Vision

Saida Waheed Gender Initiative (SWGI) is a centre at LUMS, which advances gender as a critical lens for understanding society, culture, and politics. It works on the premise that neither an account of our world nor a politics for the future is possible without reckoning with gender. Established in 2015, SWGI is committed to centering women and other marginalized gender groups. It is also guided by an intersectional approach to gender-based research and gender justice. It sees the study of gender as a significant enterprise across disciplines with broad relevance for all people and groups.

Guiding Principles

• Interdisciplinarity
  Facilitating research and knowledge exchange on gender-based issues across diverse disciplines and different schools at LUMS
• Centering Women and Gender Minorities
  Amplifying the voices of historically marginalized gender groups and communities
• Connecting Research and Practice
  Prioritizing lived experiences, community-based work, grassroots organizing, art and literature as valuable forms of knowledge production
• Advocacy
  Supporting dialogue on urgent social, political, and cultural issues and collaborating with local movements and organizations committed to gender justice
• Creativity, Joy and Healing
  Holding space for creativity and joy, and for their potential to forge new futures

SWGI’s Activities

• Organizes talks, discussions, and workshops by academics, researchers, and activists working on gender and sexuality;
• Supports cultural and artistic production on campus, including theatrical productions and film screenings;
• Offers annual research grants to support faculty and students at LUMS;
• Holds research mentoring workshops for students at LUMS and beyond;
• Publishes the Gender Bi-Annual, a bulletin on gender and sexuality.