Director: Nancy Mandell
Dr. Mandell is a professor in the Department of Sociology, as well as Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies at York University. She is also a former Director of the Centre for Feminist Research and Chair of the Sociology Department. Her research and teaching interests include gender, aging, schooling and family. An expert on community-based research whose community-academic research protocol (Mandell and Whittington-Walsh, 2004) is widely used across Canada, Dr. Mandell has a wealth of experience working with marginalized communities in the areas of classroom equity, family violence, feminist methods and women’s rights.
1994-1995
Under the direction of Dr. Mandell, several significant projects were hosted by the Centre during the 1994 – 1995 year including a working paper by the Women and Disabilities Committee entitled, “Disability is a Feminist Issue;” two community meetings, organized by The Sport Communities Working Group; and a multimedia performance by the Cultural Connection Series. CFR also co-organized a three day conference with the Centre for Refugee Studies titled, “Women’s Rights are Human Rights: Focus on Youth.”
Also during this period, the Centre hosted a number of scholars including: Dr. Regina Papa, India; Doris Marquit, University of Minnesota, USA; Dr. Yevgenia Issraelyan, Institute of USA and Canada Studies, Russia; and Elisabeth Binder, Koordinationsstelle für Genderfragen, Kunstuniversität Linz, Austria.
1995-1996
1995 – 1996 was another busy year for the CFR.
The Centre organized a “Violence Against Women Funding Workshop” to provide an overview of funding programs across the country on anti-VAW initiatives.
The CFR also worked in collaboration with the Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme Journal to finalize the publication of three issues:
- the “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” issue (Vol. 15, No. 2-3, 1995);
- the “Post-Beijing” issue (Vol. 16, No. 3, 1996); and
- the “Female Spirituality” issue (Vol. 17, No. 1 (1997)
The CFR also organized a number of conferences, including:
1) the “Celebration of Female Spirituality” conference;
2) a ten-day summer institute entitled “Women’s Rights are Human Rights: Theorizing Global Connections;”
3) a two-day conference entitled “Bodies, Power, Modernization, Poverty, Gender & Women’s Health;” and
4) a one-day conference titled “Writing the Self Out of Silence: A Celebration of Canadian Women’s Writing.”
The first Cultural Connections Series event featured internationally recognized filmmaker Kobena Mercer. During this busy time, the CFR was proud to have hosted Rector Ihamuotila from Finland; Carmen Matheu from Spain; Gil Bottemly from England and Sushna Krishna from SNDT University in India as visiting scholars.
1996 – 1997
1996 – 1997 was a hectic year for the CFR, as it followed the YUFA strike. During this post-YUFA strike year, CFR worked to gather testimonies from women participants in the strike to strategize for structural change. Despite the academic disruption, the CFR developed several exciting projects. For example, the CFR worked with Inanna Publications to publish Visions & Realities: Women’s Studies in the 90s, a revised conference proceedings in book form, edited by Rusty Shteir, and published with the Graduate Woman’s Studies program.
Additionally, CFR hosted several conferences including:
1) the “Women, Nationalism and Fundamentalism in Africa: Probing the Roots, Language and Practices of an Alliance of Oppression” conference;
2) “La Violence Contre Les Femmes En Ontario Enjeux Actuels” conference at Glendon College;
3) the “Juicy Fruit: Queer Studies from High School to High Theory” conference; and
4) the 10th annual “Equity in the Classroom/Equity in the Curriculum” conference.
CFR was also honoured to host two visiting scholars: Professor Charlotte Caron from St. Andrews College, Saskatchewan; and Professor Theresa Smith from Indiana University, Pennsylvania.