Power of SUNY

Old Westbury Prof Tours South Africa

March 2011 was a busy month abroad for Dr. Eloise Linger, an associate professor of Politics, Economics, and Law at SUNY College at Old Westbury.  While those in the United States celebrated Women’s History Month, Dr. Linger was using her sabbatical to share knowledge with colleagues in South Africa.

The centerpiece of most of her recent presentations is research on the role of women in Cuba she had conducted in that island nation as recently as November 2010.  On March 8, 2011, which was recognized as the United Nation’s International Women’s Day, Dr. Linger made a presentation titled “Women, Revolution, and Change in Cuba” at South Africa’s University of Johannesburg followed by two hours of discussion at a post-graduate seminar at the Center of the South African Research Chair and Social Change.  Later that day, she attended an awards ceremony for the Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, sponsored by the International Labour Organization and U.N. Women, each a part of the United Nations’ ongoing work in South Africa.

On March 15, Dr. Linger spoke on women’s self-identification in the Cuban revolution and the participation of women in recent social upheavals in North Africa during a seminar sponsored by the Centre for Critical Research in Race and Identity at the University of KwaZula-Natal in Durban, South Africa.  A week later, she visited the Sociology Department at the University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, for a discussion on “Changes in Cuba Since 1990.”