Gender Research Network Newsletter

Curtin University Gender Research Network Newsletter

8 December 2021, Issue 9

Dear All,

On 3 December 2021, Curtin’s Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT) and the Curtin Autism Research Group (CARG) held a morning tea at the John Curtin Gallery for International Day of People with Disability. This year’s theme was ‘Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world’. The speakers, Ms Lisa Munday MLA, Member for Dawesville, Prof Katie Ellis from CCAT and Prof Sonya Girdler and Mr Bradley Vinci from CARG, discussed the importance of inclusivity and accessibility in the Arts and beyond. In their talks, Ellis and Girdle noted that an inadvertent and unanticipated consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic was a shift to doing everyday things in online spaces as we embraced flexible work and living. Ellis noted this flexibility and accessibility is something that people with a disability have long advocated for as “disability disrupts normative understandings of time and the life course […] the clock [bends] to meet disabled bodies and minds” (Kafer 2013). Here Ellis referred to “crip time” a concept in critical disability studies that explains the way people with disability do things on a different timeline to the nondisabled population. This might mean physical speed or life events and stages: some people with disability “contend with the impairments of old age while still young; some […] are treated like children no matter how old [they] get” (Samuels 2017). Turning to discuss the experience of living through the pandemic, Ellis described pandemic crip time as “forcing us to slow down, do things out of order but in exactly the way we needed to to survive.” With that she challenged us to enter the space provided by the exhibition – Sense and Sensitivity: Neurodiversity and Creativity – and to take these moments into our everyday life as we put in place the foundations for an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world. Sense and Sensitivity: Neurodiversity and Creativity is a collaboration between two neurodiverse artists, photographer Simon Phillips and sound and performance artist Dawn-joy Leong. The works, blending Phillips’ landscape photography with Leong’s soundscapes, create a multisensory experience that reflects both artists’ own experiences of the world. The exhibition is open at the John Curtin Gallery until 15 December 2021.

Pandemic crip time is an accurate way to describe our state in 2020 and 2021 – and while we will take Ellis’s brilliant words (slow down, do things out of order but in exactly the way you need to to survive) into 2022, it is hard to believe that the year is drawing to a close. Thank you for your support and guidance throughout the year as we have worked to set up a structure for the GRN at Curtin and to begin to gather the ways that gender research is done at Curtin and what that means for the institution. Gender research and a critical view on what gender means for everyday life, decisions and the operations of power in our institutions is one way that we contribute to inclusivity, accessibility and sustainability goals. It is our role to continue to advocate for a shift in perspective, to highlight the contestable and to unpack binaries so that equity, social justice, fairness are possible outcomes. In 2022 our goal is to produce a gender toolkit with resources and suggestions for how data on gender might be captured and used beyond the binary.

Doing so is not possible without your support and sincere thanks go to those who have led as GRN Research Champions, attended our events this year, contributed to our workshop and seminar series, sent feedback and advice and offered support. We hope we do the same for you! Part of the role of the GRN includes understanding the scope of gender research at Curtin. As GRN members, you will receive an email from us requesting the following information:

•   How gender research plays a role in your research
•   Any gender research you have published
•   Your preferred pronouns

We are requesting this information so we can present a more accurate picture to the Advisory Group on what gender research at Curtin looks like. It will also help to create a more accurate directory of GRN members for use by all. We appreciate your assistance with this project and if you have any questions, please let us know.

Have a wonderful and restful break and we look forward to seeing you in 2022 as we launch the online seminar and workshop series with a talk from Dr Joanne McEwan on “Gender through the Ages.” Other speakers planned include Prof. Mindy Blaise (ECU), Toni Church (WA Museum), A/Prof Anna Arabindan Kesson (Princeton), Marilyn Metta (Curtin) and Myriam Blin (Curtin Mauritius). Please be in touch should you wish to contribute to the series.

Very best wishes,

Samantha, Therese, Liz

.
References:
Kafer, Alison. (2013) Feminist Queer Crip. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Samuels, Ellen. (2017) “Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time”, Disability Studies Quarterly, 37(3): https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/5824

Gender Research Network Events

GRN End of Year Virtual Afternoon Tea

We would like to invite you to a Gender Research Network End of Year Virtual Afternoon Tea to mark the close of the 2021 university year and to thank you for your support. The event will also belatedly recognise the close of 16 Days of Domestic Violence in WA (25 November to 10 December 2021). We hope that the time will suit all time zones and workspaces and we look forward to seeing you there.

Date: 14 December 2021, 1:30pm-2:30pm AWST
RSVP: elizabeth.baca@curtin.edu.au

Past Gender Research Network Events

Navigating the academic journey as a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) woman presented by Professor Jaya Dantas and Dr Siddier Chambers
Watch the WebEx recording.

Understanding Gender Diversity summary (written by MX Misty Farquhar)
Please email to request a recording of the seminar or the slides.

In conjunction with Global Campuses Brown Bag Seminar Series: Capitalising on Board Gender Diversity: The Mediating Effect of Board Capital Diversity on the Relationship between Board Gender Diversity and Firm Performance presented by Dr Tien Nguyen
Watch the WebEx recording.

Changing the academic gender narrative through open access presented by Dr Katie Wilson
Watch the WebEx recording.

A Conversation on Emotional Silence presented by Dr Sally Lamping and Dr Saul Karnovsky
Watch the WebEx recording.

In conjunction with Athena SWAN: Career Break Management presented by Professor Helen Hodgson – ATHENA Swan Provost Fellow
Watch the WebEx recording.

Curtin Based Opportunities and Events

Women in Research Webinar 12: Networking for Everyone (including Introverts!)
The idea of networking makes many of us uncomfortable. Yet, a mountain of research shows that professional networks lead to more job and business opportunities, broader and deeper knowledge, improved capacity to innovate, faster advancement, and greater status and authority. Fortunately, an aversion to networking can be overcome, even for introverts! In the 12th webinar of the "Small Wins" series, ARC Laureate Fellow Sharon Parker (Curtin University) will lead a discussion on how to become more excited about, efficient and effective at building relationships, especially when time for networking is scarce. She will be joined by ARC Laureate Fellows, Professor Sharon Friel (Australian National University) and Professor Nanda Dasgupta (Australian National University) who will share their experience and tips.

Date: 8 December, 11am-12pm AWST. Further details and registration via Women in Research.

Research Study: Barriers & Opportunities to Employment for Professional Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Women
Dr Lisa Hartley from Curtin’s Centre for Human Rights Education, in collaboration with Professional Migrant Women’s Network Inc in Perth, are looking for professional women from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds to participate in a 15-minute online survey. This research seeks to identify the specific needs of professional women from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds in building professional pathways to employment. The outcome of the survey will inform the development of programs to support professional Culturally and Linguistically Diverse women to access meaningful employment in Perth.

Who is eligible to participate?

● 18 years or older

● Identify as having a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse background (including refugees and people seeking asylum)

● Have professional qualifications in either your home country or in Australia

● Currently live in Western Australia

Participants can find more information and complete the survey here. Please email lisa.hartley@curtin.edu.au if you have further questions.

External Talks and Events

ReWOMEN Seminar 4: ‘Making Time and Selling Luxury in 18th & 19th Century England’
Diana Volonakis will focus on women’s training and employment at the Lancashire Watch Company, Prescot (1889-1910), examining the effects that gendered occupational segregation policies exercised on the English watchmaking industry’s development, and eventual failure. Amy Erickson will look at the trades and training of women who owned and operated luxury shops in the most expensive part of London in the 18th century, starting from their business cards held in the online collection of the British Museum.

Date: 9 December, 7am AEDT. Further details and registration via ReWOMEN.

16 Days in WA – Stop Violence Against Women
For 16 days in November and December, the community is invited to take a part in encouraging change to stop violence against women. The annual 16 Days in WA – Stop Violence Against Women campaign takes place from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, to 10 December, which is Human Rights Day. Now in its fifth year, 16 Days in WA draws inspiration from the global movement for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence to drive a change in culture, behaviour and attitudes that lead to violence against women and their children.

Together we can make a difference.

Date: 25 November-10 December. Further information and calendar of events.

Queer Unionists in Tertiary Education Emergency Meeting – Transphobia in the NTEU
All Queer members and allies welcome.

Date: 10 December, 1pm AEDT. Registration via Zoom.

Theorizing Gender and Political Leadership from Asia and the Pacific
Research that helps us understand and overcome the lack of gender diversity in politics is dominated by studies from Euro-America. Theories, concepts and analytical frames developed from a small number of country contexts are applied to the ‘rest of the world’. This workshop aims to turn this production of knowledge on its head, centring scholarship about gender and politics from Asia and the Pacific to rethink the certainties as to what is known, the theoretical and conceptual tools we use, and the research directions we pursue. The aim is to advance the field of gender and politics internationally, while also distilling key lessons that can help address the underrepresentation of Australians from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds in politics at all levels, particularly ‘Women of Colour’. This two-day workshop will bring together scholars/researchers/practitioners working on gender and politics across Asia and the Pacific (including Australia) to engage in inter-disciplinary dialogue about gender, political leadership, representation and participation.

Date: 2-4 February 2022. Further information via ANU Gender Institute.

External CFPs, Submissions and Opportunities

Berkshire Conference of Women, Genders and Sexualities, 2023 Submissions are now open to present at the 50th anniversary of the Berkshire Conference of Women, Genders and Sexualities at Santa Clara University, California. The theme of the conference is ‘Oceans, Islands, and Continents: Reconceptualising the Spatialisation of Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Histories’. Local and international scholars of all persuasions, especially graduate students and early career researchers, are welcome.
Applications due 31 December 2021. Further information available here.

The Donna Coates Book Prize Donna Coates was a leading scholar of Australian, Canadian, and Aotearoa New Zealand Studies, and the Donna Coates Book Prize is awarded annually to recognised a monograph published by an Early Career Researcher (being someone who is within eight years of being awarded their PhD, or six years from their first academic appointment), or a first book that considers at least two countries of Donna’s research. The prize is awarded for works published in the calendar year of the award, and is open to all disciplines.
Submissions due 31 December 2021. Further details available here.

Call for Proposals: Gender & STEM Conference 2022: Sticking with STEM: Who comes, who stays, who goes, and why?
The 2022 Network conference will bring together researchers, educators, policy makers, business and industry representatives, and the public to interrogate personal and contextual influences towards, or away from, diverse STEM pathways across stages and settings. The specific theme of Sticking with STEM: Who comes, who stays, who goes, and why? points to individual and organizational factors as well as their interaction in the career development process of the STEM workforce. Both perspectives—that of the individual with a basic interest in STEM and that of organizations such as schools and companies that are the nourishing ground for STEM motivations—contribute to the individual’s career development. What characterizes individuals coming into STEM, who persists and who leaves STEM, and which organizational aspects contribute? How can diversity at the workplace motivate pursuit and persistence in a STEM career?

Submissions due 14 January 2022. Further details and submission guidelines via Bundeswehr University Munich.

Call for Submissions: Lilith The Lilith Editorial Collective invites submissions for the 2022 issue. We welcome papers from scholars across academic disciplines, with a particular focus on historical research, and encourage postgraduate and early career researchers to submit papers. We also encourage scholars outside of Australia to submit papers. Submissions due 15 January 2022. Further details and submission guidelines via Australian Women's History Network.

Tracey Banivanua Mar Scholarship This scholarship has been established to support a student undertaking a Bachelor of Arts (on campus or online) with a Humanities and Social Sciences major as a third year student (final year) or an Honours student (fourth year), who demonstrate similar qualities of Tracey Banivanua, to be a voice for 'their people:' communities and nations across the Pacific, women everywhere fighting for autonomy and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Applications due 30 January 2022. Further information via La Trobe University.

Feminist Gender Equality Network
The Feminist Gender Equality Network (FGEN) is a cross-sector, interdisciplinary international organisation that adopts an intersectional feminist framework in order to:

advance the understanding of gender and sex as fluid categories
protect the rights and needs of people of all (or no) gender
counter transphobia and transmisogyny in social life and institutions, legal structures, political movements and media and cultural representation
counter sexism and gender-based violence and discrimination
further intersectional understanding and political mobilisation to stress the relationship between gender marginalisation and other social inequalities
forward self and bodily autonomy and reproductive choice and rights
develop social, cultural, legal, and policy frameworks to forward the above, share knowledge and expertise, and develop best practice

As the Network grows, they are seeking assistance from members with the following:

Finance – ideally treasurers with chartered accounting experience
GDPR advisors – to work alongside Theresa Davis and ensure GDPR compliance
Media – a team of people who are willing to be interviewed by the media and to be part of a WhatsApp Group organised by Jane Fae to respond to (always short notice) media requests. Jane has very generously offered to give media training to those interested
Twitter and Facebook – a team to work alongside S.J on social media presence/posting
Branding – members are invited to submit designs for our logo. The winner (or winning combinations) will be announced in the New Year!

FGEN will also be holding a conference and Network meeting in April 2022.

Please contact sally.hines@sheffield.ac.uk about membership and FGEN opportunities.

Resources

Lest We Forget: Children have Human Rights Too: Annual Human Rights Lecture 2021
The Centre for Human Rights Education (CHRE) is very pleased to announce that the recording of this year's powerful Curtin Annual Human Rights Lecture on 9 September 2021 by Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson, a Jiman and Bundjalung woman with Anglo-Celtic and German heritage, is now available to view online. Following a wonderful Welcome to Country from Whadjuk Ballardong Elder Auntie Freda Ogilvie, and introductions from CHRE's Associate Professor Caroline Fleay and Dr Marilyn Metta, Professor Atkinson invites us to come and sit with her. She invites us to listen and learn the stories of children that tell us of the ongoing devastating impacts of colonisation, and how we must respond to ensure their human rights are recognised and protected.

Lecture available via YouTube.

Inclusive language guides
What Do I Say? A guide to language about disability, People with Disability Australia Cultural and linguistic diversity, Australian Government Style Guide Gender and sexual diversity, Australian Government Style Guide Gender inclusive language, Australian National University A guide to writing and speaking about Indigenous People in Australia, Maquarie University Department of Indigenous Studies
Guidelines for gender-inclusive language in English, United Nations
Inclusive Language Guide, Edith Cowan University

Recent publications

Reimagining the Academy: ShiFting Towards Kindness, Connection, and an Ethics of Care
Edited by Alison L Black and Rachael Dwyer, Reimagining the Academy explores the capacities and desires of academic women to reimagine and transform academic cultures. Embracing and championing feminist scholarship, the research presented by the authors in this collection holds space for a different way of being in academia and shifts the conversation toward a future that is hopeful, kind and inclusive. Through exploring lived experiences, building caring communities and enacting an ethics of care, the authors are reimagining the academy’s focus and purpose. The autoethnographic and arts-based research approaches employed throughout the book provide evocative conceptual content, which responds to the symbolic nature of transformation in the academy. This innovative volume will be of interest and value to feminist scholars, as well as those interested in disrupting and rejecting patriarchal academic structures.

Access Reimagining the Academy via Springer.

Reading with Reciprocity: A Feminist Move Towards Reviewing with Generosity (2021)
Reading with Reciprocity is an initiative by The Ediths inspired by the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research’s (CLEAR) blog post, #Collabrary: a methodological experiment for reading with reciprocity (2021), which draws on the scholarship of Joe Dumit (2012), Zoe Todd (2016), and Eve Tuck (2017) to learn reading practices that are “humble, generous, and accountable” (CLEAR, 2021). The Ediths were interested and impressed with the ways in which this methodological experiment was creating reading practices grounded in a feminist ethic committed to making room for diverse knowledges. This collection of responses is a generative continuation of the original call out for responses and invite you of course, to read with reciprocity.

Learn more and download Reading with Reciprocity via The Ediths.

Newsletter and Submission Deadline Calendar

9 February 2022 [7 February 2022]