Charter

Charter of the
Institute of Gender, Globalization, and Democracy
California State University, Northridge

I. Background

This endeavor is part of a larger project started under the auspices of the International Social Science Council. In November, 1998, sixteen scholars and community leaders from Australia, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Senegal, South Korea, Sweden, and the United States met with the International Social Science Council Executive Committee and obtained permission to form an ISSC Research Committee on the topic of "Gender, Globalization, and Democratization."

Other scholars participating in the group but not present in Paris were from Eastern Europe, Jamaica, the Netherlands, and Turkey. Project members represent the disciplines of anthropology, economics, ethics and social policy, international relations, political science, psychology, and sociology. An immediate objective of the Research Committee is to establish local institutes to focus on Gender, Globalization, and Democratization around the globe which will be linked to one another through the ISSC Research Committee network. Each of these centers will think globally but put themselves in a position to do research and act locally, drawing on the strengths and characteristics of their respective regions and personnel.

II. Goals and Purpose of the Institute at Northridge

The Institute on Gender, Globalization, and Democracy (IGGD) at California State University, Northridge focuses on how globalization changes gender relationships and how and under what conditions globalization and other factors can improve the prospects for democratization especially for women, both locally and globally. The Institute is dedicated to the proposition that a democracy that does not include the participation of women fully and equally with men is no democracy at all.

Topics of concern to the Institute for Gender, Globalization, and Democracy include the gendered impact of immigration, the informal economy, the decline in the welfare state, the education of girls, human rights, sexual trafficking, globalization and changing family structures, inequality and its consequences, transnational feminism, transnational organization, and community organizing, including labor organizing.

In each of these endeavors, we ask questions about changes in the global economy and what it takes to make women full economic and political participants in emergent as well as in self-proclaimed democracies, locally and around the world. The mission of the Institute is to create an environment where students, scholars, activists, and public officials can come together on a continuing basis to address central questions on both a local and a global basis. Another part of this mission is to share ideas, course materials, faculty, and students with other similar centers and institutes in the United States and in other countries. Developing web assisted teaching modules that can be used in different parts of the world is a major priority.

The mission of the Institute for Gender, Globalization, and Democracy at CSUN will be to create an environment where students, scholars, activists, and public officials can come together on a continuing basis to address central questions concerning gender, globalization, and democracy on both a local and a global basis.

The Institute is dedicated to the proposition that a society to be democratic must include the participation of women fully and equally with men. More specifically, the goals of the Center are:

1. To foster and encourage research on issues of gender and democratization, gender and immigration, gender and human rights, gender and the informal economies of Los Angeles and elsewhere, gender and the demise of the welfare state, globalization and changing family structure, gender and education, sexual trafficking, and gender and community organizing.
2. To develop a local constituency of students, faculty, and community people interested in the issues involved in the topic of Gender, Globalization, and Democracy. The Institute will seek to hold seminars and workshops that will integrate the interests of academics and community activists, locally, nationally, and internationally. It will seek to link local people with global speakers, global programs, and global concerns.
3. To develop core syllabi and supportive teaching materials, including videos, audio tapes, reading materials and website links that address the issues involved in Gender, Globalization, and Democracy. The vision is that institutes or centers with different kinds of expertise around the world could share their expertise and information with other centers using the internet and other forms of technology. Here we expect to do some experimenting with faculty workshops and distance learning.
4. To raise money for ongoing administrative support and to obtain funding for research and outreach on gender, globalization, and democratization.

III. Organizational Structure

1. The Institute for Gender, Globalization, and Democracy will be a special purpose center under the umbrella of the Center for the Humanities within the School of the Humanities.
2. The Institute will have no less than one director and no more than two co-directors. The director or co-directors will report to the director of the Center for the Humanities and the Dean of the School of Humanities. Every director and do-director will be a CSUN faculty member. The director of co-directors will be responsible for the general operation and administration of the Institute, but may delegate responsibilities for direct operation of any specific program. The director or co-directors, in consultation with the director of the Center for the Humanities, will also be responsible for ensuring that the Institute's activities are consistent with California State University's mission and policies.
3. The director or co-directors will assist the director of the Center for the Humanities in submitting an annual program and financial report to the Campus Board of Directors, the Community Advisory Board, the Dean of the School of Humanities, and the Vice President for Academic Affairs. The director or co-directors will work with the Dean of the School of Humanities to allocate funds, and with the director of the Center for the Humanities and the Dean of the School of Humanities to staff projects and to arrange for space, equipment, supplies, and other resources and facilities necessary to support and promote the Institute's projects.
4. The Institute will have a campus Board of Directors which will include the Institute's director or co-directors and at least five CSUN faculty members. The campus Board of Directors will help set the agenda for the Center, be a resource group to which the director or co-directors can bring topics for discussion and decision and it will audit programs and activities of the Center and review its financial operations. The Campus Board of Directors will meet at least once a year.

IV. Selection of Directors and Advisory Group Members

1. The initial director or co-directors will be appointed by the Dean of the School of Humanities. Once the Institute has existed for two academic years, the director or co-directors will be elected by the Institute's campus advisory committee, after it has solicited open nominations and subject to the approval of the Dean of the School of Humanities. Terms of directors and co-directors will normally be two academic years, but the same person may serve up to three consecutive terms.
2. The initial members of the Campus Board of Directors will be selected by the Institute's director or co-directors in consultation with the director of the Center for the Humanities and the Dean of the School of Humanities. Once the Institute has existed for one academic year, campus advisory committee members for the following academic year will be selected by the director or co-directors in consultation with the director of the Center for the Humanities and the Dean of the School of Humanities.
3. Terms for members of the Campus Board of Directors will normally be for two academic years. The same person may serve for up to six consecutive terms. The campus Board of Directors will elect a chair annually. The campus Board of Directors will elect a secretary who will be responsible for ensuring that minutes are prepared for each meeting and distributed in a timely fashion to all members of the campus advisory committee, all members of the Community Advisory Board (if any), the Director of the Center for the Humanities, and the Dean of the School of Humanities.

V. Funding

1. The Center will be a self- supporting operation funded by donations, grants, trust funds, and contracts from public and private sources, as well as by proceeds generated from any Institute projects, programs, or courses. Any surplus funds will be expended on Institute projects, programs, speakers, exchange programs, courses, on travel to relevant or institute sponsored conferences, on scholarships or prizes for student research on gender, globalization, and democracy or for service to communities concerned with advancing the mission of the Institute.
2. The director or co-directors, the director of the Center for the Humanities, and the Dean of the School of Humanities will be jointly responsible for financial transactions of the Institute. The administration of funding will be through the Women's Studies Department.
3. The Institute's annual report will be generated by the Director of the Institute; its format will be as follows:
   • The report will be in the form of a memorandum to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
   • The report will include the following information:
     1. Name of the Institute
     2. Name(s) of the director or co-directors
     3. Names of the Members of the Campus Board of Directors
     4. Names of the Members of the Community Advisory Board, if any.
     5. Summary of Activities Sponsored by the Institute
     6. Financial Summary (to include at least the following information):
        1. Balances in accounts remaining from previous academic year
        2. Sources of income and amount received during the reported academic year
        3. Anticipated balances as of June 30 of the reported academic year
        4. Name of agency handling funds and accounting
        5. Income and balance sheets, if available,
        6. Descriptions of the Institute's projects, programs, or courses, including information about the extent of faculty and other participation and other general indicators of effectiveness of those projects, programs, or courses (as an appendix),
        7. Copies of minutes of Board of Director's Meetings.

VI. Resources Required

1. The Institute will not need additional space.
2. Funding required for the Institute will come from donations, grants, trust funds, and contracts from public and private sources, as well as from proceeds generated from any Institute projects, programs or courses. The director or co-directors will work with the Director of the Center for the Humanities to obtain funding from public and private sources.
3. The director or co-directors will work with the Dean of the School of Humanities to allocate funds, and with the director of the Center for the Humanities and the Dean of the School of Humanities to staff projects, programs, or courses, and to arrange for space, equipment, supplies, and other resources and facilities necessary to support and promote the Institute's projects, programs, or courses.

VII. Annual Report on Activities

An annual report on activities will be included in the Institute's annual report and submitted to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

VIII. Outline of Center's Past Activities

The Institute operated initially during the period, 1999-2000, 2000-2001, and 2001-2002. During this time, the director, Jane Bayes, used a released time grant from the Institute to obtain a major five year grant of $400,000 from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education in the United States Department of Education called the North American Mobility Project. This grant was on the topic of Globalization and Democratization in North America with an emphasis on gender. It involved an exchange of students and faculty and curriculum development between two Mexican universities, University of Guanajuato, and ITESO University in Guadelajara; two Canadian universities, Carleton University in Ottawa and the University of Alberta in Edmonton; and three United States universities, the University of Texas at Dallas, Rutgers University in New Jersey, and California State University Northridge. In addition to the grant activities of exchanging students, developing regular curriculum on gender, globalization and democratization, experimenting with and developing web based curriculum for this grant, and engaging in faculty teaching exchanges, the Institute has also conducted an annual film festival at California State University Northridge on the theme of gender and globalization and sponsored or co-sponsored a series of speakers on campus every year. During the last three years in the month of May, the Institute has initiated and co-sponsored (with the help of other campus sponsors) an international conference on gender and migration at California State University, Northridge. Professor Breny Mendoza as a member of the Campus Board of Directors obtained funding from the California Wellness Foundation to hold a major international dialogue of Central American women with Central American living in Los Angeles in 2002. Nayereh Tohidi during the entire history of the IGGD has used the Institute to connect CSUN with the Iranian community in Los Angeles by hosting speakers and organizing teach-ins about topics such as the war in Afghanistan and the condition of women in Iran. Most recently, in 2003-2004, Professor Tohidi helped the Institute to co-sponsor a talk by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi.

In addition to these activities, members of the Institute have collaborated with one another and with other scholars in presenting papers and panels at the Women's Studies Association meetings, at the Western and American and International Political Science Association meetings, and at the International Studies Association meetings. Jane Bayes co-edited and authored chapters in a book, Gender, Globalization and Demcratization published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2001. Nayereh Tohidi and Jane Bayes co-edited a book entitled Globalization, Gender, and Religion published by Palgrave Publishers in 2001.

During the years, 1999-2003, the Institute ran a film series which featured a film about gender and globalization in different parts of the world.

In March of 2003, the network of which the IGGD is a part became an official component of the Scientific Research Committee of the International Social Science Council. The International Social Science Council (ISSC) is an association of professional social science associations that now sponsors three scientific research committees. The Scientific Research Committee on Gender, Globalization and Democratization now joins two other ISSC interdisciplinary scientific research committees, one on poverty and one on the environment.

IX. Period of Operation

The Institute will be dissolved as of June 30, 2014, unless its charter is renewed prior to that date. All projects and component organizations of the Institute will be automatically dissolved at the end of those fixed periods unless renewed by the director or co-directors, the director of the Center for the Humanities, or the Dean of the School of Humanities.