As the 2011/2012 academic year gets underway, the Graduate Institute is  launching a new research hub, the Programme on Gender and Global Change (PGGC). The inaugural lecture for the programme will be held this evening, 26 September at 18:30 at the Jacques Freymond Auditorium, and will be given by Cynthia Enloe, Research Professor, Department of International Development, Community, and Environment and Women's Studies, Clark University. Her lecture is entitled "Who's Afraid of Gender Analysis? Feminist Clues to Who Underestimates Power".

The Programme on Gender and Global Change is intended to produce cutting-edge research on the workings of gender in development and international relations and serve as a channel for the dissemination of such knowledge. Through its diverse activities the PGGC will seek to advance solutions to pervasive problems of gender injustice, discrimination, and exclusion drawing on the tools of social science analysis. The goal is to generate knowledge that will help advance social and gender justice on a global scale.

The programme’s research, training, and outreach activities focus on two thematic areas: (a) the transformations of gender resulting from processes of globalisation and development, and (b) the politics of gender in a globally connected world. The programme’s work is strongly interdisciplinary, drawing insights from the range of social science disciplines taught at the Graduate Institute; it will serve as a focal point for gender-related research and teaching. The programme engages with international, governmental and non-governmental organisations in Geneva as well as with local and international feminist movement groups.

Under its first thematic area, the PGGC is examining the significance of gender in current processes of globalisation and development. Building on the foundations laid by the Graduate Institute’s Pôle genre et développement, PGGC researchers will seek to strengthen their work in three specific areas. The first is the study of gender and migration. The second is a research focus on gender in agriculture. Here the ambition is to investigate the impacts of agricultural policies and international trade liberalisation on rural women, and health impacts resulting from agricultural restructuring. Third, the programme is developing a research focus in the area of women, peace, and security. Here, the emphasis will be on exploring the ways in which gender inequalities and constructions of masculinity contribute to the onset of armed conflict and violence.

Under the aegis of its second thematic area, the programme examines the efforts of feminist movements, NGOs, governments and intergovernmental bodies to enhance gender equality and justice. There are currently two research foci in this thematic area; the first looks at the international organisation of human reproduction and reproductive rights. The second area of research explores gender politics in international governance with a focus on the work of international organisations and businesses.

This article originally appeared in Globe No. 8, Autumn 2011. Globe is published twice a year and is an insight into our professors’ and experts’ analyses of major world issues, our research projects, our events, our Alumni and more.

Faculty member since 2009 and Deputy Director since 2010, Professor of International Relations/Political Science Elisabeth Prügl previously taught at Florida International University, where she co-directed the Miami-Florida European Union Centre of Excellence. Her research focuses on gender politics in global governance and feminism in International Relations. She is the author of Transforming Masculine Rule.

The Programme on Gender and Global Change will be hosting a workshop entitled "What if Patriarchy Is the Big Picture?" on 27 September and is co-organiser of the Swiss Network for International Studies conference on "Gender and the Global Care Economy"on 11 October.