The Mini Course in a Conference

 A very interesting programme which I found in the Brazil Women's World is the mini course. Senior Scholars were given a four hour slot to teach about any subject of their choice. We had to send in three readings related to our topic in advance and students and other participants had come prepared having read these before the commencement of the course.  I did a course on Women's Movement in India. Twenty eight students had registered for this course. I was given a Portuguese translator to help the students but I did not need to use her services much as all students and faculty that joined the course were familiar with English. This was good for many people here do not speak English. I found the group very vibrant and we had a lot of discussion about Brazilian Women’s movement and other issues  and comparing them to  India. There was a comparison of trafficking in Brazil and India, issues of Liquor, domestic violence, rise of religiosity, fundamentalism and  many other issues came up. This was a great programme and not only did  participants  benefit much in interacting with a scholar from a different culture and country but I too learnt a lot about Women's issues in Brazil. I am going to try this in India at a future date when I have some big Conference.

Site of the Conference in Florinapolis

 At the Conference site with Mauricio Pereira Gomes, Shirley Kaye Randell. Lovely display of shops and every one busy shopping in between the sessions.

Florinapolis

 

Brazil is the largest country in South America, covering a little less than half of the continent's land area and encompassing around half of the continent's population. Not a lot of people in florianopolis speak fluent English, but many, specially people who work in hotels, restaurants and stores, are able to communicate well in English.Florianopolis is also called “Ilha da Magia” (the Magic Island) because its charm and beauty conquers whomever steps foot on its soil. Fables from years ago tell tales of witches and sorcerers casting spells and curses on locals. To Brazilians, Florianópolis is known as Floripa. But once upon a time, it was named Desterro. Pronounced ‘Das Churro’, which is of course German for ‘The Churro’.

Lovely Florina Polis, lovely Brazil with so  much greenery and water around.

Registration 13th Women's world Congress

 At the Registration counter met Prof. Cristina Scheibe Wolff  coordinator of the Congress along with Mauricio Pereira Gomes. Already 8000 people are registered for the Congress and it is huge. Looking forward to five wonderful days.  Oh, what fun not to have any tensions of organising but just sitting back and enjoying.

Lunch by Miriam Grossi

 The 13th Women's World Congress in Florina Polis, Brazil kick started  to a beautiful beginning with a great lunch organised by Professor Miriam Grossi one of the Coordinators of the Women's World Congress in her house on 30th July, 2017. Her nephew had come down to make the Brazilian national  drink Caprihini, which mixes a lot of fruits, ginger, lemon chillies, brown and white sugar, lemon with either vodka or rum and he did this non stop from 12 to 5.00 in the evening. Met many old friends and a number of Feminists across the world.It's official. The bid for the 14th Women's World Congress was won by Mozambique and this will be held in 2020 in Maputo. This is the first time that the bid was won by Women's group and not a University and they will be organising the 14th Women's World Congress. A delegation of the Women's forum from Mozambique has come to attend this Conference.

The 13th Women's World Congress in 2017 in Brazil

Brazil Organised The 13th Women's World Congress in 2017. I was able to go to the University of Florina Polis  and attend this. It was wonderful to interact with Professor Cristina Wolf and met Pedro who became a good young friend and showed me the culture of Brazil. The 13^th Women’s Worlds (WW) Congress — an international and interdisciplinary meeting about women — will take place jointly with the Doing Gender 11 (Fazendo Gênero) Seminar from July 30th to August 4th, 2017 in Florianópolis, Brazil, at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). The overriding theme was "Transformations, Connections, and Movements". Our intention is to provide a forum for global debate beyond the North-South perspective. It  also aim to stimulate discussion on innovative feminist study proposals and dynamic activism. This was a  unique opportunity to bring together experiences, research, and voices from all over the world relating to women and gender issues. This will also  the first time that the WW conference is going to be hosted in South America. This was indeed an opportunity to critically evaluate the most important issues facing feminisms today, both in theory and practice.

With Two Professors Of The Santa Catarina University