GRG Annual Dissertation Symposium: Bodies Matter

Gender and Foodbanks Workshop with Catherine McKinnell

On Friday 12th February the GRG welcomed Newcastle North MP Catherine McKinnell to launch their Gender and Austerity workshops series with a talk on ‘Gender and Foodbanks’.

McKinnell discussed her own experiences of the effects of the government’s austerity policies in Newcastle as well as her experiences fighting for her constituents in Westminister.

She spoke of the incredible impact that austerity was having on women in the region, affecting benefits, services like SureStart and even employment.

Attendees collected items for Newcastle’s West End Foodbank, the busiest in the UK, providing 400 much-needed parcels every week.

 

Other seminars in this series include:

• Gender and Austerity II: Foodbanks, Austerity and the Museum Space (19 April; 5PM)
• Gender and Austerity III: Austerity and Academia (Date TBC)

Campus Feminisms: Social Justice in Higher Education Workshop

Date: 21st March

Time: 12-5.30pm

Location: Newcastle University, Armstrong Building (Room 1.06)

This free afternoon event brings together academics, activists and students, to reflect on the diverse issues of concern confronting feminists within universities and colleges.

This is an important moment for conversations on gender and social justice in higher education to be taking place. The recent Hunting Ground film has documented the prevalence of sexual violence on North American university campuses; there has been a government-ordered enquiry into sexual violence in UK universities; debates around freedom of speech have been sparked by the student campaign to ‘no-platform’ Germaine Greer; there are controversies around so-called ‘trigger warnings’ for sensitive topics; and evidence of gender segregation at some university talks.

The workshop will use some of these recent issues as a springboard to discuss pedagogy and feminism, feminist activism on campus, lad cultures and sexual violence. There is a fantastic line of up speakers, including Louise Whitfield, Partner at Deighton Pierce Glynn; Vanita Sundaram, Department of Education, University of York; and Lucy Morgan, Gender Equality Officer, Newcastle University Student’s Union. For further details, see the flyer, here. Flyer Campus Feminisms Newcastle University

The workshop has been generously funded by the Newcastle University Gender Research Group. It is being co-convened by Nikki Godden-Rasul (Newcastle University) and Neil Cobb (Manchester University).

For further information about the event, please contact Neil at: neil.cobb@manchester.ac.uk.

How to Register

Places for the event are limited and booking is essential.  To book a place, please visit the registration page at: http://forms.ncl.ac.uk/view.php?id=9599

Registration will close at 5pm on Monday 7 March 2016.

GRG’s Gender and Austerity Seminar Series Launch!

 

The Gender Research Group is hosting a seminar series on Gender and Austerity this semester.

The first seminar is Friday, 12th February (11-1pm): Gender and Austerity I: Gender and Foodbanks.

We are delighted to confirm Newcastle North MP and former Shadow Attorney General Catherine McKinnell and Michael Nixon, Manager of the West End Foodbank in Benwell (the busiest foodbank in the country) as speakers.

The event will consist of two short talks followed by a roundtable discussion.

Lunch will be provided. The event will take place in the Research Beehive 2.22.

Attendees are encouraged to bring a donation to the City’s West End Food bank.

To attend, please register by emailing clare.graham@ncl.ac.uk.

Other seminars in this series include:

• Gender and Austerity II: Foodbanks, Austerity and the Museum Space (19 April; 5PM)
• Gender and Austerity III: Austerity and Academia (Date TBC)

Newcastle Archive Subject Guide

The GRG supported exploratory work in the archives around Newcastle last
semester, which culminated in the series of Dialogue Days we held at these
institutions.  With the support of the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal
and the School of History, we were able to put together a Subject Guide.  Many
thanks to Dr Katie Cooper and Dr Emma Short, the research assistants who put
this together.  Subject Guide – February 2014 is a work in progress but there is a wealth of information for many projects here.

Leverhulme Visiting Fellow – Julieta Vartabedian

Julieta Vartabedian has been awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship to visit Sociology (GPS) starting in October 2013 and will be an active member of the Gender Research Group. She will be working on issues around ‘race’, beauty, appearance and femininity for travesti and transgender identities based on her previous research on the experiences of embodiment, sexuality and migration of Brazilian travestis. Julieta graduated from the University of Barcelona with a PhD in Anthropology. She holds a European Master in Penal Systems and Social Problems from the same University (2004) and has a Bachelor Degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Buenos Aires (2001). She is member of the board of the Observatory of the Penal System and Human Rights (University of Barcelona) where she works on the research area called “Feminist analysis of penal system”. Her research interests are: the social construction of sex, gender and sexuality; transgender studies; transnational migrations; feminist theory and the study of beauty; sexual work. She will be also presenting at the ‘Beauty, Race and Feminist Theory in Latin America and the Caribbean‘, Wednesday 11th of September 2013.