November 2005 Archives

The fourth issue of the CGS Newsletter is now available both in print and online. Click the URL to download the PDF version.

Download CGS Newsletter004

The second CGS International Workshop was held at ICU in the lingering heat of the Japanese summer from September 16 to 18. This year's sub-theme was "Gender Representation in Asia". We welcomed scholars and activists from all over Japan and many other Asian countries, including China, South Korea, the Phillipines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India.

On June 6, 2005, Professor Toshio Yamauchi gave a lecture entitled "Rethinking Gender through Gender Identity Disorder," as part of a foundation course for the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program. Professor Yamauchi is the President of Saitama Medical School and a leading figure in the field of GID research in Japan. In 1996, as chairman of the Saitama Medical School Ethics Committee, he submitted a report which stated that Gender Identity Disorder (GID) should be properly regarded as an illness which requires medical treatment. He then helped to draw up guidelines for its diagnosis and treatment through the Japanese Society for Psychiatry and Neurology. GID is a condition in which a person's self-awareness of gender, or 'gender identity', does not correspond to their body's biological sex.

Women's Worlds 2005 was held from June 19-25 at Ewha Woman's University in Seoul, Korea. There were over 2,300 participants. It was the ninth meeting of this international congress and the first in Asia since its inception in Israel in 1981. Three CGS professors reported on last year's International Workshop and discussed future research perspectives at a session entitled "The Future of Women's Network in Asia: Academia and Beyond". Eight ICU students also attended the conference.

The annual convention of the Women's Studies Association of Japan (June 11-12, 2005) opened with a symposium at Yokohama National University on "Feminism and War - Women advancing from the home front to the battle line?!"