AGS's 8th Graduate Student Conference on the Theme of Gender Issues and IR

The American Graduate School in Paris hosted its 8^th International Graduate Student Conference on April 18-19, 2013, on the theme of "Identity and Gender Politics Within International Relations". Academics, students and professionals from a dozen countries - India, Taiwan, Israel, Zimbabwe, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, France, Canada, the United States and Brazil - came to AGS to discuss ideas and share research findings. Building bridges between academia and actors in the field, they touched on such themes as as humanitarian aid, gender-based violence and the role of media as a social tool.

"One of the greatest values of the conference was how, after numerous presentations, panelists and audience members discussed the many layers of identity that individuals possess. I also appreciated the discussions about the frequent conflation of gender politics with women's politics. In fact, gender is about women as well as men, and more broadly about the spectrum of gender identities that exist around our commonly accepted dichotomy,” says Seyward Darby, a Master’s candidate in International Relations at Yale University, who presented a paper entitled; “Woefully Incomplete: Interrogating the Dominant Narrative of Rape as a Weapon of War.” 

The keynote panel featured Jean-Marie Fardeau, France Director of Human Rights Watch; Alison Smale, Executive Editor of the International Herald Tribune; Jane Freedman, Program Specialist in the Gender Equality Division of UNESCO; and Kimberly Adams, Managing Partner of the social enterprise Flying Bridges. Keynote panelists discussed how their respective organizations address issues of gender and identity.

“Human Rights Watch has a long-standing commitment for the respect of gender and identity as this lies at the core of human rights." says Jean-Marie Fardeau. "We have researchers covering about 100 countries and release reports everyday on the multiple aspects of these wide and complex issues, such as early marriage in Arab countries, women trafficking between Eastern and Western Europe, forced labor, denial of women’s access to education and health, gender inequalities in the professional and political arenas, and flouted rights of the LGBT community." Fardeau adds: "This conference was a good way to exchange ideas with other actors from intergovernmental organizations, NGOs and academia, as well as raise public awareness on these crucial subjects.” 

The AGS annual conference is organized by master’s degree candidates in the AGS International Relations and Diplomacy program under the supervision of Professor Ruchi Anand, who authored two chapters in AGS’s book Crimes Against Women (New York: Nova, 2010), a collective work edited by David Pike with a foreword by Bangladeshi human rights advocate Taslima Nasrin. 

“The AGS conference is a tremendous opportunity to enhance many skills that are considered necessary in the professional world. Being able to coordinate individual and team efforts along a projected timeline was very important,” said Stefan De Las, a Master’s candidate at AGS who took an active role in the conference organization and has already accepted to be the student director for next year’s edition. “Our entire committee was involved in the procedure, from writing the call for papers, reaching out to the academic and professional community, managing the logistics to creating the marketing strategy and material. During the conference, the ability to network and meet the panelists who wrote the papers is also priceless, as you grasp new ideas while sharing your own. The entire process has been an amazing experience and I must say, I am looking forward to next year’s AGS Conference.”

This event was held in partnership with Arcadia University and with the contribution of institutional partners Fondation Alliance Française, World Cultures Institute and Banque Populaire Rives de Paris.

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