This is our last newsletter for 2016, with information on the Centre's past and upcoming events, research news and publications. We wish you all great end of year festivities and are looking forward to coming back in 2017!
Research News
On 23 September 2016 Elif Şimşek successfully defended her PhD thesis in Comparative Sciences of Culture and in Philosophy in the framework of a joint doctorate with the University of Salzburg, titled 'Elif Shafak and Emine Sevgi Özdamar: Politics of Fiction, Re-negotiating Secularism, Decolonial Feminism and Decolonial Aesthesis'. Many congratulations, Dr. Şimşek!!!
On 21 November 2016 Lydia Namatende defended her PhD thesis in Gender and Diversity Studies, entitled: 'Agency within Crevices of Subordination: Female Teacher Educators' Gendered Lived Experiences in Uganda'. Lydia is the first to graduate with a PhD in Gender and Diversity Studies in Belgium! Our heartiest congratulation on this achievement, Dr. Namatende!!
On 16 December 2016 An Van Raemdonck defended her PhD thesis in Comparative Sciences of Culture entitled 'Female Genital Cutting and the Politics of Islamicate Practices in Egypt. Debating Development and the Religious/Secular Devide'. Big congrats to you too, Dr. Van Raemdonck!!
Embodying the Feminine Divine
Carine Plancke starts working on a four-year postdoctoral research project (2017-2020) “Embodying the Feminine Divine: Agency, Subjectivity and Cultural Alterity in Women's Yogic Retreats”, funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). The project relates to a broader research line being developed on contemporary women’s spirituality and well-being in Europe at CRCG together with Prof. Dr. Chia Longman.
Yoga, as other new spiritual and well-being practices, has gained a lot in popularity in Western Europe, especially among women. This research project concerns an ethnographic study of yogic women retreats that intend to enhance positive awareness of the female body and highlight its sacred dimension. It aims to uncover the participants’ and retreat leaders’ agency in redefining femininity and developing their female subjectivity in reference to cultural otherness. The study is situated in the field of gender studies in religion and draws on theoretical insights from feminist theory and contemporary studies of religion, spirituality and secularism. It adopts an anthropological approach that puts the women’s experiences at the centre of analysis and highlights the insider’s point of view. Multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews in a transnational context (Belgium, Netherlands, UK) will be the main methods used to realize this approach. Through its empirical dimension, the project aims to correct the theoretical and text-based bias in most studies of new spirituality. It will contribute, in following the postsecular turn in feminism, to discuss notions of gender, agency and empowerment beyond the model of liberal equality, with implications for feminist theories of sexual difference and gendered subjectivity.
From January 2017 until July 2017, Ladan Rahbari, currently located at the Centre for for Research on Culture and Gender at UGent, will join the RHEA team in Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Ladan is a social anthropologist; she has a PhD in Sociology (University of Mazandaran, Iran), a Master’s degree in Anthropology (Tehran University, Iran) and a Bachelor’s degree in Italian Literature (Tehran University).
She is now conducting a joint PhD research project in Ghent University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. This doctoral research project ‘A Critical Analysis of Cross-Cultural Discourses and Moral Understandings of Gender, Sexuality and Embodiment’ (2015-2019) is funded by Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and is under supervision of Prof. Dr. Gily Coene (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Prof. Dr. Chia Longman (Universiteit Gent) and consists of two joint doctoral research projects conducted by Dr. Ladan Rahbari and Susan Dierickx. Rahbari has teaching experience in BA and MA programs of anthropology, art studies and social sciences in several universities. Her research interests include gender politics, sexuality, space, body and harmful cultural practices with a general focus on the Middle East, and in the frameworks of radical and postcolonial feminist theories. She is affiliated with the Centre for Research on Culture and Gender (CRCG) and Centre of Expertise on Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality (RHEA).
Event News
Events (co)organized by CRCG or CRCG staff members
As the coordinator of the Internationalization@Home event, I am happy to announce that the Centre for Research on Culture and Gender (CRCG) and the Department of Languages and Cultures of Ghent University (Gent, Belgium) successfully held the Internationalization@Home Event on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016. This one day symposium’s theme was International Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality. The event was open to academic and public audience and was meant to bring in together different perspectives on gender and sexuality from different regions, disciplines and cultures. International Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality was held with about 160 academic and non-academic registrants. The event addressed issues including female genital mutilation, sexual harassment, critical analysis of emancipation, empowerment and human/women’s rights discourses. I received positive feedback from the public audience, student participants and speakers alike. I hereby extend my gratitude to all the colleagues in the CRCG and in the department who helped in the organization of this event.
Ladan Rahbari.
International Summer School "Globalization and Diversity"
The Göttingen Diversity Research Institute is organising an international Summer School on "Globalization and Diversity" which will be held from 25.06.-08.07.2017 in cooperation with partner universities from Europe, including the U4 university network, the United States and Japan. The summer school will provide students with an overview over current debates on social diversity on a global and local scale. Through lectures the students will gain theoretical knowledge on different levels and dimensions of diversity. Therefore speakers from various research backgrounds are being invited. In December a call for registration will be launched. BA, MA and PhD students are invited to apply; there are two places available for UGent students with a free travel allowance and accommodation!
- Bex, Christof & Katrien De Graeve (2016), 'Alleen bouwen aan een toekomst in het secundair onderwijs'. Samenleving en Politiek, mei 2016, 41-47.
- Bouman, Walter Pierre, Amets Suess Schwend, Joz Motmans, Adam Smiley, Joshua D. Safer, Madeline B. Deutsch, Noah J. Adams & Sam Winter (2016), 'Editorial. Language and Trans Health'. International Journal of Transgenderism (published online 15 December 2016).
- De Graeve, Katrien (2016) 'Adoptiefeesten: Cultuur, Liefdadigheid en Gemeenschapsvorming bij Vlaams-Ethiopische Adoptiegezinnen'. Volkskunde117(3)247-264.
- De Graeve, Katrien & Christof Bex (2016), 'Imageries of family and nation: a comparative analysis of transnational adoption and care for unaccompanied minors in Belgium'. Childhood, 23(4)492-505.
- De Graeve, Katrien & Christof Bex (2016), 'Carescapes and Belonging: An Intersectional Analysis of Care Relationships of Unaccompanied Minors in Belgium'. Children's Geographies (pulished online 13 November 2016).
- Joncheere, Ayla, and Iris Vandevelde (2016), “Representing Rajasthani Roots: Indian Gypsy Identity and Origins in Documentary Films.” Romani Studies 26.2: 151–173. Print
- Rahbari, Ladan (2016), 'Women in Higher Education and Academia in Iran'. Sociology and Anthropology, 4 , pp. 1003 - 1010. Doi: 10.13189/sa.2016.041107.
- Rahbari, Ladan (2016), 'Transnationality of Child Poverty: the Case of Iranian and Afghan Street Children in Tehran', Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies, 4(5), pp. 347-352.
