Reflections from the GENDER.ED Interns
To conclude their internships with GENDER.ED, PhD Intern, Maéva Thibeault, and Undergraduate Intern, Mouna Chatt sat down and reflected on what they have accomplished and learnt during their time with GENDER.ED.
Mouna:
Hi Maéva, how are you? It’s been a while since we last sat down and chatted!
Maéva:
Hi Mouna! Yes, it has, and a lot has happened since we last saw each other.
Mouna:
I know! I am aware that you have been working on a lot of exciting and important projects. Would you mind sharing some of the things that you have been working on since we last saw each other?
Maéva:
Of course! I mainly worked on two projects.
The first, Women’s, Gender, Feminist and Sexualities Studies Teaching at the University of Edinburgh - An Oral History Project (continuing the work of the pilot project Voices from the Early Days), aims to identify and capture the voices of the feminist academics who introduced and/or developed women’s, gender, feminist and sexualities studies courses at the University of Edinburgh. For this project, I worked together with the Principal Investigator, Dr Radhika Govinda, to obtain ethical approval, find participants, conduct 27 oral history interviews, and begin the transcription process.
The other project, tentatively titled Archives of Gendered Violence: Transnational Engagements of Art, Activism, and Scholarship, is a book project that will present a selection of blogs from the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based-Violence – a six-year project convened by feminist scholars and activists at several universities, including the University of Edinburgh. My main tasks for this project involved helping to select blog entries, creating a database, and writing a book proposal and a first draft of the manuscript.
Mouna:
That’s so cool! I really find the oral histories project super interesting. It’s important that you are archiving feminist academic work that took place on campus.
Maéva:
Thank you! What about you? What projects have you been working on during your internship?
Mouna:
I was mainly co-responsible for curating the GENDER.ED blog under the supervision of our Associate Director Dr Kaveri Qureshi and former Associate Director Hemangini Gupta helping out with publicity on our various social media channels under the supervision of our Network Coordinator Claire Edminson. I really enjoyed being able to use my creativity to make the blog interesting and accessible!
However, what I most enjoyed about the internship was bridging and building connections between undergraduate students and GENDER.ED. Among other things, I helped facilitate an on-going collaboration between the Undergraduate student society, Black Women* at Edinburgh and GENDER.ED. It has been great to be able to support fellow undergraduate students and spotlight the amazing work that students do on campus and beyond.
I also helped with the preparation of the Annual Research Showcase 2025, which featured the first ever Mini Undergraduate Dissertation Showcase. I had a key role in the preparation of the Dissertation Showcase, and among other things, I helped create publicity material for the showcase to ensure that we received a sufficient number of applicants. I also helped select dissertations for the showcase. It was a great experience to work closely with other undergraduate students, but also to see the dissertation showcase come together at the Annual Research Showcase.
Maéva:
That’s really exciting. And could you tell me about the skills and knowledge you gained during the internship?
Mouna:
Yes, of course. I developed a lot of new skills throughout my internship! However, I would say that there is one thing I am most proud of myself for having accomplished. When I started the internship, I had very minimal video development experience. I had edited short Reels for Instagram and produced some publicity material, but I had never developed a video from the story boarding phase to the editing phase. During my internship at GENDER.ED, I got the opportunity to develop a video summarizing the work that the network does in collaboration with Marie Storrar from the Communications Team at the School of Social and Political Science. It was a very fun, but challenging experience, and now I can say that I know how to develop and edit a video!
What about you, Maéva?
Maéva:
Well, this internship has really been an incredible experience. I would say that the main skills I have gained have been practical skills in feminist oral history methodology, specifically related to conducting ethical research, interview techniques, and transcription methods.
I had the opportunity to learn from several members of the GENDER.ED steering group—academics with expertise in feminist research and community archiving—who joined the ethics advisory board we created for the project. I reflected on and learned about ethical concerns related to consent and anonymity, the potential risks and challenges associated with publishing interviews online, as well as long-term preservation and access to oral histories. During my time at GENDER.ED, I was simultaneously undergoing the ethics review process for my own PhD project, which also involves conducting oral history interviews. This overlap allowed me to directly apply what I was learning to my own research, which was incredibly helpful!
While working on the book project, I also gained hands-on experience in academic publishing, a field I was excited to explore. I had the opportunity to write a book proposal and compile a full manuscript, which provided me with practical knowledge that I am sure will be useful as I move forward in my academic career.
Mouna:
That’s great! And what influence do you think your internship has had on your career goals moving forward?
Maéva:
I think that conducting almost 30 interviews with feminist academics not only helped me hone my skills as an interviewer and researcher, but also provided me with valuable insights into how gender and feminist studies have been—and continue to be—taught across generations and disciplines. Through these conversations, I learned about the process of designing and teaching courses with a feminist pedagogical approach, as well as the broader institutional structures within a university, all of which have made me more aware of what to expect and how to navigate the career I hope to pursue in academia.
What about you, Mouna?
Mouna:
I also hope to go into academia and GENDER.ED has given me a better insight into the field while simultaneously helping me develop transferable skills that I can take with me in the future. For example, working on the blog has definitely made me more attentive to detail.
It has also been a great experience to be able to attend a vast array of academic events, seminars, talks, and workshops, and also to be able to discuss my interests with academics and PhD students in the field. I would say that working for GENDER.ED also opened my eyes to other centres and networks at the university, which has helped me fine tune my academic interests. For example, without interning for GENDER.ED, I wouldn’t have known about CRITIQUE or IASH and I would not have had the opportunity to learn about important topics I have been exposed to this past year.
Maéva:
That’s amazing. Thank you so much for having this conversation with me, Mouna. I wish you all the best with the next steps of your studies and career!
Mouna: You too! It has been great speaking with you, Maéva.