Lunch-seminar with Dr. Amani-Al-Serhan, University of Jordan, Center for Women's Studies

The seminar will start with the lecture by Dr.Al-Serhan:
"Feminist Discourse and Pedagogy in an Arab Context: Challenges and Opportunities" and will continue by discussion.

Abstract for Dr. Al-Serhan's lecture

This lecture problematizes, from the perspective of faculty and affiliated faculty of the Center for Women’s Studies at the University of Jordan, Western feminist discourse in the Arab context. It sheds light on the various challenges that Arab scholars endure in their discussions of feminist issues in an academic setting. Given that Women’s Studies as an academic field developed and flourished in the West, various resources about women in the Arab world were produced by White scholars. This lecture is critical of particular Western discourse that has a tendency to victimize women of color and of the Middle East region and to present them as the unequal ‘other’. The main objectives of this lecture is to call for particular techniques or methodologies that are critical of colonial Western discourse regarding women of the Middle East region, which we regard as immensely problematic. In an attempt to situate such dichotomous debates about women, the challenges that face academics regarding the use of ‘proper’ sociological tools and methodologies are explored. Moreover, the positionality of the Center for Women’s Studies in Jordan and the multitude of challenges that it encounters are also discussed. Moreover, the pedagogical strategies that are employed will also be explored.

The seminar is organised by the Department of Gender Studies.
Please, bring your own lunch!