Women’s Studies Center (WSC) organized a scientific meeting using online meeting application “Big Blue Bottom” to conclude the mirror MA thesis activity that was funded by APPEAR programme as part of the Strengthening Higher Education Capacities in Palestine for Gender Equality" (SHE-GE) project that is running since 2017 in partnership between the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) and University of Graz (UniGraz) in Austria. In more details, eight master’s level students, 4 students from IUG and 4 students from ـUniGraz, have been selected to benefit from scholarship to conduct their master theses in the field of gender and women studies. Such that, the topics of the master theses of the students from IUG and UniGraz were the same, and the point is to study the topics in the Austrian context and the Palestinian one.
The meeting was attended by Prof. Ibrahim Al Astal - Dean of the Faculty of Education, Project Staff: Prof. Sanaa Abu Dagga - Project manager and supervisor of three MA students, Eng. Amani Al-Muqaddama, Head of the International Relations Department and SHE-GE Assistant Director, Mrs. Reem Al-Afifi, SHE GE project coordinator. Prof. Hala Al-Khozondar, who supervises a Master's student at IUG in the field of energy. The meeting was attended also by the University of Graz by Prof. Libora Oates-Indruchova, Project Coordinator at UniGraz and the supervisor of three students and Dr. Brigitte Holzner, member of the project team.
The meeting program included 4 sessions in addition to the opening session. Below is a breakdown of the meeting sessions.
Opening session In her opening remarks, Professor Libora Oates-Indruchova thanked the students and the supervisors for the MA theses at the Palestinian and Austrian sides, indicating that this concluding session is an important achievement of the project through the use of technology and distance learning as a means of communication and discussion between the students. In his turn, Prof. Ibrahim Al-Astal thanked the project team from IUG and UniGraz and mentioned the importance of such activity and its role in strengthening the research in the field of women and gender issues at IUG and the Palestinian society as a whole. Prof. Sanaa Abu Dagga concluded the session by welcoming the attendees at both sides, stressing that the difficult circumstances due to the Covid -19 that the world is going through will not prevent the continuation of scientific communication and thanked the project team and researchers and supervisors for the master’s theses, as this meeting is the conclusion of a joint research activity between the two universities in the field of women and gender issues It lasted for two years. First session: "Young People in the community", was moderated by Prof. Sanaa Abu Dagga from IUG, During the session, the results of two studies were presented, one from IUG and the other from UniGraz. The student Hannah Schunko from Austria delivered a presentation on the results of her study, which is titled " Young people and the community – Adolescents and their experiences with the Points4action programme " and then IUG student, Fedaa Abu Shamala, presented her study which is titled “Prosocial behavior and its relation with self-assertion and meaning of life for secondary school students in Gaza Strip”. The session concluded with a set of questions that were answered by the two students.
The second session, which has the title"Women in Men's Jobs", and was moderated by Prof. Libora Oates-Indruchova from UniGraz. The session included also results discussion of two scientific studies, Rukiye Salhiya from Palestine started the session with a presentation of the her study results, which is entitled " Self-perception and coping strategies for women in man-dominated professions in Gaza ", and then Hannah Rose Bayer from Austria talked about the results of her study of the same topic, her the study title is " Women “auf der Walz” - Travelling craftswomen in a male-dominated crafts tradition ". The session concluded with a number of questions and discussion.
The third session, which is entitled "Women, Work and Family", and was moderated by Prof. Sanaa Abu Dagga from IUG. The session included discussion of the results and recommendations of the two master's thesis, which were implemented by both students Natalie Horn from Austria and Arwa Al-Skafi from Palestine, where the titles of the theses were " Gender, family, work: Motives of dual-earner and dual-career couples for sharing parental leave " And " Cognitive orientation, social harmony and their relation to work-family balance among female doctors in Gaza Strip," respectively. The session concluded with a number of questions and discussion.
The fourth session "Green Home", was moderated by Prof. Libora Oates-Indruchova from UniGraz. This session included the discussion of the thesis entitled " The feasibility of using solar energy in cooking Applications: Questionnaire based study " presented by the student Besan Attaee from IUG, and the second thesis is entitled " Green, Healthy, Accessible – Effects of urban green spaces on life quality and health of urban dwellers at the example of the green.LAB in the Smart City Graz”, by student Cornelia Draxler. The session concluded with a number of questions, as they were answered by the two students. At the end of the day, the participants praised the scientific meeting, the research presented by both universities’ students, and the discussions that took place.
The participants indicated that this activity contributed to identifying potential research problems in the field of gender and women issues at both countries and deepen understanding about women's issues in Palestinian and international society.
Summaries of these studies and their results will be available through the project website http://shege.iugaza.edu.ps/ and Women's Studies Center at IUG http://wsc.iugaza.edu.ps/