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ArgumentGENiUS (Gender in University and Society) is an informal Swiss-Arab Network of academics specialized in the field of Gender Studies in and on the Arab region that aims at fostering scientific exchange on the levels of research, teaching and institution building. In order to create a forum of exchange and dialogue in knowledge production across disciplinary, linguistic and regional boundaries, the network organizes a series of workshops on varying relevant topics.The first international GENiUS-workshop takes place on April 7 to 8, 2017 at the University of Zurich (Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies &#8211; Gender Studies). It is devoted to the topic of &#8220;Concepts that matter! Terminologies of Women and Gender in Transnational Perspective&#8221;. It follows up on discussions during a first exploratory workshop held in Zurich in March 2016 under the title of &#8220;Feminism and Theory in the Arab World&#8221;.During the last decades, terminologies of women and gender have been travelling back and forth across different academic as well as non-academic institutional settings on a global scale. These terminologies have entered the fields of international politics, human rights and development discourse as well as national programs and policies. At the same time, they are part of diverse activist concerns and strategies. Concepts and terminologies of women and gender have been and continue to be contested. They are differently configured, understood and employed with different effects according to the respective circumstances and social fields involved.Women&#8217;s and gender studies have both shaped and been shaped by this situation. They have contributed to the reconceptualization of existing theories by highlighting the centrality of power relations, the necessity to question and destabilize social categorizations and to analyze the production and effects of distinctions in politics of difference and identity. They have been constantly negotiating the paradoxes and dilemmas of feminist interventions beyond common binaries such as universalism vs. particularism or equality vs. difference. In spite of the currency of terminologies of women and gender in public debates and policies, women&#8217;s and gender studies are under increasing political pressure from different quarters.Key questions to be raised during the workshop might be:How do we deal with the complex &#8220;social life&#8221; of existing terminologies of women and gender in the Arab region and beyond? &#160;How do we define and configure concepts in order to make productive use of them in our respective fields of research?How can a network of academics such as GENiUS contribute to promoting dialogue in knowledge production and teaching?ProgramFriday, April 7, 201709.45-10.15 Welcome10.15-11.00 Marnia Lazreg (City University of New York): &#8220;Overcoming Empiricism: Groundwork for Theorizing Feminism in MENA&#8221;11.00-11.30 Coffee break11.30-12.15 Hoda El Sadda (Cairo University): &#8220;Traveling Concepts: Revisiting the Case of Feminism and Gender in the Arab World&#8221;12.15-14.15 Lunch Break14.15-15.00 Lina Abirafeh (Lebanese American University): &#8220;Women&#8217;s and Gender Studies as a Field in the Arab region: The Case of IWSAW&#8221;15.00-15.15 Coffee break15.15-16.00 Fatima Sadiqi (University of Fez): &#8220;The Politics of Terminology in Gender Studies: A Linguistics Approach&#8221;16.00-16.45 Moha Ennaji (University of Fez): &#8220;A Linguistic Reading of Existing Terminologies of Feminism, Women and Gender in North Africa&#8221;16.45-17.15 Coffee break17.15-19.00 Public Panel Discussion &#8222;Teaching Gender: Theory and Society in the Classroom&#8220;Discussants:Lina Abirafeh (Lebanese American University),Hoda El Sadda (Cairo University),Moha Ennaji (University of Fez),Marnia Lazreg (City University of New York),Maryl&#232;ne Lieber (University of Geneva)Chair: Bettina Dennerlein (University of Zurich)Saturday, April 8, 201710.15-11.00 Zeina Zaatari (Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, Middle East and Africa): &#8220;Heteronormativity, Sexuality, Queer and LGBTQI Identities: Between the Hammer and the Anvil&#8221;11.00-11.15 Coffee break11.15-12.00 Bettina Dennerlein (University of Zurich): &#8220;The Politics of Women&#8217;s Rights in Islamic Discourse&#8221;12.00-14.15 Lunch Break14.15-15.00 Doris Gray (Al-Akhawayn University): &#8220;New Conceptions of Gender and the Quest of Global Equality&#8221;15.00-15.45 Sarah Farag (University of Zurich): &#8220;The Social Life of Women&#8217;s Human Rights&#8221;15.45-16.15 Coffee break16.15-17.00 Yasmine Berriane (University of Zurich) and Aymon Kreil (University of Zurich): &#8220;Women&#8217;s and Family Empowerment: Ethnographic Perspectives on a Contested Term&#8221;17.00-18.00 Final discussionDiscussant: Katrin Meyer (University of Basel)