McMillan -Stewart Lecture Series

The McMillan-Stewart lectures are coordinated by the MIT Program in Gender and Women's Studies and are organized by the holder of the namesake chair, Lerna Ekmekcioglu, of the MIT History Faculty since 2011. Endowed by Geneviève McMillan, the lectures provide a space for scholars, artists, journalists, activists, and other experts to reflect on issues related to women in the developing world, specifically (but not exclusively) in the Middle East and North Africa. Lectures are free and open to the public.

Upcoming Lectures

Past Lectures

All Events
Reorienting the Global: Muslim Women, Travel Writing & Alimentary Identities

This talk will be about how South Asian Muslim women used food in their travel writings to distinguish between self and other, shedding light on the role of alimentary identities in shaping colonialism, postcoloniality, nationalism, and globalization.

McMillan Stewart Lecture Series: Baking for God, the Virgin, and the Angels: Gendered Food Traditions in the Coptic Orthodox Christian Community with Professor Febe Armanios

This talk, as part of the McMillan Stewart Lecture Series, will survey the broad ways that gender plays a role in food traditions within the Coptic Orthodox Christian community, both in Egypt and in diasporic contexts. Please join us on April 27 at 5pm in 14E-304.

Abortion in South Africa Under Apartheid (1948-1994)

Please join us as Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Susanne M. Klausen joins us to discuss abortion in South Africa under apartheid during the years between 1948 and 1994.

This event will take place on November 7 at 5 pm in room 3-333. This event will be open to the public.

Biannual McMillan-Stewart Lecture Series: Jennifer Denetdale

Biannual McMillan-Stewart Lecture Series with Jennifer Rose Denetdale: “Building the Perfect Human to Invade: An Indigenous Feminist Queer Analysis of the Pandemic on the Navajo Nation”

Virtual event. RSVP for zoom link: tinyurl.com/denetdale

Zahra Ali: Women, Gender and Feminisms in Iraq: between state collapse, social movements and fragmentation

Biannual McMillan-Stewart Lecture Series with Zahra Ali: “Women, Gender and Feminisms in Iraq: between state collapse, social movements and fragmentation”

Location: 2 - 105

Amahl Bishara: Against Fragmentation: Palestinian Women's Engagement Across the Green Line

Against Fragmentation: Palestinian Women's Engagement Across the Green Line

3-133

Women's mobility across the Green Line that divides Israel and the West Bank is shaped by both traditional forms of economic and cultural practices as well as by Israel's gendered policies of division and enclosure of different Palestinian populations. 

McMillan Stewart Workshop: Feminist Interventions in Armenian Studies, Armenian Interventions in Feminist Studies

A workshop organized by Melissa Bilal and Lerna Ekmekcioglu, MIT History

MIT Campus, building 4 room 4-237

Sponsors:
MIT McMillan-Stewart Chair, Women and Gender Studies Program
Institute of International Education
Armenian International Women's Association
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
Mirak Family Foundation

“State of the Arab Family and the Family of the Arab State”

Biannual McMillan-Stewart lecture on Women in the Developing World: with Suad Joseph presenting “State of the Arab Family and the Family of the Arab State”

3-370

Can the ‘Woman Question’ Be Answered? The Curious Case of France, 1400 to the Present
The Arab War against Rape as a Weapon of War

Mcmillan-Stewart Biannual lecture on Women in the Developing World
Miriam Cooke, Braxton Craven Professor of Arab Cultures at Duke University
MIT 3-370
 

Women of Thrift, Men of Capital: Gender and Economy in Palestine

Sherene Seikaly, Assistant Professor, Department of History University of California, Santa Barbara, Intro by Sa'ed Atshan, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies Swarthmore College,Tuesday March 8, 5 PM, Bldg 3 Room 133

Why 'Tolerance' Misses the Point: Legality of Sexual and Religious Difference in Islamic Law

Anver Emon, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Relligion, Pluralism and the Rule of Law, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, Wednesday, December 2, 5 PM Bldg 3 Room 270

Memory Matters: Gender and Politics of Knowledge Production on the Armenian Genocide

Hourig Attarian, Concordia University and Melissa Blilal, Columbia University, Monday, April 13, 5 PM, Bldg 4 Room 270

The Violence of Denial: Turkish Women's Memories of Armenians, 1789-2009

Fatma Müge Göçek, University of Michigan, Monday, November 3, 4 PM, Bldg 3 Room 333

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