Islamic University of Gaza, in partnership with Northumbria University in the UK, concluded the activities of the project “Developing Intercultural Competencies for Female Engineers”, funded by Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace (CUSP).
The final workshop of the project was held electronically via Teams application, and was attended by: Engineer Mrs. Amani Al-Maqadmeh, the project manager, Prof. Dr. Hatem Al-Aydi, a team member, Dr. Bill Guarentinium and Dr. Carolyn Bones, Northumbria University, and a group of academicians from various engineering disciplines in the two universities.
The panel discussion focused on the most important challenges facing female engineering academicians in engineering profession. Dr. demonstrated the storytelling cycle technique, the most important results obtained during the project implementation period, and the methods reached to meet the challenges facing female engineering academicians in engineering profession. Such methods include: developing intercultural competencies through holding more activities such as panel discussions, increasing communication with others of different backgrounds, and training on dealing with gender-based discrimination that some female engineers may be exposed to.
The attendees at both universities were divided into working teams to discuss and investigate the following: most significant research questions of the project, the experience in applying storytelling cycle technique , and difficulties that female engineers are facing in scientific or practical life. Teams also provided suggestions to reduce the occurrences of gender-based discrimination against female engineers, and then presented the most important findings and outputs that each team concluded.
At the end of the workshop, Eng. Al-Maqadma expressed her gladness of the considerable achievement of the project and the significance of such projects in enhancing the presence of women in various disciplines, especially engineering. She also stressed the importance of scientific research in identifying problems facing women, whether in their practical or scientific lives.
As a direct result of this project, an article will be published on difficulties facing female academic engineers in engineering profession. This project also played an important role in obtaining funding from the British Council, which implementation will extend until June 2023.
This project is one of many funded by (CUSP), a network financed by British “Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)”, managed by Glasgow University in the UK in partnership with the Islamic University and a number of other universities around the world.