Summer School “Gender and Sexuality”
1-8 June 2020
Since 2015 the Comparative Studies in Gender and Sexuality Summer School is held at the University Program for Gender Studies and Research, University of Prishtina. A collaborative project between UPGSR and CEL, the summer school has been established as the only summer school of its kind in the region, offering a BA level gender and sexuality studies curriculum to students and practitioners in the field.
Due to circumstances and limitations created by COVID 19 this year the school was organized online as we aimed to continue to offer a supportive learning environment and build a community of practice surrounding gender, sexual rights and social justice. In particular, we are motivated by the needs and interests of our students, who are increasingly finding feminist frameworks necessary and meaningful in times of crisis.
Following practice from previous years, in addition to lecturers from the University Program for Gender Studies and Research, the summer school also included scholars, activists and students with whom UPGSR has past or ongoing collaboration on various projects: 1. Three lecturers from Bournemouth University – Dr. Shovita Adhikari, Dr. Rosie Read, and Dr. Jayne Cauldwell – as part of an ongoing collaboration between BU and UP in an Erasmus + mobility project; 2. Gorana Mlinarevic, an activist scholar from BiH; and 3. Jeta Rexha (former UPGSR student and fellow), MA student and member of the UPGSR Steering Committee.
The school continues to place it participants at the center of its teaching and learning engagement. Participants come from a variety of disciplines (this year: sociology, law, engineering/energy, language, management, public policy, and psychology), as well as various civil society organizations and activist initiatives.
The course examines gender and sexuality as cultural and analytical categories, as well as principles of social, economic and political structuring. The course treats gender and sexuality as a flexible and negotiable social practice, contingent upon social and historical particularities. Of particular relevance is for students to gain an understanding of inter-disciplinary relations to the study of gender and sexuality, with a focus on feminist ethnographic inquiry, sociology and philosophy.
The project is supported by the Equality Engagement Program (E4E) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID Kosovo) and implemented by the Advocacy Training and Resource Center – ATRC).
