Woman's Studies Center

The Centreâs main aim is to provide education and consciousness raising of women in Croatia by covering cross-cultural issues from a women-centred perspective. The Centre provides basic insights into feminist epistemology, women within cultural theories, theories of identities, and womenâs awareness of the self by providing new models of education that fulfil and complement the formal education obtained in the university sphere.

It also strives to strengthen the possibilities that affect political change by addressing questions concerning topics of interest to women: creating individual change and empowerment; linking women's movements with a more global vision; raising the awareness of women's human rights and their rights to equal education, and addressing the issues of violence against women and sexism within society.

As the only such Centre in Croatia, it seeks to support women in their endeavours to become more active in the community by creating a public awareness of womenâs issues that are relevant to society and politics; by teaching women from political parties, NGOs and leaders from within local communities pertinent skills in order for them to be able to publicly represent and advocate gender equality, anti-sexism and anti-chauvinism, womenâs human rights, and womenâs education. The Centre seeks to promote the importance of womenâs roles in society and in democratisation and to support women in their pursuit for leadership in various capacities. The value of our program lies precisely in the very fact that no such education exists in Croatia and that the courses, seminars, training programs, public events, research and publishing offered by the Centre serve to fill this gap in the education of women.

The main activity of the Centre is its Womenâs Studies program. Womenâs Studies is an important and respected discipline within the academic sphere throughout the world, but the opportunity for such education is lacking in the regular academic sphere in Croatia. The Womenâs Studies program complements other university/academic programs by providing women with a new model of education as an alternative to the mainstream model which mostly avoids pertinent issues related to women. The program is interdisciplinary, bringing together womenâs contributions from a wide range of disciplines including the social sciences and humanities. Through its run of 13 regular courses, 15 seminars, various workshops, public lectures and cultural events, Womenâs Studies aims to provide a sound educational foundation for women÷to provide them with contemporary feminist theories and controversies, to support them in their research, to promote new ways of knowing, to encourage them in their activism and pursuit of political involvement. The program offers a fresh perspective to the traditional educational system by creating and communicating knowledge.

During these last five years, more than 150 students have attended the Womenâs Studies program and more than 700 women from different womenâs groups, organizations and civil initiatives along with women from political parties and other individuals have participated in various ways in the additional activities that the Centre has held and organized (including: seminars, conferences, workshops, and public cultural events).

The program itself is ongoing, running over two semesters of every academic year. As the program is not yet affiliated with a university, the Centre offer certificates of participation, as well as recommendations for further enrolment in similar programs in Europe and abroad. The Centre expects, however, that this program will become a permanent fixture in Croatian society and that it be formally accepted in academic circles and officially recognised within the university itself. The Centre for Women's Studies also offers additional training seminars and workshops for women's groups in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, and Slovenia in feminist education; women's power and leadership; decision-making procedures; and women's role in reconciliation programs in southern and central Europe and countries in transition. The Womenâs Studies program takes place in Zagreb and it operates on the financial and moral support of various foundations, womenâs organisations and private donors who are sympathetic to the promotion of Womenâs Studies and womenâs research in the world.

The Centre strives to create a new model of learning through a combination of academic styles of teaching and alternative approaches, affirmation of experiential approaches, use of creative dialogues, use of video and slide presentations, stimulating active participation on the part of students by initiating creative experiments as part of its program (i.e. dance workshop as exploring oneâs own body through movement and expression and performative acts). Various methods are used in the achieving of knowledge (such as transdisciplinary approaches in courses, the use of exercises for self-awareness and political presentations, relaxation techniques are used for empowering women etc.) The educational program consists of lectures, seminars and workshops, and there exist the possibilities for students to create their own sessions or to initiate their own research projects according to their needs and interests. The Centre includes mentorship as an integral part of the learning and educational process. The Centre for Womenâs Studies offers additional hours of mentorship for students attending the Womenâs Studies program. This time is also made available to students attending any of the Faculties of the University of Zagreb who are not enrolled in the Womenâs Studies program and who require assistance in the choosing of seminar topics, undergraduate diploma essays or masters dissertations which are related to womenâs issues. Mentorship takes the form of various types of support, supervision, and tutoring.

Responses to the question: ăThe three things that I learned were·ä

• I am happy that Iâm a woman; being a woman means responsibility, but also ădangerä; together we are stronger.
• Itâs important to acknowledge female nature; to resist injustice and to react against violence against women; to shatter stereotypes against women.
• That feminisms do not rest on weak grounds; that I am a woman; that womenâs theories are interesting.
• Support; tolerance; communication.
• Awareness of oneself; to be creative in oneâs differences; be active!
• I received new outlooks; I learned to be more open towards others; I became aware of what feminism is.
• For my womanâs rights I have to struggle with better arguments; I learned that the space of literature is empty of womenâs consciousness; that for womenâs struggle we need a comprehensive womenâs theory of knowledge.

Note: The majority of the students emphasized that womenâs studies is different from the ăofficialä academic studies in its approach to work; the ways of learning; new knowledge and efforts by the lecturers to develop different relations with their students.

• I learned to bring attention to my own voice, which was ignored or silenced elsewhere.
• I changed the relation of my own environment: I started caring about listening to othersâ thoughts, but I also knew that I have the right that other people listen to me as well.
• I always lived in a ăghettoä of non-governmental organizations; only now do I see that I can communicate with women from other worlds.
• Finally I feel ănormalä, or, rather, cosmopolitan.
• I didnât change that much personally, but I did learn a lot about the different types of methodology which were never discussed at the university before, along with critical literature.
• I finally understood that a place exists where I can be surrounded by psycho-social support.
• I learned to articulate my thoughts.
• I began bringing menâs attention to the fact that society is composed of 51% women - ordinarily that number would impress them enough for them to listen to what I have to say.
• We women, belonging to an older generation, were taught to care only for others, and that if we did something for ourselves, that we were being ăselfishä. Now I see that this was a form of a very dire repression.
• I understood that being a feminist does not mean being an enemy of men, but a friend of oneâs femaleness.
• I learned to speak using the female, and not, male gender.
• Womenâs Studies helped me to better understand myself and feminism; as a result I lost a lot of traditional friends.
• I learned that feminism in Croatia was built up through a series of negative stereotypes, and that my voice could change this.
• I learned to recognize and expose the language of sexism.
• I now know where to get information about repression and I know how to fight against this.

The research project ăWomen Within Civil Initiativesä is a project that was initiated by the Centre for Womenâs Studies in 1997. Five associates from the Centre (all former students of the Womenâs Studies program) and one coordinator are involved in the conceptualization and realization of this project.

The main objective of this project is the evaluation of the role and power of women within civil initiatives in Croatia through the promotion and affirmation of alternative political values including: womenâs, ecological, peace, spiritual and other. The research was conducted through the multisite-multimethod approach and 45 women were interviewed through a combination of interviews and analysis, interdisciplinary approach and qualitative methodology along with theoretical insights into contemporary feminist literature and the theory of civil society. Within the framework of the project an international conference ăWomen Within Civil Initiativesä was held in June 1998 in Zagreb. The project is now in its final phase and the final outcome will be the publication of 2 editions (Croatian and English) of the results of the conducted interviews accompanied with a theoretical overview.

After finishing the conducting of 45 interviews (which is comprised of over 1000 pages of material), the members of this research project concentrated on qualitative analysis of the content of the interviews as the basis for inclusion in the 5 key paradigms (identity, self-changes, power, womenâs politics, and cultural values). Intensive work within the work teams concerning each of the paradigms took place throughout the latter half of the year and by the end of the year, all the paradigms were brought closest to the final version. At the same time, the research team carried out preparatory work for the methodological and theoretical conceptualization of the content to be included in a book (the concrete results of this project will be published as a book in two language editions: Croatian and English, and each will feature approx. 350 pages. Editor: Vesna Barilar).

This project is part of a larger international research project of the same name and involves womenâs groups and centres from Prague (Gender Studies Center); Berlin (OWEN); Krakow (eFKa); Belgrade/Novi Sad (Center for Womenâs Studies) and Croatia (Centre for Womenâs Studies - Zagreb).

The goal of the project is the search for womenâs identity during the time of socialism on the basis of authentic testimonies from women of various generations through in-depth open interviews. The first phase of the project concentrated on interviewing women born in the 1920s to the 1940s. Through the recording of womenâs stories, we learn of our own history and of womenâs roots, and in turn receive valuable material for researching the sense and dynamics of the development of socialism as a social system.

This research/search for identity/identities of women during socialism is conducted through combined methods of cultural anthropology and ethnology (ălife storyä and ăoral historyä) and a feminist approach to the knowing womenâs identity. To date, there have been 28 interviews conducted with women of various status, political roles, class and ethnic belonging.

The project aims to continue with the cooperation between researchers from other countries included in the project as well as the exchange of information and comparative analysis of the similarities and differences of lives, roles and political activism of women during socialism. In addition to an international working seminar which was held in June 1999 (see details further in report) the researchers have held regular sessions on different topics concerning womenâs histories and methodology as well as evaluations of the research completed to date.

This research project had its start in 1996 and it was initially conceptualized as a serious analysis of the images of women throughout the media in Croatia during the period of war (1991-1996) of which the potential outcomes are expected to be published in a future edition of the Centreâs publications. This ongoing project has developed through various phases and with various dynamics concerning the interests and motivation of the students and associates of the Centre. The project has since developed into four directions:

The research project ăWomen Within the Universityä was begun in 1998 with the aim of revealing the actual status of women at the various faculties of the University of Zagreb through analyzing the status of women professors, assistants and scholars within the institutions of higher learning in Croatia (how women perceive their role within the hierarchical structure of the university; whether they perceive gender as an important factor in career development; issues related to sexual harassment, etc.). The project started with the presumption that it is much more difficult for women get far in scientific fields or to higher positions within the university. Through using qualitative methodology the project was envisioned as an open interview with women assistants, professors and scholars at the faculties of the University of Zagreb. The interviews themselves contain 60 questions which are related to the 5 paradigms important for the research, namely: discrimination/sexual harassment; feminist pedagogy; family; model of successful scholar; awareness of femaleness/awareness of oneself.

Direct results of this research project were the holding of 2 seminars at the Centre: ăDiscrimination, Sexual Harassment and Womenâs Human Rightsä and ăSexual Harassment at the Universityä. The seminars opened up the questions of discrimination, sexual harassment, the status of women within the university system, and the question of womenâs human rights. The focus was on defining the problem, contradictions of theory and practice, presence in the media and discussion of the results of the research project itself and of concrete projects. The students who attended these seminars showed a great interest in the project itself and their suggestions and experiences will be used in the future development of the project itself.

The pilot phase of the project, which saw the interviewing of 8 professors, has been completed. The experiences obtained through this mini-research will serve as a basis for further future work on this theme. The second phase of this project (to be conducted in the Spring of 2000) will be look at expanding the research team itself and to encompass the various faculties by including the conducting of interviews with not only female professors but male professors and students (both female and male) as well.

Project leaders: Petra Neuner and Andreja Zeljak

Publisher: Centre for Womenâs Studies - Zagreb / December 1999

ISSN: 1331-7237

Number of Pages: 162 pp.

Language: Texts in Croatian/Abstracts in English

This anthology of relevant feminist art criticism texts concentrates on imposing a feminist standpoint to visual arts and women's art at the end of the 20th century and covers a time period spanning over several decades while attempting to show all the important and various approaches to questions, issues and problems in feminist theory of art from its very beginnings to today.

The idea for this anthology originated within the regular course of the Womenâs Studies program: ăWomen's Contribution to Visual Culture-Theory and Interpretation.ä While this book is primarily intended for the students of the Womenâs Studies program, it will also be a handy reference for artists, art historians as well as the cultural public interested in learning more about visual arts and the issues surrounding womenâs artistic practice.

Key feminist art criticism texts are translated from the following authors: Judith Barry & Sandy Flitterman-Lewis; Christine Battersby; Whitney Chadwick; Joanna Frueh; Mary Kelly; Kate Linker; Laura Mulvey; Linda Nochlin; Griselda Pollock; and Lise Vogel.

Publisher: Centre for Womenâs Studies - Zagreb/December 1999

Editor: Ljiljana Koleűnik

Translated into Croatian by: Jasenka Zajec

ISBN: 953-97414-3-2

Number of Pages: 292 pp.

Language: Croatian

This anthology of selected works looks at cyberfeminism as the theory of resistance, desire, freedom, and experience... and artists, theoreticians and activists from Australia, Russia, Germany, Canada, the US write about all this. The texts represent the most important texts published in the last few years regarding the relation of women and (new/old) technologies.

Publisher: Centre for Womenâs Studies - Zagreb/June 1999

ISBN: 953-97414-2-4

Number of Pages: 220 pp.

Language: Croatian

There are 21 permanent leaders and more than 30 other women who contribute at the Centre for Womenâs Studies holding various seminars and workshops.

Gattin, Iva Nerina - Dip.H.E. in Contemporary Dance, works as a free-lance dancer/performer, teacher, choreographer, initiator of dance group LLINKT!

Koleűnik, Ljiljana - Ph.D. and M.A. in art history, works as a scholar at the Institute of Art History, Zagreb, editor of the book: Feminist Art Criticism and Visual Art Theory: Selected Readings, has published various articles and reviews on the history of art.

Sarnavka, Sanja - B.A. in Comparative Literature and Yugoslav Languages and Literature. Member of B.a.B.e. - Womenâs Human Rights Group and of the project ăWomen in the Mediaä. Program coordinator of the CELS at the Croatian-American Society Centre.

Uzelac, Maja - B.A. in Philosophy, freelance social sciences and humanities editor, co-author of several social science textbooks including: Lexicon of Basic Political Terms (1990, Zagreb), Sociology (1992, Zagreb), coordinator of NGO Small Step-Centre for Culture of Peace and Nonviolence, training of trainers in conflict resolution.