The Oxford Brookes Creative Industries Research and Innovation Network

Image credit: Sandie Dodds / StAnza https://images.app.goo.gl/mzg5c9214fFADUC3A
Journalist, poet and staff writer at Middle East Eye, Mustafa Abu Sneineh joins us for a conversation about his experiences writing home as a Palestinian national in the UK, and the role of news media in times of international crisis. His first poetry book A Black Cloud at the End of the Line was published in Arabic in 2016. Abu Sneineh studied Law at Birzeit University, Palestine, before moving to London and studying for a Masters in Postcolonial Studies from Goldsmiths College, London. He now reports on events in Palestine for Middle East Eye.

A collaborative event between the Department of Media and Communication (Örebro University) & the Creative Industries Research and Innovation Network (Oxford Brookes).

The Swedish film institute has become internationally renowned for its work on gender equality as the numbers of women directors, screenwriters and producers have increased since the instigation of gender equality reform. However, women in the Swedish film industry still work in projects with lower budgets, struggle with obnoxious men on the set and work hard to combine demands for flexibility at work with ideals of the present mother. This talk argues that women put a lot of labor into dealing with gender injustices in the film industry. This work is invisible in the sense that it is not recognized and sometimes it is even considered shameful to mention. Departing from women’s narrations of their experiences of working in the Swedish film industry the talk exemplifies how gender inequality is manifested in financing and producing film and how women struggle to deal with this.

Maria Jansson holds a PhD in political science and is professor of Gender Studies at Örebro University. Her research interests include women’s working conditions and cultural policy. She is currently PI in the project Representing Women: Gendering Swedish Film Culture, funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. Among her recent publications are “‘The Final Cut’: Directors, Producers and the Gender Regime of the Swedish Film Industry” (co-authored with Frantzeska Papadopoulou, Ingrid Stigsdotter and Louise Wallenberg) in Gender, Work and Organization, 2020; “Experiencing Male Dominance in Swedish Film Production” (co-authored with Louise Wallenberg), in Liddy (ed). Women in the International Film Industry (Palgrave, 2020); and “Representing and Experiencing Motherhood on- and off-Screen in the Swedish Film Industry” (co-authored with Louise Wallenberg) in Liddy and O’Brien (eds) Media Work, Mothers and Motherhood (Routledge, 2021).

Born and raised in Kenya, Abbie Mumbi moved to the UK where she now works as a nurse and a university lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. She is a domestic abuse survivor who has used creative writing to heal and recover from violence and homelessness. Mumbi hopes to develop her creativity further and to inspire through her book others to reach their potentials. In this webinar, Mumbi will discuss her story with Professor Daniela Treveri Gennari, Chair of the Creative Industries Research and Innovation Network at Brookes and author Sarah Franklin, lecturer at Brookes, judge for the Costa Short Story Award and the founder and host of Short Stories Aloud, a popular Oxford literary night in its eighth year.