Abstract: Syrian women have been made virtually invisible in the political and media discussion of these 13 months of war. What are we missing? We will explore the insights we gain to the Syrian conflict by asking feminist questions.

 

Guest Chair: J. Ann Tickner, Professor Emerita of International Relations, USC 

 

BIO: Cynthia Enloe is currently a Research Professor in the International Development, Community, and Environment Department at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Cynthia Enloe’s career has included Fulbrights in Malaysia and Guyana, and guest professorships in Japan, Britain and Canada, as well as lecturing in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Germany, Korea, Turkey and at universities around the U.S. Her books and articles have been translated into Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, and German. She has written for Ms. Magazine and has appeared on National Public Radio, Al Jazeera and the BBC.

Among Professor Enloe’s thirteen books are Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (2000), Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (2004), The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in The New Age of Empire (2004) and Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link (2007). In 2010, she published Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War. Her newest book (co-authored with feminist geographer Joni Seager) is: The Real State of America: Mapping the Myths and Truths about the United States (2011).

In 2009-10 she was awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and Connecticut College. In May, 2012, she was awarded a Honorary Doctorate by the University of Lund, Sweden.

At Clark University, Cynthia Enloe has served as Chair of the Department of Political Science and as Director of Women’s Studies. Among the several committees on which she has served have been the university’s Committee on Personnel and  the Planning and Budget Review Committee. Professor Enloe was awarded Clark  University’s Outstanding Teacher Award three times. She currently serves on the editorial boards of five academic journals, including International Feminist Journal of Politics, Security Dialogue and International Political Sociology.

Professor Enloe’s feminist teaching and research have focused on the interplay of women’s politics in the national and international arenas, with special attention to how women’s labor is made cheap in globalized factories (especially sneaker factories) and how women’s emotional and physical labor has been used to support many governments’ war-waging policies—and how diverse women have tried to resist both of those efforts. Racial, class, ethnic and national identities as well as pressures shaping ideas about femininities and masculinities are common threads throughout her studies.

Cynthia Enloe was awarded the International Studies Association’s Susan Strange Award in 2007, in recognition of “a person whose singular intellect, assertiveness, and insight most challenge conventional wisdom and organizational complacency in the international studies community during the previous year.” In 2008, she was awarded the Susan B. Northcutt Award, presented annually by the Women’s Caucus for International Studies, of the International Studies Association, to recognize ”a person who actively works toward recruiting and advancing women and other minorities in the profession, and whose spirit is inclusive, generous and conscientious.” In 2010, Cynthia Enloe was awarded the Peace and Justice Studies Association’s Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

More info: http://www.clarku.edu/faculty/facultybio.cfm?id=343