Dr. Denis Mukwege, gynecologist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, will receive the title of Docteur Honoris Causa (Honorary Doctorate) from Rennes 2 University on Friday, October 21, 2022. This official ceremony will be preceded by a round table discussion on his book "The Power of Women: A Doctor's Journey of Hope and Healing".
Winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, gynecologist Dr. Denis Mukwege has brought to the world's attention the sexual barbarism of which women are victims in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where gang rape is used as a weapon of war. To help address this, he founded the Panzi Hospital in 1999 and developed a model for "holistic" care of women victims of sexual abuse. These survivors receive medical treatment and psychological, economic and legal support.
Known as "the man who repairs women" (the title of the film dedicated to him by Thierry Michel in 2015), Denis Mukwege has just published "The Power of Women", an autobiographical account that retraces his life's struggle, pays tribute to the courage of women and calls for action to confront the scourge of sexual violence.
Program
4pm-5:30pm: Roundtable discussion moderated by Christine Rivalan Guégo, President of Rennes 2 University, on his latest book with the participation of:
Michel Prum: Professor Emeritus at the Université de Paris and is particularly interested in the history of ideas in the Anglophone area. He co-directs the Groupe de Recherche sur l’Eugénisme et le Racisme (GRER) which he founded in 1998, and directs the collection "Racisme et eugénisme" at L'Harmattan. He has co-organized several international conferences in Africa (South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Kenya and Senegal). He is coordinating the new French translation of the complete works of Charles Darwin (Slatkine, Geneva and Honoré Champion, Paris). He has edited or co-edited numerous books, including "Ces Hommes qui épousèrent la cause des femmes" (L'Atelier, 2010). He contributes to the War Memories international colloquium series with Renée Dickason, Rennes, and Stéphanie AH Bélanger, Royal Military College of Canada.
Florence Binard: University Professor, Université de Paris, her work focuses on gender and diversity. She has directed and co-edited several books on women such as "Féminismes du XXIe siècle : une troisième vague ?" (Coll. Archives du féminisme, L'Harmattan, 2017), "Femmes, sexe, genre dans l'aire anglophone : Invisibilisation, stigmatisation et combats" (Coll. Des idées et des femmes, L'Harmattan, 2017), "Minorités et société" (Coll. Racisme et eugénisme, L'Harmattan, 2020). She is also the author of "Les mères de la nation - Féminisme et eugénisme en GrandeBretagne" (Coll. Racisme et eugénisme, L'Harmattan, 2016).
Valeria Pansini: Lecturer, Italian Studies, Rennes 2 University. Member of the Tempora research unit, her work focuses in particular on the history of war in the late eighteenth century and the Napoleonic era. She is one of the organizers of the seminar "Studying War", sponsored by Tempora, the research center for international and Atlantic history - CRHIA (Nantes) and the research center of the Saint-Cyr-Coëtquidan schools - CREC.
6:00pm: Solemn ceremony
The address will be delivered by Renée Dickason, University Professor of Civilization and Contemporary History - British Cultural History and Media, Rennes 2 University, and Jean-Philippe Harlicot, Gynecologist at the University Hospital of Rennes.
7pm: Coquetèle