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Faculty Guide

Adjunct Professor of the Practice

bgm@brandeis.edu 781-736-8100

Expertise

Gender and International Development; Gender and Development Issues in India, West Africa and the Caribbean; Poverty Eradication

Courses

  • HS 283f - Gender and Development

Scholarship

  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael and Scholastique Kompaoré. "Burkina's Women Shape Progress: UNESCO Gender Mainstreaming Portal, Paris." (2008)
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael and Scholastique Kompaoré. "Les femmes du Burkina façonnent le progrès: UNESCO Paris, Femmes et Egalité des Genres." (2008)
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael, ed.. Another Side of India: Gender, Culture and Development. Paris: UNESCO Education Portal, 2008.
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael. Progress Report 2007-2008 (short version): Activities of the UNITWIN on Gender, Culture and People-Centered Development. UNESCO University Twinning Portal. Paris: 2008.
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael and Scholastique Kompaoré with Jennifer Hilda Frisanco. The Quest for Gender Equality in Burkina Faso: Female Workloads, Education and Empowerment. Paris: UNESCO Social and Human Sciences Portal, 2007.
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael. UNITWIN Network: Gender, Culture, Development unitwin.blogspot.com
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael, Frisanco, Jennifer Hilda. "Grassroots Women Gaining a Voice." UNESCO Literacy Portal. 8 March ed. Paris:, 2006
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael. "Women's Lives at Center Stage: Brighton-Allston Historical Society." ProclaimHer, Newsletter of the Boston Women's Heritage Trial (BWHT) Winter. (2006): 5.
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael. "Women's Lives at Center Stage: Brighton-Allston Historical Society." ProclaimHer, Newsletter of the Boston Women's Heritage Trial (BWHT) Winter. (2006): 5.
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael. Development Cooperation: Some Personal Thoughts on Challenges and Direction. UNDP - United Nations Development Programme. New Delhi: 2003.
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael. Jamaica: Adjustment Lessons. UNDP - United Nations Development Programme. Kingston, Jamaica: 1988.
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael, Freedman, Marion. "Lack of Time as an Obstacle to Women's Education: The Case of Upper Volta." Comparative Education Review 24. 2 (part 2) (1980): S124-39.
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael. "Time to Learn, Time for a Better Life: The Women's Education Project in Upper Volta." Assignment Children 49/50. UNICEF, 1980. 109-126.
  • McSweeney, Brenda Gael. "Collection and Analysis of Data on Rural Women's Time Use." Studies in Family Planning 10. 11/12 (November/December) (1979): 379-383.
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Profile

Brenda Gael McSweeney served with the United Nations for thirty years in a range of executive positions. In Burkina Faso she oversaw UN Development Programme (UNDP) activities and carried out action research on women and development. Later Dr. McSweeney headed the United Nations in Jamaica and The Bahamas, and UNDP cooperation with the Turks and Caicos Islands, Cayman and Bermuda. She led the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) program as Executive Coordinator with oversight of 4,000 UNV specialists from over 130 countries engaged in grassroots development, humanitarian activities and peace-building worldwide. She served as UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative until mid-2003 in India, where the Government designated gender equality as the UN focal theme. She has taught for UNDP's Virtual Development Academy, and is the initiator of the UNESCO/UNITWIN (University Twinning) Network on Gender, Culture and Development (unitwin.blogspot.com).
Presently Dr. McSweeney, a Resident Scholar at Brandeis University's Women's Studies Research Center (WSRC), is leading an assessment of the legacy of UNESCO's "Project for Equal Access of Women and Girls to Education," set in three rural zones in Burkina Faso. She brings the findings into publications (see papers at www.gaels.net), and into her classes at The Heller School and at Boston University's Women's Studies Program for analysis, debate and interface with the Project's National Coordinator. Her earlier WSRC research initiative, a collaborative gender case study on Srihaswani or Creative Manual Skills for Self Reliant Development based in West Bengal, India, showcases women's priorities and empowerment. Students equally bring their research interests and experience into her seminars on gender and international development.
(Photo Credit: Mike Lovett)

 

Degrees

Tufts University
Ph.D.

Tufts University
M.A.

Tufts University
MALD

Smith College
B.A.

Awards and Honors

  • Awarded the Order of Merit, 1st Class, by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany (2008)
  • Advisory Board for the UN Development Programme's Third Regional Cooperation Framework for Africa (2007)
  • Designated Co-Coordinator of UNESCO's UNITWIN (University Twinning) Network on Gender, Culture and People-Centered Development (2007)
  • Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, Lackawanna College, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; Commencement Speaker (2007)
  • Founding Convenor, Gender and International Development Initiatives (GaIDI), Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University gaidi.blogspot.com (2005)
  • Selected as Founding Member, UNESCO Chairs/UNITWIN on Women's Studies/Gender Research (2005) (2005)
  • Elected to the Board of the Brighton-Allston Historical Society (BAHS), and as Founding Chairperson, Women's History Group (2004)
  • Selected as the first Visiting Scholar, Women's Studies Program, Boston University (2003)
  • Elected Academician of the International Informatization Academy (2002)
  • Government of Burkina Faso's Medaille de Chevalier de l'Ordre National (1997)
  • Doctorate of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California; Commencement Speaker and Board of Directors (1994)
  • Prime Minister of Jamaica's Medal of Appreciation (1988)
  • Fulbright Scholar, Institut d'Etudes Politiques, University of Paris (1967-1969) (1967)