Implications of inheritance rights

Implications of inheritance rights
Lecture to explore links between women’s property ownership and AIDS

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

In the first installment of the lecture series “Gender, Health and Human Well-being,” renowned researcher Nata Duvvury ’73 will discuss her emerging findings about the critical role women’s property ownership plays in enabling women to combat HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence.

The lecture, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Feb. 15, will be held at the Kelly International Conference Facility in the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. It is open to the public and sponsored by the Department of Sociology, the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, and Beyond Traditional Borders.

NATA DUVVURY

“Dr. Duvvury has done cutting-edge research on the needs of women in various Third World countries and produced an award-winning documentary,” said Chandler Davidson, professor emeritus of sociology. “She was awarded the Human Rights Community Award from the United Nations Association of the National Capitol Area. These accomplishments, among others, led to her being chosen. She is the type of ‘world citizen’ that Rice aspires to produce.”

Duvvury will draw on her recent research in Uganda, South Africa and India to present “Women’s Property Ownership, HIV/AIDS and Gender-based Violence: Emerging Links.”

Duvvury, director of Gender, Violence and Rights at the International Center for Research on Women, is an economist with a special focus on macroeconomics, agriculture, women and development, regional trade, social welfare and violence against women.

By exploring inheritance rights and property ownership, Duvvury aims to strengthen the rights of women. To further those goals, she directs a small grants program in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. 

She also directs two projects in South Asia investigating the connection between property rights, domestic violence and food security. In addition, she is developing a tool kit for health-care providers to address stigma and gender-based violence in the context of HIV/AIDS.

Duvvury’s documentary film, “When Women Unite: The Story of an Uprising,” won the 1997 Grand Prize at the Earth Vision Film Festival in Tokyo. 
 
Duvvury is a co-investigator of the Medical Research Council on a project funded by the National Institutes for Health that evaluates the effectiveness of Stepping Stones intervention among youth in South Africa.

Duvvury contributed two chapters to the secretary-general’s report on violence against women, which was introduced in the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2006. She is a member of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative Coordinating Group.

More information on Duvvury and the ICRW is available at www.icrw.org.