Looking Back, Looking Forward: GENDER.ED in 2023
Looking Back, Looking Forward
GENDER.ED in 2023
As we return for semester 2, it is time to look back on all that we accomplished in what was another exciting calendar year at GENDER.ED. We are continually grateful for the support we receive from everyone who attends our events, engages with us online and collaborates with us on exciting projects.
2023 was once again a year for celebrating the incredible work of students in both academic and activist settings. Our GENDER.ED-EUSA Undergraduate Feminist Trailblazer Awards (UGFTA’s), Yuan Changying Prize and, the newly launched, Queer Futures Prize acknowledge the important work that students do, and we were incredibly impressed with all those who were nominated in 2023. The winners of the UGFTA’s and the Yuan Changying Prize were announced at our Annual Research Showcase in May. Look out for posts featuring the winners of prizes and their work on our blog! In addition to awards, GENDER.ED runs a highly successful internships and assistantships programme for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The summer internship is offered in partnership with IASH (Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities), and this year has seen the expansion of this programme in partnership with the Vet School, enabling us to offer a total of four undergraduate internships and two PhD assistantships.
We continue to support the teaching of gender and sexualities studies across different schools and disciplines with our flagship course Understanding Gender in The Contemporary World, now in its 7th year, as well as two other great gateway modules we support: Introduction to Queer Studies and the new course on Gender and Visual Representation, the development of which we facilitated, and which is being taught this semester. Our directory continues to be a valuable resource that helps students to find courses relevant to gender and sexualities studies.
In 2023, we also continued to strengthen our international ties. In October, we welcomed two of our UGEN (Una Europa Gender and Equality Network) colleagues from Jagiellonian University in Krakow and we are excited to host a visit from the entire UGEN team in March. Our 16 Days International Blogathon once again formed another important part of our international outreach. It was organised in collaboration with the Australian Human Rights Institute at the University of New South Wales and with Dr B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi. Guest curators this year were Margherita von Brentano Center at the Freie Universitat Berlin, and the Una Europa Gender and Equality Network (UGEN). Each year we collaborate with different institutions, academics, and activists from around the world to bring together insights into an important theme. 2023’s theme was ‘Sexual Violence and Harassment in Higher Education Institutions.’
Each annual cycle, we are thrilled to see the great depth and variety of gender and sexualities research happening across the University and supporting and promoting such research is a key part of our work. Throughout 2023, we organised the SGSSS-SGSAH-funded Spring into Methods Workshop on Feminist Research Methods in collaboration with the Strathclyde University Feminist Research Network. The workshop took place on the University of Edinburgh campus and saw 23 PhD researchers from universities across Scotland come together, representing a range of humanities and social science disciplines. In October, we welcomed Dr Rosa Campbell as our first GENDER.ED Postdoctoral Fellow. She will be sharing her research with us at an upcoming event to mark International Women’s Day in March. Our Annual Research Showcase, which took place in May, was also a fantastic opportunity to celebrate research projects happening across the University and foster a supportive and collaborative environment for more gender and sexualities research projects to flourish in the future.
Throughout the year, we hosted and co-badged numerous events in order to support and encourage interdisciplinarity and networking across the University. Collaborating with other networks and schools brings new insights and enriches our events throughout the year. We hosted book launches for African Women in Digital Spaces (with the Centre for African Studies) and The Vulgarity of Caste (with the Centre for South Asia Studies) as well as co-badging the launch of Professor Ayesha Chaudry’s book Colour of God: A Story of Family and Faith at the New College Festival of Books and Belief. Moreover, we organised seminars on ‘Interlocking Crises, Intersectional Visions: Eco-Feminism in Conversation with Degrowth’ (with CRITIQUE), ’Menstrual Justice in Scotland’ (with IASH and the Menstruation Research Network), ‘Unexpected Callings: Ancestors and Queer Kinship in Zimbabwe’ (with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships) and on ‘Transitional Justice, Gender and Citizenship in Colombia’ (with the Gender and Politics Research Group). Over the course of April and May, we organised the ‘Academic Writing for the Public Workshops,’ led by our Associate Director, Dr Hemangini Gupta and co-badged by the Freie Universität Berlin. More on these workshops can be found in our Early Career Researchers’ Spotlight blogs.
Last year, we also had the joy of hosting the Gender and Sexualities Reading Group (which was previously the Gender Politics Reading Group but has now come into the GENDER.ED fold) and over the summer, the reading group embarked on the second iteration of Deep Dive, an opportunity for staff and PhD students to jointly immerse themselves into the work of a renowned feminist theorist. This last iteration’s theorist was Luce Irigaray, and it was an honour to welcome Irigaray-expert Professor Mary Rawlinson who delivered the Deep Dive’s opening and closing lectures.
Last, but by no means least, we had the honour of hosting a post-event reception for acclaimed author and poet, Jackie Kay at the Edinburgh International Book Festival as well as supporting the innovative performance piece What Draupadi Said to Penelope at the Fringe Festival.
The entire team is incredibly proud of all that we achieved in 2023 and we are excited to embark on a new year of events, projects, and exciting opportunities in support of gender and sexualities studies and research at the University!
