UNESCO CHAIR For Inter-Religious Dialogue Studies in The Islamic World
Dr. Alaa Shattnan, Director of the UNESCO Chair at the University of Kufa, lent his distinguished presence to the international virtual seminar convened by UNESCO on Wednesday, the twentieth of May, 2026, under the title “The Future of Research on Gender and Education” — a gathering that brought together a select assembly of UNESCO officials, directors of university UNESCO Chairs, and eminent researchers from across the globe.
The seminar was held in the context of a critical and searching review of the quantitative gains achieved in the education sector over recent decades, and in response to the widening and evolving disparities wrought by digital transformation, humanitarian crises, and the far-reaching consequences of climate change.
The proceedings were inaugurated by Justine Sass, Chief of the Section of Education for Inclusion and Gender Equality at UNESCO, with Matthias Eck serving as Programme Specialist and facilitator of the dialogic sessions — guiding the discourse with precision and intellectual rigour.
The seminar was distinguished by rich and probing discussions that converged upon an urgent imperative: the need to reorient the compass of scholarly inquiry away from conventional quantitative indicators — such as school enrolment and completion rates — and toward a deeper and more penetrating analysis of power structures, social norms, and lived experiences within educational systems. Across two successive dialogue sessions, participants explored pathways for developing innovative research approaches and participatory methodologies that harness the tools of artificial intelligence and digital data to detect and map embedded biases. Equally central to the deliberations were strategies for bridging the persistent gulf between knowledge production and policy-making, and for translating research into practical interventions that advance justice and confront emerging challenges — among them climate change, digital transformation, and multifaceted humanitarian crises.
The seminar drew to a close with a set of forward-looking recommendations presented by Keith Holmes, Research Coordinator of the Future of Learning and Innovation Division at UNESCO — recommendations that gave emphatic voice to the vital importance of nurturing cross-border research partnerships in support of transformative, equitable, and sustainable educational systems.
