Fifteen researchers from seven countries across Asia came together last week for the Regional Asia Research Initiative’s three-day workshop in Jakarta.
The workshop was a continuation of the one held in Bangkok earlier this year. It focused on gender issues as well as practical skills, including peer reviewing and presentation techniques.
The gender focus for the round table event was a first for the Initiative and aimed to strengthen analysis of connections between gender, human rights and the environment.
RWI Senior Policy Advisor Sebnem Kenis, and Programme Officer, Olga Bezbozhna introduced gender concepts and facilitated discussions on gender, environment and human rights (within the framework of the SDG’s) and how gender and feminist theories have transformed the legal studies and research.
Dwi Rahayu Kristianti, a researcher and lecturer from Airlangga University in Indonesia, found this focus on gender particularly useful.
I loved the practical steps and knowledge in conducting research that I gained from the Regional Asia Research Initiatives, especially from the gender workshop which engaged the issue on gender in the framework of the SDGs. I can use some materials from the workshop to strengthen gender analysis that I will adopt in my research.
The last two days of the workshop focused on peer reviewing, paper writing and presentation techniques. Researchers were particularly active during the peer reviewing sessions and provided constructive and honest suggestions for each other’s work.
Mr Soeung Bunly, a lecturer of Law at Svay Rieng University in Cambodia found the collaborative workshops to be a great way to network and gain practical skills.
It equipped me with human rights research methodology skills. The workshops allowed me to make new friends with whom I could conduct joint human rights research in the future. The workshop helped shape and expand my analytical framework and knowledge on human rights research.
The workshop is a part of a ten month project for the Regional Asia Research Initiative and this year focuses on strengthening the analysis of connections between human rights and the environment. The participating researchers will continue to write their papers with the help of their mentors, Frank Baber, Mike Hayes and Radu Mares, with the aim of finalising them by mid-November this year.