UNESCO Chair on Gender, Wellbeing, and a Culture of Peace

The UNESCO Chair on Gender, Wellbeing and a Culture of Peace is located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, and was co-funded by the University and the Foundation for a Culture of Peace/Women’s Knowledge International (FCP/WKI), at Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain.

The UNESCO Chair draws upon existing strengths at the University of Wisconsin-Madison:

1) The School of Human Ecology, a key promoter of women’s education, and its 4W Initiative, which focuses on women and wellbeing in Wisconsin and the world;

2) The work of the Gender and Women’s Studies Department, known for its specialization in women’s health, disability, women/gender and politics, and international gender and women’s studies concerns;

3) The Global Health Institute and its vast array of health partnerships and educational programs all over the world;

4) The Foundation Culture of Peace was the international co-founder of the Chair. Promoting women’s wellbeing through education fosters empowerment, has a positive effect on society as a whole, and contributes to long-lasting peace. The Chair operates through important global networks. The conviction that women’s sustained wellbeing cannot be attained without gender analysis and joint efforts between academia, NGOs, political sectors, and other inter-sectoral, trans-national knowledge exchange is at the core of the Chair’s international foundational dimension.