8th International Interdisciplinary
Congress on Women

Gendered Worlds: Gains and Challenges

Makerere University
Kampala, Uganda
July 21 -26, 2002

Uganda's President, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, officially opened the Congress on Sunday July 21 in Makerere University's Freedom Square. Twenty-five hundred women and men came from 90 countries to participate in the workshops, panels, caucuses, poster sessions and roundtables. Dr. Grace Bantebya, head of Women and Gender Studies Department at Makerere Univerisity, was convener of the WW02 conference. She was pleased that scholars, activists, young people, civil society organisations, government agencies and international development partners came together for dialog and study.

Strong worldwide as well as University support were evident throughout the organization of the Congress. The Norwegian government sponsored a new building to house the Women and Gender Studies Department on the campus.

Tove Strand, executive director of NORAD (Norwegian Agency for Development), unveiled the plaque to officially open the building shown below.

Volunteers lined up for tea in front of the Women and Gender Studies Department building where registration and information were available. Many people worked for months to create the structure for the Congress and many more were on hand to answer questions and direct participants to their destinations on campus or hotels at day's end..

Themes around which presentations were clustered included: agriculture, culture, development practice, economy, education, family, globalization, health, higher education, identities, law, media, movements, peace, politics, technology, women's studies, and young voices. Sub-themes occurred in each category to focus on specific subjects providing a wealth of information and opportunity for dialog exchange.

Look for the Congress Abstracts on the web

Prepare for
the 9th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women
to be held in Seoul, Korea
June 27 to July 1, 2005
Ewha Womans University
co-hosted with Yonsei and Sogang Universities

 

"International gathering of academics, researchers, policy makers and gender activists from all over the world will make links to each other and keep our hope to believe in peace and justice." Oakla Cho,
President , Korean Association of Women's Studies
Professor of Anthropology and of Women's Studies,
Sogang University

Naomi Sherer