UKZN in collaboration with Agenda Feminist Media invite you to a Feminist Dialogue: “How does/would a girl-led response(s) to sexual violence look like?”
That South Africa has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world is now an established, albeit highly troubling fact. Among others, the issue is exacerbated by the conservative gender regimes and practices that prevail in families and communities. In rural areas, for example, sexual violence is frequently shaped by certain customary practices, particularly the taboos relating to discussing sex and sexual activity across generations. This often works to intensify the violence rural girls and young women may experience, but it can also be played out in a variety of ways in the different urban contexts. What would it mean, then, to have girls themselves, lead the response(s) to sexual violence in their communities, institutions and beyond? It is this question which the 6 year (2014-2020) collaborative project, Networks for Change and Well-Being: Girl-led ‘from the ground up’ policy making to address sexual violence in Canada and South Africa aims to address. Funded by the International Partnerships for Sustainable Societies (IPASS) program (International Development Research Centre and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada ($2.5 million CDN), the Partnership, co-led by Claudia Mitchell of McGill University and Relebohile Moletsane, University of KwaZulu-Natal, brings together researchers from universities in both countries, along with NGOs and government organizations. The overarching aim of the partnership is to study and advance the use of innovative approaches to knowledge-production, policy-making, and communication, in addressing sexual violence against girls and young women in South Africa and Canada. In particular, the work will examine how girl-led media production can influence community practitioners and policy-makers. In so doing, the project aims to shift the boundaries of knowledge production and inform policy change.
In launching this project, the planned dialogue invites girls and young women, feminists, activists, academics, policy makers and others to come together to reflect on what such responses might look like.
Speakers:
Patsy Peterson (KZN Department of Education)
Rekha Mahadev
N D Ngidi
Naydene de Lange and Girls Leading Change Students
Claudia Mitchell
Lebo Moletsane
Venue: UKZN – Edgewood Campus, Seminar Room 7, new Conference Centre, Edgewood Campus
Date: 19th March 2015
Time: 14h00 – 16h30
Kindly RSVP by 16th March 2014 to admin@agenda.org.za
