The Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program (WGGP) is preparing to celebrate 40 years of the program with a host of events and social media outreach, a new organizational alignment, and an updated website. The unit is also celebrating their first graduate fellowship funded by the Barbara A. Yates endowment and first year of programming funded through the Barbara A. Yates WGGP Program Series.
“WGGP is thrilled to be celebrating four decades of successful programming, educational programs, and partnerships with faculty and students across campus and with the broader community," explained Colleen Murphy, WGGP Director and Professor in the College of Law. "We are extremely excited for what decade five and beyond will bring.”
Looking forward to the anniversary coming in spring 2020, the program is celebrating several new initiatives, including a two-year project, “Fostering Empathy for Latin American Migrants through Game Design” with Co-PIs Colleen Murphy and Judith Pintar. WGGP, in collaboration with the Siebel Center for Design (SCD), and Playful by Design (PbD) received grant funding by the Illinois Global Institute to investigate the migrant experience through games. They are also involved in the 2019-20 Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) Research Cluster, “Cross-Cultural Understandings of Power Harassment in Higher Education: Awareness and Actions.” Co-PIs are Colleen Murphy and Shao Dan.
A full year of events leading up to the 40th anniversary can be found here (link to calendar). Spring 2020 will include an alumni symposium with campus-wide reception, library exhibit in April showcasing the events and people from the past 40 years, as well as graduate student symposium featuring research supported by WGGP, and faculty affiliate lecture.
As part of the Illinois Global Institute (IGI), WGGP promotes the study of human development in international settings, emphasizing scholarly activities that advance our understanding of how resource inequalities and gender equity affect individual and community capabilities. Becoming part of IGI, and by extension – LAS, the program will continue and grow its cross-disciplinary collaborations, providing a wide range of research opportunities for WGGP students and faculty.
WGGP has a redesigned website that allows additional ways to showcase current students and faculty, in addition to alumni and supporters of the program. More information about the program, research, and opportunities can be found on their website: wggp.illinois.edu.
The program was founded in 1980 by Yates, who acted as its first director. It was created with the focus of global human security and gender equity in light of the growing attention the marginalization of women received in both the United States and across the world in the 1970s.
The program offers a graduate minor in Gender Relations in International Development (GRID); the Rita and Arnold Goodman Fellowship and the Barbara A. Yates Fellowship, both full graduate student fellowships that include financial support plus tuition and fee waiver for an academic year; as well as research and conference grants through the Due and Ferber, Yates, and Accad and Vielle International research awards to graduate students to assist in their studies.
Today, the program continues to encourage and facilitate research, instruction, and service focused on human development and gender equity. WGGP strives to engage students, faculty as well as community members through lectures, brown bags, and symposia. We actively engage with departments, schools, and colleges across campus to collaborate on joint projects and guest speakers to provide opportunities of learning on topics of interest to a wide range of disciplines across campus.