The Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) had many successes over the 2019/2020 academic year, although some planned programmes and activities were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the Institute's staff continued to work with resilience, agility, and innovation to advance its mandate and the three critical pillars of Access, Alignment, and Agility of The UWI Triple A Strategic Plan.
The IGDS worked at increasing enrolment and effectively delivered quality programmes to enhance student development while engaging in quality research and publication.
Teaching was successfully completed for the academic year and with the onset of the pandemic, there was a major shift to online learning, which was a learning curve for both students and faculty. The issue was further compounded by connectivity issues faced by several students across the Units, and a few lacked devices.
Five hundred and ninety-three students were registered in 20 undergraduate courses: 69 Majors at the Mona Unit (MU); 49 in four courses at the Western Jamaica Campus (WJC) and one course at Moneague Teacher's College, as well as students from various faculties completing gender courses. At the Nita Barrow Unit (NBU), 106 students were registered in seven undergraduate courses and at the St. Augustine Unit (SAU), 345 students were registered in 10 courses.
At the NBU, a new intake of graduate students was suspended due to staff shortages; however, supervision of research students continued. At the Regional Coordinating Office (RCO), 31 students were registered in the combined Graduate Programme; 17 MPhil/PhD and 14 MSc students. At the SAU, 10 MSc, eight MPhil and eight PhD students enrolled for the academic year.
At the MU, the Gender Issues in Health module in the Family Medicine programme in the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FMS) was delivered online to 18 medical doctors at the Mona and Cave Hill campuses and the advocacy course for the FMS on "Cultural Diversity, Inter-culturality and Gender Issues in Caribbean Adolescents” was also delivered online.
The SAU delivered four short courses in July/August 2019: “The Philosophy of Judith Butler”; “Gender, Feminism and Religion: Contemporary Questions”; “Women, Men, Gender and Law”; and “Human Resources Management and Gender Equity in the Workplace”. For the second year, the SAU collaborated with SALISES to offer a study-abroad programme to visiting US-based students over nine weeks.
The IGDS continued to work at improving the quality of teaching and learning, as well as providing support to students through seminars, workshops and other activities. At the MU, a curriculum review commenced at the end of the academic year and included consultations with the NBU and SAU with a view to harmonizing courses across the campuses and to explore remote course delivery; field visits were arranged with four organizations to enhance learning in Gender, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management (GEND3032); and in Gender in Caribbean Culture: Linguistics, Popular Culture and Literature (GEND2002) delivered by Dr. Adwoa Onuora, students were introduced to writing content for Wikipedia. Wikipedia hosted an online week-long editathon, “Wiki Caribbean Earth Week” for students. Submissions by two students were selected for higher level approval.
The Gender Majors at the MU voted for their first Guild Representative, Ms. Shanecia Brown, for 2020/2021 academic year.
The NBU's student-centred approach to teaching and learning continued in the form of seminars, workshops, and other events, such as the Caribbean Women: Catalysts for Change Public Lecture Series and the International Women's Day Distinguished Lecture Series.
At the RCO, a year-long course, Workshop Series on Research Protocols and Processes (GEND 6103) geared at providing students with a deeper understanding of the research protocols, and a stand-alone course, Gender Analysis for Development Policy and Planning (6502) were offered for the first time. Four staff/graduate seminars were convened: one, a Gender and Wellness Webinar, on May 14, 2020 in direct response to the pandemic, was extended to students enrolled in the other Units. Also, Dr. Dalea Bean spearheaded the creation of the Graduate Ambassador Programme (GAP), which is expected to provide opportunities for graduates to participate in mentoring students, and other RCO activities.
The SAU offered two graduate research seminars. A graduate studies webinar titled “Wellbeing and Mental Health Session” was also held on June 9, 2020. The SAU continued to enhance student activism and outreach through its IGDS Ignite group, which was involved in a wide range of activities. Fifteen new members were recruited during the academic year.
Professor the Most Honourable V. Eudine Barriteau was awarded Barbados' highest honour, The Order of Freedom of Barbados, during its independence celebrations.
Ms. Veronica Jones of the NBU received the Principal's Award for Excellence in the Administrative and Technical Staff category.
At the MU, Mr. Gavane Ferguson, Ms. Trishana Burgher, and Ms. Shanique Daley were recipients of the Dorian Powell Prize for 2016/2017, 2017/2018, and 2018/2019 respectively. At the RCO, Mr. Sean Lord, an MSc student, became the second recipient of the Catherine James Scholarship, named in honour of the mother of Prof. Opal Palmer Adisa. In October 2019, the SAU held an IGDS Silvers' event to commemorate the achievements of its A+ students who graduated in 2018 and 2019.
The Institute embarked on various research, outreach, activism and public advocacy initiatives during the academic year.
Dr. Karen Carpenter and Prof. Opal Palmer Adisa made a presentation to the Joint Select Committee on the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act on July 2, 2020. The MU facilitated gender mainstreaming related training and information sharing to The JN Group, The Parenting Commission of Jamaica, the US Peace Corps in Jamaica, Jamaica Employers' Federation (JEF), the Commonwealth Foundation and the ILO. Also, International Men's Day (IMD) 2019, International Women's Day (IWD) 2020 and International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (IDEVAW) were commemorated on the Mona and Western campuses. For IDEVAW, the highlights were Men Walking in Women's Shoes around The UWI's Ring Road and the Clothes Line Project.
In March 2020, the NBU hosted the Head of State of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Her Excellency Paula-Mae Weekes, who delivered the IWD Distinguished Lecture. This was historic as it was the first time that a Caribbean head of state was a guest to the Unit. The Unit also successfully completed the 13th session of the Caribbean Institute in Gender and Development with funding from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and UN Women. The programme attracted nearly 80 applicants.
The RCO held various activities for IWD Month, including an art exhibition at the Regional Headquarters, and, led by Dr. Natasha Mortley and in collaboration with the MU, implemented the Handbag Project. Over 150 handbags with personal care products were distributed to women in Trench Town and August Town.
“Miss Lou's Labrish” was held on September 6, 2019. The event was addressed by Minister Olivia Grange, Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport (MCGES); Prof. Wabinte Wariboko, Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Education; and Mr. Fabian Coverley, son of the late Mrs. Louise Bennett-Coverley.
The RCO observed the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence period with a seminar titled “Miss Lou Wife Beating Bill”, visits to the Meadow Brook and Haille Selassie High Schools, and in collaboration with the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work, a Brown Bag Seminar was held on October 10, 2019. The guest speaker was Dr. Swati Parashar from the University of Gothenburg. Discussants included Stacy Gavin and Kristina Neil.
In response to the pandemic, the RCO spearheaded two regional seminars. A Gender and Wellness interactive webinar was held jointly with the MU on May 28, 2020 and “Shouts of Whispers Webinar: Untold Stories from the Caribbean during COVID-19” was held on July 8, 2020 and was organized by a committee with representation from each of the Units.
During the academic year, the Gender Mainstreaming Committee (GMC), chaired by Prof. Opal Palmer Adisa, convened several meetings. The Committee continued to work to standardize the sexual harassment policy and procedures across all campuses and publicize the policy to all students, faculty, and staff, especially incoming students.
The SAU hosted various outreach and training activities. In 2019 Artivism was executed as part of the Break the Silence project (BTS). BTS partnered with the Student Support Services Central Division of the Ministry of Education, and four schools to develop a cohort of creative young people who understood the intersections among gender, childhood sexual abuse, HIV, and activism. Eleven teachers, two social workers, and 120 students were reached. For IWD, BTS mobilized several children-based organizations to help them create messages around girls' vulnerabilities, barriers, needs, and empowerment. CREDO, Servol, Cashew Gardens and Women of the Soil, and Women of Substance were networked. Over 75 children attended the rally.
SAU was also at the forefront of organising the Annual Women's Rights Rally and March in commemoration of IWD. Hundreds participated with messages that focused on gender justice, gender equity and equality, women's sexual and human rights, and justice for all.
Staff at the MU were involved in nine research projects and partnerships: The Healthy Relationships Study: A Longitudinal Study of the Correlation between Mood Disorders and Domestic Violence During COVID 19 In the Caribbean: A Pathway to Prevention; ILO/ JEF Project: Women's Entrepreneurial Development (WED) Assessment in Jamaica; Improving Household Nutrition Security and Public Health in CARICOM (Food & Nutrition); SALISES/WINROCK Prevention of Child Trafficking US-Jamaica Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership; IOM /UPENN Prevalence Study on Child Trafficking: US-Jamaica Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership; a Pilot Study – Perceptions of Sexual Satisfaction and Gender; 2020 Student Retention Survey, OPAIR; Trans Economic Survivability in Jamaica Research; and the JFLAG LGBT Needs and Community Experience Survey.
The NBU was involved in several ongoing research and outreach projects, including the PATH to Character: Promoting Agency, Trust and Hope for Incarcerated Barbadian Adolescents through Community Engagement, which hosted the Youth Development Dialogue I on February 28, 2020, under the theme: “New Directions in Youth Justice”. The UNICEF Office for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Area and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Barbados, also collaborated on the activity. The Unit also began delivery of the Gender and Infrastructure Certificate to staff and stakeholders of the Barbados Water Authority on behalf of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, with funding from the Green Climate Funds, as part of the Water Sector Resilience Nexus for Sustainability in Barbados. Additionally, the NBU undertook a new project; Passwords: Youth Interventions to Combat Gender-based Violence, funded by a grant from the British High Commission (BHC) Bridgetown to create an intervention geared towards local teenagers to discuss GBV in age-appropriate and culturally contextual ways.
Projects undertaken by the RCO included the JNC-UNESCO “Positive Fathering: A Bridge to Enhancing Family Unity and Community Cohesion in Jamaica” project, a collaboration between the RCO and the Bureau of Gender Affairs. The project was funded by UNESCO and MCGES and was led by Dr. Natasha Mortley. The final outputs included a technical report, training manual, and workbook titled “Positive Fatherhood”, authored by Prof. Opal Palmer Adisa. The Cultural Purveyors project aimed at documenting the contributions of outstanding Jamaica personalities continued and the RCO was also engaged in the Louise Bennett 100 Days Celebration project. Conceptualized by Prof. Adisa, the project was a collaboration with the Institute of Caribbean Studies & Reggae Studies Unit, the Department of Language, Linguistics & Philosophy, the Department of Literatures in English, The UWI Library, and the Philip Sherlock Centre, and was endorsed by MCGES and IRIE FM. The manuscript for the anthology, “100 Voices for Miss Lou: An Anthology” was completed at the end of the academic year. The project was sponsored by Chase Fund, JETS (Multi Link), IRIE FM, National Housing Trust, Jamaica National Group, and City of Kingston Sodality Ltd. Also, the winter editions of the Interviewing the Caribbean Journal were published. Prof. Adisa is the lead editor for the journal, which is now being published by The UWI Press.
The SAU's flagship project was “A Sexual Culture of Justice: Strengthening LGBTQI & GBV Partnerships, Capacity & Efficacy to Promote & Protect Rights in T&T”, led by Dr. Angelique Nixon. Some of the main activities included the course, Transforming Each Other's Advocacy, ongoing work to document life stories of working-class LBGTI persons, completion of a national school survey, various action campaigns in support of policy and legislative reform, and continued advocacy related to the Add All Three campaign.
In 2019, the IGDS partnered with the 2 Cents Movement to provide GBV and Gender Policy training to its core teaching artists and staff, in preparation for a BHC funded project: “On Her Voice - Regional Secondary School Secondary School Programme”. The Performance Tour and Workshop took place in 15 secondary schools in Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. The SAU continued to collaborate with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD) on a Gender Responsive Budgeting Project. In 2019 the SAU together with the MHUD and the OPM (Gender and Child Affairs) trained 28 technical staff from nine organizations.
During the academic year, the Institute continued to fundraise and build partnerships at the international level.
The MCU partnered with other University departments to generate additional income to support the UGC allocation as follows: the Food and Nutrition Project with CAIHR, The UWI Cave Hill, and UTECH, which generated approximately JA$728,097.49/US$5,433.56 for the Unit.
The NBU continued its thrust towards internationalization through a variety of new and ongoing institutional collaborations. NBU staff contributed to the development of The UWI/University of Johannesburg Institute for Global African Affairs Joint Masters Programme which was approved during the academic year. The University of Iceland received an Erasmus+ ICM grant based on an application for mobilities between the GRÓ-GEST at the University of Iceland and MSc students in the NBU will benefit from a two-year mobility scheme and scholarship to attend United Nations University Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme (GEST).
Dr. Halimah DeShong of the NBU delivered a public lecture entitled “Global Epidemic, Regional Responses: Violence Against women in the European Union and the Caribbean” at the Jean Monnet Centre for Excellence, Florida International University on November 5, 2019. Dr. Tonya Haynes (with Dr. Angelique Nixon) facilitated a workshop entitled “Write this In Fire: A Caribbean Feminist Praxis Workshop,” at the National Women's Studies Association Conference in San Francisco on November 16, 2019.
The NBU collaborated with UN Women Caribbean Multi-Country Office and ParlAmericas to organize and deliver a free online course to nearly 200 participants on “Fulfilling the Commitments – Beijing+25” from October 16–25, 2019. This represents a strategic harnessing of the possibilities of the virtual for expanded public scholarship.
The RCO, in addition to its MSc self-financing programme, pursued various fundraising efforts. During the academic year, the RCO administered the JNC-UNESCO “Positive Fathering” US $20,000-funded project and received approximately JMD 1,485,000 in sponsorship from various organisations for the Louise Bennett 100 Days Celebration project.
The SAU raised approximately TT$90,000 for the annual IWD march. SAU also embarked on a partnership with UNFPA on a health and family life education in primary and secondary schools project, valued at US $94,000. The project will be implemented over the next academic year and will be led by Dr. Gabrielle Hosein and Ms. Tricia Basdeo. Also, the Unit worked with the Pan American Development Foundation to produce a migrant-sensitive, Spanish-language version of the BTS Toolkit, relevant to Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.
The 2019/2020 academic year brought many challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the resilience, agility, and commitment of the staff in response to the shifting demands of the period were central to the realization of many of the Institute's goals.
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