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Theme: Gender and Sports in Africa’s Development

The 2010 Gender Institute selected the theme of Gender and Sports in Africa’s Development: Towards Gender Equality in Sports in Africa. This builds on the debates on the same theme held during the 2009 edition of the Annual Gender Symposium held in Cairo in November 2009. The papers presented at this symposium revealed a marked gender disparity within the African sports space.

Each year, since 1994, CODESRIA has organised a Gender Institute which brings together 12 to 15 researchers for between four to six weeks of concentrated debate, experience-sharing and knowledge-building. During the first few years of the existence of the Institute, its main objective centred on the promotion of a generalised gender awareness in the African social research community. The Institute has subsequently been organised around specific themes designed to strengthen the use of gender as an analytic category that is integral both to the output of African social researchers and the emergence of a networked community of scholars versed in the field of Gender Studies. The theme that has been selected for the 2010 Institute is: Gender and Sports in Africa’s Development.

The 2010 Gender Institute selected the theme of Gender and Sports in Africa’s Development: Towards Gender Equality in Sports in Africa. This builds on the debates on the same theme held during the 2009 edition of the Annual Gender Symposium held in Cairo in November 2009. The papers presented at this symposium revealed a marked gender disparity within the African sports space. To this end, the 2010 Gender Institute seeks to encourage researchers to explain and comprehend the recognized causes of this disparity and to urge them to take a critical look at sports, particularly from a gender perspective.

Sports is a set of practices which are grouped in three different categories: educational sports, which includes physical education in schools; leisure sports comprehended as a physical activity for relaxation and leisure time occupation; finally, competitive sports managed by national and international sports federations. It is now accepted that sports, in its different methods of exercise, is a universe that reproduces the dominant social values and reflects trends in the overall society (Pocciello, 1997). Indeed, the sports space cannot be detached from the overall social situation nor can it be regarded as a neutral and closed space. Furthermore, the field of sports is dynamic and therefore responsive to time and social changes. As such, it constitutes a space for building socio-cultural elements that promote the expression of stereotypes linked with gender differences and provides information on gender relations (Laberge, 2004). In this perspective, the gender approach is part of a development logic that admits the effectiveness of both sexes for the accomplishment of societal progress.

Like in all social practices, gender differences and inequalities in the field of sports are shaped and revealed both in the form of physical practices and in related institutional structures. Thus, considering gender in sports unavoidably leads to questions about gender parity and obstacles that impede its fulfillment. The Institute will try to highlight gender specificities of sports, which includes questions such as: How does the influence of gender proceed, according to spaces, times, practices, bodies, or institutions? Furthermore, to account for connections between local and global levels, is it possible to identify some peculiarity in modes of gender expression in sports in Africa? Finally, in what ways does sport contribute to development in Africa?

Multidisciplinary approaches (sociological, historical, anthropological, economic etc.) are welcome to highlight the complexity of gender relations in sports and for a better knowledge of the reality in Africa. Comparative approaches are also highly desirable to address issues as varied as the gendered socialization process, the distribution of practices by gender and according to attendance in the sports space, commitment of both sexes in sports management, the sports body and its conventional connections with femininity and masculinity, etc. Thus, the challenge of the works will be to deepen knowledge on the methods of construction of gendered identities, hierarchical relations that underlie them, and to highlight the socio-cultural codes that maintain them.

With no intention to be restrictive, the 2010 Gender Institute proposes to develop the following areas of intervention:
- The sports space: a space for gendered practices;
- Gendered socialization and selection of sports practices;
- Gender in sports organizations (associations, clubs, federations, international bodies);
- Gender and the mixing of sexes in physical and sports education;
- The modes of gender expression in the Olympic Games;
- Body, sports and gender;
- The genderization of physical recreation;
- Sports, gender and the media;
- Sports and handicap: gender in adapted physical activities.
- Sports, gender and development

Eligibility and Selection
Director
For every session, CODESRIA appoints an external scholar to provide the intellectual leadership of the Institute. Directors are senior scholars known for their expertise on the topic of the year and for the originality of their thinking on it. They are recruited on the basis of a proposal and course outline covering a total of up to forty five days during which they are expected to:
- participate in the selection of laureates;
- assist with the identification of appropriate resource persons;
- design the course for the session, with specifications of sub-themes;
- deliver a set of lectures and provide a critique of the papers presented by the resource persons and the laureates; and
- submit a written scientific report on the session.

In addition, the Director is expected to (co)edit the revised versions of the papers presented by the resource persons with a view to submitting them for publication in one of CODESRIA’s collections. The Director also assists CODESRIA in assessing the papers presented by laureates for publication as a special issue of Africa Development or as monographs.
For the 2010 Gender Institute, Professor Monia Lachheb from Tunisia will be the director. She is a senior scholar in the field of Gender and Sports and has published extensively in this area.

Resource Persons
Lectures delivered at the Gender Institute are not introductory courses, but critical think-pieces that are meant to help advance the reflections of participants on the main topic of the year, and on their own research topics. Resource Persons are, therefore, senior scholars or scholars in their mid-career who have published extensively on the topic, and who have a significant contribution to make to the debates on it.
Once selected, resource persons must:
- submit a copy of their lectures for reproduction and distribution to participants not later than one week before the lecture begins ;
- deliver their lectures, participate in debates, and comment on the research proposals of
- the laureates;
- review and submit the revised version of their research work for publication by CODESRIA n
not later than two months following their presentation.

Laureates
African social scientists who have a minimum qualification of a Masters’ degree, with a proven research capacity and who are currently engaged in teaching and/or research activities are invited to send in their applications for consideration for admission into the Institute. The selection of laureates is done by an independent committee of renowned scholars.

Application
Applicants for the position of Resource Person should submit:
- an application letter ;
- two writing samples ;
- a curriculum vitae and ;
- a two-pages abstract of their proposed lecture.

Applicants wishing to be invited as Laureates should submit:
- an application letter;
- a curriculum vitae ;
- a letter indicating institutional or organisational affiliation ;
- a research proposal (two copies and not more than 10 pages, in English or French ) indicating a descriptive analysis, outlining the theoretical interest of the theme chosen by the applicant, and its relation to the problematic and concerns of the theme of the 2010 Institute and ;
- two reference letters from scholars and/or researchers known for their competence and expertise in the candidate’s research area, including their names, addresses and telephone, e-mail, fax numbers.

The deadline for the submission of applications is Friday the 15th April, 2010. Laureates will be informed of the outcome of the selection process by Friday the 30th April, 2010. Laureates are expected to use the month of May to carry out fieldwork or collect information and use it to prepare a draft paper based on their proposals. This draft paper should be submitted to CODESRIA on or before the 5th June, 2010. Laureates will be expected to work with this draft paper (not a proposal) and prepare it for publication during the Institute.
The Institute will be held from 7th to 25th June, 2010 in Dakar, Senegal.
Applications should be sent to:
The CODESRIA Gender Institute,
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop X Canal IV,
B.P. 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, SENEGAL.
Tel. (221) 825 98 21/22/23
Fax: (221) 824 12 89
E-mail : [email][email protected]
Website: http://www.codesria.org