UCCGS Annual Report 2017-18

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ANNUAL REPORT Academic Year 2017/18


Cover image Š Donald Iain Smith/Getty


Contents

Note from the Frankopan Director

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Introduction

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Centre’s Governance

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1 MPhil in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies

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2 Scholarships

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3 The Distinguished Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professorship

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4 Public Engagement Series

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5 PhD Programme in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies

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6 Gender Studies Profiles

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Appendix 1

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The University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Alison Richard Building 7 West Road Cambridge CB3 9DP www.gender.cam.ac.uk


Note from the Director The University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies (UCCGS); an international pioneer in multi-disciplinary gender research, teaching and public engagement

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he academic year or 2017-18 has been an excellent year for the Centre. Our cohort of MPhil and PhD students has produced outstanding and diverse work on topics ranging from the dialectics of female subjectivity in classical Hindu thought to a gendered analysis of 21st Century Canadian peacekeeping narratives (see p. 10–11). I am also delighted to announce the Bell Scholar for the academic year 2016/17 which for the first time is to be held by two scholars who both gained the top MPhil Dissertation mark. These were Reetika Subramanian for her research on the Anti-Khatna movement in India and also Ching Kwong Wang for his research on the clinical management of gender dysphoria. Both outstanding pieces of research (see p. 8–9). Congratulations too goes to PhD Student Farhana Rahman on winning the POLIS PhD Fieldwork Photography Competition Prize 2018. You can see Farhana’s arresting photograph on p. 32 which was taken at the Bangladeshi boarder where Farhana’s research focuses on the experiences of Rohingya refugee women.

Our Carl Djerassi and Diane Middlebrook Visiting Professor this was year was the feminist scholar Professor Sandra Harding, an iconic figure in Gender Studies whose work on philosophy of science, postcolonial theory, epistemology and methodology has had an enduring impact across so many fields of academic enquiry for over 30 years (See p. 20–21 for details of her research and public lecture on Feminist Philosophies of Science and Technology). In addition to Sandra Harding, we hosted a line-up of world-class scholars to our public engagement programme. The first of these sold-out events was Cambridge’s Professor Mary Beard in conversation with Professor Peter Frankopan of Oxford University and author of

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David Bell

© Bill Knight

© Bill Knight

Jessica and Peter Frankopan

the international best-selling book ‘Silk Roads: a new history of the world”. Mary Beard’s latest book ‘Women & Power: a Manifesto’ was the topic of conversation and a brilliantly engaging discussion on the silencing of women’s voice through history to the current day ensued: What Mary describes as a “long view on the culturally awkward relationship between the voice of women and the public sphere of speech-making, debate and comment” (see p. 26). We also were very pleased to welcome back a former Carl Djerassi and Diane Middlebrook Visiting Professor, Professor Jack Halberstam who gave a riveting lecture on his latest book “Trans*” which considered three central questions: “What happened in the last few decades to

Primrose Bell

Carl Djerassi and Diane Middlebrook


Introduction

prompt such an extensive rethinking of our understanding of gendered embodiment? How did a stigmatized identity become so central to US and European articulations of self? And how have people responded to the new definitions and understanding of sex and the gendered body?” (see p. 27). In partnership with the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, I had the privilege of interviewing the former Prime Minster of New Zealand (1999-2008) and the former Head of the United Nations Development Programme (2008-2017), Helen Clark, about her life as a politician and on the topic of a recent documentary made by feminist film maker Gaylene Preston on the inner workings of the UN and Helen Clark’s candidacy for UN Secretary General. (see p. 29). We also hosted Director of Gender Equality at the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, Sarah Hendricks, who gave a fascinating lecture on the Foundation’s pioneering work on gender equality and its objectives for the future (see p. 29). Professor Laura J Shepherd visited us from the University of Sydney to discuss her new book (in conversation with Dr Maria Martin de Almagro, Marie Curie Fellow at POLIS) on Gender, UN Peacebuilding and the Politics of Space which examines the ways women, gender and civil society are constructed in UN peacebuilding discourse; and together with Dr Sarah Dillon from the English Faculty here at Cambridge, we welcomed another iconic scholar in the field of Gender Studies, feminist political philosopher, Professor Adriana Cavarero from the Hannah Arendt Centre for Political Studies, University of Verona. We were delighted to be given the opportunity to critique and debate her current work-in-practise

on the gendered meaning of metaphor. (see p. 28). All these events ran alongside our regular public seminar series which included topics such as Hybrid Subjectivities: Pluralising the Body Politic and Tackling Domestic Violence Through a National Lens: A Comparative Perspective on Asia (see p. 24–25 for full programme). This year Professor David Runciman came to the end of his term as Head of Department of Politics and International Studies and I want to take this opportunity to give my deepest thanks for all his invaluable support and leadership in both forging such a vibrant and fruitful relationship between the Centre and POLIS and for his crucial support of the Centre’s development over the past 4 years. He has been an outstanding HoD and I am very grateful to him. As ever huge thanks to the wider Department of POLIS, to the new Head of Department Professor Jason Sharman, and to our Head of School, Professor Phil Allmendinger, to our Centre Administrator Joanna Bush, our students, supporters, academic visitors and in particular our donors – Jessica and Peter Frankopan, David and Primrose Bell, the TWF, CUP and the late Diane and Carl Djerassi – who together with us have made UCCGS an internationally renowned centre of excellence.

Dr Jude Browne The Jessica and Peter Frankopan Director University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies

The University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies is a multi-disciplinary centre for research and teaching. Working together with as many as 25 departments within the University and an international network of gender scholars beyond, the Centre conducts research and teaching on a broad spectrum of approaches to understanding gender and sexuality in relation to the human subject. Uniquely, the Centre has evolved from intellectual engagement with front-line research topics rather than developing from any particular discipline, political view or methodology and its network of worldclass experts enables it to facilitate outstanding teaching, research and public engagement. The aim of the Centre is to increase our capacity for rigorous gender analysis and to promote awareness of its relevance in historic, economic, political, artistic, social, and scientific contexts. As such, we welcome inquiry from multiple and overlapping perspectives including various forms of feminist theory, lesbian and gay studies, queer theory, transgender/trans* theory, and critical sexuality studies. We aim to push across the boundaries of disciplines and identities to promote ambitious and ground-breaking work that is able to build on the strengths of research across the University of Cambridge and to deeply engage with the complexities of studying gender in our world.

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Centre’s Governance Management Committee

Academic Committee

The membership of the Management Committee for the academic year 2017–18 was as follows:

The membership of the Academic Committee for the academic year 2017–18 was as follows:

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Chair: Professor Robin Osborne, FBA (School of Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Classics, King’s College) Dr Jude Browne (Frankopan Director of UCCGS, King’s College) Professor Simon Deakin, FBA (School of Technology, Judge Business School (and the Faculty of Law), Peterhouse) Professor Susan Golombok (School of Biological Sciences, Centre for Family Research, Newnham College) Dr Alex Jeffrey (School of Physical Sciences, Department of Geography, Emmanuel College) Professor Dame Theresa Marteau FMedSci (School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Institute of Public Health, Christ’s College) Professor David Runciman (Head of Department of Politics and International Studies, Trinity Hall) Professor Jim Secord (School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Christ’s College) Dr Lauren Wilcox (Deputy Director of UCCGS, Selwyn College) External: Professor Kimberly Hutchings (Department of Politics, Queen Mary University of London)

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Chair: Dr Jude Browne (Frankopan Director, UCCGS) Dr Duncan Bell (Department of Politics and International Studies) Ms Joanna Bush (Centre Administrator, UCCGS) Dr Clare Chambers (Faculty of Philosophy) Professor Tony Lawson (Department of Economics) Dr Sian Lazar (Division of Social Anthropology) Professor Juliet Mitchell (Founder of the Centre for Gender Studies) Dr Eleanor O’Gorman (Senior Associate, Centre for International Studies and UCCGS) Dr John David Rhodes FBA (Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages) Professor Ulinka Rublack (Faculty of History) Ms Sigal Spigel (Senior Associate of UCCGS and Chair of the MGS Research Seminar Series, UCCGS) Dr Sharath Srinivasan (The Centre of Governance and Human Rights) Dr Brigitte Steger (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies) Dr Lauren Wilcox (Deputy Director, UCCGS) Dr Ayse Zarakol (Department of Politics and International Studies)

Our Founding Director, Juliet Mitchell, is Emeritus Professor of Psychoanalysis and Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Jesus College. Her seminal works include The Women’s Estate, Psychoanalysis and Feminism, Women: the Longest Revolution, Mad Men and Medusas, and Siblings: Sex and Violence all of which have shaped generations of feminist and psychoanalytic scholars. Professor Mitchell’s vision and passion for politically engaged, rigorous scholarship continues to inspire our Centre of which she remains an integral part.

Professor Juliet Mitchell with Professor Peter and Mrs Jessica Frankopan

We started Gender Studies when there was a backlash against feminism. The aim was to leave the fighting in the valleys and take to the hills to establish a place where serious scholarly thinking about the oppressions based on gender would be the order of the day. Today feminism is vocal once more: gender groups are the prime target and prime opposition to the manifest violence of our times. In Cambridge we have the conditions for an urgently needed further analysis of these disturbing developments.” Professor Juliet Mitchell

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MPhil in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies

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The Bell Scholar Each year the author of the best research dissertation for the MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies is awarded the title of ‘Bell Scholar’ in recognition of outstanding scholarship. Lady Primrose and Sir David are key supporters of the Centre and we are extremely grateful to them for all their help and guidance.

Sir David Bell

© Bill Knight

The seventh year of the MPhil in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies programme (201617), successfully concluded with the External Examiner’s visit in September 2017. Professor Susan James, Birkbeck, University of London, concluded in her report that “ the course has continued to attract students from all over the world and the overall performance was absolutely outstanding” and that “As these excellent results suggest, students on the course are impressively well taught by the small but dedicated faculty of the Centre for Gender Studies”.

© Bill Knight

he Master of Philosophy degree course at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies provides rigorous advanced training in multidisciplinary gender analysis. The MPhil introduces the very brightest students from a wide variety of academic backgrounds, cultures and nationalities to the traditions, methods and front-line research which shape gender analysis at an advanced level, incorporating insights from various feminist theories, lesbian and gay studies, queer theory, transgender/trans* theory, and critical sexuality studies. The MPhil provides a variety of intense taught courses and close supervision in undertaking an original research project on any gender-related topic in subject areas such as diverse as Conflict and Violence, Development, Education, Globalization, Labour Markets, Social Policy, Culture and Antiquity, Representation, Art, Literature, Bio-medical Advances, Human Rights and International Law.

Lady Primrose Bell

Students follow four mandatory components: • • • •

Gender Theory and Controversy Research Methodologies Multi-disciplinary Texts Multi-disciplinary Gender Research Seminar Series

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Ching Kwong Wong Bell Scholar 2016-17 MPhil Thesis Clinical Management of Gender Dysphoria Ching Kwong Wong was selected as the Bell Scholar 2016-17 for his excellent research dissertation, Clinical Management of Gender Dysphoria, which jointly received the highest Distinction mark on the MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies 2016-17.

I couldn’t imagine a more comprehensive, professional and intensive programme, which enabled our exploration in gender studies. Professors are “tops” from each discipline. Individual supervision helped us to specialise in our interested domain”. Mr Ching Kwong Wong

Abstract: Previous studies consistently demonstrated the heuristic value of using sexual orientation as a subtype to understand clinical features of gender dysphoria among the transsexual adult population. Transsexuals with gender dysphoria who reported a sexual preference for the same biological sex were classified as homosexual, while the rest who either reported a preference of opposite to their biological sex, asexuality or bisexuality were considered as nonhomosexual. Significant differences were found between the homosexual and nonhomosexual transsexuals on age onset, childhood gender atypicality and outcomes of surgical treatment. Nonhomosexual transexuals tended to have later age onset, lower childhood gender atypicality and poorer surgical outcomes. However, empirical research that widely investigates other clinical variables such as global psychological distress, features of psychiatric disorders, and potential mediators such as self-esteem and long-term intimate relationships was in absence. This study is a part of a larger study investigating the experiences of gender transition and general psychological well-being of patients with gender dysphoria. Ethics approval was granted by the department of psychology at the University of Warwick in 2010. Data collection which involved a 30-minute interview and questionnaires was completed in 2013. In this proposed study, ninetyone transsexuals with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria were included. It was hypothesised that 1) non-homosexual transsexual would demonstrate a higher level of psychological distress and more psychiatric problems in all subscales of Brief Symptom

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Inventory than the homosexual transsexuals; 2) non-homosexual transsexual presented a lower level of self-esteem on Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and fewer long-term intimate relationships than the homosexual transsexuals, and 3) the level of psychological distress and the number of psychiatric problems are negatively mediated by the level of self-esteem and the number of long-term intimate relationships. One-way ANOVA and mediation analysis was conducted to examine the above stated hypotheses. Results from this explorative research may enrich our understanding of gender dysphoria on the basis of sexual orientation. Significant differences of the psychological variables between the homosexual and the nonhomosexual transsexuals and the mediating roles of self-esteem and long-term intimate relationships may also imply the necessity of adopting different clinical treatments for different subtypes of transsexuals.


Reetika Subramanian Bell Scholar 2016-17 MPhil Thesis Contested Realities in the Anti-Khatna Movement in India: Negotiating the Ideals of Female Respectability and the Performance of Sexuality Reetika Subramanian was selected as the Bell Scholar 2016-17 for her excellent research dissertation, Contested Realities in the Anti-Khatna Movement in India: Negotiating the Ideals of Female Respectability and the Performance of Sexuality, which jointly received the highest Distinction mark on the MPhil in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies 2016-17.

Taking a leap from the field to the classroom to pursue the MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies programme was a decision that was initially riddled with fear and nervousness- ‘Am I going to be able to fit in?’, ‘Gosh, so many readings!’, ‘How am I going to cope?’ Gradually, however, with the backing of the faculty, my supervisor, and most importantly, fellow-feminists in the classroom, I began to take refuge in power-packed debates and reassuring conversations. The programme was designed in a manner in which we could share experiences cutting across borders, and listen to each other’s struggles. It was also the year that the world experienced a major political change. Living and studying in an environment that stood up to hate, and offered solidarity, really helped me strike a perfect balance between theory, practice and my politics.” Ms Reetika Subramanian

Abstract: “Sexual behaviour and practice, morality, and ideology are constantly in a state of flux.” (Caplan 1987:1) In December 2011, a 45-year-old woman from the Dawoodi Bohra community, launched an anonymous online petition, seeking signatures to call for a ban on khatna, the practice of female genital cutting, in India. Even as the petition garnered merely 400 signatures, it was the first time that someone had initiated a conversation on this rite of passage that has- over the past few centuriesbeen clandestinely performed on the community’s six-year-old girls. The petition snowballed into a fullblown movement with several young Bohri women coming forward to collectively challenge, speak out and create awareness about the ritual using social media activism, news media reports and global collaborations. A petition launched against the practice in 2016 garnered more than 50,000 signatures. These amplified debates have in turn, led to a rift in the community between those calling the practice a violation, and others, who are defending it as an act of purity and reaffirmation of a common Bohra identity. Anchored in these ongoing debates, this study attempted to build upon and expand existing offline and online, local and global conversations to locate the anti-Khatna movement within the broader framework of cultural imperialism of violent experiences (Lughod 2013). By documenting the clashes between personal beliefs of, and performance in public discourses by, the Bohra women, the study simultaneously strived to examine any noticeable absences of voices due to the imagined subjectivities motivated by the movement.

A parallel component of the study was to examine the role of men in these conversations. Do they essay the role of tradition carriers or is the whole practice a closely guarded secret of women? By addressing this question, the study explored the possibility and tensions of holding conversations on Khatna beyond the existing discourse of ‘male domination, mutilation and sexual control’. To chalk out this trajectory using a theoretical framework, the study drew extensively on existing scholarship on the culture of silences, power, and the female body as a site of contestation using comparative, transnational feminist perspectives. Here, the medium used was as relevant to the discourse as the message. The study was hinged on in-depth interviews with the anti-Khatna activists as well as those women defending the ritual (both, who have/ have not been cut). An attempt was made to converse with men standing on either side of the debate. These individual accounts were juxtaposed with a description of the spaces inhabited. While the online space included the analysis of blog posts, twitter chats and conversations with global activists; the offline space involved accounts of Bohra Mohalla, the community neighbourhood in Mumbai, as it is witnessed and experienced. Keeping in mind ethical concerns, the focus of the study was never placed on the memory of the event (of undergoing Khatna). Instead, it focused primarily on the later experiences of womanhood, freedom, and the romantic notions of intimacy and partnership, which go on to shape individual understandings of an “ideal Bohra woman”.

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MPhil students A list of last year’s students and topics can be found in Appendix I. This year, the MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies has 23 students, notwithstanding a University cap on numbers of MPhil offers. In line with previous years, the current Gender Studies students come from a very wide range of disciplinary backgrounds and are pursuing diverse research interests. Current working titles of research are as follows: • • • • • • •

Rosalin Agnew (Ireland) Queer Palestine Supervisor: Dr Sertac Sehlikoglu, Department of Social Anthropology Alice Chilcott (United Kingdom) Win-Yip Cambridge Trust Scholarship Write like a girl: female characters in young adult fiction Supervisor: Dr Zoe Jacques, Faculty of Education Clementine Collett (United Kingdom) The Professional Performance of Gender Supervisor: Dr Jude Browne, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Juliana Demartini-Brito (Brazil) Gender, Generation and the Nation: Representing Trans and Queer Aging Women in Brazil Supervisor: Dr Maite Conde, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages Rea Eldem (Germany) Women’s beauty labour in contemporary South Korea Supervisor: Dr Brigitte Steger, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Anna Forringer-Beal (USA) Gates US Scholarship Whose Idea Was That? Examining Gatekeeper Mindsets When Producing the Modern Slavery Act of 2015 Supervisor: Dr Jude Browne, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Richard Giddens (USA) (Trans)National (Re)Viewing and (Re)Membering Violence: Testimonios of Queer and Trans People-of-Colour Sexual Assault Survivance Supervisor: Dr Bogdan Popa, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies

MPhil and PhD in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies students at the end of year Garden Party

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Aiden (Anna) Greenall (United Kingdom) “Please select one: Mr./Mrs.”; “Mx.”And Non-Binary Trans* Resistance Supervisor: Dr Anna Bagnoli, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge Xinyue Gu (China) In a Different Identity: Gender Differences in “Haigui” Identity among Chinese Overseas Students Supervisor: Dr Rachel Fraser, Peterhouse, Cambridge Rhys Hart (United Kingdom) Rethinking asylum politics in the UK with a queer critique of colour Supervisor: Dr Bogdan Popa, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Emma Karslake (France) Wage negotiation practices and structural inequality Supervisor: Dr Jude Browne, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies


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Tze Chun Lo (Hong Kong) Mapping the relationship boundaries: Thermodynamics of intimacy among Hong Kong queer men Supervisor: Dr Bogdan Popa, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Laura McClintock (Australia) tumblr feminism Supervisor: Dr Anne Alexander, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Sophie Morgan (United Kingdom) The binary that never was: historicising intersex Supervisor: Dr Bogdan Popa, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Naoise Murphy (Ireland) Newnham College Major Studentship ‘Troubling strangeness’: Queerness and transnationalism in the novels of Kate O’Brien and Elizabeth Bowen Supervisor: Dr Caroline Gonda, Faculty of English Namrata Narula (India) Between the Universal Self and the Gendered Body Supervisor: Dr Ankur Barua, Faculty of Divinity

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Audrey Sebatindira (Kenya) Drag Kinging and the Impact of Transformations of Gender Identity on Life Off-Stage Supervisor: Dr Monica Moreno Figureoa, Department of Sociology Xinlei Sha (China) TWF Scholarship A Subculture of Sex Workers in Hong Kong Supervisor: Dr Lucy van de Wiel, Department of Sociology Jack Slater (United Kingdom) Gender and the Instagram Food Photo Supervisor: Dr Francesca Moore, Department of Geography Mayra Tenorio-Lopez (Mexico) Gates International Scholarship Body as Home: Indigenous Women and Embodied Resistance in Guatemala Supervisor: Professor Sarah Radcliffe, Department of Geography Shiyin Zheng (China) “magical girls”: Representing Gender, Sexuality and Violence in Japanese Anime Supervisor: Dr Brigitte Steger, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Jennifer Nurick (Australia) A Matrix of (In)Visible Men: Negotiating Australian Masculinities in Australian Cinema Supervisor: Dr Bogdan Popa, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Leah Schmidt (Canada) Chevening Scholarship Reconceptualising the Women, Peace, and Security Framework Supervisor: Dr Bogdan Popa, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies

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MPhil Lecturers

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Dr Anna Alexandrova History and Philosophy of Science THEME: Gender, Evolution and Bio-medical Sciences

Dr Robbie Duschinsky Clinical Medicine THEME: Gender, Evolution and Biomedical Sciences

Professor Susan Golombok Centre for Family Research THEME: Gender, Identity and Family

Dr Jude Browne UCCGS THEME: Gender, Public Policy and Social Justice

Professor Brad Epps Modern and Medieval Languages THEME: Gender and Representation

Dr Sophie Landa Psychology THEME: Gender, Evolution and Biomedical Sciences

Dr Clare Chambers Philosophy THEME: Gender, Public Policy and Social Justice

Professor Robert Foley Human Evolution THEME: Gender, Evolution and Bio-medical Sciences

Professor Tony Lawson Economics THEME: Gender methodologies

Dr Leigh Denault History THEME: Gender, Culture and Antiquity

Professor Sarah Franklin Sociology THEME: Gender, Identity and Family

Professor Judith Lieu Divinity THEME: Gender, Culture and Antiquity


Professor Juliet Mitchell UCCGS, Psychoanalysis THEME: Gender, Identity and Family

Professor Sarah Radcliffe Geography THEME: Gender, International Relations and Development

Dr Sertaç Sehlikoglu Social Anthropology THEME: Gender, Culture and Antiquity

Dr Chana Morgenstern English Literature THEME: Gender and Representation

Dr Helena Sanson Italian THEME: Gender and Representation

Professor Marie Louise Sørensen Archaeology THEME: Gender, Culture and Antiquity

Dr Eleanor O’Gorman International Studies and Development THEME: Gender, International Relations and Development

Dr Jens Scherpe Law THEME: Gender, Public Policy and Social Justice

Dr Brigitte Steger Asian and Middle Eastern Studies THEME: Gender, International Relations and Development

Professor Robin Osborne Classics THEME: Gender, Culture and Antiquity

Ms Erica Segre Modern and Medieval Literature THEME: Gender and Representation

Dr Lauren Wilcox UCCGS THEME: Gender, International Relations and Development

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Scholarships

Gates Cambridge Scholarships (gatescambridge. org) are awarded to outstanding applicants from outside the UK to pursue a postgraduate degree in any subject at the University of Cambridge. The highly competitive programme aims to build a global network of future leaders committed to improving the lives of others. Applicants to our MPhil and PhD programmes are strong contenders for the Gates Scholarships and this year we were delighted to have 2 Gates International Scholars and a Gates US Scholar studying at the Centre.

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UCCGS Gates Cambridge International Scholar 2017-18 Kerry Mackereth (New Zealand) PhD in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies 2017-18 Female political self-sacrifice My doctoral thesis in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies examines spectacular acts of political violence committed against the self, and the narratives surrounding these acts of political self-sacrifice. Women who undertake acts of bodily political self-sacrifice are marginalised or completely ignored within the current literature on self-sacrifice. Additionally, despite the key contributions made by feminist and critical race theorists towards the role of embodiment in politics, structural violence, subjectification, and conceptions of power, feminist and critical race theory rarely plays a prominent role in theorisations of political self-sacrifice. Hence, my thesis takes a gendered approach to political

self-sacrifice in two ways. On one hand, I focus on women who undertake such radical acts, using a variety of case studies such as female hunger-striking, female self-immolation, and other varying types of bodily self-sacrifice. On the other hand, I also use feminist and critical race theory as a way of challenging the hegemony of certain political thinkers in the field of political self-sacrifice, so I draw upon a variety of feminist and critical race theorists whose work is less prominent in this area. I hope that my thesis will provide an alternative to the sexist and heteronormative interpretations common to both media reporting and academic analyses of political self-sacrifice.


UCCGS Gates Cambridge International Scholar 2017-18

UCCGS Gates Cambridge US Scholar 2017-18

Mayra Tenorio-Lopez (Mexico)

Anna Forringer-Beal (USA)

MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies 2017-18

MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies 2017-18

Body as Home: Indigenous Women and Embodied Resistance in Guatemala

Whose Idea Was That? Examining Gatekeeper Mindsets When Producing the Modern Slavery Act of 2015

This dissertation examines how indigenous Xinca women in eastern Guatemala mobilise their bodies to resist gendered violence. Since the end of Guatemala’s civil war, scholars have heavily traced the proliferation of violence across the country, calling attention to how this legacy has implicated the suffering, disappearance, and murder of bodies. My project bridges these bodies of literature and asks what happens when indigenous women in Guatemala try to heal the suffering body and experience new forms of embodiment. Through an ethnographic analysis of Xinca women’s participation in two female empowerment groups, I investigate the creation of corporeal responses to violence and collective healing with other women as they are negotiated within the constraints of community and family life.

impact on victim’s lives. Postcolonial theory will be employed to contextualize gatekeeper mindsets within a historic framework of beliefs relating to gender, race, and immigration. Generating an analysis of policy makers’ motivations creates a platform to link their beliefs to their actions and, ultimately, how they shape the lived experiences of victims of labour trafficking.

The Modern Slavery Act (MSA) was enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 2015 as a measure to strengthen legal protection for victims and penalizations for labour trafficking perpetrators, thereby deterring the continuation of this crime. Using semi-structured interviews, open-ended surveys, and primary discourse analysis, I will examine how politicians, social enterprises, and activist organizations shaped the MSA through their support or opposition to particular policies. This data will demonstrate how the interests of stakeholders inform their policy decisions, which ultimately have a direct

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CEO, The Women’s Foundation Ms Fiona Nott

TWF Scholar 2017–18 Xinlei Sha MPhil Thesis: A Subculture of Sex Workers in Hong Kong

The Women’s Foundation Hong Kong Scholarship The Women’s Foundation in Hong Kong, headed by CEO Fiona Nott, funds the TWF Hong Kong Scholarship Scheme for the MPhil in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies. The Women’s Foundation is one of Hong Kong’s leading NGOs dedicated to the advancement of women. The Foundation’s objective is to conduct groundbreaking research, to run innovative and impactful community programmes and engage in education and advocacy in the pursuit of three main goals: (i) challenging gender stereotypes, (ii) increasing the number of women in policy and decision-making roles, and (iii) empowering women in poverty to achieve a better quality of life for themselves and their families. You can read more about the TWF’s projects at: http://twfhk.org

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Xinlei Sha is the fifth student to be awarded The Women's Foundation Hong Kong Scholarship.

I would like to thank the Women’s Foundation Hong Kong for offering me a full scholarship to complete the MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies programme at the Centre for Gender Studies in 2017-18. It was a life-changing journey to explore diverse subjects related to gender with my excellent teachers and classmates. I felt so lucky to realise my treasured dream of delving into the issues related to gender and politics. My fondest experience was the opportunity to design and conduct ethnographic research on Chinese female sex workers in Hong Kong. In addition to this, I appreciated that our class actively engaged in organising a Decolonise Gender Studies Reading Group in which we read and discussed social and political problems faced by the most marginalised populations. I appreciate all the training and challenges that helped me improve my research skills and achieve a resilient and disciplined academic working life, in order to serve the purpose of transferring knowledge and aiding minority communities. Studying gender is about more than raising awareness; I have learned to commit myself to future work concerning human rights and social interests of subaltern communities.”

Abstract: In recent sex worker studies, the concept of precarity has facilitated a new wave of destigmatizing and decriminalizing sex workers. The causal relations of precariousness and stigma are observed as more migrant sex workers are not just excluded from legal labour rights but also from public services. This study sought to understand why the precarity of sex workers’ experiences underpins political and social dimensions and it analysed the ways in which sex workers become political agents of their own in relation to precariousness. The departure, gap, and distance among experiences, subjectivity, and politics urged me to look for political spaces with sex workers in Hong Kong. In this project, I examined whether the life and working experiences of sex workers in Hong Kong can build alternatives to/through precarity. During my fieldwork, I tracked the crisis of sexuality, identity, reproduction, and family life from multiple vantage points from sex worker encounters with abandonment and resistance to precariousness. I listened to their narratives about the past to investigate what comparative and distinct frameworks they deployed to register shifts in the present. Through their own frameworks, we worked together to theorize a/ the subculture of sex workers in Hong Kong.


© Ralf Roletschek

Recipients of the TWF Hong Kong Scholarship

Ms Miu Yin Wong (TWF Scholar, 2016-17) “The MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies has provided solid theoretical training which has sharpened my capacity for rigorous gender analysis. The multi-disciplinary training has not only come from the courses (especially the text seminars) but also the in-depth intellectual discussions with classmates, which I have particularly enjoyed. The University of Cambridge has provided me with numerous opportunities to learn from the most prominent global scholars, to participate in seminars, workshops and conferences, and to engage in profound academic and social debates. Studying at Cambridge has been a life-changing experience for me. Coming from an underprivileged family, I would not have had this opportunity without the generous support from The Women’s Foundation, Hong Kong (TWF). I would like to express my sincere gratitude to TWF for supporting young scholars to strive for their dreams and fight for gender equality.”

Ms Miu Yin Wong was the fourth student to be awarded The Women’s Foundation Hong Kong Scholarship to study for the MPhil in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies in 2016-17. Miu Yin’s research dissertation was entitled LGBT Right Advocacy in Hong Kong’s Democratic Movement.

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Ms Tsz Lam Ngai

Mr Jacky Ching Lok Tse

Ms Mandy Leung Hoi Yan

(TWF Scholar, 2015-16)

(TWF Scholar, 2014-15) "Studying Gender Studies at Cambridge is one of my greatest blessings in life. I am privileged to have met and learnt from a number of exceptional academic staff and visiting scholars, and the really nice group of classmates who specialise in diverse, interesting and innovative research projects examining different aspects of gender. I am inspired to continue my academic journey in Gender Studies and I hope to enhance gender equality in my society through my future research."

(TWF Scholar, 2013-14) "The MPhil provides a unique multidisciplinary approach to studying gender, which is both challenging and rewarding. I have had the opportunity to discuss cutting edge research and classic texts with expert scholars from across a broad range of topic areas, such as philosophy, physiology, literature, business studies, and many more."

"The MPhil programme provided me with a lot of chances to discuss gender research with academics from diverse academic backgrounds. It also offered a stimulating environment, which cultivated the debates about different methodological and theoretical approaches that suited our specialised research interests in gender. Reading the MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies at Cambridge is truly a fruitful and enjoyable experience”. Ms Tsz Lam Ngai was the third student to be awarded The Women's Foundation Hong Kong Scholarship to study for the MPhil in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies in 2015-16. Tsz Lam's research dissertation was entitled Women in Politics and Media: A Critical Study of News Representation of Women Politicians during the Umbrella Movement in Post-handover Hong Kong.

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Mr Jacky Ching Lok Tse was the second student to be awarded The Women's Foundation Hong Kong Scholarship to study for the MPhil in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies in 2014-15. Jacky's research dissertation was entitled Gender in Chinese Folktales.

Ms Mandy Leung Hoi Yan was the first student to be awarded The Women's Foundation Hong Kong Scholarship to study for the MPhil in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies in 2013-14. Mandy's research dissertation was entitled Rape in Hong Kong: power, privilege and culture in legal discourse.


Rosalin Agnew, MPhil

Cambridge European Scholarship ‘Queer Palestine: Ethics, Activism, and Queer Politics’

Alice Chilcott, MPhil

Win-Yip Cambridge Trust Scholarship

Eddie Wei, PhD.

Julia Doyle, PhD

‘Understanding the Sentencing of Women: Evidence from Chinese Courts’

‘Trauma and Memory in Syrian Refugee Women’s Identity-Construction’

CSC Cambridge International Trust Scholarship

Emmanuel College Derek Brewer Scholarship

‘Write Like a Girl: Female Characters in Young Adult Fiction’

Lisa Vickers, PhD

Cambridge Trust Scholarship ‘Feminist Political Parties: Sustainability, Longevity, and Impacts’

Juliet Allen, PhD Chevening Scholarships are the UK Government’s international awards scheme aimed at developing global leaders.

Leah Schmidt, MPhil

ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership and Sidney and Marguerite Cody Studentship ‘Social Norms and Fathers’ Use of Parental Leave Entitlements’

Chevening Cambridge Scholarship

Maimuna Mohamud, PhD

‘Reconceptualising the Women, Peace and Security Framework’

Cambridge Trust Africa Scholarship “Gender, Citizenship and Peacebuilding in Somalia”

Naoise Murphy, MPhil

Newnham College Major Studentship

Rea Eldem, MPhil Farhana Rahman, PhD

Cambridge International Trust and Murray Edwards Scholarship

Clare Hall Boak Masters Award

‘Troubling strangeness’: Queerness and transnationalism in the novels of Kate O’Brien and Elizabeth Bowen’

‘Women’s Beauty Labour in Contemporary South Korea’

‘Rickety Boats to Refuge(e): Gender, Identity, and Everyday Negotiations of Rohingya Refugee Women in Southeast Asia’

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3 The Distinguished Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professorship The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professors 2017–18

Visiting Professorship Report, Sandra Harding, December 2017

Professors Carl Djerassi and Diane Middlebrook

The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professorship was generously established by Carl Djerassi (29 October 1923 - 30 January 2015), Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Stanford University, inventor of the contraceptive pill and an internationally renowned playwright, poet and author. He established the professorship in honour of his wife Diane Middlebrook, (16 April 1939 - 15 December 2007) who was herself Professor Emerita of Stanford University and Chair of Feminist Studies there. The Visiting Professorship scheme is a unique academic position designed to host the most distinguished international scholars from any academic discipline with an interest in gender at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies. As seen on pages 20–23 this scheme enables an exceptional range of scholars to think on the fundamental questions of humanity through a gender lens and we are extremely grateful to Carl and Diane for such an extraordinary endowment.

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Thank you for the wonderful opportunity to spend the Michaelmas term 2017 in the Centre for Gender Studies (UCCGS). My research projects benefitted greatly, not only from the time that this appointment gave me to devote to them, but also from the illuminating responses to this work that I received at lectures, workshops, and daily conversations with Cambridge colleagues from several departments. It was a pleasure to talk with Dr Jude Browne, the Frankopan Director of UCCGS, about her work and mine. Having been a former director of a big Women’s Studies Program (University of Delaware), a large feminist research centre (UCLA), and editor of a major feminist journal (Signs), I was truly impressed by her ability to secure high funding for the Centre and to steer it through always difficult University policies and practices. Joanna Bush, the Centre Administrator, consistently made sure I had no unmet needs, and innovatively solved every daily challenge that occurred. I was able to have stimulating chats


over several dinners with Dr Julienne Obadia, the newly arrived Junior Research Fellow, as well as with Professor Juliet Mitchell. Professor Janet Soskice introduced me to many pleasures of Jesus College, from organ recitals to fascinating colleagues. My apartment was a pleasure. Research I brought to Cambridge three research projects. This first project asks what effects persisting colonialism-induced gender, sexuality, and racial entanglements, in both Latin America and the North have on the production of knowledge in both places. A second project was to design a panel, my presentation in it, and my subsequent paper for a conference on the work of Maria Lugones, a leading Latin American feminist and anti-colonial theorist. The third project was to do research, and then respond to, illuminating but challenging external reviews of a “state of the field� literature review on Latin American decolonial science and technology studies, including its feminist issues. My first project was the topic of my public lecture for UCCGS on 10 October 2017, Feminist Philosophies of Science and Technology: Thinking from Latin America. Lectures, workshops, consultations. As indicated above, I gave public lectures in two departments. In UCCGS there was a large audience, including faculty and graduate students from a number of other departments, and

Professor Sandra Harding and Dr Jude Browne

from other London area universities. In the HPS department close to 100 attended. The HPS Chair said that this was the first time in years that there was such high attendance, by both philosophers and historians of science. I also gave workshops for three departments. The workshop designed jointly for UCCGS and for the Centre for Latin American Studies (CLAS) was on November 6. The one for HPS was on November 8. In both cases, these were designed for graduate students especially, but others were welcome. In each case, the focus was first on how to turn a dissertation chapter into a publishable journal article

Because of these lectures and workshops, I met with many students and faculty from the three fields -- UCCGS, CLAS, and HPS. This was a productive and enjoyable term for me. I greatly appreciate having had the opportunity to spend this time in the Centre for Gender Studies. Sincerely,

Sandra G. Harding

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Upcoming Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professors

Previous Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professors

Bina Agarwal, International Balzan Prizewinner, Professor of Development Economics and Environment, Global Development Institute, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, will serve as The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor during Michaelmas 2018, conducting research on Group Farming in Asia and Europe: Potential Models for Sustainable Agriculture?

Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University, served as the Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor for the Lent Term 2017, conducting research entitled Legal Utopianism and Democratic Pessimism. Transnational Law and Democratic Sovereignty.

Jack Halberstam, Professor of American Studies Ethnicity, Comparative Literature and Gender Studies, at the University of Southern California, served as the Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor during Lent 2015, conducting research on The Wild: Histories and Futures of Queer Anarchy.

Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley, served as the Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor for the Michaelmas Term 2016, conducting research entitled New forms of vulnerability.

Jacqueline Rose, Professor of Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London served as The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor during Michaelmas 2014, conducting research on Feminism and the Abomination of Violence.

Rosi Braidotti, Distinguished University Professor, Utrecht University, will serve as The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor during Michaelmas 2019, conducting research on The Post-human Turn in Feminist Theory.

Mignon Nixon, Professor, History of American Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art, served as the Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor for the Michaelmas Term 2015, conducting research entitled Sperm Bomb: Art, Feminism, and the American War in Vietnam.

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Nancy Fraser, The Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science and Department Chair at The New School for Social Research, served as The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor during Lent 2014, conducting research on a new book project: A Feminist Theory of Capitalist Crisis: re-reading Marx, Polanyi, and Habermas in the 21st Century.


John Dupré, Professor of Philosophy of Science and Director of the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society (Egenis) at the University of Exeter served as The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor during Michaelmas 2013, conducting research on Gender and 21st Century Biology. Sara Ahmed, Professor of Race and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London served as The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor during Lent 2013, conducting research on Willful Women: Feminism and a History of Will. Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington DC served as The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor during Michaelmas 2012, conducting research on Gender, Security, and Inter-Generational Conflict in Muslim Societies Post 9/11.

Cindi Katz, Professor of Geography Environmental Psychology Program & Earth and Environmental Sciences Program at The City University of New York, Graduate Center served as The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor during Michaelmas 2011 and Lent 2012, conducting research on Childhood as Spectacle: Relays of Anxiety and the Reconfiguration of the Child. Catharine MacKinnon, the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School and James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, served as The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor during Lent 2011, conducting research on Trafficking, Prostitution and Inequality. Marcia Inhorn, the William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University, served as the inaugural Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor during Michaelmas 2010, conducting research on Global Gametes: reproductive ‘tourism’ and Islamic bioethics in the high-tech Middle East.

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4

Public Engagement Series The public events programme consists of high profile lectures, symposia and a multi-disciplinary gender research seminar series. The Centre has an unparalleled record of eminent speakers on gender including Nobel Prize winners such as Amartya Sen and Shirin Ebadi; academics such as Mary Beard, Judith Butler, Jack Halberstam, Catharine MacKinnon, Carol Gilligan and Onora O’Neill; cultural figures, writers, and activists such as Jane Fonda, Larry Kramer and Nawal el Saadwi; professionals such as Helena Kennedy, scientific pioneers such as Carl Djerassi and political figures such as SRSG Margot Wallström (see the Centre’s ‘Public Events’ archive at www.gender.cam.ac.uk).

‘Trans*’ lecture audience, 15th May 2018

The Centre’s Public Event Series is extremely popular and consistently attracts large audiences to events that span the disciplines. Below are the academic events organised in 2017-18:

Public Lectures and Seminars Dr Jo Applin (Courtauld Institute of Art) ‘In Conversation’ with Dr Amy Tobin (Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge) on Other Art Worlds: Art History and Feminism Now Dr Jill Armstrong (Bye Fellow, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge) on Higher Stakes: Generational differences in Mothers’ and Daughters’ feelings about combining motherhood with a career Dr Lisa Baraitser (Reader in Psychosocial Studies, Department of Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck, University of London) on Enduring Time: Care, Gender and Temporality Professor Mary Beard (OBE, FSA, FBA, Professor of Classics, University of Cambridge) ‘In Conversation’ with Professor Peter Frankopan (Professor of Global History, University of Oxford; Senior Research Fellow, Worcester College, Oxford) on Women and Power: A Manifesto Dr Boyd Brogan (Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge) on Hysterical Men in Early Modern England Dr Shailaja Fennel (Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge) on Tackling Domestic Violence through a National Lens: A Comparative Perspective on Asia

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Dr Stefanie Fishel (Assistant Professor, Department of Gender and Race Studies, University of Alabama on Hybrid Subjectivities: Pluralising the Body Politic Professor Jack Halberstam (Professor of Gender Studies and English, Columbia University) on Trans* Professor Sandra Harding (Distinguished Research Professor of Education and Gender Studies, University of California) on Feminist Philosophy of Science and Technology: Thinking from Latin America Lorraine Koonce (Solicitor (UK), Lawyer (US), Gender and Human Rights Advocate and Kameel Ahmady Independent Researcher) on FGM: Cruelty in the Name of Tradition Ms Sarah Lightman (Artist, Curator and Author, Department of Text/Image Studies, University of Glasgow) on “The Star Sapphire” by Sharon Rudahl Comics: Fine Art and Feminist Theology Dr Carmen M. Mangion (Lecturer in Modern History, Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London) on “The Most Unliberated Women in the World?” Finding Feminism in British Catholic Convents in the Long 1960’s Professor Clare Pettitt (Professor of Victorian Literature and Culture, Department of English, King’s College, London) on Distant Contemporaries: Women Reporting the 1848 Revolutions


Dr Caroline Rusterholz (Associate Research Fellow, Birkbeck University, SNSF Postdoc Fellow) on English Women Doctors, Birth Control and Family Planning (1920-1970) Yvonne Salmon (FRSA FRGS FRAI Cambridge, Affiliated Lecturer, University of Cambridge) on Gender and Space Professor Laura J. Shepherd (Professor of International Relations, Sydney University; Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE Centre for Women’s Peace and Security, London) ‘In Conversation’ with Dr Maria Martin de Almagro (Marie Curie Fellow, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge; Research Associate, Emmanuel College, Cambridge) on Gender, UN Peacebuilding and the Politics of Space

Ms Sigal Spigel, Multi-disciplinary Gender Research Seminars Coordinator, UCCGS Ms Sigal Spigel is the Coordinator and Chair of the Multidisciplinary Gender Research Seminar series. She works as a psychologist and psychotherapist and her research is on motherhood, feminism and psychoanalysis. Sigal was a founding member of the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies and a member of the original Working Party, serving as a Deputy Director. Subsequently she has been an active member of the Centre’s Academic Advisory Committee. Sigal can be contacted about the Multi-disciplinary Gender Research Seminars at: sis22@cam.ac.uk

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Professor Mary Beard ‘In Conversation’ with Professor Peter Frankopan on Women and Power: A Manifesto The Centre for Gender Studies was delighted to host a capacity audience for Women and Power: A Manifesto on Thursday 10 May 2018 at The Main Lecture Theatre, Divinity School, St. John's College, Cambridge. Professor Mary Beard, OBE, FSA, FBA, Professor of Classics, University of Cambridge, was 'In Conversation' with Professor Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History, University of Oxford; Senior Research Fellow, Worcester College, Oxford.

explores the cultural underpinnings of misogyny, considering the public voice of women, our cultural assumptions about women’s relationship with power, and how powerful women resist being packaged into a male template. With personal reflections on her own experiences of the sexism and gendered aggression she has endured online, Mary Beard asks: if women aren’t perceived to be within the structures of power, isn’t it power that we need to redefine?

In Women and Power: A Manifesto, Professor Mary Beard revisits the gender agenda and shows how history has treated powerful women. Her examples range from the classical world to the modern day, from Medusa and Athena to Theresa May and Hillary Clinton. Professor Beard

Professor Peter Frankopan is the author of The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, and Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research. The Silk Roads provides a major re-assessment of world history from antiquity to the modern day. Professor Frankopan works on the history of the Mediterranean, Russia, the Middle East, Persia/Iran and Central Asia, and on relations between Christianity and Islam. He also specialises in medieval Greek literature and translated The Alexiad for Penguin Classics (2009).

Professors Mary Beard and Peter Frankopan

Professor Peter Frankopan

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Professor Jack Halberstam: Presentation for Trans*: The Contemporary Politics of Trans* The Centre for Gender Studies hosted a presentation by Professor Jack Halberstam, Professor of Gender Studies and English, Columbia University, for his new book Trans* on Tuesday 15 May 2018 at the Main Lecture Theatre, Divinity School, St. John's College. This event was co-sponsored by the Department of Politics and International Studies. We were delighted to welcome back Professor Halberstam, a former Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor, for an inspiring lecture and discussion about the contemporary politics of trans* and the future of trans* studies. Professor Halberstam’s public lecture to the packed lecture theatre was preceded by a separate seminar with our MPhil and PhD students.

power, but regulation, both in favour of and against trans people. What was once regarded as an unusual or even unfortunate disorder has become an accepted articulation of gendered embodiment as well as a new site for political activism and political recognition. In Trans*, Professor Jack Halberstam explores these recent shifts in the meaning of the gendered body and representation, and explores the possibilities of a non-gendered, gender-optional, or gender-queer future.

In the last decade, public discussions of transgender issues have increased exponentially. However, with this increased visibility has come not just

Professor Jack Halberstam and Dr Lauren Wilcox

‘Trans*’ lecture audience

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The Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the Centre for Gender Studies, hosted an ‘In Conversation’ with Dr Jo Applin, Courtauld Institute of Art and Dr Amy Tobin, Department of History of Art, on Other Art Worlds: Art History and Feminism Now. Dr Jo Applin and Dr Amy Tobin discussed their co-edited book London Art Worlds: Mobile, Contingent and Ephemeral Networks 1960-80, and Dr Applin’s monograph Lee Lozano: Not Working. Deputy Director Lauren Wilcox chaired an animated discussion between two collaborators on the place of feminism in the art world in midcentury, both in New York and London, through the lens of Lee Lozano and several art collectives. Image, above: Dr Jo Applin and Dr Amy Tobin

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The University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies was pleased to co-host a special seminar with renowned Italian feminist political philosopher Adriana Cavarero following her AHRC lecture on “Political Phonosopheres: Plurality and Crowds”. Professor Cavarero’s work engages with the embodied senses to theorize authority and meaning-making in literature and philosophy. Participants from Gender Studies and other fields enjoyed a spirited conversation with Professor Cavarero regarding her work-inprogress on “Vocalizing Honey” in early May. Image, above: Professor Adriana Cavarero, third from left, with Professor Robert Gordon (Department of Italian), Dr Sarah Dillon (Faculty of English), Dr Heather Webb (Department of Italian), Dr Tim Huzar (University of Brighton), Dr Jude Browne (UCCGS), Dr Bogdan Popa (UCCGS)

The Centre for Governance and Human Rights co-hosted a presentation with the Centre for Gender Studies by Laura J. Shepherd, Professor of International Relations at Sydney University, for her new book Gender, UN Peacebuilding and the Politics of Space in the Lent term 2018. Laura J. Shepherd was ‘In Conversation’ with Dr Maria Martin de Almagro, Marie Curie Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge. Laura Shepherd’s research focuses on the United Nations Security Council’s Women, Peace and Security agenda as well as gender politics, international relations and critical security studies. Dr Maria Martin de Almagro has written extensively on the advocacy around, and implementation of, the Women, Peace and Security agenda at global, national, and local levels in post-conflict contexts. With UCCGS Deputy Director Lauren Wilcox chairing, Professor Shepherd introduced her book in which she discusses the work that gender is doing conceptually to organise the way that peacebuilding is defined, enacted, and resourced, and explores the ways in which women, gender, and civil society are constructed in United Nations peacebuilding discourse. Dr Martin de Almagro’s expertise pushed the discussion further in several directions, including into the politics of research, and a large crowd continued the conversation after the event at a reception. Image, above: Professor Laura J. Shepherd


The Centre for Gender Studies hosted a presentation by Ms Sarah Hendriks, Director of Gender Equality at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the Lent term 2018. Ms Hendriks discussed how the Gates Foundation incorporates and promotes 'Gender' across the Foundation's programmes. Ms Hendriks’s presentation discussed the challenges of mainstreaming gender across a large organization while highlighting the Gates Foundation’s progress, plans for the future, and lessons for other organizations. Sarah Hendriks, Director of Gender Equality at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leads the foundation’s efforts to achieve substantive and sustainable results in promoting gender equality and unlocking the empowerment of women and girls. She is responsible for working across the Foundation and with its external partners to provide a clear vision, build organizational commitment, and establish technical processes to shape the Foundation’s current and future work in the area. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2015, Sarah worked as the director of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion for Plan International, leading

the development of a comprehensive gender equality policy, strategy and global capacity development program. In this role, she was the editorial chair and lead researcher for a multiyear global research and policy report entitled ‘Because I am a Girl: the State of the World’s Girls’. As the head of programming for Plan’s gender equality work, she led the development of the ‘Global Girls Innovation Program’, a $500 million portfolio of innovation and results-driven initiatives on adolescent girls. Before joining Plan International, Sarah worked with Women and the Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) Malawi, an organization distinguished throughout Southern Africa for connecting gender equality and the law in action-based research, public service delivery, and advocacy for legal and policy reform. Sarah has worked extensively as a gender equality consultant in areas such as Gender-Based Violence (CIDA), Women's Access to Justice (GTZ), HIV & AIDS, and the design of gender equality strategies for the Institute of Public Administration of Canada.

In partnership with the Cambridge Institute for Public Policy, the Intellectual Forum, Jesus College, and the Department of Politics & International Studies, the Centre for Gender Studies was delighted to host a fascinating discussion with the Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and ex head of the UNDP, with a screening of My Year with Helen, a film by Gaylene Preston. In this documentary, Gaylene Preston looks over the shoulder of Helen Clark, both as a leader in the development community and as she undergoes the selection process for the position of Secretary General of the United Nations. Image, above: Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, Gaylene Preston and Dr Jude Browne

Image, above: Sarah Hendriks and Dr Jude Browne

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PhD Programme in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies

Current PhD Students Jules Allen (ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship, Sidney and Marguerite Cody Studentship) Social Norms and Fathers’ Use of Parental Leave Entitlements Supervisor: Dr Jude Browne (University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies) Abstract: My research examines the ways that social and cultural norms influence fathers’ decisions about use of parental leave, using an understanding of parenting as gendered and performative. Despite significant changes made to parental leave allocations in Europe in recent years, fathers’ take-up of leave entitlements remains consistently lower than mothers’, even in countries with the most gender-sensitive frameworks including ‘daddy quotas’ and other paternal incentives. This research uses a mixed methodology and focuses on Norway, and Sweden, Portugal and the UK. The project is investigating the significance of social norms and gendered responsibilities in decisions about who uses leave, and examines how parenting practice has the potential to both reinscribe and unsettle the gender binary.

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Julia Doyle (Emmanuel College Derek Brewer Scholarship)

Kerry Mackereth (UCCGS Gates International Scholarship)

Memory, Trauma and Identity in Syrian Women’s Oral History of

Female political selfsacrifice Supervisor: Dr Harald Wydra (Department of Politics and International Studies)

Forced Migration Supervisor: Dr Lauren Wilcox (University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies) Abstract: Based at the borders between the Spanish Enclaves (Ceuta & Melilla) and Morocco, my research aims to explore identity through an interpretivist reading of Syrian refugee women’s narratives, told as oral history. Calling on a theoretical basis in ethnography, narrative theory and International Relations, this project is focused on the constitutive relationships between memories, stories and self-understandings in the context of a discursive battle to define this population of forced migrants. Deepening understanding of how race, gender and other social frames work to shore up, or fragment, individual and collective identities is a core objective of the research. I will ask how Syrian refugee women narrativize their memories of forced displacements; whether their narrative strategies construct a ‘displaced identity’; and what these processes of narrativization and identity construction can tell us about how power functions in discourses and practices surrounding forced migration and its actors.

Abstract: My doctoral thesis in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies examines spectacular acts of political violence committed against the self, and the narratives surrounding these acts of political selfsacrifice. Women who undertake acts of bodily political self-sacrifice are marginalised or completely ignored within the current literature on selfsacrifice. Additionally, despite the key contributions made by feminist and critical race theorists towards the role of embodiment in politics, structural violence, subjectification, and conceptions of power, feminist and critical race theory rarely plays a prominent role in theorisations of political self-sacrifice. Hence, my thesis takes a gendered approach to political self-sacrifice in two ways. On one hand, I focus on women who undertake such radical acts, using a variety of case studies such as female hunger-striking, female self-immolation, and other varying types of bodily self-sacrifice. On the other hand, I also use feminist and critical race theory as a way of challenging the hegemony of certain political thinkers in the field of political selfsacrifice, so I draw upon a variety of feminist and critical race theorists whose work is less prominent in this area. I hope that my thesis will provide an alternative to the sexist and heteronormative interpretations common to both media reporting and academic analyses of political self-sacrifice.


Maimuna Mohamud (Cambridge Trust Africa Scholarship) Gender, Citizenship and Peacebuilding in Somalia Supervisor: Dr Devon Curtis (Department of Politics and International Studies) Abstract: In my doctoral research, I examine the theoretical and practical implications of conceptualizing citizenship rights as a form of restitution (understood in its broader political sense), in the aftermath of civil war. My current central question is, how do various groups of women and historically marginalized communities in post-conflict Somalia understand citizenship and what rights do they demand? Related questions include, what becomes of the individual rights and the duties of a citizen after a violent conflict? Is it possible to reconcile group-based citizenship with the broader objectives of state and nation building projects? Situating my research within broader debates on gender and citizenship in non-western, non-liberal contexts, the outcomes of my research may have implications for postconflict states in Africa and elsewhere, and it may contribute to discussions on citizenship in postconflict societies.

Lena Moore Human, Transhuman, Posthuman: The United States Military and the End of Vulnerability Supervisor: Dr Lauren Wilcox (University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies) Abstract: My doctoral research focuses on ways in which, in a United States military context, automation, ‘precision,’ and healing technologies that appear to protect against war-related risk and suffering produce ‘human,’ ‘transhuman,’ and/ or ‘posthuman’ subjects through differential assignations of vulnerability and invulnerability. This research is grounded in case studies of ‘precision’ warfare, the exceptionalization of Special Operations forces, and militarized/ military ‘healing’ technologies. Through examinations of these particular cases, and by situating the US military’s ‘posthuman project’ within a greater system of white supremacist patriarchy, this research reveals ways in which new military technologies and the production of ‘posthuman’ subjects may reproduce insecurities and exclusionary logics globally. Further, in making that which the state seeks to erase or render invisible the object of inquiry, this project aims to challenge dominant narratives of a civilizing military transhumanism that signals the emergence of a ‘safer,’ more ethical way of war.

Sharmila Parmanand (UCCGS Gates International Scholarship) Saving Our Sisters: A critical inquiry of antisex trafficking discourses and interventions in the Philippines Supervisor: Dr Tomas Larsson Abstract: My research focuses on the anti-human trafficking ecosystem in the Philippines. In particular, I look closely at the policy-making process, the relationships among international funders, the state, and civil society actors, the knowledge claims made about women in vulnerable employment situations and how these claims are negotiated and produced, and finally, the effects of interventions such as raids and rescue operations on their target populations, especially sex workers. With my work, I hope to give primacy to the experiences of individuals directly affected by these interventions and contribute to the ongoing conversation about how best to uphold their agency and human rights.

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Farhana Rahman (Cambridge International Trust and Murray Edwards Scholarship) Rickety Boats to Refuge(e): Gender, Identity, and Everyday Negotiations of Rohingya Refugee Women Supervisor: Dr Manali Desai (Department of Sociology) Abstract: Through feminist ethnographic research, I seek to explore how forced migration and the mass exodus of the Rohingya community to Bangladesh and Malaysia have transformed Rohingya gender relations and roles in displacement – specifically, how forced migration has affected the gendered subjectivities and lived experiences of Rohingya refugee women. The theoretical framework of this project lies at the junction of gender studies, anthropology, and studies in forced migration.

Balukhali Rohingya Refugee Camp in Bangladesh, photo credit Farhana Rahman (Image awarded POLIS PhD Fieldwork Photography Competition Prize 2018) Prayer Circle in Widows’ Only Camp at Balukhali Rohingya Refugee Camp, Farhana Rahman

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Hakan Sandal The Kurdish Queer Movement: Strategies and Tactics towards Radical Democracy Supervisor: Dr Ayse Zarakol (Department of Politics and International Studies) Abstract: My doctoral research focuses on the intersection of ethnic and gender identities, particularly on Kurdish queers, in relation to radical democracy. Studying how queer communities situate themselves in ethnic and class struggles presents a holistic understanding of identity construction processes and of the resistance practices. Understanding the boundaries and formation of identities in the Kurdish queer context, and studying the Kurdish struggle and the queer struggle together within the framework of radical democracy, will contribute to gender studies, queer politics, and Middle East studies, and will engender new debates on the global queer movements. The research will eventually shed light not only on a queer struggle in the Middle East context but also make an alternative reading and historicization on Kurdish movement and Turkey.


Lisa Vickers (Cambridge Trust Scholarship) Feminist Political Parties: Sustainability, Longevity, and Impacts Supervisor: Dr Jude Browne (University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies) Abstract: The primary question my doctoral research seeks to answer is the following: Are feminist political parties built to last? To answer this question, I will investigate if feminist political parties need to be formed with the intention of permanence in order to address the subject of female representation, under what conditions feminist political parties are most likely to survive, how feminist political parties attempt to represent women, and how grassroots feminist political movements and feminist organizations view themselves as interacting with the state through parties. To complete this research, I plan to run a discourse analysis, engage in participant observation analysis, and conduct interviews with former and current affiliates of feminist political parties in the United Kingdom, Iceland, and Sweden.

Eddie Wei (CSC Cambridge International Trust Scholarship) Understanding the Sentencing of Women: Evidence from Chinese Courts Supervisor: Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe (Institute of Criminology) Abstract: Despite frequently voiced concerns about discrimination in the criminal justice system there has been surprisingly little new research during the last decade into the way women are sentenced. My thesis seeks to fill that gap: it examines statistical data on Chinese men and women offenders from eight provinces; and it also looks at the factors (blameworthiness, dangerousness, and practical constraints) judges identify as influences on their decision-making. The aim, therefore, is to describe how judges at three main levels (district, intermediate and high courts) set about taking account of substantive differences in men’s and women’s lives and their perceptions of ‘real justice’ for women.

Elizabeth Yarrow Gendered bodies: institutions, sex binarism, and the experiences of gender minority youth within health and education systems Supervisor: Dr Robbie Duschinsky (Department of Public Health and Primary Care) Abstract: My doctoral research is focused on gender variance in childhood and adolescence, particularly amongst individuals assigned female sex at birth. Through examining the experience of trans, intersex and genderqueer children in their interactions with core social institutions, including schools, health services and the justice system, her work explores how notions of sex, gender, and sexuality organise aspects of identity during childhood; how gendered embodiment is regulated through institutional practice, and the consequences of ‘deviant’ or ‘unintelligible’ embodiment.

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Gender Studies Profiles Dr Jude Browne The Jessica and Peter Frankopan Director of UCCGS

Gender Research Interests: political theories of equality, public policy, structural injustice, rights and the social and political impact of new technologies. This academic year, I completed two research projects. The first, focused on technology, fertility and public policy, examines the potential impact of the rising multi-billion dollar fertility technology industry aimed at fertile women. Drawing on feminist political theory, I developed a structural critique on the claims of prominent ethicists such as Julian Savulescu of Oxford University and others who advocate the promotion of social egg freezing as a resource for increasing gender equality. Browne, J. (2018). ‘Technology, Fertility and Public Policy: A Structural Perspective on Human Egg Freezing and Gender Equality ‘ Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society. Vol 25, Issue 2, pp. 149–168 This research was show-cased at the University of Cambridge Festival of Ideas where I presented ‘Egg Freezing: The New Way To The Top?’ Repro Soc. 21st October 2017. The second research project this year considered the role of the public interest in contemporary politics and, informed by a feminist political theory perspective, I sought to provide a critical analysis of the demise of the public body as a central feature of democratic politics.

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Browne, J. (2018). ‘The Regulatory Gift: Politics, Regulation and Governance (forthcoming in Regulation & Governance). As part of my ongoing work on gender inequality in the workplace I also spoke on gender quotas at the European Union’s Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights. This work was also featured in the University of Cambridge Research Horizons Magazine.


Dr Lauren Wilcox Deputy Director of UCCGS and UTO in Gender Studies

My current work interrogates the concept of the ‘posthuman’ as a way of engaging with the dynamics of race, gender, and sexuality in theories about war. This past year, I was a CRASSH Early Career fellow in Michaelmas working on my current monograph tentatively called War Beyond the Human. I presented research related to this project at the European International Studies Association in Barcelona in September, at the International Studies Association in San Francisco in April, and at the American Association of Geographers in New Orleans, also in April. I also gave invited talks at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and at the University of Manchester in May, as well as at the “Drone Imaginaries and Society” conference at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense in June. Recent and key publications include:

Wilcox, L. and Fishel, S. (2017) “Politics of the Living Dead: Race and Exceptionalism in the Apocalypse,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 45 no. 3, (2017), pp. 335-355. Special issue on Racialized Realities in International Relations. Wilcox, L. (2017) “Practicing Gender, Queering Theory,” Review of International Studies 43, no 5 (2017), pp. 789-808. Wilcox, L. (2017) “Drones, Swarms, and Becoming-Insect: Feminist Utopias and Posthuman Politics” Feminist Review, Special issue on Feminist Utopias and Dystopias. 116 no. 1 (2017), pp. 25-45. Wilcox, L. (2017) “Embodying Algorithmic War: Gender, Race, and the Posthuman in Drone Warfare.” Security Dialogue 48:1, pp. 11–28. Wilcox, L. (2015) Bodies of Violence: Theorizing Embodied Subjects in International Relations. (New York: Oxford University Press).

ANNUAL REPORT Academic Year 2017/18

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Dr Bogdan Popa Temporary University Lecturer in Gender Studies

Ms Joanna Bush Centre Administrator, UCCGS

I work on histories of sexuality, gender, and affects, with a focus on queer feminist theory, critical race studies and post-socialism. My first monograph, Shame: A Genealogy of Queer Practices in the Nineteenth Century, was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2017. This manuscript provided a radical reframing of shame as a vital impetus of queer feminist activism and was based on my dissertation, which won APSA’s Best Dissertation Award in Sexuality and Politics. My forthcoming book analyses changes in sexuality discourses from 1950’s socialism to today. It is titled Queer Communism: Cold War and the Transformations of Gender Theory, and it offers an alternative history to Anglo-American queer studies by engaging with anti-capitalist histories of socialism and Cold War cinema. It seeks to provide a new conceptual map to Left theory by revising the meanings of a contemporary progressive vocabulary. In doing so, it connects areas that have not been put together such as histories of socialism, feminist radical black politics, genealogies of racialization during the Cold War, and Roma practices of anti-capitalist resistance.

2017-18 was a very productive and successful year for UCCGS. We welcomed 23 MPhil students, including 2 Gates Scholars, as well as 4 PhD students and it was a pleasure to support them throughout the year and guide our new PhD through the process of formal review and registration.

My latest articles are titled “Shame and Cognitive Strikes: What Would “Really” Mean for Queer Psychoanalysis to Enter the Perverse?” in Studies in Gender and Sexuality (2018, Vol. 19, No. 2, 145156), “What’s Wrong with the Romanian New Wave? Auteur Cinema, the Communist, and the Production of the Violent Working Class” (2018, Studies in Eastern European Cinema, Vol. 9, Issue 1, 89-102) and “LGBTIQ+ Movements and Interest Groups in Eastern Europe and Turkey”, in Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy (forthcoming, 2018, with Hakan Sandal). Before coming to Cambridge, I’ve been teaching and worked as a research fellow at Oberlin College, US; University of Michigan, US; Indiana University, Bloomington, US; and University of Bucharest, Romania. Publications: Shame: A Genealogy of Queer Practices in the Nineteenth Century (May 2017), New York and Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

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I was pleased to manage the Centre’s prestigious public events programme this year, and meet our visiting academics and speakers, and in particular to work with Professor Sandra Harding who gave the Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professorship Lecture in Michaelmas 2017. In Easter 2018, we were delighted to host capacity audiences at the Divinity School, St. John’s College for an In Conversation with Professors Mary Beard and Peter Frankopan, followed by a presentation from Professor Jack Halberstam on his new book Trans*. As the Centre’s 10-year anniversary approaches, I look forward to planning further promotional events in the academic year 2018-19, and to working with our next Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor, Professor Bina Agarwal.


Professor Hyaesin Yoon Visiting Scholar, UCCGS 2018

Professor Hyaesin Yoon, Assistant Professor, Department of Gender Studies, Central European University, Budapest, was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies for the Easter Term 2018. Professor Yoon's research focuses on how technological assemblages of humans, animals, and machines mediate the relations of sex/gender, race, disability, and species in a transnational context. She is presently completing the manuscript for her book, Prosthetic Memories, which explores a postcolonial feminist ethics of embodied memory in the transnational circuits of somatechnology. In this book, she engages with a number of sites across the United States and South Korea including tongue surgery (for improved English pronunciation), dog cloning, and human stem cell research. Professor Yoon is incubating a new research project on the relationship between people with dementia (especially Alzheimer’s disease) and non-human technologies, such as artificial intelligence, therapy robots, virtual reality devices, and smart cities. This research aims to offer a feminist approach to the discourses of “good” living, aging, and dying, as well as their bearing upon the organisation of self, kinship, and community in the context of the global population, aging and the biomedicalization of dementia. Professor Hyaesin Yoon, Visiting Scholar Report, Easter term 2018

Dr. Mihaela Robila Visiting Scholar, UCCGS 2018

“I thank you for the opportunity to engage with the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies as a visiting scholar for the Easter term 2018. My research during the stay was fruitful, allowing me to complete a book chapter on robot-love poetry and beginning new research on the relationship between people with dementia and nonhuman technologies. It was delightful to work in my office in the Alison Richard Building, located right across from the University Library. I also attended several inspiring events, such as Jack Halberstam’s lecture on Trans* hosted by UCCGS, and the seminars organised by Cambridge Interdisciplinary Performance Network (CIPN), where I met so many interesting scholars and practitioners. Lastly, I would like to thank the staff at the Centre and the IT department for their kind help.” Professor Hyaesin Yoon, 6 August 2018

Dr Mihaela Robila is Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Queens College, City University of New York. Her scholarship is focused on child and family functioning and family policies in different countries. She edited the Handbook on Family Policies across the Globe (Springer, 2014) and Families in Eastern Europe (Elsevier, 2004), and is the author of Eastern European Immigrant Families (Routledge, 2010). She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association Divisions 52 (International Psychology), 43 (Family Psychology), and 37 (Child and Family Policy and Practice). Dr Mihaela Robila, Visiting Scholar Report, Easter term 2018 “At Cambridge I had the opportunity to familiarise with the research projects conducted at the Centre for Gender Studies, and to meet with colleagues and explore potential research collaborations for the future. I was also pleased to visit the Centre for Family Research and meet the Director, Professor Susan Golombok. As part of my 2017-18 Faculty Fellowship Leave, I coedited a book on Global Perspectives on Family Life Education (Springer, 2018) and collaborated with a team of international scholars on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Families project, which was launched at the UN Headquarters in New York in May 2018”. Dr Mihaela Robila, 20 July 2018

ANNUAL REPORT Academic Year 2017/18

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Appendix I MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies 2016–17 - student list

Emma Goldberg (USA) Towards a Feminist Notion of Cybersecurity Supervisor: Dr Lauren Wilcox, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Huaying Gu (China) Rethinking Art History Supervisor: Dr Erica Segre, Department of Spanish and Portuguese Sara Kolber (Poland) The economic and political undercurrents in the works of early modern Venetian women writers Supervisor: Dr Alessia Ronchetti, Department of Italian Kerry Anne Mackereth (New Zealand) How to be a Domestic Cyborg Supervisor: Dr Lauren Wilcox, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Annabel Smith (United Kingdom) They Cut, We Bleed: Gender and Austerity in the United Kingdom Supervisor: Dr Jude Browne, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Reetika Subramanian (India) Contested realities in the Anti-Khatna Movement in India: Negotiating the Ideals of Female Respectability and the Performance of Sexuality Supervisor: Dr Anjali Datta, Department of Politics and International Studies Lisa Vickers (USA) Feminist Political Parties Supervisor: Dr Jude Browne, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies

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Xiaozhe Wang (China) Researching gender in China Supervisor: Dr Anna Bagnoli, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge Holly Williams (United Kingdom) Disrupting the Silence: Critical Discourse Analysis and New Feminist Social Movements Supervisor: Dr Anne Alexander, Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Louise Williams (United Kingdom) Gendered discourses of ‘vulnerability’ and homeless lives Supervisor: Dr Alice Evans, Department of Geography Ching Kwong Wong (Hong Kong) Clinical Management of Gender Dysphoria Supervisor: Dr Vickie Pasterski, Department of Psychology Miu Yin Wong (Hong Kong) LGBT Right Advocacy in Hong Kong’s Democratic Movement Supervisor: Dr Jude Browne, University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies


The University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Alison Richard Building 7 West Road Cambridge CB3 9DP

www.gender.cam.ac.uk

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