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Gender and Women’s Studies Graduate Programme at Middle East Technical
University (METU) was established in February 1994 under a United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) funded project to the Directorate General on
the Status and Problems of Women of the Government of Turkey.
Mission Statement
Gender and Women’s
Studies Graduate Programme, which offers a two year interdisciplinary
curriculum, aims to examine the issues of knowledge, society and gender
within a feminist perspective in order to contribute towards an
understanding of the social position of women and the inequality between
women and men with a primary focus on the case of Turkey. In this regard, the program has a
three-fold mission - education, research and advocacy – and it endeavours
to actualize the following five goals:
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To contribute to the development of
education and research on issues of gender and women’s studies both
theoretically and empirically;
·
To contribute to the creation of public
awareness and sensitivity on the concept of gender, the field of women’s
studies, and the social position and
problems of women in society;
·
To contribute to the process of building mental constructs that are
compatible with the notions of
women’s empowerment and equality between women and men;
·
To sponsor
institutional and policy oriented initiatives towards the creation of gender
sensitivity both on and off campus;
·
To benefit from and contribute to global
developments in the area of education, research and advocacy on gender
issues.
Vision of the Programme
As such, in its essence
the mission of the Gender and Women’s Studies Programme eminates from a
transformative vision of society. In order to contribute towards social
change, the program aims at linking
three areas of activity and their related institutions, these are:
(i)production of knowledge (academic institutions);
(ii)practice/implementation (women’s movement and NGOs); and (iii)policy
formation (local, national and international decision making bodies). Within this context, the education and
research activities of the Gender and Women’s Studies Programme of Middle
East Technical University aims, on the one hand, to critically examine the
existing theory/knowledge in terms of their implications for policy and
practice and on the other hand,
serve as an active agent of change through establishing a feedback
system between its activities and those of other relevant actors.
When considered within
such a vision, METU Gender and Women’s Studies Programme has a multiple
task in actualizing its mission: offering a specialized interdisciplinary
education of high academic caliber;
providing advisory services on gender issues; and serving as a
reference point for expanding a gender equality perspective within and
outside the university in the production of knowledge, drawing of action
plans and formulation of policies.
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