The celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) Week started off at KISS Deemed to be University on 4th March 2025 with a very insightful distinguished invited lecture by Professor Mary Kalantzis and Professor William Cope from the University of Illinois, USA. The lecture was jointly organized by the Center for Women’s Studies, Project K-Muse, KISS-DU in collaboration with the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), School of Tribal Legal Studies and Tribal Rights and the School of Comparative Tribal Languages and Literatures, KISS-DU. The University will organize lecture series, awareness and sensitization activities as a mark of one week’s celebration of IWD 2025 from 4th March to 8th March 2025.
The theme of the IWD 2025 was introduced by Dr. Pragyan Mohanty, Dean and Center Head, Center for Women’s Studies. She welcomed everyone and spoke elaboratively on this year’s theme – “Accelerate Action “and “For ALL Women’s and Girls: Rights, Empowerment”. The formal Welcome Address was delivered by Hon’ble Pro Chancellor KISS-DU, Professor Amareswar Galla. He welcomed the guests and spoke on empowerment of women around the world and the significance of celebrating Women’s Day.
Professor Mary Kalantzis in her deliuberation talked about the essence of Women’s Day and how women should be celebrated every day. She gave a magnificent lecture basing on her own experiences as a woman in a man’s world. She also shared some statistics on race, inclusion and gender in the present context in the USA. She gave real life examples of violence against women and the difficulties women faced to get ahead in life in the public sphere. Professor William Cope carried forward the lecture sharing his own insights on the real-world problems and prospects of women around the world. He highlighted gender divide by sharing his vast experiences. Both the lectures were interesting and insightful.
The lecture was followed by a question and answer session and concluded with a word of thanks by Dr. Chitta Ranjan Bhoi, Dean, School of Tribal Languages and Literatures and Director, HRDC, KISS-DU.
