A Global Initiative for Celebrating Women’s Stories
Join Us.
The Oxford Initiative engages across academia, policy, and activism to explore global ethics and human rights with an emphasis on women’s lived experiences.
Our two flagship projects are the Global Women's Narratives Project, which has university and nonprofit partnerships around the world, and the Oxford Workshops, short courses held at the University of Oxford on current issues across war and peace, democracy, religion, and refugee policy, including experiential field components.
Our short courses draw on Oxford faculty from across disciplines and colleges, international faculty, and dedicated practitioners and policymakers. Our Fellows commit to co-teaching seminars and collaborating on new and existing projects. Our executive board, global advisory board, and teams of special advisors help oversee our workshops and the Global Women’s Narratives Project. Our War and Peace Series is biennial with the next public workshop in 2024.
Announcements
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Brooke Bacigal to Beijing
Brooke Bacigal, manager of our editing teams at Oxford this past year, is heading on to complete a Masters degree at Tsinghua University in Beijing as a Schwarzman Scholar. Brooke has volunteered with GWNP since 2019 and has been an integral part of our work through her time at Oxford. Thank you, Brooke. Love and best wishes.
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Resonate Joy partnership
Resonate Joy Nonprofit, an arm of the Optimum Joy private practice in Chicago, IL, USA, is partnering with the Global Women’s Narratives Project to provide trauma-informed training and therapeutic support. Trauma specialists lead sessions in Oxford training and will be joining the work in Northern Ireland in September. Welcome.
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Karosanidze joins Advisory Board
Tamar Karosanidze joins our Advisory Board and hosts a project visit to Tbilisi, Georgia. Formerly Deputy Minister of Defence of Georgia, she is a Chief of Party (CoP) at the USAID-funded civil society support project Advancing CSO Capacities and Engaging Society for Sustainability (ACCESS) project. Welcome.
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Tafadar launches HR org for girls
Advisory Board member Sultana Tafada launched an international organisation to inform and empower girls across the world on their rights. Tafada is a criminal barrister in the UK and was appointed King’s Counsel last year. GWNP founder Dr Boyd-Judson serves on the advisory board of Girls Human Rights Hub.
HISTORY OF THE PRESENT
Belfast Opera House 2023
The Global Women’s Narratives Project is honoured to be a creative partner with Maria Fusco’s new experimental opera-film History of the Present made collaboratively by Maria Fusco and Margaret Salmon, featuring new compositions by Annea Lockwood and improvisational vocal work by Héloïse Werner.
Maria Fusco, who grew up beside a peace-line in Belfast during The Troubles, forefronts working-class women’s voices to ask: who has the right to speak and in what way? The work commemorates the 25th anniversary of The Good Friday Agreement.
We believe in the power of storytelling.
GLOBAL WOMEN’S NARRATIVES PROJECT
Whether in conflict studies, medicine, religion, or global activism, women’s lived experiences are underrepresented and marginalized. We believe women’s narratives be used as mechanisms for inspiration and influence. Through our archival platform, we engage the personal and collective power of women’s lived experiences. We are creating a database of narratives that storytellers, policymakers, scholars, lawyers, health practitioners, and human rights advocates can use to affect change. MORE
Images above: North St Festival, Belfast, Northern Ireland; women in Brazil; Merton College, Oxford University; and GWNP Advisory Board member Kimberley Motley in Afghanistan.
About 2023.
OXFORD-TBILISI-NORTHERN IRELAND—EXCEPTIONAL STORIES & NEW PARTNERSHIPS
This year’s focus is growing our flagship women’s narratives project with new partnerships and a funding drive to prepare the archival site for launch. (We will offer public workshops next in 2024.)
We selected thirty volunteer graduate and undergraduate students to join our project editing teams across Oxford terms. During the Oxford training days, we prepared teams of interviewers and editors to receive women’s stories from Tbilisi, Georgia, and Northern Ireland. MORE
About 2022.
OXFORD-GREECE-NORTHERN IRELAND—DOUBLE SESSIONS & NEW TRAUMA TRAINING
Over sixty of us gathered at the University of Oxford in July and August 2022 to enjoy an extraordinarily successful conjunction of training, travel, and community. We led two intensive week-long sessions held at St. Catherine’s College and Merton College, followed by on-site women’s narratives work in Greece and Northern Ireland. MORE
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PROF NAZILA GHANEA AT OPENING RECEPTION
Prof. Ghanea opened the August 2022 workshop with a short talk about her new role as UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Prof. Ghanea is Professor of International Human Rights Law, Director of International Human Rights Law Programmes, University of Oxford.
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TBILISI, GEORGIA, 2022
Boyd-Judson, chair of Oxford Initiative, with Tamar Karosanidze, former Deputy Minister of Defence of Georgia, founder of Transparency International in Georgia, currently the Chief of Party of a large Civil Society Support Project in Georgia. Ms. Karosanidze led a session at the August 2022 workshop.
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GWNP INTERVIEWS, GREECE 2022
New GWNP delegates take a woman’s narrative at the Women’s refugee center. Field interviews in Greece were led by Ms. Manas Ghanem, UNHCR Protection Consultant, MA Conflict Transformation, Fellow, Oxford Center for Resolution of Intractable Conflict, and Oxford Initiative Fellow.
