ATGENDER

Conference BEYOND EUROPEAN GENDER STUDIES – TRANSVERSAL CONNECTIONS,

The first conference we facilitate and organize, namely ‘Beyond European Gender Studies – Transversal Connections’, will  take place back to back with ATGENDERs first Genderal Assembly (GA) and the Tuning Validation Conference set up by ATHENA3. The ATGENDER Conference is open to all self-paying participants. The Tuning Validation Conference is a closed expert meeting. Due to the fact that ATGENDER is a merger of ATHENA, AOIFE and WISE, we will also provide space for the dissemination of the work undertaken under ATHENA3 and by WISE. As such, the transition to ATGENDER and what it entails will also be on the agenda.

The events will take place in Brussels on February 18 and 19, 2010. Amazone and Sophia have kindly offered to host the meetings. On February 18 the Tuning Validation Conference will take place, as well as ATHENA3 dissemination. On February 19, we will have the ATGENDER conference and GA.

The deadline for the submission of abstracts and panel proposals is December 15, 2009. Abstracts and proposals can be sent to info@atgender.eu. There is a maximum of 100 participants. The Board of ATGENDER hopes that many of you will join the meetings, albeit that ATHENA3 working groups and other participants unfortunately have to raise their own funds. However, it will not be expensive to come to Brussels. There will be no conference registration fee; ATGENDER will offer coffee/tea, lunches, a reception and a welcoming dinner; Amazone is arranging affordable accommodation and ATGENDER offers 10 student grants of max. 250 Euros via WeAVE. We have made sure that full participation requires arrival in Brussels on February 18 around noon, and that most participants can travel back home on the evening of February 19 or on February 20 in the morning.

ATHENA3 Dissemination

ATHENA3 working groups are invited to organize panel sessions for the dissemination of their results. Everybody can participate in these sessions, which will take place on February 18, 2009. Proposals should be sent to: info@atgender.eu before December 15, 2009. Via a special ATHENA newsletter, working group coordinators and ATHENA participants will be informed about more details.19 February 2010

Call for papers:

‘Beyond European Gender Studies – Transversal Connections’What is the State of the Art of Gender Studies in your country, region, Europe or beyond Europe? How do we vision future connections for European Gender Studies? What do we mean with transversal? Which kind of connections will be important for Gender Studies to uphold and develop geographically, thematically and with actors outside academia? How do we foresee intensified links to information and documentation centres as well as to the providers of dissemination of educational and research results to be elaborated?

ATGENDER calls for papers on any of these issues for the conference

‘Beyond European Gender Studies – Transversal Connections’.

Please, send an abstract of 150 words to info@atgender.eu before December 18th, 2009. The Board of ATGENDER will organize panels on ‘Language issues when working with bilingual partners’ (participants (to be confirmed) are: Sophia, Finnish organizations and the ATHENA project on the translation of gender related concepts). Another panel organized by ATGENDER is called ‘Communication in ATGENDER’ (participants (to be confirmed) are: Kilden and Amazone). To this panel, ICT interested colleagues are invited to express their views on both form and content of the information and communication that ATGENDER will provide for its members.

Self-paying participants without a paper are kindly invited to register at info@atgender.eu, as soon as possible, however at the latest on January 15th, 2010.

Apart from several panel sessions taking place in the afternoon, ATGENDER will arrange a plenary morning session with key note speakers and responses. The themes of the key note addresses will be the transversal connections between European and Asian Gender Studies, and between European Gender Studies, feminist activism, and society at large.

Confirmed key note speakers are:

Professor Chang Pil Wha, the President of Asian Association of Women's Studies, and the first professor of women's studies in Korea and Asia.

Gender studies, political demands and emancipatory visions

Dr Malin Rönnblom is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Gender Studies, Umeå University Sweden. She is also in charge of the internalisation of the Gender Studies programme and is a senior partner in the European research project QUING - Quality in Gender and Equality Policies. In addition, she is editor of NORA (the Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research) and is chair of the Swedish Association of Gender Studies. Her talk will be about the transversal connections between gender studies, established politics, feminist activism, and society at large - in a glocal setting.

 

Abstract

Today, in the context of a neo-liberalist political culture, all research fields are facing an increasing demand to present research results that could work as useful tools to support political goals such as development and (economic) growth. For various reasons, gender studies may be facing this challenge to a greater extent than other research fields. Earlier expectations from the state (and from femocrats) on gender research, centring on the necessary critique of contemporary society, seems to be transforming towards a “buy-and-sell-system” where research results should be possible to implement in ongoing policy making.

In this talk, I will address the tensions and dilemmas between the political demands saying that gender research should be a useful tool in day-to-day politics, and the emancipatory ambitions of gender research as a critical field, challenging and scrutinizing contemporary politics and society.

 

General Assembly

The two-day event in Brussels will close with the first General Assembly of ATGENDER. The most important point of the agenda will be the validation of our Standing Orders, which will be distributed via our website: www.atgender.org. Practical information on how to subscribe to the conference will be available by the end of next week. At that moment we’ll be able to inform you in detail on nice and advantageous hotel arrangements in Brussels. Registration for the conference will be closed on January 15th, 2010.

 

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