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Gender and Global Issues (GGI) is a research, teaching and outreach academic subgroup of the Women and Gender Studies Program at the University of California, Davis. Our interdisciplinary focus on gender analysis reflects the heterogeneity and interconnected needs of our local, global and transnational communites.

GGI works toward a more equitable distribution of power between genders, ethnicities, and nations by linking UC Davis academic resources and grassroots activists. GGI addresses articulations of gender with a range of global issues, including reproductive health, sexuality, environmental justice, human rights, and cultural diversity, while fostering understanding and action through educational access. Our Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Program, Visiting Scholar Program, and the Davis Feminist Film Festival, all interweave to create a vibrant community.

The Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Program merges academic knowledge with practical professional development and allows participants to gain a competitive edge in both the job market and academia. This uniquely flexible and wide-ranging field of study covers topics ranging from the arts to agriculture to human rights, using a feminist perspective. GGI brings together multiple tools for analysis and action locally and globally. This program is administered in conjunction with University of California, Davis Extension (UCDE).

Visiting Scholar Program: In the past, the Ford Visitor’s Program has brought Activists from the Global South to UC Davis. We now have a collaborative Visiting Scholar Program with the Consortium for Women and Research (CWR) and with the Hemispheric Institute of the Americas (HIA). The Post-Baccalaureate Certificate program is an option for some international scholars/activists to pursue.

Davis Feminist Film Festival provides outreach and community building while promoting independent feminist media. This fest brings together socially conscious short films made by grassroots artists/activists from campus, the local Davis/ Sacramento community, as well as internationally reminding us of our interconnections. The first annual Davis Feminist Film Festival in October of 2005 played alongside the MadCat Women?s International Film Festival and also hosted a silent auction with local products and local artists. The Film Festival was originally a fundraiser for students going on GGI international field trips. It became a shared event between GGI and The Consortium for Women and Research (CWR) in 2008/2009, then was transferred fully to the CWR in the 2009/2010 school year, where it contributes to "Margareta Lelea International Internship Scholarship," administered by the Women's Center. E-mail femfilmfest@ucdavis.edu if you would like to get involved.

PAST PROGRAMS

Internship Programs: In order to allow students to get hands-on learning about gender and global issues in real-world settings, we offered both domestic and international internships for UC Davis students. Internships are an ideal vehicle for local and global outreach. They enrich the educational experience of students while contributing to the quality of life in surrounding communities. This program provided an academic and analytic context for internship experiences through faculty-guided research papers and creative projects. International internships included non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) in India, Romania, China and Mexico.

Speaker Series: Over the years, GGI has hosted numerous speaker series with topics ranging from Gender and Immigration to Gender and Domestic Violence to Global Poverty and Globalization. In 2006, GGI collaborated with the Geography Graduate Group for the series Gendered Intersections: feminist geographies and the landscape of power.

Gender and Global Issues in the Classroom: This was a K-12 Outreach program for teacher continuing education and curriculum enrichment. Our goal was to inject gender in to the curriculum, bringing alive global issues such as human rights, the environment, and immigration from a gendered perspective. In January 2004, we hosted a 40 hour continuing education module program.