On Tuesday July 7th, 2015, The Faculty of Educational Sciences and Teacher Training at An-Najah hosted Professor Beverly Lindsay from the University of Pennsylvania for a seminar on Women’s decision making in university life.

The seminar, which Professor Lindsay started with quotations from American literature on violence, change and race, talked about the type of jobs taken by women in the United States, which she said were mainly in the fields of nursing and educations.

Prof. Lindsay mentioned that women occupy 20% of the leading positions in major US universities. She also talked about the factors that impact societies in general and women in particular such as ethnicity, gender, social status, and that women in transitional societies are underrepresented in science fields such as engineering and mathematics.

She also held two other sessions in cooperation with the Deanship of Graduate Affairs on women the Academic Disciplines of in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics(STEM)  where Dr. Lindsay presented on her book Perspectives of American and English University Administrators: Fostering Minority Students Graduation in Doctoral STEM Programs.

Dr. Kefah Barham, Lecturer at the Faculty of Educational Sciences stated that the workshops aim at reinforcing the concept of women's political and social leading roles in societies in conflict.

Notes:

-         Professor Lindsay is also a Principle Investigator and Co-Director Institute of University Leadership and Change in Post Conflict and Transitional Societies Project at the University of California.

-         The meeting was also attended by Dr. Mohammad El-Amleh, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dr. Adnan Melhem, Vice President of Community Affairs at An-Najah.

-         The seminar was attended by Dr. Alia Assali, Dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Teachers' Training as well as a number of the faculty teachers.

-         It is worth mentioning that the project is funded by the Ford Foundation where Palestine was represented by Dr. Barham.

-         The Ford Foundation is a New York headquartered, globally oriented private foundation with the mission of advancing human welfare which was created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford. The foundation makes grants through its headquarters and ten international field offices.