HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Rounaq Jahan ( bn, রওনক জাহান; born 2 March 1944) is a Bangladeshi political scientist, feminist leader and author. A former faculty of the
University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...
, Jahan teaches and researches at the
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
since 1990. She was a representative of Bangladesh to the 32nd Session of the
United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
in 1977. quoted by She founded ''Women for Women'', one of the first feminist research centres in Bangladesh, in 1973, and is the director of ''Research Initiatives Bangladesh (RIB)''.


Early life

Jahan received her MA in political science from University of Dhaka in 1963 and from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1968. She earned her PhD from Harvard University in 1970.


Career

Jahan joined the University of Dhaka in 1970, where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses on comparative politics, political development, and research methodology. She also supervised MPhil and PhD theses till she left the University in 1993. From 1973 to 1975 she was the chairperson of the Department of Political Science of the University. She had been a research fellow at the Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway in 1979; a research fellow at the Department of Political Science and Committee on South Asia,
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
in 1975–76; a visiting fellow at the Committee on South Asia, University of Chicago in 1980; a senior research associate at the Center for Asian Development Studies,
Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...
in 1978; and a research associate at the Center for International Affairs and the
John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
, Harvard University from 1971 to 1972. During her tenure at Dhaka University Jahan served several policymaking bodies established by the Government of Bangladesh in an advisory capacity in the fields of education, culture, rural development, women, and population. She had also served as a consultant to
United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
(UNDP),
United Nations Population Fund The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, is a UN agency aimed at improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide. Its work includes developing national healthcare strategies a ...
(UNFPA),
United Nations Development Fund for Women The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, french: Fonds de développement des Nations unies pour la femme, ) was established in December 1976 originally as the Voluntary Fund for the United Nations Decade for Women in the Internationa ...
(UNIFEM),
United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...
(UNICEF),
United Nations Capital Development Fund The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world's 46 least developed countries (LDCs). With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that ...
(UNCDF), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA),
Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) is a directorate under the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In matters regarding Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI), Norad reports to the Norwegian Ministry ...
(NORAD),
United States Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 b ...
(USAID), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the
Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
, the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as
NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
s like
International Women's Health Coalition The International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC) is a non-governmental organization founded in 1984 based in New York City. It focuses on issues relating to women and girls' human rights, health and equality and represents part of the women's movem ...
. Jahan was the head of the Programme on Rural Women, Employment and Development Department at the
International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...
(ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland from 1985 to 1989. She was the coordinator of the Programme on Integration of
Women in Development Women in development is an approach of development projects that emerged in the 1960s, calling for treatment of women's issues in development projects. It is the integration of women into the global economies by improving their status and assisting ...
, United Nations Asia Pacific Development Centre (APDC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for two years. She was a member of the advisory board of
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
in New York, the board of trustees of the
Population Council The Population Council is an international, nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The Council conducts research in biomedicine, social science, and public health and helps build research capacities in developing countries. One-third of its res ...
, the international council of the Asia Society, and the advisory committee on rural development at the ILO. Since 1990, Jahan is working as a senior research scholar at the Southern Asian Institute, Columbia University and an adjunct professor of international affairs at
School of International and Public Affairs The School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University (SIPA) is the international affairs and public policy school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university located in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. ...
of the University. There she has taught for the graduate courses on Women and Development: Key Policy Issues (1991–95), Gender, Politics and Development (1998), and Arsenic Crisis in Bangladesh (2000).


Bibliography

Most of Jahan's research is on
gender and development Gender and development is an interdisciplinary field of research and applied study that implements a Feminism, feminist approach to understanding and addressing the disparate impact that economic development and globalization have on people based up ...
, governance, health, and politics of Bangladesh. She is also a prolific author of articles published in edited books, academic journals, magazines and newspapers. Her notable books include: *''Bangladesh: Promise and Performance'' (edited, Zed Books, 2000) * ''The Elusive Agenda: Mainstreaming Women in Development'' (St. Martin's Press, 1995) * ''Bangladesh Politics: Problems and Issues'' (University Press, 1980) * ''Women and Development: Perspectives from South and South-East Asia'' (coedited with Hanna Papanek, Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs, 1979) * ''Pakistan: Failure in National Integration'' (Columbia, 1972).


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jahan, Rounaq 1944 births Living people Bangladeshi women academics Bangladeshi feminists Bangladeshi women writers Harvard University alumni University of Dhaka faculty University of Dhaka alumni Columbia University faculty 20th-century Bengalis 21st-century Bengalis