Geopolitical and National Policies Affecting Women University Leadership: Illustrations from Conflict, Post-Conflict, and Transitional Societies

• In Event: The interrelations among domestic and international geopolitical contexts affecting university policies

Proposal

When undertaking National Science Foundation grants in the United States and England, the author encountered international women students from countries in the midst (of) or having recently undergone political conflicts, violent kidnappings, and civil wars. Now they are in transitional stages moving toward democratic governments. This reality was particularly acute when speaking with women in England who were pursuing doctoral degrees as they frequently referenced conditions in their several African and Asian home countries. Their poignant voices promoted two American university women faculty and executives – to ask how our experiences in leadership roles in American universities could assist in fostering viable options for current and future women university leaders in emerging democratic nations. How might women in university venues address overarching problems of helping to build civil society through leadership and scholarly roles in the academy?

Hence this author contacted American university presidents and the then Principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford University in developing a multi-year grant resulting in aims of this presentation. The objective include inter alia: 1) identifying and examining factors contributing to conflicts; 2) examining universities’ roles in preparing women leaders to facilitate quality academic endeavors; 3) fostering women’s leaderships skills through interactive lectures and workshops and examining academic policies via site visits; 4) updating current research methodologies and quality assurance for post-conflict and transitional nations; and 5) contributing to developments of interactive technological platforms that allow women facing generic obstacles to share best practices and applied policy research pertaining to universities. Overall a purpose is to develop and ensure viable policies that link university endeavors with domestic sociocultural realities.

Author

• Beverly Lindsay, University of California