Global Dialogues & Women’s Empowerment in Eurasian Contexts Feminist Mentoring (WEF) Programme 2018, UK

WEF at Oxford

Funded by the Open Society Institute (OSF) since 2015, The Global Dialogues & Women’s Empowerment in Eurasian Contexts Feminist Mentoring (WEF) Programme provides two fellowships each year. Their purpose is to offer gender-centred contributions to on-going discourses surrounding issues over societal transformation in the Eurasian region. The WEF Programme provides opportunities for intellectual engagement, critical education and political empowerment of women from Central Asia and South Caucasus countries, seeking thus to strengthen the role of women as transformative leaders in their own societies and as global citizens.

Recognizing that interconnected global challenges call for far-reaching changes in how we think and act for the dignity of fellow human beings, our Program is dedicated to providing intellectual engagement, critical education and political empowerment of women from Eurasian countries to enable them to become transformative leaders in their own societies and as global citizens. The exclusion of women from societal affairs – be it via explicit or implicit discrimination or deprivation of resources – significantly diminishes the ability of a society to maintain and promote peace and delivery of justice. To support efforts to end such discrimination and exclusion, the IGS Centre runs this Fellowship Program to help strengthen the emergence of effective women leaders in the Eurasian Contexts which are characterized by ethno-religious complexities.

The core objective of the ‘Global Dialogues & Women’s Empowerment in Eurasian Contexts Feminist Mentoring Programme’ (WEF Programme) is to provide opportunities for intellectual engagement, critical education and political empowerment of women from Eurasian countries so that they can become transformative leaders in their own societies and contribute as global citizens. The Programme thus balances academic programming with applied mentoring, reflecting a holistic approach to develop both intellectual and professional skills. The mentoring program is as attentive to intellectual engagement, academic learning and methodologies for change as it is to the critical examination of conditions and processes of empowerment (personal and collective) with which to strengthen a society’s capacity to safeguard the fundamental rights and freedoms of all.

The WEF Programme is designed to equip fellows to make a difference in their home societies through individual intellectual and political empowerment. Aimed at creative thinkers and social change makers from the Eurasian region (defined as including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan), the Programme selects fellows in consideration of their past accomplishments and for their potential in leadership roles in the public and private spheres of activism, which may also be in the religious domain, and in both academic and civil society institutions. The Programme aims to build on fellows’ existing capacities and strengths. Its purpose is, furthermore, the enhancement of fellows’ aptitude to participate in regional and global discourses and activity on cultural, political, social and economic issues, always from within informed, gender-critical perspectives.

WEF Programme

Every year, we accept two applications from a large number of applicants for the Women's Empowerment Programme (WEF). Our WEF fellows have much in common; their gender-critical research, their public engagement in women's empowerment, and passionate engagement in their country’s future. However, each WEF fellow is an exceptional and unique scholar, with her own critical objectives, research questions and search for the most meaningful application of her work. 

The academic provisions for their course of study, therefore, are designed to provide gender-sensitive, critical learning on thematic issues that connect with, and expand upon, each fellow's established expertise. For example, our course in Gender Violence and Institutional Transformations offers multi-regional case studies that the fellows are invited to analyse and interpret, using insights to reference comparisons with their home region.

Eligibility Criteria 

The proposed Fellowship Programme seeks to equip Fellows for the important task of making a difference in their home societies through individual intellectual and political empowerment. Aimed at creative thinkers and social change makers from the Eurasian region who have already attained a high level of University education, the Programme will select Fellows in consideration of their past accomplishments and for their potential in leadership roles. Accomplishments and potential may be demonstrated through engagements in the public and private spheres of activism, which may also be in the religious domain, and in both academic and civil society institutions. Its purpose is the enhancement of Fellows’ aptitude to participate in regional and global discourses and activity on cultural, political, social and economic issues, always from within informed, gender-critical perspectives. Applicants should possess a deep understanding of their chosen subject and a track record of professional accomplishment. Fellows might have worked as journalists, activists, academics, and practitioners in a variety of fields, but they are expected to have obtained an advanced degree and be able to give proof of an impressive academic record. Priority will be given to candidates who have attained a PhD and also worked successfully in an activist capacity. Successful applicants will be eager to utilize the many resources offered by IGS, LMH, and the Open Society Foundations and be prepared to engage constructively with and within our global networks.

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