A Conversation about Navigating Gender Sensitivities in Academia

In this informal conversation about the role of gender in academia, three Scottish academics reflect on their own experiences as women in academia at diverse stages of their careers. Together, Prof. Pamela Abbott (Aberdeen), Dr Judy Wasige (GCU), and Dr Stefanie Van de Peer (QMU), discuss practices and assumptions in the sector, while offering concrete advice to young scholars on how to navigate equality, diversity and inclusion trends in scholarship and in academia. Collectively, we engage with the question “How do we address feminist issues in academia and research in a constructive and effective manner?” As their research focuses on gender experiences in diverse cultures on the African continent, they will draw inspiration from similar yet diverse contexts, and start to suggest ways to approach a more sustainable gender balance in academia. Join our experts to discuss.

SPEAKER

Judy Wasige

Judy Wasige's work over the last 10 years has been to develop practical, theory based evidence to support systemic processes begin to address the marginalisation they create and reinscribe in policy development and implementation in Scotland. Combining her wide experience in community activism and teaching she has supported university students to critically conceptualise theory into practice.

This work is particularly focused on antiracism, decolonisation, migration, transculturally responsive practice developed through Black feminist thought. Judy has largely developed expertise through supporting communities navigate their experiences of “the systems” involvement in their lives related to education and harmful traditional practices. Judy further developed her pedagogical skills by integrating critical reflection, an intersectional framework and co-production to facilitate more equitable, direct and relevantly applied learning and practice. This work began as community activism and developed into academic activism.

Judy is a strong advocate of education as a conduit for social justice and intergenerational community learning. She founded the Information Learning for All Project (ILFA Project) a charity which works mainly with young people from minoritised racialised backgrounds in Glasgow to navigate safely towards a more included future. As a Director of the Training Research Education and Engagement Management (TREEM) Consultancy, Judy leads a small collective of community-engaged scholars and activists working with adversely racialised communities in Scotland. Their ways of working pay attention to the assumptions within the Academy and understand whose expertise is valued, yet work within that landscape to disrupt the usual process and bring the community into the research process using participatory methods.

SPEAKER

Professor Pamela Abbott FAcSS

Professor Pamela Abbott is the Director of the Centre for Global Development and a professor in the School of Education at the University of Aberdeen. Her research interests include socioeconomic and political development and transformations, wellbeing and quality of life, and gender. She has carried out research in the UK, Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa, and East Africa. She has recently completed a six-year projected funded by the Scottish Government evaluating using the social practices approach for adult literacy education in Rwanda, and a three-year project funded by International Development Reseach Centre on the burden of unpaid care and domestic work in Rwanda. Since 2015 she has been researching socioeconomic and political developments in the MENA, following the 2010 uprisings, funded by the European Union and the University of Aberdeen. She is currently leading research in Rwanda and Ethiopia funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research exploring the potential for mindfulness to be integrated into the primary school curriculum to promote the mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. She was elected a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2001 and is a member of UKRI International Strategic Advisory Group.

SPEAKER

Stefanie Van de Peer

Stefanie Van de Peer researches feminist film histories from the Global South. She is Reader in Film & Media at Queen Margaret University. She specialises in Arab and African women’s cinema, with a special interest in theresearches feminist film histories from the Global South. She is Reader in Film & Media at Queen Margaret University. She specialises in Arab and African women’s cinema, with a special interest in the period of the 1970s and non-fiction cinema. Her publications include books and articles on topics related to women’s presences and absences in film history, and her monograph Negotiating Dissidence: The Pioneering Women of Arab Documentary appeared with Edinburgh University Press in 2017. She is currently preparing her second monograph, on 1975 and Global Feminist Film History.

Important point to note:

• This event may involve photography. If you would like to avoid being photographed, please speak to a member of the team when you arrive.

Host or Publisher The Royal Society of Edinburgh