SWEDISH SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES NETWORK

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School of Social and Health Sciences, Halmstad University:

Postal address: Sektionen för Hälsa och Samhälle, Högskolan i Halmstad, Box 823, SE-301 18 Halmstad, Sweden
Visiting address: Kristian IV:s väg 3
Fax: +46 (0)35 16 72 64
Web page: http://www.hh.se/home/research/researchathalmstaduniversity/
departments/schoolofsocialandhealthsciences.4.7ba16c7a111267a0653800081866.html

Contact person: Associate Professor Kazuki Iwanaga, Head of Political Science studies, phone:+46 (0)35 16 72 98

South Asia related research at the department

Kazuki Iwanaga is is a researcher working on International Politics and Democracy, focused on Asia and Japan. Gradually his research field has extended into dealing with Women in politics. He is now working on a project on ”The impact of gender on public policies in Asia”, involving researchers from Sri Lanka and India. In November 2004 he received a three-years grant from Sida/SAREC for this project.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to test empirically the impact of gender on public policies in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia. Research on gender politics has examined whether female legislators have a different policy agenda than male legislators. One of the questions to be asked in this study is whether it makes any difference if national assemblies are made up of women or men. Another related question is whether women who have only token representation in the national legislatures of these four countries are able to represent women‚s interests and policy areas which are of concern to women. It aims to explore the generalizability of findings about whether women legislate differently than men in the context of the developing countries.

The South Asian researchers involved are Dr. Anula Attanayake, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of History, University of Ruhuna, Matara Sri Lanka, and Professor Pam Rajput, Professor of Political Science and Director, Centre for Women's Studies at the Punjab University, Chandigarh, India.

International Conference on Women and Politics in Asia

In June 2003 the department, in collaboration with the Centre for Asian Studies, Göteborg University; the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS), Copenhagen; and the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, arranged the International Conference on Women and Politics in Asia. See the invitation to conference.
A SASNET research planning grant was given to enable researchers from South Asia to participate in the conference, that became a great success with 100 participating researchers from all over the World, most of them from Asia. Scientifically the conference resulted in three books published in 2004, and the formation of an international network of researchers within the field of women and politics in Asia.
In November 2004 a follow-up conference was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a conference organised by the Institute of Human Development & Training, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka, and focusing on various issues related to women and politics in Asia. More information on the Second International Conference on Women and Politics in Asia.

The 4th International Conference on Women and Politics in Asia entitled 'Women in Politics in Asia 2007: A Springboard for Democracy?' will be held in Ottawa, Canada, 4–6 October 2007. This conference which aims to reflect upon links between democracy and the feminization of the halls of political power in Asia, is soliciting papers for the following four themes: Political Actors and Institutions; Public Policy; Political Theory and Citizenship Discourses and Feminist Movements. A 250 word paper proposal should be sent along with the name and institutional location of the presenter and the title of the presentation by the end of March 2007. More information.