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From S/N/TWGs: Relaunch of ECREA’s Women’s Network

29.03.2019 14:56 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

Relaunch of ECREA’s Women’s Network

Ayşegül Kesirli, chair of Women’s Network, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey

Arianna Mainardi, vice-chair of Women’s Network, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy

Jolien van Keulen, vice-chair of Women’s Network, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Ayşegül Kesirli First of all, we want to express our gratitude for being elected as the new management team of the ECREA Women’s Network. Building on the crucial work done by the network so far, we are currently preparing to refresh and relaunch the network. One of our main goals is to increase the network’s visibility within ECREA. In this newsletter we would like to introduce our vision and plans, and invite all ECREA members to engage in setting and achieving the objectives of the Women’s Network. The Women’s Network aims to address all challenges women face in research and in higher education. Being a woman in academia has always been challenging, especially in societies with strong patriarchal traditions. Apart from difficulties relating to finding a balance between everyday routines and conducting research, women in higher education have to face gender bias in any academic setting. The first objective of the network is to create a platform for female scholars to speak up about the problems they encounter in academia and be in solidarity with colleagues around the world.

Arianna Mainardi The ECREA Women’s Network also intends to facilitate, contribute to, and disseminate (research on) female scholarship. By bringing people together, stimulating the exchange of insights and practices, we aim to contribute to equality in all its dimensions and identify diverse practices in higher education in Europe and beyond, revealing differences, strengths, and weaknesses. Through the organisation of workshops, lectures, and panels – in close collaboration with all ECREA sections – the Women’s Network aims to function as a platform to increase the visibility and impact of female scholars within ECREA, and initiate and maintain discussions on gender inequalities in academia beyond national as well as institutional borders.

Expanding the existing network objectives, we aim to support critical research initiatives that challenge white male perspectives on knowledge. Generally speaking, the position that not only women but also LGBTQ+ people occupy in the higher education is not neutral. Both cultural and structural conditions intervene to define, give visibility to and legitimise the competences, expertise and knowledge of female and LGBTQ+ scholars. The existing system of practices embedded in the academic context—at the level of both the labour market and organisational and cultural systems—reinforces a gender regime that has consequences in different areas.

To achieve all these goals, the ECREA’s Women’s Network calls for support toJolien van Keulen organise events, collaborate in research projects, and generate and disseminate information about the work of female and LGBTQ+ scholars. The network aims to coordinate knowledge and initiate discussions concerning the issues within our scope through different channels including its website, Facebook page, ECREA discussion forums and ECREA events. In this way, the Women’s Network seeks to inspire future research and activities that promote gender equality in higher education in the European academic context and beyond.

We would like to encourage all ECREA members to become a member of the Women’s Network and to engage with the network’s objectives and activities. Below you find the URLs of our website and Facebook group, as well as a link to our revised objectives to which all ECREA members are invited to comment on or contribute to, by getting in touch with us via e-mail ecreawomensnetwork@gmail.com or posting a comment on the network’s discussion forum in the ECREA Intranet until May 15, 2019. Lastly, we would like to call attention to our next event; during the conference 'Female Agency and Subjectivity in Film and Television' organised by Istanbul Bilgi University on 11-13 April 2019, the ECREA Women's Network will organise a workshop to explore the experiences of women in academia and raise awareness of inequalities. We hope to meet and inspire all ECREA members during the ECC in 2020.

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/348976009038672/

Website: https://ecreawomensnetwork.wixsite.com/website

Network objectives: https://ecreawomensnetwork.wixsite.com/website/network-objectives

Images:.

Image 1: Ayşegül Kesirli

Images 2: Arianna Mainardi

Images 3: Jolien van Keulen

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