Professor Diana J. Fox

The UWI, Regional Headquarters, Jamaica. Wednesday, February 28, 2024—The Institute for Gender and Development Studies at The University of the West Indies (UWI IGDS) has been around for 30 years. On the heels of the University’s 75^th jubilee, the Institute is commemorating its anniversary milestone throughout the 2023/2024 academic year, celebrating 30 years of Advocating for Gender Justice.

Established in 1993 first as a Centre, in 2008 it evolved into an autonomous, interdisciplinary, multi-campus institute. The Regional Coordinating Office (RCO) is based within the University’s Vice-Chancellery and the campus-based Units are located at the Mona, Jamaica, Cave Hill, Barbados, and St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.

According to Professor Diana J. Fox, current University Director of the Institute, “Leading scholar-activists and policy initiatives for gender justice in the region and beyond are the UWI IGDS’ legacy. Its work and research are very much grounded in the realities and challenges that face women, men and nonbinary persons”. 

Throughout the decades, the Institute has been committed to transforming gender relations across the Caribbean to end Gender-Based Violence, sexual harassment, family and domestic violence, violence against women and girls, issues pertaining to men and masculinities among other regional and global issues. Among its noteworthy achievements include the launch of a gender policy in May 2018, formalizing the University’s commitment to gender justice and establishing a framework for its implementation. Significantly, the policy is also a blueprint to incorporate issues of Gender and Development (GAD) and to express the fundamental principles vital to sustainable growth and development throughout the Caribbean.  

The Institute has offered Bachelor, Master, MPhil, and PhD programmes guided by the rich body of Caribbean and global feminist theories and gender scholarship. It also sustains activist work in numerous communities and has significantly impacted gender-related policy formation in the Caribbean. Its outreach informs our scholarship, publications, and curriculum and vice-versa. 

With a focus more recently on expanding its offering as part of The UWI global activist system, the Institute has designed online curricula, including the MOOC Powerful Women and the Principles of Feminist Transformational Leadership. An online Graduate Certificate Programme in Gender Justice, Activism, and Development is also soon to be launched, along with an MSc for the University’s new International School of Development Justice.

As part of its anniversary celebrations, Professor Fox says “The Institute is reinforcing its longstanding commitment to gender issues, while strengthening its focus on building awareness and resilience around marginalized groups who are particularly vulnerable to the climate crisis. This includes persons with disabilities (PWD), women, children and the elderly, and working in partnership with Indigenous Peoples of the region who have long been subject to narratives of extinction.  We have several events planned, aimed at advancing the University’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) engagement in achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls, recognizing that gender equality intersects with all of the other SDGs.”