Reflections on a collaborative experience: Using ICT in a trans-cultural women's health module

Abstract

This briefing describes an Information Communication Technology (ICT) project in which academics from five geographically dispersed tertiary institutions collaborated in the design and implementation of an online teaching module on women's health and well-being. The module used the transformative possibilities offered by ICT to enable students from a variety of geographic and cultural contexts to collectively explore the concepts of women's health and well-being. This briefing examines how this web-based module enabled the authors to bring students from South Africa, Uganda, Jamaica and Israel together in an online learning environment and outlines the role of ICT in designing the module as a collaborative learning space. The experiences of participating academics and students, particularly those within the African context, are presented.

Full text

AGENDA 71 20075454
Reflections on a collaborative experience: Using
ICT in a trans-cultural women’s health module
Yasmeen Yusuf-Khalil, Vivienne Bozalek, Kimberlee Staking, Rivka Tuval-Mashiach and Grace
Bantebya-Kyomuhendo
abstract
keywords
Introduction
This briefing contributes to the growing literature
on collaboration among academics in higher
education across countries and the role of ICTs in
facilitating team teaching. It looks at the collective
experience of five academics, two of whom are
from Africa, in their collaborative effort to design
and implement an e-module exploring women’s
health across national and international borders.
Thus, it attempts to answer the question of
whether it is possible to successfully provide
access and support to implement a web-based
This briefing describes an Information Communication Technology (ICT) project in which academics from five geographically
dispersed tertiary institutions collaborated in the design and implementation of an online teaching module on women’s health
and well-being. The module used the transformative possibilities offered by ICT to enable students from a variety of geographic
and cultural contexts to collectively explore the concepts of women’s health and well-being. This briefing examines how this
web-based module enabled the authors to bring students from South Africa, Uganda, Jamaica and Israel together in an online
learning environment and outlines the role of ICT in designing the module as a collaborative learning space. The experiences
of participating academics and students, particularly those within the African context, are presented.
web-based collaborative learning, feminist constructivist pedagogy, women’s health and well-being
course on women and gender issues across
these borders, given the geographical, cultural,
economic, social and interdisciplinary differences
that students encounter.
The paper initially examines how the e-module
evolved. It describes design considerations for
this online module and comments on the overall
benefits and specific challenges encountered in
the design process. A description of the pilot
phase of the module chronicles the successes
and challenges encountered in the process of
implementing the design. This section is followed

Reflections on a collaborative experience: Using ICT in a trans-cultural women’s health module 55
briefing
by a brief illumination of perceptions of students,
specifically those who participated from South
Africa and Uganda, thus providing insight into
the e-learning experience with an African focus.
The paper concludes with a description of the
relocation of the e-module from a server in the
United States to one in South Africa and provides
a glimpse of possible future uses of ICT to link
African women to a global and interdisciplinary
learning context.
Background
Following a meeting at the 7
th
International
Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, Women’s
Worlds 99, in Tromsø, Norway, in 1999,
academics from Africa and the United States
agreed to initiate summer institutes that would
bring together members of faculties’ women
and gender programmes. The first institute,
held in 2000, was attended by approximately
25 participants from institutions in Asia, Africa,
Europe, North America and the Caribbean.
Established as an informal, cooperative endeavour
with support from the Ford Foundation in 2003,
the International Consortium for Graduate
Studies in Women and Gender seeks, through
collaboration amongst its member institutions, to
link the production of knowledge to the pursuit
of academic democracy in the hope of effecting
progressive social change at both local and global
levels.
Consortium members utilised the summer
2004 institute to collaboratively design web-based
learning modules that could be used for team
teaching across national boundaries. Participating
academics and graduate students from member
institutions created five modules, including a
module on ‘Women’s Health and Well-Being’ that
is the subject of this paper. The members of this
group (who are also the authors of this article)
are Vivienne Bozalek from the University of the
Western Cape in South Africa, Yasmeen Yusuf-
Khalil from the University of the West Indies in
Jamaica, Kimberlee Staking from the University
of Maryland in the United States, Rivka Tuval-
Mashiach from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and
Grace Bantebya-Kyomuhendo from Makerere
University in Uganda. All five collaborated in
designing and teaching the pilot module in the
spring of 2005, although no students from the
University of Maryland were enrolled in the pilot
project.
From this initial collaboration, two important
concerns directed the approaches taken
to develop the module: to create a product
suitable for implementation in all five institutions
represented by the designers and to create
it in a way that participating students could
collaborate in the process of knowledge
production. We hoped that the module would
build the capacity of students at each of the
institutions to engage productively in distance
learning experiences, and we also hoped that
students would develop an appreciation for and
understanding of trans-national and trans-cultural
perspectives on women’s health and well-being
through participating in the module. The use of
ICTs was fundamental to this endeavour.
In this paper, we draw on literature
documenting women’s use of ICTs in Africa and
feminist, pedagogical approaches to collaborative
web-learning. Regretfully, fuller references to
these works were not possible due to format
requirements.
Designing the module
Pedagogical considerations
When all five collaborators met face-to-face and
later online to design the course ‘Women’s Health
and Well-being: Transcultural Perspectives’, we
were in agreement that cultural, geographic, racial
55
Cultural, geographic, racial and social contexts are
deeply implicated in how women’s health and
well-being are understood

AGENDA 71 200756
briefing
and social contexts are deeply implicated in how
women’s health and well-being are understood,
defined and constructed. We specifically chose
to focus on wom
en’s health because, as feminist
academics, we were collectively interested in
understanding the marginalisation of women’s
health needs across diverse geographical
locations.
The feminist constructivist approach we
adopted influenced the three critical design
elements: content, learner support and learning
activities (Oliver, 1999). We wished to afford
learners the opportunity to construct knowledge
and engage as critical thinkers, rather than
transmitting knowledge to be acquired by
learners as passive recipients of didactic teaching
(Hildebrand, 1999). Thus, instructors adopted a
supportive and scaffolding role, rather than directly
giving content to students.
Theoretical framework for the content
We used Martha Nussbaum’s (2000) human
capabilities approach as the normative and
theoretical framework for the module’s content.
Nussbaum (2000) argues for a set of universal
norms of human capability to make cross-cultural
comparisons across nations to evaluate how well
they are faring in promoting quality of life and
human well-being. This approach offers a way of
taking into account where people are positioned
and what they are able to do with personal,
material and social resources, rather than merely
looking at resources people have and assuming
that people are equally placed in relation to these
resou
rces.
Role of ICTs
Aligning pedagogy with technology led us to
contemplate available ICTs and the degree of
access to these in the participating countries.
Our unanimous decision was that pedagogy
should determine the choice of technology. Our
use of constructivist theory of learning pointed
to considerations for active, collaborative,
problem-centred learning that utilises real-
world identification and development of critical
thinking skills. We therefore needed web-based
technology to facilitate collaborative learning.
Because technology is content-neutral, we
sought one that would minimise difficulties in
working with distance learners across time zones
and with features that accommodate group
activities, high-level interaction and ongoing
dialogue. However, the digital divide – the gap
between those countries who have access to
web-based technology and those who do not
– was factored into the design considerations
(Tinio, 2003). Not all students had internet
access at home, nor did all universities have the
capabilities to accommodate the module on their
server and provide technical support services.
Given these considerations, we selected
WebCT, a learning management system (LMS),
which accommodates asynchronous and
synchronous learning and is accessible 24 hours
a day. Despite the fact that WebCT was not
the most user-friendly LMS available, we felt
confident that it could support constructivist
pedagogy and allow students to challenge
preconceptions about women’s health and well-
being. We also chose it because it came with an
offer from the University of Maryland to house
our module free of charge on their server for
the period of one year and to provide technical
support.
56
Our unanimous decision was that pedagogy
should determine the choice of technology
Not all students had internet access at home,
nor did all universities have the capabilities to
accommodate the module on their server

Reflections on a collaborative experience: Using ICT in a trans-cultural women’s health module 57
briefing
Benefits and challenges: Academics’
perceptions
Working collaboratively across boundaries held
both benefits and challenges to the design team.
Some identified benefits were:
• Shared knowledge and experience resulting
from collaboration.
• Support for implementation of new initiatives
in e-learning.
• More creative solutions to problems.
• Shared responsibility in using ICTs.
• Personal insights into the art of working
collaboratively.
Challenges resulting from diversity of the group
Challenges emerged during initial
conceptualisation of the module. While
brainstorming the central concept of health, it
became clear that our experiences and definitions
were very heterogeneous, based not only on
our different geographical locations but also on
our diverse disciplinary affiliations. Interestingly,
however, this challenge, which was part of the
process we had to undergo, helped us refine
the differences between two conceptualisations,
health and well-being, which were subsequently
reflected in the course assignments. Later,
students also went through a similar experience
as they engaged in the process of defining both
concepts.
We also faced the challenge of designing the
module in ways that would offer new knowledge
in an empowering way for women. Immersed
in constructivist approaches to learning, we
struggled with devising strategies that would
foster self-study and create knowledge based on
learners’ experiences and insights.
Challenges of working from a distance
Moving from storyboarding module content
face-to-face to working online to organise and
upload material on WebCT was probably the most
challenging of all steps in the design phase of the
course. In fact, it is unlikely this module would have
reached the stage of implementation without the
technical support from the University of Maryland.
Expert personnel from that institution assisted us by
designing a user-friendly space on WebCT. But even
with this design expertise, there were challenges
because of the constructivist approach we insisted
we wanted and the limitations of WebCT.
This approach was far more radical a concept
than the expert had previously designed. For
example, many of the ‘regular’ test features that
made WebCT attractive to the normative user
were not of interest to us and had to be modified.
We did not care for the multiple choice quiz or
grading capabilities, which were more suited to
the traditional approach to instruction. Coupled
with this, by the time we had this expertise
available, all the collaborators had returned home
and so the US member of the group, who was
located in Maryland, became the only physical link
between the ICT staff at Maryland and the rest of
the group. While this placed additional pressure on
her, the fact that the module would be uploaded
and placed on Maryland’s server made her a logical
choice. Although this process was challenging, our
insistence on having pedagogy take precedence
over technology is well supported in the literature
(Clark, 1994; Salmon, 2002; McConnell, 2006).
Implementing the module
Implementation of the module took place during
the first half of 2005. It was piloted in four
countries, South Africa, Uganda, Jamaica and
Israel, over a period of six weeks. Initially, only
one male student registered, but eventually an
additional 16 female students and five female
facilitators participated in the online module.
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We faced the challenge of designing the module
in ways that would offer new knowledge in
an empowering way for women

AGENDA 71 200758
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What the module entailed
T
he module required students to explore the
concept of well-being and its associated sets of
values in relation to women’s physical, social and
mental health to gain a gendered perspective on
health issues and how they intersect with power
relations in different cultural contexts. It provided
participants the opportunity to compare and
contrast views and experiences with participants
from their own and other geographic locations.
The module culminated in a collaborative group
project in which students analysed and reflected
upon how one particular aspect of women’s
health and well-being – mental health issues, HIV/
AIDS, reproductive health and sexuality, social
well-being or women’s bodily integrity – was
enhanced or compromised in local contexts.
Our collective experience helped us design
a course which not only focused on content (as
many higher education courses are inclined to do)
but also aimed at creating shared knowledge and
experiences that would challenge our students’
preconceptions about women’s health and well-
being, promote shared epistemic authority and
responsibility and confirm the teacher’s new role
as guide (McConnell, 2006). We achieved this in
practice through the following strategy.
Rather than defining the concept of ‘health
and well-being’ for students, they had the
opportunity to construct their own definitions
and share these with their virtual classmates
and facilitators. In so doing, they were able to
assess how these concepts are constructed
across boundaries of difference and geographical
location and then examine the larger implications
of health and well-being against a set of normative
criteria. Subsequently, students working in
heterogeneous, small groups representative
of each participating country explored related
health issues. These strategies were intended to
foster deeper learning and critical thinking.
We used several resources to generate
knowledge on women’s health and well-being.
Rather than asking students to read at the
beginning of the module, we started from
their conceptions and ideas. These were later
challenged and negotiated not only with other
members of the course but with another circle of
‘knowledge agents’ who were women from the
participants’ geographical locations, interviewed
by students about their conceptualisations and
experiences of health and well-being. Only then
were students referred to reading materials
and online texts to elaborate on their ideas and
specific topics. Using this approach created an
atmosphere in which no source of knowledge
was superior to another and in which any
knowledge constructed was respected but
still open for discussion. It also foregrounded
the collective and dialogical construction of
knowledge (McConnell, 2006).
Successes and challenges
Implementation of the module was accomplished
with enthusiasm, joy and creativity by both
collaborators and students. The use of ICT, which
was new to some of the instructors and to many
students, enhanced their knowledge and skills
in designing and participating in future online
courses. This was a very different academic
experience, which allowed for new and unique
methodologies, media and learning strategies.
Getting to know women from other cultures
was an advantage and enabled the students
to learn more through reflective practice about
themselves and other cultures. Because of the
58
Perhaps the greatest challenge encountered
by students during the pilot phase was
an unevenness of ICT accessibility
The use of ICT enhanced their knowledge and skills in
designing and participating in future online courses

Reflections on a collaborative experience: Using ICT in a trans-cultural women’s health module 59
briefing
uniqueness of the module, its learning strategies
and objectives, participants described it as an
empowering experience, which allowed them
a real chance to engage in critical thinking
about themselves and their culture in relation to
women’s health and well-being.
Despite our successes, challenges were
evident for both collaborators and students.
In our analysis, we concluded that perhaps
the greatest challenge encountered by students
during the pilot phase was an unevenness of ICT
accessibility. Students at Makerere University
in Uganda experienced the greatest difficulty,
primarily due to limited internet access outside
the university, followed by students at the
University of the Western Cape in South Africa.
Notwithstanding this and other challenges,
student feedback suggested that the greatest
gain was their perceived enhanced capability to
appreciate and communicate their understanding
of women’s health and well-being from a much
broader set of trans-national inflected lenses.
They attributed this primarily to the design of
the module, calling attention to the degree in
which they and their colleagues from the various
locations were involved in the construction of
shared knowledge.
Students’ perceptions: Voices of
the African students
Althou
gh the parameters of this paper only permit
the inclusion of voices from students in the
African context, analysis of our feedback from
all students in the course indicates that students
from other countries gained a great deal from their
participation in the module. However, students
in Africa reported greater degree of challenge
with respect to technology access than students
outside of the African continent. Because of the
frustration this created for students participating
from the two African sites, some of them failed
to complete the module. Nonetheless, even
these students reported that they were able to
acquire significant insights and learner satisfaction
resulting from the collaborative nature of the
course interaction they experienced.
Health experiences reported by students in
Uganda and South Africa
Students’ reflections on the course note that their
perceptions of health and well-being depended to
a large degree on race, location or environment,
age/generation, historical and cultural contexts.
One Ugandan student wrote:
‘Well-being is a social concept determined
by one’s environment and how people see
themselves in relation to that environment. For
instance, in Africa, well-being can be defined
59
Students meet their peers for online chats to brainstorm and
discuss their assignments.
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in terms of one’s possessions. Cows, goats,
family, land, can all define one’s well being’.
However, despite location-specific definitions of
health and well-being, a number of common
themes emerged from students’ definitions of the
concepts. One of the important themes evident in
interviews was the impact of economic factors on
mental and physical well-being.
‘You can have good health, but when you
don’t have money to buy many necessities,
then your well-being is not good. Because
you cannot get for yourself what you feel
you need for a good life... then I combine the
sickness and the poverty, and I feel that my
well-being is low.’ (18-yea-old girl interviewed
by Ugandan student)
Analysis of African students’ interaction with
peers outside the continent
Generally, students from African countries felt
that they benefited enormously from international,
social interaction with virtual classmates in
northern and southern contexts.
‘To begin with, the online idea is a unique
modern method, which is really fascinating.
I was always filled with awe at how students
can be scattered across the world and continue
to attend class.’ (Ugandan student)
However, communication was not seamlessly
uncomplicated across locations. South African
students, who were black women, expressed
surprise at the brusque manner of some students
in the north, particularly in relation to the facilitators.
This may be a result of lecturers being positioned
by black women as deserving of more respect in
South Africa than other locations.
Students also reflected cross-continentally on
women’s differing positionality in terms of race,
class and gender. Jamaican and African students
often found resonance between how they
understood each others’ positioning. Northern
students tried to make sense of South African and
Ugandan students’ descriptions of the deprivation
of resources and difficulties which ensued
from this. Students reported that although they
were aware of cultural, class and age differences,
their responses to the sub-themes or topics
produced a thread of commonality in that the sub-
themes affected women’s health and well-being
in similar ways.
Students' benefits of taking part in the course
Students reported unexpected benefits which
could not have been anticipated by the course
designers and yet were a most welcome spin-off
of being part of the course:
‘I became more in touch with my own needs
regarding my health and well-being as well
as that of my immediate family’s. I felt more
positive about myself and displayed more
confidence as a woman, as the module helped
me to appreciate my uniqueness as an individual
woman… helped me to realise how much I
have to contribute towards the positive well-
being of other women across cultures.’ (South
African student)
While the excerpt above showed unexpected
health spin-offs for this student, a Ugandan
student reported the antithesis for herself and an
Israeli student:
‘And I will agree with a colleague from Israel
who thought she was actually getting sick
because of the intense examination of health
problems.’ (Ugandan student)
A further reported benefit of participating in
the module was that students’ knowledge was
enhanced and augmented for other components of
their post-graduate courses. The internet’s capacity
60

Reflections on a collaborative experience: Using ICT in a trans-cultural women’s health module 61
briefing
to bring students from disparate geographical
locations together is a modern phenomenon
that produces a richer form of learning through
communication across difference. Furthermore,
the module provided an opportunity to develop
strong connections and lasting bonds and
relationships.
Students also commented on the structure of the
learning tasks and the way in which they impacted
on scaffolded learning experiences. It is gratifying
for the course designers to get feedback that
their intentions when designing the course actually
panned out in the way they were intended to.
‘My very first reading of assignment got
me thinking that wow, isn’t it the simplest
course around. All I had to do was define
health and well-being, without even having to
consult many books. Soon I discovered that
I was absolutely wrong on this assumption.
From the beginning, the structure incites
thought from the students, pushing them to
produce the content that they will later use.
Our analysis capabilities were tested. This
is of course very crucial at a Masters level.’
(Ugandan student)
Challenge of working collaboratively
for students
Students reported how disruptive they found it
when their virtual classmates dropped out of the
course because it disrupted the cohesiveness
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Students from different geographic and cultural contexts engage in collective e-learning sessions.
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AGENDA 71 200762
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of the group and required them to reorganise
their cooperative group activities. A number of
students also commented on time issues – that
there was too much to do in too little time, and
that some classmates were unreliable and tardy
in their submission. McConnell (2006) points out
the importance of course designers and facilitators
understanding the students’ pedagogical
experiences of ICTs and learning networks which
emanate from them.
Different time zones posed challenges for
synchronous chat discussions, but the importance
of being able to meet eventually in a chat room
cannot be underestimated:
‘People across long distances get to talk
to each other after many mails have been
exchanged. You finally get to meet each other
and ask your supervisor the questions you
want to ask. Like a face-to-face exchange.’
(Ugandan student)
The
lack of resources and computer access for
African women posed one of the most significant
challenges for this online module and other potential
ICT experiences for African women. Curran (2001)
points out that online learning is not accessible to
everyone. He indicates that approximately 2% of
adults in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin
America have access to the internet, compared
to 50% in the United States. He further points
out that the distribution of access to the internet
is significantly skewed towards the higher socio-
economic groups in a society.
Finding a home in Africa
Our intention in working together to design and
teach this module collaboratively across multiple
axes of difference – disciplinary, geographic,
social, cultural and economic – was to probe
the effectiveness and efficiency of an ICT-based
learning platform across the differential contexts
highlighted above. We questioned whether
meaningful constructivist learning into the area
of women, gender and health would be feasible
within a web-based setting, given the challenges
of differential experience that our students would
bring to the online classroom environment.
Kamugisha’s (2007) conclusions in his recent
report on the possibility of ICT education’s
potential to aid in the empowerment of women
in Rwanda echo our concerns about exclusionary
factors which deny women and girls access to
ICT. In addition to difficulties of physical access to
ICT resources, evidenced by our students in South
Africa and Uganda, Kamugisha (2007) suggests
that there are other related factors that must be
simultaneously considered, including:
‘Poverty, illiteracy, insufficient access to
education and training and little time as a
result of their multiple roles in families and
communities. In many cultures, moreover,
women are considered less capable of
understanding and operating ICT-based
technologies’.
Since 2005, the collaborators have reflected
upon the effectiveness of the module through
presentations at various conferences at national
and international level. The conclusion was that
it did promote promising pedagogical capacities
and skills in the ICT environment while facilitating
meaningful explorations of women’s health and
well-being. We therefore reconvened in July 2006
to redesign the module based on this feedback. A
major decision taken at this meeting was to relocate
the module from Web-CT at the University of
Maryland, as our one year agreement had expired,
to an open-source learning management system
at the University of the Western Cape in South
Africa, where student participation would not
need to be sponsored by an external institution.
A full-length and revised version of the
module is being offered on this open-source LMS
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Reflections on a collaborative experience: Using ICT in a trans-cultural women’s health module 63
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from February to May 2007. Participating are
students from the University of Maryland, Bar-Ilan
University as well as students from a number of
African countries who are studying either through
the University of the Western Cape or Makerere
University. It is anticipated that there will be
a similar rich exchange of shared knowledge,
resulting in enhanced learning about and capability
to strive for enhanced health and well-being
between the students in Africa as well as outside
of the African continent.
Conclusion
In this paper, we have examined the value of trans-
national collaboration among academics in higher
education and the role of ICTs in achieving team
work. Collective experiences of the designers
and qualitative data from students confirmed the
potential use of ICT to provide valuable learning
experiences for women in Africa and those with
whom they collaborate, despite the limitations of
access to the internet on the continent.
Research in the field of gender and ICTs supports
our finding that women prefer the connectedness
of online collaborative and flexible learning
environments to face-to-face, individual learning,
confined to a particular place or time. The project
would not have been possible without the use of
ICTs to link participants within and across global
contexts. Furthermore, the inter-disciplinarity
of the module and its relevance to real world
concerns on women’s health and well-being made
it an experience with which participants could
identify. Appreciation for the increased intimacy
and democratisation of knowledge that occurs
through e-learning has also been reported by
other researchers reporting on gender and ICTs
in education.
The problem of race, class and gender in
terms of epistemological and physical access to
ICTs in education remains a concern, with poor,
black, African women having the least access.
Other initiatives in southern and other parts of
Africa, such as Women’sNet, Africa WiderNet
and GRACE (Gender Research in Africa into
ICTs for Empowerment), are playing a vital role
in giving African women access to technological
development and could also facilitate the use
of ICTs for the internationalisation of higher
education.
If put to good use, ICTs have the potential
to revolutionise collaboration internationally and,
more particularly, interaction between African
women and those from other continents in higher
education. ICT provides, as we discovered when
implementing our module, a means to engage
participants in the kinds of experiential inquiry and
discovery that promote social and deep learning.
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Hildebrand G (1999) ‘Con/testing Learning Models’, paper
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Kamugisha J (2007) ’ICT education key to women
empowerment in Rwanda’, available at http://newtimes.
co.rw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7
8&Itemid=43, site accessed 19 March 2007.
McConnell D (2006) E-Learning Groups and Communities,
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Oliver R (1999) ‘Exploring strategies for online teaching and
learning’, in Distance Education, 20, 2,240-254.
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Reflections on a collaborative experience: Using ICT in a trans-cultural women’s health module 65
briefing
VIVIENNE BOZALEK is the chairperson of the Department of Social Work at the University
of the Western Cape in South Africa. Her areas of research and expertise include
qualitative and feminist research methodologies, family studies, women and social policy,
post-structural, social justice and ethics of care perspectives and innovative pedagogical
approaches in higher education. She is involved in numerous inter-institutional projects in
teaching and learning and has been recognised as one of the academics at UWC who has
pioneered e-learning in the academy. Email: vbozalek@uwc.ac.za
YASMEEN YUSUF-KHALIL is the programme coordinator for distance education in the Centre
for Gender & Development Studies, Regional Coordinating Unit, at the University of the
West Indies in Jamaica. She has extensive experience as a teacher educator and curriculum
specialist as well as distance educator. Email: yasmeen.yusufkhalil@uwimona.edu.jm
KIMBERLEE STAKING is an advanced graduate student in women’s studies at the
University of Maryland in the United States where she obtained her Masters degree
in Art History in 2000. She currently teaches courses on gender and health as well as
gender and representation at the university. She is working on a dissertation linking
technologies, transnational learning communities and feminist pedagogies. Email:
kimart@starpower.net
RIVKA TUVAL-MASHIACH works at the Department of Psychology and the gender
programme of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. Her research and clinical
practice expertise are in the field of gender and mental health, especially trauma. Her
emphasis is on the efficacy of narrative and cognitive perspectives in coping with
traumatic experience. She has published and lectured extensively about her work with
The Center for Traumatic Stress at the Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem.
Email: rivkati@yahoo.com
GRACE BANTEBYA-KYOMUHENDO is an associate professor and head of the
Department of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University in Uganda. She
is a senior feminist anthropologist and an experienced trainer/lecturer, researcher and
advocate for gender equality and social transformation. Her research interests are in
gender, reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. Email: gbantebya@ss.mak.ac.ug