Action Research & Feminism Conference, Cluj

Program

2008.12.05.
Location: Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Room 5, Floor 4, Str. G-ral Traian Moşoiu nr. 71

11:00 – 12:30 (public lectures)
Well-come talk by Gabriel Bădescu (head of the Department of Political Sciences)
Barbara Einhorn: Mass dictatorships and gender politics
Sue Thornham: Feminism, post-feminism and the academy
Jasmina Lukič: Problems of disciplinization of an ‘interdisciplinary discipline’

Location: Tranzit House, Str. Bariţiu nr. 16
15:00 – 16:30
Panel 1/ Interdisciplinarity and participatory research
Adriana Băban, Enikő Demény, Viorela Ducu, Mihai Lucaciu, Anna Mago-Maghiar
What types of research skills are necessary for conducting good quality participatory research? Is participatory research a good terrain for conducting interdisciplinary research? How can the results of such research be transformed not only into policy recommendations, but also included into the teaching process and theory development? What difference does a feminist type of participatory research make? How is the relation between activism, research and academia functioning in a feminist performance?

Coffee break

17:00 – 18:30
Panel 2/ Minorities, rights and cultures
Nicoleta Biţu, Enikő Magyari-Vincze, Letiţia Mark, Isabela Mihalache, Ovidiu Pecican, Livia Popescu
Feminist research on women belonging to ethnic and/or sexual minorities raises crucial questions regarding the ethics and politics of research: who is representing whom and whose voice is heard in the relationship among the researcher and the researched, or between these women and their immediate minority communities. Besides this, the clash amid the universalist discourse of human rights (usually represented by feminists) and the particularist discourse of culture (at their turn acted out by the mainstream ethnic leaders) increases the researcher’s risk of being blamed for approaching sensitive issues. Our discussion touches on questions like: which are the pro- and counter-arguments of an action research reflecting on them, what kinds of perception of feminism are informing these attitudes, who decides for who is the transformative action for and which would be the values to which it should be committed, and how could one imagine a trans-ethnic and trans-gender feminism that might function in the framework of such a research?

19:00 – 19:40
Dance performance “Pótlás”
Directed and coreography byCsongor Könczei
Reception, 20:00

2008.12.06.
Location: Tranzit House, Str. Bariţiu nr. 16
11:00 – 12:45
Panel 3/ Gender and education
Imola Antal, Diana Damian, Mihaela Frunză, T. P. Hărăguş, Camelia Moraru, Maria Roth, Lorena Văetişi, Theodora Văcărescu
The role of education in the formation of the gender order, and vice versa, the role that gender plays in education in its wider sense has many aspects to deal with. The main question of this panel might refer mainly to the gains that a university has as a result of introducing gender studies among its programs. Through this, gender studies acts as a form of academic activism that might be directed towards not only describing the existing (academic) gendered regimes of truth, but also changing them. The necessity of introducing the gender perspective as well as into the pre-university education might be also addressed. In that context to, it could play an important role in transforming the dominant ways of teaching, interacting and viewing the world.

15:15 – 16:30
Two or Three Things about Activism, D Media, 2008
A film by and discussion with Joanne Richardson

16:45 – 18:30
Panel 4/ Action and long-term research
Simona Adam, Adriana Băban, Sophie Day Hajnalka Harbula, Csilla Könczei, Enikő Magyari-Vincze, Petruţa Mîndruţ, Frances Pine, Joanne Richardson
‘Action research’ is often oriented to a particular pressing issue, so it is under the constraints of strict time-frames. But in these terms scholars should also consider the implications of a long term research that is a territory where anthropologists might be the main advocates. They are returning again and again to a particular field, having the chance to build a long-lasting relation with the research participants, so not only to construct action strategies on a solid base, but also to continue this contact in a longer perspective and to be able to have a real impact on the slowly changing elements of everyday life.

Coffee break
19:00 – 19:45
Performing “Not I”: a re-vision of Beckett
Lecture by Mihai Lucaciu and performance by Elinor Middleton

CENTRE FOR GENDER STUDIES
BABES-BOLYAI UNIVERSITY
and
FOUNDATION DESIRE

Contact: Enikő Magyari-Vincze, http://www.euro.ubbcluj.ro/ica/eniko_magyari1.htm

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