Throughout their involvement with the program, the MEPI-TLS students have shown a high level of interest in learning as well as in engaging in a number of gender related activities, internships, and events.
Two students, Miriam Boulos (Lebanon) and Nadine Shaar (Lebanon), have joined the New York based NGO CSW NY, a global network of feminist organizations working within the framework of the UN Commission for the Status of Women. They were seconded to the MENA region caucus where they attended and prepared events, became active members of the advocacy and research committee, participated in the 65th session of the CSW in March 2021 and also prepared and implemented their own feminist youth webinar.
Maya Moussa (Lebanon), through her role as co-founder and director of All Girls Code, has helped include young girls for free in STEM fields by providing them with technical knowledge, mentorship, and access to local and international opportunities and scholarships through summer camps, workshops, and talks. Her team's work has had an impact on more than 500 teenage girls from multiple geographical and socioeconomic backgrounds. Due to its effectiveness, All Girls Code has been recognized internationally by Women Deliver, HP, Stanford AMENDS, and Stanford SHE++. For 2021's International Women's Day, Lebanon's IEEE Women in Engineering Chapter organized an event to promote women engineers and scientists and inspire girls around the world to follow their academic interests in careers in engineering and science. Maya was invited to be a speaker and discuss her work with All Girls Code. She highlighted the importance of girls knowing that they belong in STEM fields and encouraged a culture of women hustling, networking,and being proactive in solving the problems of their community.
Carla Akil (Lebanon) and Nadine Shaar (Lebanon) prepared and moderated feminist webinars organized by the Asfari Institute including the design of the events, the framing of the questions, as well as engagement with panelists.
Research for Increasing Gender Literacy on Campus
The AUB MEPI-TLS program requires participating students to write and submit two white papers for publication in the field of gender studies each semester. This has mainstreamed writing and reading about gender among the AUB student body and encapsulated one of AUB MEPI-TLS' main goals, which is centered around increasing gender literacy on campus inside and outside the classroom.
To guide students as they finalize their white papers, the AUB MEPI-TLS Writing Team designed an optional four-week writing workshop that they implemented twice: once in January 2021 for the Fall 2020 cohort, and another time in April and May of 2021 for the Spring 2021 cohort. The writing team divided the students into groups of 4 or 5, and requested that each group meet at least once a week for four weeks. At the end of each of the four weeks, the team hosted catch-up sessions where they answered student questions and helped those in need of additional feedback and assistance. 111 of the 163 Fall 2020 students and 60 of the 281 Spring 2021 students participated in the writing workshops. At this stage, 24 papers were submitted by our Fall 2020 students and 12 by our Spring 2021 students have been published on platforms such as AUB's Outlook, Watchdogs Gazette, Asfari Institute, For Civil Society and Citizenship, The Phoenix Daily, among others.
To build off this momentum of increased student writing, the AUB MEPI-TLS writing team started designing its own online platform to publish white papers and recruited an editorial board that will assist them in curating and editing articles for the MEPI-TLS writing platform, which will play a role in further normalizing gender literacy on campus by publishing high-quality and student-produced content exclusively about gender.
You can learn more about the currently published and approved articles by checking the samples below:
The Feminine Nature of Social Media: A Lebanese Perspective by Nahida Shehab
Where Do Women Stand in Armenian Politics? by Grace Hajinazarian
Living in a Lifeless Body: Female Genital Mutilation in Egypt by Nadine Ayoub
Gender Stereotypes and Women in the Workplace by Kareem Kiwan
The Subordination of Woman In Historical Narratives of Gender Performativity by Mahdi Fakhouri
Mothers' “Ordinary" Hurdles: How We Should Deal With Unpaid Care Work by Hadeel Ghaddar