[Gala-l] CFP

Thu Feb 6 17:32:33 UTC 2020

Dear all,
I would like to share with you this cfp for a conference taking place at
the University of Leicester (UK) and organised by the IGSRC
(Interdisciplinary Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster).
See
https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/modern-languages/research-1/interdisciplinary-gender-and-sexuality-research-cluster-igsrc
If interested, please circulate the call among your contacts.
One of the keynote speakers is Professor Helen Sauntson.

Thank you
Best wishes

Michela Baldo
Honorary fellow in Translation Studies
University of Hull

*“Gender and sexuality in the neoliberal University: Interdisciplinary
Approaches.”*

*Interdisciplinary Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster Conference*

*The University of Leicester, UK*

*17-18 September 2020*

*Call for Papers*

Situating universities within the recent developments brought out by
neoliberal and market ideologies*, *this conference invites proposals
focusing on the impact of neoliberalism on gender(ed) experiences in
academia. In the UK, profound transformations in the neoliberal university
such as marketisation, consumerism, funding-led audits and the introduction
of managerial cultures have ushered in control and surveillance regimes and
lead to the suppression of academic freedom (Morrish and Sauntson, 2016,
2019). Academia remains complicit in reproducing power and control
inequalities, with the majority of students in British Higher Education
belonging to relatively comfortable socio-economic backgrounds and being
encouraged to behave as consumers of a product rather than show interest in
their academic self-development (Burke, 2013; Connell, 2013; McGettigan,
2013).The inequalities produced by neoliberal politics at university are
especially marked when considered along the lines of gender and sexuality
in their intersection with other categories such as race, class or ableism.
The subjectivities especially at risk of sexism, bullying or sexual
harassment are those who fall outside of the white cis heterosexual able
male category established as the norm, or those who question gender and
sexual binarisms and male supremacy (Ahmed, 2015; 2017a; 2017b).

We therefore welcome papers exploring the relationship between gender,
academic elites and margins where policies, structures and/ or pedagogies
are concerned in academic institutions affected by neoliberalism both in
and outside the UK. What does it mean being a woman or a LGBTQIA+ and/or
non-white, disabled, working class person in today’s University? How are
entry and promotion schemes gendered to favour cis male and heterosexual
students or staff members, and those who uphold the power inherent in these
categories? How are expectations, entitlements and burdens experienced
differently along the axes of gender, sexuality, social class or ableism?
Is it at all possible to challenge such structural inequalities, and to
inform pedagogies from within a gendered and queer feminist perspective?
Relatedly we encourage scholars to focus on the extent of the power of
educators and managers in either promoting or hindering gender diversity,
the dynamics that have a positive or negative effect on gender equality as
well as the pathways, voices and alternatives that inclusive and critical
gender practices and perspectives can foster. We welcome intersectional
approaches, and particularly encourage contributions on the following or
related themes and in a wide range of sociological, cultural and linguistic
contexts:

-      Gender and/or sexualitystudies teaching, feminist and queer
pedagogies;

-      Academic policies, practices and processes focused on gender and/or
sexuality structures and processes that facilitate or impede gender
equality;

-      Resistance in the implementation of gender diversity measures/ the
myth of the Equalities Act;

-      Sexism, heteropatriarchy and heteronormativity in academia: gender
imbalances and underrepresentation of women or members of LGBTQIA+
community among staff or students; career progression;

-      Sexual harassment and/or bullying in academia;

-      Discrimination based on gender and sexuality in its intersection
with race, and/or class, and or ableism;

-      Hierarchies of oppression in underrepresented groups;

-      Academic workload, especially pastoral work, as gendered work;

-      Collegiality versus managerialism and the impact on gender and
sexuality;

-      Divided sisters: women benefitting from the oppression of other
women;

-      The role of HE institutions in supporting systems of oppression and
discrimination;

-      Student and staff complaints based on gender inequalities and their
afterlives.

Please send your 250-300 words abstract by the *31stMay 2020*to Marion
Krauthaker (marion.krauthaker at dmu.ac.uk) and Michela Baldo (
M.Baldo at hull.ac.uk). The conference will take place on the *17thand
18th**September
2020*at the University of Leicester.

*Confirmed keynote speakers are:*

*Helen Sauntson**, *Professor of Linguistics at York St John University (UK)

*Lisa Blackman**, *Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths,
University of London (UK)

*References*

Ahmed, Sara (2015) “Sexism: A Problem with a Name.” *New Formations: A
Journal*

*of Culture/Theory/Politics,*86: 5–13.

Ahmed, Sara (2017a) *Living a Feminist Life*. Durham and London: Duke
University Press.

Ahmed, Sara (2017b) “Resignation is a feminist issue”. Available at
https://feministkilljoys.com/2016/08/27/resignation-is-a-feminist-issue/

Amsler, S. (2011) “Beyond all reason: spaces of hope in the struggle for
England’s universities.” *Representations,*116(1): 62-87.

Amsler, S. (2014) “By ones and twos and tens”: pedagogies of possibility
for democratising higher education.” *Pedagogy, Culture & Society*, 22(2):
275–294.

Ball, S.J. (2012) “Performativity, Commodification and Commitment: An I-Spy
Guide to the Neoliberal University.” *British Journal of Educational
Studies*, 60(1): 17-28.

Burke, P.J. (2013) “The right to higher education: neoliberalism, gender
and professional mis/recognitions.” *International Studies in Sociology of
Education*, 23(2): 107-126.

Connell, R. (2013a) “The neoliberal cascade and education: An essay on the
market agenda and its consequences.” *Critical Studies in Education*,
54(2): 99-112.

Petrina, Stephen and Wayne Ross (2014) “Critical University Studies:
Workplace, Milestones, Crossroads, Respect, Truth.” *Workplace*, 23:62-71.

McGettigan, A. (2013) *The Great University Gamble: Money, Markets and the
Future of Higher Education*. London: Pluto Press.

Morrish, Liz. (2017) “Academic identities in the managed university:
Neoliberalism and resistance at Newcastle University, UK.” *Australian
Universities' Review*, 2017, 59(2): 23-35.

Morrish, Liz and Helen Sauntson (2016) “Performance Management and the
Stifling of Academic Freedom and Knowledge Production.”*Journal of
Historical Sociology,*29(1): 42-64.

Morrish, Liz and Helen Sauntson (2019) *Academic Irregularities: Language
and Neoliberalism in Higher Education*. New York and London: Routledge.

Smyth, John (2017) *The Toxic University. Zombie Leadership, Academic Rock
Stars and Neoliberal Ideology. *London: Palgrave MacMillan.
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