive security in conflict-affected societies. With 44 partners across 17 countries, it will expand research capacity and interdisciplinary research. The Hub will also connect with leading ambassadors for gender justice to turn research insights into ongoing actions that will improve lives. “When you have had periods of mass violence, there are often massive human rights violations. People who are victims want to see justice, but different people have different views of what a just response is,” Wiebelhaus-Brahm said. “We are also looking at the drivers of the conflicts, the simmering tensions that continue in these areas, and how those issues prevent peace building in societies that have been deeply affected by conflict and civil war. A new focus of the project will be gender, how conflict affects individuals differently depending on their gender, and how justice and development are experienced differently according to one’s gender.” As an example of the type of research the hub will investigate, Wiebelhaus-Brahm said one of the biggest research areas emerging from post-conflict Sri Lanka is the promotion of gender equality stemming from women who fought in the civil war. “One of my colleagues has done research investigating female Tamil Tiger fighters,” Wiebelhaus-Brahm said. “She has looked at how women have adapted to the end of the war. Women decided to join the rebellion for lots of different reasons. The rebels did sometimes pressure people to support the rebellion. Some said they volunteered to protect a younger brother from joining. Finally, some women saw it as empowering, that joining the rebels gave them more independence. In interviews, a lot of women talked about the equality they experienced as part of the rebellion. After the war, a lot of these women have been shunted back into traditional women’s work.” Wiebelhaus-Brahm will be investigating issues related to the funding for peace and justice initiatives and reconstruction projects in countries emerging from conflict and civil war. His share of the grant, which is approximately £100,000 pounds (around $130,000), will be used to fund research tools, travel expenses, and graduate research assistants. “I will be collecting data on how much funding is being devoted to justice initiatives and where that funding is coming from,” he said. “I will also look at attempts to come up with comparable cross-national measures related to gender and development and justice issues. This research will look at existing data from the United Nations, such as that relating to women’s access to justice. The goal will be to identify existing measures or to come up with measures that can compare a variety of relevant issues across countries to determine how specific countries are doing in terms of successful justice initiatives and the promotion of gender equality.” Professor Christine Chinkin, founding director of the LSE Center for Women, Peace, and Security, will serve as the principal investigator for the Gender, Justice, and Security Hub. “The Hub provides an amazing opportunity to work with our partners overseas to explore, through research and exchanges, the potential of the Women, Peace, and Security agenda to help deliver on the global challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals,” Chinkin said.

��Vlog��ýLR celebrates Women’s History Month with panel discussion

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 17:38:59 +0000

In celebration of Women’s History Month, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock honored Little Rock-area women working in public service and government careers. The women engaged in a March 2 panel discussion in Donaghey Student Center to celebrate the Women’s History Month theme: “Working to Form a More Perfect Union: Honoring Women in Public Service and Government.” Panel members included Dr. Zulma Toro, ��Vlog��ýLR executive vice chancellor and provost, Arkansas state Sen. Joyce Elliott, Jessica Sabin, political analyst, and Tjuana Byrd, assistant city attorney for North Little Rock and Sherwood public defender. “It’s important to have women engaged in public service speaking personally to help us understand what that entails and what we need to think about as women who are engaging ourselves in those endeavors,” said Dr. Sarah Beth Estes, a professor of sociology, coordinator of ��Vlog��ýLR’s Gender Studies program, and associate dean of the College of Social Sciences and Communication, who served as the moderator for the panel discussion. The event’s keynote speaker,, an experiential educator and instructional designer, thanked the panel members for serving in key roles that help break boundaries for women. “I want to start by honoring the women upon whose shoulders we stand, because they have taken us far,” Badawi said. “The reality is we still have a really long way to go. With every generation, boundaries are broken and new stories are born.” Badawi encouraged women to speak out as a form of empowerment. “A huge part of women’s liberation and women’s struggle has been generated through the sharing of our stories. The women’s movement calls it conscious raising,” Badawi said. “As we share our stories, we start to see the larger systemic challenges we are facing. We recognize that we are not actually alone or isolated in the struggles we encounter. The power of story sharing, that is what builds momentum. That is what builds a revolution.” Panel members credited education as an important tool that led to their successful careers. Sabin had three different majors in college. She wasn’t satisfied with her initial choice, and she feels fortunate people in her life encouraged her to pursue other studies that helped her identify her strengths. “I started off as a biochemistry major. I thought I would end up going into research,” Sabin said. “What I discovered is that I wasn’t happy. Everything I had been doing in my life up until that point was always something that made me happy.” Elliott said that experiencing integration as a child is one of the factors that led her to become a teacher. “It (integration) really propelled me to take my first job as a teacher in a school that was an integrated school, but they never had a black teacher there,” she said. “I went there with an expressed purpose. It was not just for the black kids. It was for the white kids as well. I think we totally miss the point sometimes that integration is meant for white kids and kids of other colors.” As a lifelong educator, Toro sees education as a pathway to equality. “I want to make a difference in the lives of students. I think education is the most effective method for social mobility,” Toro said. “If we are going to really have the country we all aspire to have, I think we have to provide access and help people get a college education.” Marie Pleasant, a mother of five who is majoring in psychology, said hearing the successful women in the panel discussion was inspiring. “I feel that women play a part in everything, more than just being a mother at home. I feel like this panel shows that women can do more, like Hillary Clinton running for president. Women can do anything, and we should be appreciated for it,” Pleasant said. In the upper right photo, Women’s History Month panel discussion members, from left to right, include Dr. Sarah Beth Estes, panel moderator, Jessica Sabin, political analyst, Dr. Zulma Toro, ��Vlog��ýLR executive vice chancellor and provost, Tjuana Byrd, assistant city attorney for North Little Rock and Sherwood public defender, Arkansas state Sen. Joyce Elliott, and Cherine Badawi, keynote speaker.

Faubus rhetoric examined during Oct. 1 lecture

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 14:10:15 +0000

Dr. Lisa Corrigan will present a lecture at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, in Dickinson Auditorium at ��Vlog��ýLR.

photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The ��Vlog��ýLR English department, Cooper Honors Program, and Gender Studies Program are co-hosting the event, which is free and open to the public. A reception, also free and open to the public, will precede the lecture at 5:30 p.m. The lecture, “Orval Faubus and the Language of Segregation: Sexualized Violence and Racial Anxiety during the Little Rock Crisis,” uses the Orval Faubus Collection at the University of Arkansas to examine the rhetorical strategies embraced by the former Arkansas governor during the desegregation of Central High School. In examining Faubus’ public speeches and private correspondence at the height of the desegregation crisis, Corrigan’s lecture will cover how he sought to control the rhetorical situation in Little Rock and how racial anxiety was articulated as sexual anxiety. Dr. Corrigan teaches at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where she is an assistant professor of communication, chair of the Gender Studies Program, and an affiliate faculty member in the African & African American Studies and the Latin American Studies programs. She is currently working on a book about the prison writings of the Black Power Movement. For more information, contact Dr. Paul Yoder, director of the Cooper Honors Program, at rpyoder@ualr.edu.

��Vlog��ýLR to Screen ‘The Invisible War’

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:36:09 +0000

��Vlog��ýLR’s Gender Studies Program, in conjunction with the , will screen a new, award-winning documentary “The Invisible War,” on Nov. 14, examining sexual assaults in the military. The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Kirby Dick, the documentary’s producer who has been nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy Award. The groundbreaking investigative documentary will be screened at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of ��Vlog��ýLR’s Engineering and Information Technology Building. The event is is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Sarah Beth Estes at 501-569-3191. “The Invisible War” looks into the epidemic of rape within the U.S. military, believed to be in the hundreds of thousands in the last decade. Today, a female soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. A staggering 20,000 soldiers are estimated to have been assaulted in 2009 alone. The documentary traces the powerful emotional stories of several young veterans and reveals the systemic cover-up of the crimes they have suffered and follows their struggles to rebuild their lives and careers. Featuring hard-hitting interviews with high-ranking military officials and members of Congress, the film urges us all – civilian and soldier alike – to fight for a system that no longer forces our military to choose between speaking up and serving the country. “The Invisible War” won the Audience Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and the Golden Space Needle Award at the 2012 Seattle International Film Festival. Dick’s other films include “Outrage,” an indictment of hypocrisy of closeted politicians; “This Film Is Not Yet Rated,” an investigation of the secretive MPAA film ratings system; and “Twist of Faith,” the story of a man confronting trauma of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest. Dick’s films have won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival, the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Grand Prize at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Co-sponsors for the ��Vlog��ýLR event include the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the School of Social Work, the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, and the Office of Campus Life. K��Vlog��ýR is a media partner. Other sponsors are the Little Rock Film Festival, the National Endowment for the Humanities through the Arkansas Humanities Council, and Hendrix College Film Studies and Mellon Crossings programs.

Sundance Film Explores Women in Leadership

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 18:21:39 +0000

��Vlog��ýLR’s Gender Studies Program, the , and Conger Wealth Management will present the documentary film “” at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at the EIT Auditorium. The film, which premiered at the in 2011, explores how the media’s misrepresentations of women have led to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence. According to the film, Americans – especially its youth – are being sold the concept that women and girls’ values lie in their youth, beauty, and sexuality. The film strives to break that cycle of untruths, and empower women and girls to challenge limiting media labels in order to realize their potential. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Angela Thomas of AY Magazine, Lindsey Miller and Leslie Newell Peacock of the Arkansas Times, and – if his schedule permits – filmmaker and screenwriter Graham Gordy. Dr. Sarah Beth Estes, associate professor of sociology and ��Vlog��ýLR’s gender studies coordinator, will moderate. The program is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Reserve your seats at . For more information, contact Estes at 501.569.3191.

Heifer Exec Celebrates Women’s Day March 8

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:54:50 +0000

Elizabeth Bintliff, interim vice president of Heifer International’s Africa Program, will help ��Vlog��ýLR celebrate Thursday, March 8, with a lecture titled “Women and Development.” Bintliff will speak at 6 p.m. in the Engineering and Information Technology auditorium. A question-and-answer session and a reception will follow. The event – sponsored by the ��Vlog��ýLR Gender Studies Student Association – is free and open to the public. For more information, email Dr. Erin Finzer, assistant professor of international and second language studies. Bintliff, who joined Heifer International in 2000, will have a special focus on African development. Born in Cameroon, she came to the United States to pursue an education, earning a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from Kennesaw State University in Georgia and a master’s degree in African studies at Yale. A Fulbright Scholar, Bintliff led the effort to establish Heifer offices in Sierra Leone and Senegal in 2007. In addition to her work at Heifer, Bintliff serves with the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas and is a member of Envoy, a group promoting the work of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

Film, Discussion Looks At Female Athletes

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:14:42 +0000

A screening of “Playing Fair: The Media Image of the Female Athlete” and a discussion of female athleticism will be presented at 6 p.m. Friday, March 2, in ��Vlog��ýLR’s Donaghey Student Center Room D. The event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Gender Studies Student Association. “In the 40 years after Congress passed Title IX legislation prohibiting sex discrimination in educational institutions, including athletics, the male-dominated world of sports journalism has yet to catch up,” said Dr. Roxy M. Green, assistant professor of philosophy and liberal arts. “Coverage of women’s sports lags far behind men’s and focuses on female athletes’ femininity and sexuality over their achievements on the court and field.” While female athleticism challenges gender norms, women athletes continue to be depicted in traditional roles that reaffirm their femininity – as wives and mothers or sex objects. By comparison, male athletes are framed according to heroic masculine ideals that honor courage, strength, and endurance. The ��Vlog��ýLR Gender Studies Student Association is a student group committed to the eradication of oppression in all forms, including sexism, heterosexism, and racism. GSSA meetings are every Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in Stabler Hall Room 307. Meetings are open to the public. For more information contact Dr. Roxy M. Green.

Brown Bag Panel Discusses Men and Gender

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:00:20 +0000

��Vlog��ýLR’s Gender Studies Program presents a brown bag panel discussion from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, titled, “Men and Gender: Perspectives on Masculinity, Male Identity, and Desire.” Panelists include Erin Finzer, assistant professor in the Department of International and Second Language Studies, Simon Hawkins, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Angela Hunter, associate professor in the Department of Philosophy and Liberal Studies and coordinator of the Masters in Liberal Studies program. Refreshments will be served.

Gender Studies ‘Walks’ Bridge Nov. 7

��Vlog��ý Little Rock — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:53:54 +0000

The ��Vlog��ýLR Gender Studies program is hosting a walk-a-thon from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Nov. 7, at the Big Dam Bridge in Little Rock. Registration for the walk is $5. “Donations will be accepted at the event to support our program and bring in guest speakers,” said Shannon Avra, interim coordinator of the Gender Studies program. Gender Studies is an 18-hour interdisciplinary minor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. The minor is designed to help students understand and define the changing roles of women and men brought about by social, economic, political, legal, and other changes in society. For more information, contact Avra at 501-569-3173 or at snavra@ualr.edu.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock professor joins international gender, justice, and security research hub funded by nearly $20 million grant

����Vlog��ýLR celebrates Women’s History Month with panel discussion