A two-week summer school on the theme " Land Use And Mobile Livelihood: Intersectional Perspectives on Pastoralism, Migration and Displacement" has been opened at UCC . The Summer school is jointly organised by the Centre for Gender Research, Advocacy and Documentation (CEGRAD), and the Theologische Hochschule Friednsau, Germany. Addressing the participants at the official opening ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, commended CEGRAD for organising the Summer school to enhance the image of the University internationally. He expressed optimism that the summer would afford participants the requisite knowledge to develop themselves socially and intellectually. He called on the participants to form networks for their future endeavours. Prof. Ampiah explained that many Africans depend on land for their livelihoods. According to him, land problems in Africa are gendered in nature.For instance, he said, women access lands through the consent of their husbands and other male relatives. The Vice-Chancellor commended participants from the University of Cape Coast for taking keen interest in the summer school. The Director of CEGRAD, Prof. Akua O. Britwum, encouraged participants to cooperate with one another to make the programme a success.She announced a planned field trip to offer participants the opportunity to get acquainted with land politics and resettlement in Ghana and apply some of the theoretical knowledge attained. An international collaborator from the Theologische Hochschule Friedensau, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Schutltz, in a short address, noted that lands in Africa were under immense pressure due to mining, prospecting for oil and other natural resources. She said that the summer school would afford participants mainly PhD and post doctoral fellows the opportunity to also brainstorm on power and gender relations.Prof. Schultz urged participants to socialize and network one another for the future. For her part the Provost of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies, Prof. Dora Edu Buandoh, who chaired the opening ceremony, urged participants to think deeply about land use and mobile livelihoods to help the development of their respective countries.She advised participants to accommodate divergent views from one another. Prof. Edu-Buandoh said, " it is very important for us to engage with other participants and facilitators because we come from different countries, different backgrounds and different experiences." She further said" So to enrich ourselves, to enrich our cultures, to enrich our understanding of our own world, we should value what we share with every participant, which is we should make time to engage with other participants." As part of the Summer School, CEGRAD will organise a public lecture where renowned feminist scholars will address the general public on the theme " Research mobile livelihoods and the land crisis: intersectionality and feminist approaches." There were fraternal messages from some Heads of Department under the College of Humanities and Legal Studies.
