It is with great sadness we inform you of the passing on of our former colleague and dear friend, Dr Renee Ilene Pittin in San Francisco on 20th April after a year of illness.
Renee worked at the ISS from 1984 to 1998 as Associate Professor in the MA programme Development Studies. She taught in the Women, Gender and Development specialisation, offering numerous courses on the social history of women’s work, internationalisation of capital and gender, women’s movements and national liberation.
She was involved in initiating and coordinating a number of research and capacity building projects such as the SWAPO Training Programme in Women and Development, Gender Research program with University of Namibia, Women, Employment and Technology in West Africa and international seminars on “Women Studies Curricula and Programmes in Higher Education (ISS-UNESCO 1985) and ‘Women Organising in the process of Industrialisation (ISS 1991).
Her super editing skills were evident in her terms as Chair of the ISS Publications Committee (1991-1995), coordinator of the WGD Working Paper Series and membership on the editorial board of Women and Development, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam and Development in Practice (Oxfam).
Renee brought to the ISS perspectives from her pioneering research and work in Kaduna State, Nigeria and West Africa. She studied Anthropology at Berkeley, University of California and SOAS, University of London and published prolifically on gender relations and Hausa society.
Her book Women and Work in Northern Nigeria: Transcending Boundaries (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), dealing with the ways in which Muslim Hausa women asserted their agency, crossing physical, spatial and discursive boundaries, in the context of multiple political regimes, major ideological shifts and the turmoil of the Nigerian economy, continues to be relevant and widely cited as are many of her seminal articles, for example, her article “Houses of Women: a Focus on Alternative Life-Styles in Katsina City”, 1983, and “Multiple Identities, Multiple Strategies”, 1996, co- authored with Amrita Chhachhi.
A committed feminist, Renee combined scholarship with activism and while she was working at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria from 1975 to 1984, she co-founded, along with Ayesha Iman, Bene Madunagu, Bilkisu Yusuf, Molara Ogundipe-Leslie and Therese Nweke, the feminist organization WIN: Women in Nigeria in 1982.
After leaving the ISS, Renee moved into legal activism after a brief stint as educational consultant, working on a variety of laws as Assembly Legislative Aide, first at the California State Assembly, Sacramento and then at the City Hall, San Francisco.
A passionate advocate for animal rights, she volunteered for the San Francisco SPCA, trained as a paralegal, and was an active member of SFDOG. Renee became the SF SPCA Legislative Liaison, helping the SF SPCA sponsor SB 685, authored by Senator Leland Yee, which revised existing permissive pet trust law.
As her friend Sally Stephens wrote “Perhaps her greatest legacy as the legislative liaison was a Pet Trust bill that the she worked with her former boss Sen. Yee to introduce and pass in 2009. Before their bill, if you put instructions in a trust to take care of your pet after you died, the law said your instructions "may" be enforced. That meant whoever executed your trust could follow your instructions or decide not to. Renee's bill changed the law to say that pet instructions "shall" be enforced. It removed the option and ensured that people's wishes for the pets would be followed” (SFDOG list serve).
Renee went peacefully, surrounded by some close friends and her dog-daughter Heather. A wonderfully supportive colleague, caring loyal friend and great fun to be with (a scrabble champion who rarely lost a game!), Renee will be deeply missed by friends, ex- colleagues and ex -students.
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If you would like to convey your condolences, please send your message to Amrita Chhachhi at chhachhi@iss.nl