8:30 pm
Join a dynamic group of experts from Equality Now, the Center for Women's Global Leadership, UN Women, and Resolve Network, moderated by NYU Professor Barbara Borst, as they recap this revolutionary year and discuss how political and economic empowerment has a direct and positive impact on health, women rights, and preventing violence against women.
Barbara Borst/Moderator worked for The Associated Press, where she was an editor on the international desk, frequently reported from the United Nations and wrote on U.S. and international issues. As a special project for The AP, she planned, wrote and edited coverage of the 2006 U.S. elections for subscribers worldwide. Previously, she had been a freelance UN correspondent for The Boston Globe. While based abroad for a dozen years, in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Paris and Toronto, she was a Paris correspondent for Inter Press Service news agency and reported frequently for Newsday, The Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, The Los Angeles Times, The Independent, The Times (London), The Associated Press and others. Before working abroad, she was a staff writer for The Denver Post, a writer and editor for The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., and managing editor of Yacht Racing magazine. She has taught at the NYU Center for Global Affairs since 2000, offering courses on the news media and global affairs, transitions to democracy, humanitarian aid and intervention, and non-governmental organizations. She received an NYU award for teaching excellence in February 2007. She earned a B.A. in English from Yale University and a master's in international affairs from Boston University's overseas program in Paris.
Savitri Bisnath is the Senior Policy Advisor at the Center for Women's Global Leadership. She holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University and an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles. Savi has worked with NGOs, philanthropic institutions and the United Nations on issues related to conflict, natural disasters, governance and recovery; economic and social rights; and violence against women in specific countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Middle East as well as in the United Kingdom and the United States. Most recently she served as the Senior Governance Advisor at UNDP Pakistan. She is the author of several published articles and practical tools, including a post-crisis needs assessment guide (2010). Savi is also the co-editor of Global Tensions: Challenges and Opportunities in the Work Economy (Routledge, 2004) and Gender and Development: Theoretical, Empirical and Practical Approaches, Vols I & II (Edward Elgar, 2001)
Ana Lukatela has been with the Peace and Security Cluster of UN Women in New York as a Programme Specialist since January 2011. She works on promoting gender responsive post conflict governance and delivery of basic services to women in fragile contexts. Prior to joining UN Women HQ she worked with former UNIFEM for five years in the Western Balkans on policy and programming related to Women, Peace and Security issues. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of British Columbia in political science.
Vijaya Thakur is the Founder and Executive Director of Resolve Network, a grassroots peace-building organization working in Eastern Congo. Vijaya has worked on risk assessment and early warning mechanisms for genocide, post-conflict transitional justice, post-conflict reconstruction, and mainstreaming women's empowerment as part of peace-building. In her previous capacities as Policy Director for Friends of the Congo, Policy Associate for Genocide Watch, and Policy Associate for the Genocide Intervention Network, Vijaya focused on U.S. foreign policy on genocide prevention and intervention. Upon concluding program evaluations for UNDP projects in Eastern Congo, Vijaya decided to adopt a grassroots approach to peace-building in her own work, leading her to found Resolve Network.
This event is sponsored by UN Women, MMC's Social Science Division, and MMC students in Women, Society and Culture (SOC 213).