Invitation to join the Virtual International Women's University's (vifu) first internet conference:

VEINS - Virtual Encounters In North-South Politics:  War, Peace, and the Future of Civil Society:  The Case of Palestine

The main subject of the conference will be the disquieting conflict in the Middle East which will be analyzed according to the following agenda for research:
  1. Conflicts and their backgrounds:  Potentials for solutions and reconciliation
  2. The histories of migrations, in(to) Palestine:  What are their causes and effects?  What are the regional developments and what are the impacts of "Globalization"?
  3. Water, natural resources, sustainability:  Where are natural resources located?  How are they used?  What effects do they have on the conflict?
  4. Body, health, nutrition:  How is the physical health of civilians affected by strategies of the conflicting parties?
  5. Information, communication and the media's role and potentials:  How is control centralized? How to access information as a social resource?  What is the impact of national and international media?  How can the people participate?  How to improve on the potentials and particular qualities of independent and "alternative" media?
  6. Regional development:  This thematic field will have to focus on such crucial complexes as education and science as well as the set of problems tied to the issue of 'work' in both its reproductive and productive dimension.
  7. The conflict in a global context:  Why is this conflict so prominent whereas other conflicts of other regions are located only in the periphery of public interest?  What experiences or strategies can initiatives and academics from other regions contribute towards a betterment of the situation in the Middle East?