Research within the Centre for Gender Studies is organised via four complementary streams: gender, law, crime and violence; gender, identity and the body; gender, theory, politics and pedagogy; and materialism, work and care. Colleagues across the university are networked via these streams through targeted events and research collaborations.
Gender, Law, Crime and Violence
Convened by Tanya Palmer (Law) and Lizzie Seal (Criminology/Sociology)
This research stream is a network for staff and students interested in the relationships between law, gender, violence and crime. We are interested in themes such as: the legal production of gendered subjects; gendered understandings of crime, deviance and transgression; the role of law as both a response to violence and a form of violence in itself; and various forms of gender-based violence. 'Law' and 'crime' are broadly conceived to include an array of practices, texts, institutions and systems, beyond those that would be captured by a positivist reading of legal doctrine. Similarly, we understand 'violence' as both physical and non-physical, perpetrated by individuals, groups and states. We welcome members with interests in any or all of these three concepts in relation to gender. The stream will facilitate a range of activities including reading groups, research seminars, informal peer review, and discussion of relevant research methodologies. We intend for this list of activities to develop organically in response to the needs of members.
Gender, Identity and the Body
Convened by Charlotte Morris (Sociology) and Hannah Mason-Bish (Sociology)
This stream provides a platform for colleagues working on issues related to gendered bodies, identities and sexualities. The Body is a broad topic within the field of Gender, with much scope for interdisciplinary exploration on such diverse themes as sex and sexualities, health and disability, gender and the body in everyday life, policing the gendered body, feminist perspectives on the body, gendered representations and constructions of the body, the impact of broader policy and legal frameworks including neoliberalism, bodies and intersectionalities. We also examine the relationship between identity and the body, including debates surrounding the transgender body and intersections of trans*, gender and identity. We will focus on a specific theme each semester, holding events and producing a monthly blog responding to current events, showcasing developing research and publications and profiling the work of colleagues, research students and key visitors with relevant expertise.
Gender, Theory, Politics and Pedagogy
Convened by Kim Brayson (Law) and Claire Annesley (Politics)
This stream aims to expose and understand the relationship between gender and power. We ask: where is power in the discourse and practice of gender? Which power structures maintain over time the subordinated position of women and LGBT* people across a range of social, legal and political arrangements? We challenge the notion of the public man of the demos, supported by women who exist only in the private sphere. This division is not merely a physical one of space, but refers also to the erasure of women and LGBT* people in political culture, political language and political discourse. We draw on the work of feminist, queer and intersectional theorists, as well as institutionalist interpretations of the formal and informal rules which structure power in gendered ways. We also engage these ideas practically, using them to promote political and pedagogical engagement. We engage with the place of women and LGBT* people in the university, and teaching gender and feminism in the university through a range of alternative methods.
Materialism, work and care
Convened by Kate O'Riordan (MFM), Catherine Will (Sociology) and Rachel Thomson (Digital Humanities Hub)
This grouping brings together scholars on campus interested in technology and work, drawing on conceptual tools from feminist theory, sociologists of science and technology, and media and information studies. The concept of 'care' has recently attracted attention within Science and Technology Studies in writing by feminist scholars and others interested in the affective dimensions of politics and scientific or ecological practice. We are particularly interested in identifying the ways in which an interest in care adds something to the analysis of work and how the concept might be critically engaged today. We would be happy to hear from other scholars across campus who share these questions and concerns from feminist, postcolonial and posthuman perspectives, and the emerging fields of digital sociology and digital humanities.