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Porf Dr Hew (front row, right) with YB Datuk Hajah Fatimah in the group photo with the students and staff of UNIMAS as well as professional colleagues. Also in attendance is YBhg Prof Dato’ Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi, Vice Chancellor of UNIMAS.
KOTA SAMARAHAN, 3rd May 2017: Gender equity is not just women’s problem, but a problem for all, where men are needed to participate as partners, to narrow the gender gap were part of lectures presented byProfessor Dr Hew Cheng Sim during the 9th Inaugural Professorial Lecture series on Wednesday, held at the Pusat Islam Tun Abang Salahuddin (PITAS),
Prof Dr Hew Cheng Sim, is a Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, UNIMAS, whose research interest include gender and development, urbanization, marriage, family and work with a focus on Sarawak.
With a presentation by entitled ‘Engendering Gender Research in Sarawak’, Prof Dr Hew focused on reflections on feminist epistemology and methodology as well as focusing on the state of the study of women and gender relations in development of Sarawak.
“Women have always been embedded in an anthropological discussion of marriage, family and kinship structures”, she explained, while further elaborate that they were so embedded that they became buried in the morass of data on culture and social organization in the longhouse or village.
Concluding her presentation, “How do we engender research? We do this by shining our research lens on the situation and experiences of a specific group of women because women are not a homogenous category.”
“Their interests are diverse and they stand in different positions from one another, separated by class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, abilities, age and geographical location,” she added.
The lecture series, which is the ninth hosted by UNIMAS, was also attended by YB Datuk Hajah Fatimah Abdullah, the Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing of Sarawak, YBhg Prof Dato’ Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi, Vice-Chancellor of UNIMAS, Dr Neilson Mersat, the Dean of Faculty Social Sciences as well as staff and students of the university.
Article by Yulhardy Budiman
Photo by Azlandy M.A.T
