The Gender and Culture research group has been in existence for two years. During that time we have read one another’s work and met for discussions, and in January of 2004, the group was involved in organising a conference on the “New Sexism” for the MECCSA Women’s network. This resulted in some very productive discussions, and on June 14th 2004 we met for our second “awayday”. At that meeting we decided to set up this weblog to allow us to have some more public discussion, about both the issues which interest us in our research and in relation to teaching. One of the things we did at the meeting was to attempt to put into words the aims and activities of the group. Building on the work done at the New Sexism event and in previous meetings we set out what the group is responding to: We are responding to a particular moment in popular culture, a moment of ‘postfeminism’; we’re responding to current academic debates about the postfeminist moment and what that means; we’re considering the impact of changes in the academy and popular culture on our own pedagogies; we’re responding to a social and historical situation of higher education (in Britain and globally) which produces certain pressures and forces certain pedagogic models; and we’re aiming to bring these issues together in our teaching, our curriculum and our research practices. Lots more discussion was had on the day, which may make its way onto this blog soon - and we’re looking forward to becoming an agitational and productive presence in our own faculty and outside. Watch this space for news about conferences, journals, publications and more…

posted by Michelle