Reconceptualising gender: transnational perspectives

Photograph by Sama Alshaibi, http://www.samaalshaibi.com/

This project, funded by a British Academy International Partnerships three-year grant, builds new links between the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender at the University of Warwick and the Institute for Women’s Studies at Birzeit University in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Bringing together scholars of gender from different disciplines and focusing on different regions of the world, this project explores the shifting conceptualisations of gender in different geographical spaces as well as amongst different social groups within the same geographical spaces. The comparative approach of this project will enable us to identify how global, regional and local processes create differential circumstances for women and men in different parts of the world, leading to different conceptualisations of gender roles, relations and identities. The case of Palestine, where Birzeit University is located, is often considered as an exception to general political, economic and social processes because of its situation under Israeli occupation. This has led to a representation of the Palestine (and Israeli) case as beyond or separate from global processes. This research partnership breaks down Palestinian exceptionalism, without ignoring the particularities of the Palestinian case.