CSWS Graduate Student Research Grant

Patients at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia are all treated free of charge: copyright: WHO/P. Virot /2012.

A Study of NGOs’ Strategies To End Fistula in Senegal

by Layire Diop, PhD Candidate, Media Studies, School of Journalism and Communication

The figures released by the World Health Organization (WHO) are staggering. Even though fistula was eliminated in developed countries a century ago, it still affects two million women around the world (WHO, 2018). 

Planting for food and jobs in Ghana.

On the Backs of Women: Participatory Communication for Livelihood Empowerment of Women under Ghana’s ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ Program

by Elinam Amevor, PhD Student, School of Journalism and Communication

The nineteenth century colonial legacy of the British in the Gold Coast—now Ghana—which ensured that men produce cash crops for export to keep the engines of the Industrial Revolution running, while women engage in food-crop production to feed the home, continues to determine the gendered nature of Ghana’s agricultural sector in the twenty-first century. 

Amna Javed

In the Name of Honor?: Evaluating the Impact of Weather Variability on “Honor” Killings in Pakistan

by Amna Javed, PhD Candidate, Department of Economics 

Every year, approximately 5,000 women are murdered globally in the name of honor. These crimes, labeled as “honor” killings, are meant to punish transgressing individuals who are believed to have brought shame to their families by overstepping social boundaries regarding acceptable sexual freedoms. In Pakistan’s context, where the “purity” of a woman is crucial to ensuring a successful arranged marriage, dishonor might result from, among other reasons, coming home late, having an alleged affair, or eloping. 

Marcio Freitas’ “Nunca Me Calarei” (I Will Never be Silenced) features the faces of women who have experienced gender-based violence in Brazil / photo by Emily Masucci.

"The Struggle Continues": Gender-Based Violence and the Politics of Justice and Care in Brazil

by Emily Masucci, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology For many historically marginalized women, the state and its institutions are not perceived as reliable. State-sponsored violence against women—low-income, afro-descendant, and indigenous women in particular—is a weapon with which the Brazilian state was founded and has maintained power since. The fabric of Brazil is stained by histories of forced sterilization of indigenous and afro-descendant women, of brutal rapes of young women students by military officials during the dictatorship, and recently by the calculated political feminicide of Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman Marielle Franco. Given this legacy, survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) are justifiably apprehensive of appealing to state institutions as they pursue safety and redress.
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