WELCOME TO ECREA WOMEN'S NETWORK

During the 10th European Communication Conference, the Women’s Network will organize a panel contributing to the main theme “Communication and Social (Dis)order” with a thematic focus on gender-based violence and inequalities in academia.

SPECIAL SESSION: Unveiling Gender-Based Violence and Inequalities in Academia

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Amidst the intricate web of challenges and transformations outlined in our conference theme, we invite scholars, researchers, and practitioners to engage in a critical dialogue concerning the insidious yet often overlooked issues of gender-based violence and inequalities within academia. 

As academia grapples with the multifaceted crises of our times, it is imperative that we address the persistent disparities, power imbalances, and instances of gender-based violence that hinder equitable progress within educational institutions. This special session seeks innovative research, theoretical frameworks, and practical solutions that shed light on the intricate interplay between communication, academia, and the perpetuation of gender-based violence and inequalities.

We encourage submissions that explore topics such as:

• Gender disparities in academic leadership and decision-making.

• The role of media and communication in shaping academic discourse on gender.

• Strategies to combat gender-based violence and promote inclusivity in academic settings.

• Intersectionality and its impact on gender inequalities in academia.

• Innovative approaches to creating safe and supportive academic environments.

Join us in examining these critical issues and contribute to the ongoing discourse on addressing gender-based violence and inequalities in academia within the broader context of today’s complex societal challenges. Together, let’s pave the way for a more equitable and inclusive academic landscape. Submit your papers and proposals to be part of this crucial conversation.

Submission of abstracts: 11 January 2024

For more information, please visit the conference website: https://ecrea2024ljubljana.eu/

As the commemoration of International Women's Day approaches on March 8th, we are preparing to engage in a dialogue regarding the role of women in employment through entrepreneurship. In conjunction with YÜKAM (Yasar University Research Center for Women's Studies), KAIT Project Network, and the ECREA Women's Network, we are pleased to host an online roundtable event featuring distinguished female entrepreneurs from Austria, Turkey, and Malta. We cordially invite you to join us for this auspicious occasion.

Date: 8 March 2023, 14:00-16:30 (CET)

Link: https://tinyurl.com/2p8ahfs8

Date: 7th of October 2022 (online)

Deadline: 1st of June 2022

Open to submissions by academics, activists, creative and media practitioners

How can we challenge norms on gender and sexuality? How can we disrupt the status quo and propose alternative, more inclusive narratives? Forms of unruliness, dissent, and going against the grain are expressed in various ways and transcend boundaries between research, activism, artistic and media practices.

Resistance exists in individual subversive acts and forms of collective action. For example, challenging systems of oppression in media production, representations going beyond stereotypes, and audiences engaging in oppositional reading practices. In Europe, resistance takes on additional meaning in the current context of the war in Ukraine, the horrible violations of human rights and the ongoing struggle against attacks on the press and disinformation.

In order to foster change, it is important to have opportunities for exchanging ideas and connecting with each other. As feminist scholar Sara Ahmed notes: collective movements are created by how we are moved in dialogue with others. This online pre-conference aims to create a space for sharing knowledge and having these constructive interactions.

Format

The program will consist of roundtable sessions exploring different aspects of resistance to norms on sexuality and gender in media. Speakers will be asked to prepare a 7-10-minute presentation. After the presentations, there will be plenty of time to discuss, share insights, and explore ways to collaborate.

Presentations can be inspired by research, creative, media, activist, and interdisciplinary practices. We are open to contributions by academics, activists, creative and media practitioners (e.g., journalists, filmmakers, podcasters, zine makers, slam poets, bloggers, artists, …).

Submissions can cover diverse geographical areas and explore the intersection of gender and sexuality with other social categories such as age, ethnicity, class and (dis)ability.

Participation in the event is free.

We look forward to submissions on (but not limited to) the following topics:

• Collaborations between researchers, activists, artists, and media producers to resist norms on gender and sexuality

• Counter-hegemonic media and artistic practices (e.g., zine-making, podcasting, crafting, feminist and queer media, slam poetry)

• Challenging norms on ageing, gender and sexuality, subversive portrayals of older women, queer ageing in media and art

• Expressions of revolt by older women in media and art, tackling the intersection of ageing and sexism

• Resistance strategies in digital spaces and online articulations of feminist, queer, anti-racist, anti-ageist, anti-ableist activism

• Queer resistance in popular culture, expressions of unruly (queer) intimacies and sexualities in art, film, television, and literature

• Strategies for countering (online) attacks on women and minority journalists

• Feminist acts of mediated resistance during military conflicts

• Protests, activism and acts aimed at challenging gender inequality and intersecting systems of oppression in media production and journalism

• …

Submission

Please email a proposal (max. 250 words) that highlights how your work relates to the pre-conference topic, methods used, and perspectives you would like to bring to the discussion to genderandcommunication.ecrea@gmail.com. Proposals may include video, audio, images, text, hyperlinks and multimedia that illustrate your reflections in the proposal.

Individual submissions will be arranged in roundtables by the organizing team. If you would like to submit a pre-constituted roundtable (four or five presentations), please send a maximum 800-word proposal with the overall theme and the contribution of each speaker.

Organization

For questions, please send an email to genderandcommunication.ecrea@gmail.com    

The ECREA pre-conference is organized by the ECREA Gender, Sexuality and Communication section in collaboration with the ERC-funded Later-in-Life Intimacy: Women’s Unruly Practices, Representations and Places research project (LiLI).

The ECREA Women’s Network is a supporting partner.

Timeline

• The deadline for submissions is the 1st of June 2022.

• We will notify all contributors by the 15th of June 2022.

• The event will take place on the 7th of October 2022.

During the 9th European Communication Conference, the Women's Network will organize a panel on 'Rethinking the impact of gender inequalities in higher education'.

The overarching theme of the conference is 'rethinking impact'. Discussions about impact draw on different cultural, social and political histories and ambitions, dealing with contemporary funding and employment structures and incentives, as much as they relate to the place and recognition of scholarship in wider societal and global developments. Rethinking Impact raises fundamental questions about the identity and autonomy of media and communications researchers as an interdisciplinary field of research at the centre of current debates of societal transformation.

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Our panel will be particularly interested in exploring and challenging the role of (gender) inequalities. Potential topics include:

• Neoliberalization and precarization of academic work

• Gender violence and academia

• Intersection between gender and other power dimensions in academia

• Networks and solidarity movements

• Organizational policies and equality plans

• Everyday working life conditions in precarious academic positions

• Local, informal experiences of early career researchers

• Informal strategies of resistance to neoliberal academia

• The role of 'open access' in developing equality in research

• Citation politics

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For more information, please visit the conference website: https://conferences.au.dk/ecrea2022 

We are seeking contributions to a panel on Gender and Knowledge Production in Contemporary Academia, organized by ECREA Women’s Network at the ECC 2020 conference in Braga, Portugal (2-5 October 2020). 

The Women’s Network aims to address gender inequalities in research and higher education and to amplify the voices of female and LGBTQ+ scholars. The initial objective is to create a platform for scholars to speak up about the problems they encounter within academia such as gender bias, and to stimulate the exchange of research, experiences, insights and practices around gender inequality. By identifying differences, strengths and weaknesses in Europe, the network aims to contribute to equality in all dimensions.  

This panel will build on a roundtable organized by the Women’s Network in collaboration with the ECREA Gender and Communication Section at the University of Padua in November 2019. In this roundtable, precarization of academic work was debated in relation to gender and knowledge production processes. Besides the role that gender plays in terms of job security or lack thereof, some of the significant issues raised during the roundtable were the unrealistic expectations placed on academics, the negative effects of precarization at individual levels, the role of intersectionality, the difficulties of researching sensitive topics, and, finally, the importance of building networks to disseminate examples of good practice. In order to follow up on the topics of the roundtable discussion, the Women's Network invites contributions to our panel held at the ECREA ECC 2020 conference.  

This panel is particularly interested in exploring challenges and opportunities to reduce (gender) inequality in academia by considering both structural and cultural dimensions. We welcome presentations on (though not exclusively) the following topics:  

• Neoliberalization and precarization of academic work 

• Historical perspective on the transformation of gender knowledge 

• Attack on gender studies 

• Gender imbalance in academia  

• Gender violence and academia 

• Surveillance and censorship  

• Intersectionality between gender and other power dimensions in academia 

• Good practices both at institutional and informal level 

• Networks and solidarity movements 

• Organizational policies and equality plans  

• Everyday working life conditions in precarious academic positions 

• Local, informal experiences of early career researchers 

• Informal strategies of resistance to neoliberal academia 

We especially encourage submission from early career researchers and from diverse geographical contexts. Proposals (300-500 words) can be submitted to the Women’s Network through the ECREA 2020 submission platform until 15 January 2020. For more information please visit the conference website www.ecrea2020braga.eu. 

During the conference 'Media, gender and sexuality in contemporary Europe', the ECREA Women's Network will organise a roundtable on gender and knowledge production in contemporary academia. What role does gender play in the production and legitimation of scientific knowledge? How can we challenge white male perspectives on knowledge? The objective of the roundtable is to explore challenges and opportunities to reducing gender inequalities in academic knowledge production. 

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Speakers:

Annalisa Murgia, John Mercer, Karen Ross, Clarissa Smith

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The conference is organised by the ECREA Gender & Communication Section and will take place at the University of Padua. More information can be found here: https://gcecrea.wixsite.com/gendercommunication/g-c-conference-2019

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     As the inspirational presentations in the Female Agency and Subjectivity in Film and Television Conference seek to develop new strategies for subverting patriarchal narratives, this workshop, organized in collaboration with ECREA Women’s Network, invites the participants to take the time to speak about the challenges that women encounter in higher education on everyday basis. The initial objective of the workshop is to bring women  academics together in a platform based on mutual respect and trust to articulate shared challenges and search for the ways to create gender equality in higher education not only for women but also for LGBTQ+ scholars. So, we invite not only women but all feminized subjectivities who not respond to the male and heterosexual norm to participate in the workshop.

     The workshop invites the participants to point at the common problems that fuel gender inequality in higher education and collectively think of ways to make a difference, including where to start and where to go. By simultaneously highlighting why it is important to try and make a difference, the workshop also tackles the hindrances faced during our efforts and aims to create an opportunity for revealing differences, strengths and weaknesses in particular institutions, appreciating diverse practices and find ways to take action at individual and collective levels.

     With these purposes in mind, the workshop aims to invite the participants to put their heads together to find new ways for creating an academic environment based on gender equality. How can we recognize and overcome gender-based discrimination in higher education? What are the best practices that could be inspiring for us? What new tactics and strategies can be proposed to achieve gender equality? Starting from sharing our situated experiences, how can we collectively imagine a different academia? By means of the new ways and strategies the workshop intends to increase the visibility of research done by scholars whose point of view is often marginalized in academia such as women and LGBTQ+ people and challenge white male perspectives on producing knowledge. Please join us on April 13, 2019 at 13.30 in Istanbul Bilgi University, Santralistanbul Campus, E1-301, to share your experiences, find solutions and speak up about gender inequality in higher education.

Dr. Itır Erhart studied philosophy and Western Languages & Literatures at Boğaziçi University. She completed her M.Phil in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. In 2001 she started teaching at Istanbul Bilgi University, Department of Media and Communication Systems. In 2006 she earned her PhD from Boğaziçi University in philosophy. In 2015 she became an associate professor. She does research and teaches courses on gender, sports, human rights and social movements  Itır is also the co-founder of two social enterprises, Adım Adım (Step by Step), and Açık Açık (Openly). In 2009 she was featured on CNN Turk’s “Turkey’s Changemakers”, in 2014 she became an Ashoka Fellow.