On Wednesday 13th December 2018, Dr. Amon Ashaba Mwiine, Staff School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University received his PhD in Sociology. Dr. Mwiine was conferred the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from Stellenbosch University, South Africa where he has been studying for the last three years. He was a Lisa Maskell Ph.D. Fellow in the department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa and was funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. 

In his words, Dr. Mwiine noted that it was an exciting journey of learning and he appreciated the different forms of mentorship and support that he received while pursuing his PhD. 

Dr. Mwiine being conferred a PhD at Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Dr. Amon Ashaba Mwiine’s research titled “Promoters of Gender Equality? A Study of the Social Construction of specific Male Parliamentarians as “Male Champions” in Uganda," engages with the phenomenon of male politicians speaking to gender equity issues in parliament in Uganda.

What is particularly interesting about this is that these politicians are selected by women gender activists to speak on behalf of them in a parliamentary context in which men are taken more seriously than women. In the popular media and in some of the sociological literature, these men are often referred to as ‘male champions’, as if to express gratitude to and celebrate as unexpected, the significant role these men are seen to play in promoting gender equality. In contrast his research raises questions about whether gender equality is promoted through the mediation of particular men or whether their idealization as champions actually serves to institutionalize gender inequalities. The study provides a recent historical overview of the gendering of parliament and the tabling of gender sensitive motions in Uganda. He proceeds to draw on critical observations derived from a contemporary ethnographic study he conducted in the Uganda parliament and in-depth interview conversations with women gender activists in and outside parliament and with some of the men selected to table motions in support of women’s rights. The research is informed by critical masculinity studies and post structuralist and African feminisms which critique patriarchal social institutions, but do so in ways that do not reproduce men and women as homogenous and binary opposites. The study engages with parliament, itself, as an important ethnographic site in which gender inequalities are produced through everyday social practices and gendered performances in which women parliamentarians are undermined and infantilized. Study findings further demonstrate how the women who participated in interviews in his study (as well as some men) critiqued discourses that celebrated men as ‘champions’ in ways that erased women’s agency and the role they play in promoting gender equality in legislative debates.

Congratulations Dr. Mwiine and thank you for making the School proud.

Dr. Mwiine (2nd left) poses for the camera with some of his colleagues