Dr. Sakina Faru &
Prof. Dr. Corinna Onnen

Rural-urban migration and gender inequality

Dr. Sakina Faru obtained her doctorate in Sociology from the University of Vechta in 2019. Here, she was supervised by Prof. Corinna Onnen, with whom she also has been working at various projects and publications since her graduation. Through the Global Talents for Local Transformation program, Dr. Faru will have the possibility to come back to Vechta as a post-doctoral fellow and work together with Prof. Onnen on the project „Rural-urban migration as a cause of family inequalities for women and girls in Lake Victoria areas, Tanzania“.

Professor (Dr. rer. pol. habil.) Corinna Onnen studied Social Sciences with a focus on Family Sociology at the University Carl-von-Ossietzky in Oldenburg. Subsequently, she worked in various research projects in the field of Family and Medicine Sociology and founded the Chair in Gender Studies at the University of Regensburg. After working as an interim professor at the HU Berlin, the University Erlangen and the RWTH Aachen, in 2008 she became full professor of General Sociology at the University of Vechta. She carries out empirical research in the fields of Family, Gender and Medicine Sociology. She is particularly interested in the competence-oriented support of young academics, among others via the transfer of research insights to modern teaching and learning programs. Together with Susanne Rode-Breymann, with whom she shares her research specialization in Gender Studies, she has led from 2014 to 2021 Lower Saxony’s joint Working Group of Institutions of Women and Gender Research (LAGEN), of which she was also the first spokesperson. Since October 2021 she is LAGEN’s deputy spokesperson together with Andrea D. Bührmann. Since April 2021, she is the dean of the Faculty II, Natural and Social Sciences, of the University of Vechta. 

About Dr. Sakina Faru

I started working as a journalist through apprenticeship at Sahara Media Group Company Limited in Mwanza city, Tanzania. I was involved in television and radio broadcasts as producer, news reporter and news presenter. For fine tuning my interests in Journalism and Mass Communication, I pursued training at Saint Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) for undergraduate and master degrees. After obtaining first degree, I was employed as a Tutorial Assistant in Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at SAUT, later as Assistant Lecturer and currently, as a Lecturer, after attaining my doctoral studies at University of Vechta. Such education levels bestowed me with highly up-graded knowledge potentials at SAUT, while doctoral studies at Vechta University further polished my knowledge base in other fields – Gender Studies and Socio-Cultural Anthropology. I am involved in training, research and consultancy at SAUT. Also, I attended extracurricular training sessions in Environmental Journalism and Research Proposal Development at SAUT and University of Vechta, respectively. These have been instrumental in sharpening my interests together with knowledge in Journalism and Mass Communication; Gender Studies; and Socio-Cultural Anthropology. To date, I am interested and I continue practising in the said fields at diverse scopes to serve communities.

Research

Areas of Interest and Practice:

Media and Gender Studies; Sociocultural Anthropology

Teaching

Lecturer at Saint Augustine University of Tanzania in the following subjects: Introduction to Broadcasting; Radio and Television Programming (including script writing, recording and editing)

Publications

Faru, Sakina and Onnen, Corinna. “The Role of Social Responsibility in Analysis of Prevention and Control of Squatters in Mwanza City, Tanzania” (in preparation)

Faru, Sakina. “Assessment of Prevention and Control of Squatters in Mwanza city, Tanzania through Social Responsibility Approach.” PhD Thesis, Vechta University, Germany (2019)

Saanane, Charles B. and Faru, Sakina “From Grinding Hollows to Information Communication Technology through Media in Selecting Prospective Fiancées: Evidence from Wasukuma Socio-Cultural Practices in Tanzania.” International Journal of Geosciences 8 (2017): 1146-1171

About the Project

The fact that gender relations between men and women are far from egalitarian has for quite long been scientifically undisputed. Besides, there are large urban-rural differences in living conditions. Thus, the planned research cooperation aims to contribute to understanding the differences between urban and rural regions. Initially, the focus will be on migration movements from patriarchal rural areas around Lake Victoria to neighbouring urban areas in Mwanza, Tanzania. It will be an empirical study that will explore potentially changing household relations in rural areas, as well as other socio-economic factors. The main objective of the proposed study is to examine gender relations in a patriarchal system that causes urban-rural migrations, which disadvantage rural women and girls.

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