Director: Dr. Vijay Agnew
Professor Agnew is an Associate Professor of Social Science at York University, where she has taught since 1975. Dr. Agnew received her Ph.D in History from the University of Toronto, an M.A. from the University of Waterloo, and her LL.B and B.A. from the University of Bombay, India. Her research has focussed on issues of race, class and gender and she has published numerous books, book chapters and journal articles, as well as delivered numerous conference papers over the years on these same topics. She has served as a board member of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (1996-1999) and is active in many community-based immigrant women’s associations. She has been a volunteer board member on the South Asian Family Support Services (1992-1994), at the Working Skills Centre in Toronto (1993-96), and at the North York Women’s Shelter (1996-1997). She was a member of the Employment Equity Committee and the Employment Committee for the Coalition of Visible Minority Women (1993-94).
Under the leadership of Dr. Agnew, the Centre reorganized itself in July of 2001. As a result, the Summer Institute and the annual Equity Conference were moved to the Faculty of Education. Dr. Agnew’s specific goals for the Centre were to expand its research focus to include the study of immigrants, violence agianst women, immigrant women’s health and the leadership of women’s organizations. Accordingly, CFR worked to organize the four day “9th International Women’s Health Meeting” in August 2002 and launch the project “Gender, Migration and Citizenship.”
During this period, the Centre hosted Tanja Cvetkovic from Yugoslavia as a visiting scholar.
During the 2002-2003 academic year, the CFR hosted:
- The 10th International Women’s Health Meeting.
Additionally, the Centre organized:
- the “Gender, Migration and Health: Asian-Canadian Perspectives” conference (part of the Gender, Migration and Citizenship project); and
- the Gender, Home and Nation project (which resulted in the book Gender, Home and Nation: A Century of Writings by South Asian Women in Canada);
- and the Asian Canadian Perspectives Health Conference.
A joint YCAR/CFR Speaker’s Series was also launched. Papers were assembled for Women’s Health, Women’s Rights: Perspectives on Global Health Issues.
Several visiting scholars were hosted at the Centre, including: Maria Cristina Martins from Brazil; Professor Ulla Vuorela from Iceland; Professor Fadwa Allabadi from Jerusalem; Rajuladevi Akkamadathilkinathy from India; and Rampai Surinal from Thailand.
Throughout the 2003 – 2004 academic year, the Centre organized several important conferences, including:
- “Making of Marginality in Canada: Migration and Rights” conference in November;
- the “Race, Racism, and the Empire: The Local and the Global” conference held on April 29 – May 1;
The Centre also assisted with:
- the Diaspora, Memory & Silence Conference on October 24 and 25, 2003; and
- the Violence and Health Conference on May 26, 2004.
In addition to these conferences, CFR also developed several publications, such as:
- the “Diaspora, Memory, and Identity: A Search for Home.”
A large number of visiting scholars were hosted during this period, including: Friede Magloire Ngo Youmba from the University of Bielefeld, Germany; Leslie Schlesse from University of Hanover, Germany; Silke Neunsinger and Pernilla Jonsson, from the Department of Economic History at Uppsala University, Sweden; Fereshte Ghashghai from Alazhra University, Iran; Kimie Kumayasu from Osaka Women’s University, Japan; Elisabetta Camussi, from State University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy; and Sarah Nicholson from University of Western Sydney, Australia.
During the 2004 – 2005 year, the Centre organized a three-part Publishing Seminar Series focusing on:
- publishing with a University press;
- publishing with an academic journal; and
- turning a dissertation into a manuscript.
Additionally, the Centre hosted:
- The “Migrant Women’s Quest for Social Justice” Conference on November 12 & 13, 2004.
A book, Diaspora, Memory, and Identity: A Search for Home (University of Toronto Press, 2005), was also produced during this time which was a result of the October 2003 conference of the same name. In addition to this publication, CFR also began the process of publishing a few papers from the April 2004 conference on “Race, Racism and the Empire: The Global and The Local” in a book entitled “Interrogating Race and Racism” edited by Vijay Agnew.
The Centre hosted the following visiting scholars: Fereshte Ghashghai, PhD candidate, Department of Management, Alazhra University, Iran and Kimie Kumayasu, Faculty of Human and Social Studies, Osaka Women’s University.
In following the traditions of previous years, the 2005 – 2006 period included the publication of several books as a result of a number of CFR conferences. On November 18th, 2005, the Centre for Feminist Research presented an interdisciplinary conference on:
- “Racialized Gendered Identities”, from which the book Migrant Women’s Quest for Social Justice in Canada was compiled.
The Centre also hosted a book launch for:
- Diaspora, Memory, and Identity: A Search for Home, edited by Vijay Agnew; and
- Tracing the Autobiographical, edited by Marlene Kadar, Linda Warley, Jeanne Perreault, and Susanna Egan.
In April 2006, the CFR was privileged to co-sponsor the important event “Trans/Equity: Past, Present and Possibilities” with The Office of the Ombudsperson, Centre for Human Rights, and SexGen York.