Eileen Kuttab

Eileen Kuttab is an assistant professor in sociology and a faculty member and researcher at Institute of Women studies at Birzeit University in Palestine. She is a founding member of the Institute and has been the director of the Institute of Women’s Studies from 1998 until August 2008. As a woman activist, she has been involved with grassroots women’s organizations and has served on boards of trustees of human rights and development research centers. Eileen is a founding member of Bisan Center for Research and Development in Ramallah since 1989 and her recent active involvement is promoting the concept of alternative development as a realistic approach to development under colonial occupation. Her main research interests focus on the relation of feminism to nationalism, social movements and in particular the women’s movement, gender and development particularly women’s work in the informal sector and coping strategies, and tools for community empowerment through community based organizations.

Research Project: Palestinian Youth: Construction of Desires and Imaginaries in Different Social Contexts

Selected Publications

    * Coping with Conflict: Palestinian Families and Households, against all Odds, University of San Martin of Argentina. Forthcoming

    * Palestinian Women’s Organizations: Global Cooption and Local Contradiction, Cultural Dynamics, 20(2):99-117, 2008.

    * Arab Human Development Report, Social Protection in the Arab World, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Regional Bureau of Arab States. Kuttab, E. Contributing Author. New York, August 2009.

    * Arab Human Development Report, 2005: Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Regional Bureau of Arab States, Contributing Author, New York, 2006.

    * The Paradox of Women’s Work: Coping, Crisis, and Family Survival Ed. Taraki L. In Living Palestine, Family Survival, Resistance, and Mobility under Occupation. Syracuse University Press, 2006.