ITROW
Legislating Virtue: Dowry and Domestic Violence in India
by Madhu Kishwar
ITROW's Handbook on Service Learning
Purpose
The Institute has three main purposes:
(a) the creation of research on women, (b) integration of women and
diversity into the educational curricula, and (b) public education about
women.
Learning About Women
We want to know more about women's
experiences -- for example, what happens to women and different
categories of women, how do they feel about what is happening, what
creations do they make? Looking at what happens to women, and how women
think and feel about what they see and do helps us understand all people
better.
An original interest in women's
experiences eventually brings us to more difficult questions -- what are
the patterns -- the social institutions and structures -- that
shape women's destinies? And, how do these patterns bring about the
consequences for women that we observe?
Prior to the 1970s, traditional academic
scholars for the most part were not aware of and did not focus on the
experiences women have, and they had little interest in the
social-political-economic contexts in which women grow up and live.
Scholars tended to believe either that women are like men, or that the
distinctive elements in women's lives are minor. Research often
included only men as subjects, in the belief that including women would
distort rather than reveal the basic patterns underlying human
behavior.
Most people and scholars had viewpoints
about women, but men were more often studied -- men's health, men's
wars, men's literature, men's economic and political maneuverings --
carefully categorized and analyzed, but often without much reference to
the other half of the population.
Beginning in the 1970s, research on women
began to burgeon as a specialty within many academic disciplines, and
funding agencies became aware of the need to include women as subjects,
and to conceptualize research questions as including women's experiences
and contexts. The Institute was established to contribute to that
effort.
Mission Statement
The Institute for Teaching and Research on Women (ITROW)
at Towson University was founded in 1990 to promote research on women
and the integration of scholarship on women into the curriculum. It
continues Towson University's twenty-year tradition of experience,
program success, and campus commitment to working on women's issues.
The Institute is the research arm of a two-part effort that includes the
National Center for Curriculum Transformation Resources on Women (NCCTRW)
as the curriculum arm. Through their activities, the Institute and the
National Center enhance the institutional goals of diversity and
inclusiveness as faculty, staff, and students are prepared for
participation in the pluralistic society in which we all live.
Goals
The Institute for Teaching and Research on Women has
three fundamental goals:
(1)
Promoting research on women,
including women in all their diversity, through such activities as:
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Developing and supporting research
projects that focus on women.
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Sponsoring
seminars, conferences, and workshops on women.
-
Sponsoring a
Scholars of the Institute Program.
(2)
Assisting faculty, colleges
and universities locally, regionally, nationally and internationally to
integrate scholarship on women into their courses and educational
curricula through activities such as:
-
Providing
workshops, seminars, and conferences for Towson and regional
faculty.
-
Providing Summer
Institutes dedicated to
internationalizing courses and educational curricula, and bringing
faculty from various regions of the world together to exchange
knowledge and resources.
-
Publishing resources related to curriculum
transformation.
(3)
Communicating research results
and scholarship on women to the general public and promoting civil
engagement projects through such activities as:
-
Sponsoring
community project related to enhancing the well being of women.
-
Collaborating
with civic and other community organizations in enhancing the well
being of women.
-
Presenting
research results on the ITROW web site.
-
Sponsoring seminars, conferences and workshops.
Public Education About Women
While creating research on women is the
major purpose of Towson University's Institute for Teaching and Research
on Women, it also is interested in bringing to the public the results of
that research. It publishes occasional newsletters reporting the
results of research, conducts workshops on topics related to women's
experiences, and supports projects which enable faculty and teachers to
include more of the recent research on women in their courses. ITROW
was the original location of Towson University's
National Center for Curriculum
Transformation Resources on Women,
which specializes in
transmitting research on gender into the academic curriculum.
ITROW's
Organizational Chart |
