Deadline: 17 July 2017
What are the dynamics at play? What is the state of health of the peace movement? Who is engaging in peacebuilding, what are their principles and motivation, and what form is peace activism now taking? What are the current peace challenges, such as violent ideologies? Looking beyond the traditional allies, are there new opportunities before us? What are the priorities for the region?
The Ecumenical Women’s Initiative (EWI) is inviting women scholars and students to explore these questions under its Fellowship Programme Research Grants.
Great strides have been made yet with progress come questions and, particularly in the field of peace and reconciliation, the need to step back and take stock of what has and has not been achieved.The socio-political context around us is changing dramatically. More than ever women’s voices need to be heard and women’s contribution to peace and nonviolence acknowledged and supported.
Questions
The following strategic questions have been selected to stimulate analysis and reflection towards a research and a resultant article of up to 8,000 words). Women scholars are invited to respond directly to one of the following of set questions, or raise an additional question related to the theme of peacebuilding.
- Do women have a unique contribution to make as peacebuilders and leaders of social transformation? How do EWI grantee partners compare to/with other peace initiatives, organisations or management structures, not led by women?
- Within the region’s monotheistic religions, what supports/encourages women to engage in social change, and to develop into leaders?
- Faith-based, motivated and inspired organisations are situated between religious communities, churches and civil society. Where do they belong? Does civil society recognise organisations/ individuals who engage in peacebuilding from within a religious context? Are religious communities and churches too “civil-society oriented”?
- Why is a believer from a different religious communities or church closer to me than I think? What brings us together? What are the shared values from the gender and peacebuilding perspective?
- What is the relevance of peacebuilding and nonviolence today in the region? How is it defined and how does it relate in practical terms to women’s lives and realities in 2017? What are the tangible building blocks of grassroots women’s peacebuilding?
- Additional topics:
- How do nationalism, religious extremism and xenophobia impact peacebuilding from a gender perspective?
- What are the peacebuilding potentials and/or political consequences of a new nostalgia for the return to the past? How does a cross-cutting perspective of religion and gender relate to them?
- Ideologies of violence: origins, impact and alternatives;
- Disenfranchised and segregated sections of the community – causes, scope, consequences and alternatives.
Funding Information
- Grant type 1 (travel/research): HRK 11,250 / EUR 1,500
- Grant type 2 (theoretical/research): HRK 9,375 / EUR 1,250
- Fellowship period is four months: Sep – Dec 2017
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible candidates are women scholars or students who can demonstrate their capacity for quality, scientific research and writing, exhibiting their commitment to gender equality, nonviolence, ecumenical openness and inter-religious coexistence.
- Candidates must be residents of either Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro or Serbia.
- Each selected candidate/EWI Fellow:
- nominates a reader (to be approved by EWI) to act as mentor and editor;
- completes the research and submits the finished article in the given period;
- submits the article in Croatian or Bosnian or Serbian;
- is responsible for the professional editing and proofreading of her article following EWI approval and before final submission;
- retains the right to use and publish her article elsewhere, noting that the work was created in collaboration with the EWI.
- EWI bears responsibility for:
- translation and proof reading of the approved article into English;
- grant payment which is made following submission of the final approved article;
- payment of the Reader honorariums following submission of the final approved article;
- e-publication of both language versions of the approved articles on the EWI website.
How to Apply
Applicants must submit their Expressions of Interests at the address given on the website.
For more information, please visit Ecumenical Women’s Initiative.