THE UNIVERSITY DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE

Diana J. Fox

"When I dare to be powerful—to use my strength in the service of my vision—then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” Audre Lorde

“The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility, we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom.” bell hooks

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Institute for Gender and Development Studies—30-years old in 2023. Instituted at The UWI on September 1, 1993, as the Centre for Gender and Development Studies, born from the visionary efforts of Caribbean feminist scholar-activists, the IGDS leads the region in gender-based research and development. Deeply informed by, and an integral component of social movements for intersectional equity across gender, sexuality,
race, class, ability, and other identities, the Institute works tirelessly to demonstrate the connections among scholarship, activism, teaching, and policy initiatives. Our students come to regard the classroom, as bell hooks observes in the above quote, as a space to challenge oppressive norms around narrowly and ideologically conceived notions of gender, biological sex, and sexuality, as they probe the possibilities for realizing liberatory societies of the Caribbean and beyond. This is a process of empowerment that begins with the conscientization of the self, to mobilize and inspire the transformational work that is critical to achieving gender justice. Our students graduate to become leaders in society, bringing with them the perspectives and the tools they have acquired in the classroom and
beyond from hands-on research and grassroots projects.