CIVIS, Europe’s Civic University Alliance, aims to become a key player in debates on the origins and solutions of contemporary social challenges. We are now building knowledge on gender issues with a new network and lecture series, hoping to empower our communities to support gender justice through research, teaching and equality initiatives.
The CIVIS Gender Studies Network (CGSN) emerged from an interdisciplinary meeting of academics from various member universities across the CIVIS Alliance. The ultimate goal of the CGSN is to bring relevant experts together to shed light on the teaching/research on gender issues already ongoing in our member universities, and to explore the possibility of new joint activities. After an initial meeting in September 2022, it was clear that there was real potential for this network to carry out joint activities. The group decided to test the waters with a series of online lectures open to whole CIVIS community and even the general public.
Update: (Re)live the series
The year ended with the last of the nine lectures of the CGSN series. To (re)live these important discussions, please visit the playlist.
(Updated on December 20, 2023)
Building the future of gender studies
We spoke with Malin Ah-King, Associate Professor at Stockholm University and the presenter of the first in our series of gender studies lectures. She explained why it is interesting to participate in the CGSN and shared her perspective on the future of research around gender issues.
According to Professor Ah-King, the CGSN helps academics make academic connections, improve their scientific communication and discuss their work with new audiences. “I try to seize all opportunities to share my research, because I think gender and biology concerns everyone. Most of my international connections are researchers in the USA and Australia, so I appreciate how university collaboration through CIVIS provides this possibility to make connections across Europe.”
She also believes that such networks can be of real structural benefit for the sometimes fragile interdisciplinary ecosystem of gender studies. “I think that collaboration between Gender Studies departments across Europe has the potential to lead to fruitful collaborations in the future, as well as supporting researchers and departments at a time when gender studies as a field is increasingly under attack across Europe”.
In her work, Professor Ah-King explores how researchers build both knowledge and ignorance around gender issues through the lens of a relatively young and dynamic research field. Looking to the future of gender studies, she states: “My hope for the future of gender studies is that it continues to develop in multiple directions, both as a field of its own and as an interdisciplinary research space which evolves in close connection to other fields of research, contributing to a future of sustainability, livability and justice for all”.
More information about the series
- The Female turn - How evolutionary science shifted perceptions about females | 15 February 2023
- Dealing with disrespect - How women attribute experiences of unequal treatment | 15 March 2023
- Growing up Queer in contemporary Greece - Tactics of everyday life | 26 April 2023
- Female genital mutilation or modification? The socio-legal conundrums of the international zero-tolerance approach | 17 May 2023
- Women in American Studies - History of a discipline from a gender perspective | 21 June 2023