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| Time to be determined | Chairs: Antonia Velicu & Julia Jerke | Doing Intersectional Research: Challenges and Practical Considerations
Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, the term intersectionality describes the amplification of social inequality and discrimination when focusing on more than one personal characteristic or trait such as race, gender, and class. It allows capturing the multiplicity and severity of experiences faced by people who belong to more than one marginalized group, thus increasing the visibility of the marginalized among the marginalized.
Although the importance of intersectionality is widely recognized, inequality research is still dominated by a non-intersectional perspective and usually focuses on characteristics such as gender or race in isolation. This inevitably has far-reaching implications for the implementation or management of anti-discrimination policies.
One reason for the reluctance to introduce intersectionality into empirical research is its difficult operationalization, that is, how to make the theoretical construct observable and measurable. Although there is agreement that the concept can be understood as a kind of analytical lens, it is unclear what exactly might become clearer by putting on that lens. Intersectionality is not independent of the cultural context in which it is considered. For example, in the U.S. academic community, the intersection of race, gender, and class has been particularly explored. In contrast, in the European context, “race” is far less easily defined and a different way of looking at it can be observed.
The openness of the concept poses further problems. On the one hand, the vagueness of the concept of intersectionality is criticized and a simplification and limitation to the triad of race, class, gender is demanded. On the other hand, it is argued that the strength of the theoretical concept lies precisely in this openness and that it should therefore not be narrowed under any circumstances. A narrowed focus would otherwise bear the danger of blind spots. A third line of argumentation emphasizes that the focus of discourse must shift. It is not the selection and subsequent addition of characteristics that could potentially be the target of discrimination that is central, but rather the problematics that arise from intersectional discrimination.
Finally, the question arises: How do researchers deal with intersectionality in their research, how do they define and conceptualize it? The aim of this symposium is to initiate a discourse on the challenges and to discuss possible solutions together.
Though we do not want to narrow the discourse too much, we particularly welcome contributions:
– that introduce intersectional discrimination in quantitative or qualitative research in general
– that specifically address the vagueness of intersectionality in empirical research
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| Time to be determined | Chairs: Nicolas Baird & Lee Pivnik | Queer Science: LGBTQIA+ perspectives in multidisciplinary research
For this symposium, we are broadly interested in topics touching on LGBTQIA+ experiences and perspectives within and around the Sciences, including but not limited to:
– Ways of queering (or reframing) traditional narratives of Science
– Implementations of queer practices in multidisciplinary research
– Applications of critical theory (queer, etc.) to bodies of scientific knowledge, truths, and ways of knowing
– Experiences with self-expression and queer identity in the academic environment
– Queer storytelling: narratives of LGBTQIA+ experiences in and with multidisciplinary research
– Integrations of science and activism
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| Time to be determined | Chair: Bulelwa Ntsendwana | Science and Gender: The African Perspective
The symposium addresses the socio-cultural dynamics and mindset from basic STEM/Social science to management level. It will delve into community engagement, public science communication, and transformation portfolios that could be a catalyst in enhancing the participation of female scientists/ researchers. The symposium will also focus on the enshrined attitudes towards gender roles and family rearing and how they can be a deterrent to female promotion at Management and Senate levels. Each African country has its own gender and social policies, methodologies and strategies. Therefore, various STEM models already applied by various African countries, which are championing gender inequality in science-based fields will be discussed. Furthermore, determination of the effectiveness and efficiency of the science and gender platforms at institutional, governmental and non-governmental levels, will be the core of the symposium and survey the persistent barriers. Any form of equality differs from person to person. Thus, the symposium will share proposed specific solutions at each stage of career advancement for African female scientists and integrate them with other developed countries for the betterment of all female scientists, as gender inequality in science-based fields has become a global issue.
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| Time to be determined | Chairs: Paula Medina García & Ana Santamarina Guerrero | Picturing a more careful Academia: critical insights into the neoliberal production of knowledge
Power asymmetries, inequalities and injustices run deep in academic and scientific environments –utterly shaped by a neoliberal logic of production, accumulation and circulation of knowledge. Drawing from this concern, this symposium aims to reflect on this academic idiosyncrasy, delving into the dynamics of knowledge production (from high education institutions and research centres to journals, metrics and systems of evaluation), the conditions of academic workplaces, and the symbolic and material effects in the day-to-day lives of those involved in any kind of academic activity (including research, teaching, outreaching and activism).
In this sense, we welcome any critical insight unravelling and problematizing the wide-ranging phenomena that ensued from this systemic neoliberal logic (precariousness and competitiveness, work-life imbalances, care-penalties, impacts of high mobility, mental health issues, institutional silences and impunity, etc.) and/or analysing, from an intersectional perspective, the situated experiences of the asymmetries and different forms of discrimination and abuse that people face in academic environments (because of gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, class, age and life course, disability, religion or creed, nationality, etc.)
Yet, and aiming at challenging such dynamics, this symposium also wants to draw attention to the often hidden and overlooked struggles and practices of transgression that are simultaneously taking place in academic and scientific environments. This is why this session invites participants to share and make visible any kind of dissident, emancipatory and subversive initiatives, tactics, strategies or movements (being critical theories, methodologies, ethics and pedagogies; networked solidarities, collective agencies and collaborative forms of engagement, action and intervention) prompting change and contributing to building a more inclusive and careful Academia.
Given the scope of BRIDGES, with this session, we intend to create an intersectional, interdisciplinary and intergenerational (we especially embrace these to defy the hierarchies within academic structures) space of dialogue to share not only the analysis of the precarious conjuncture we are grappling with but also the cartographies of hope in which we want to trust in order to keep going.
The following topics will be part of the discussion, but we welcome any other topics that might be related to the aforementioned questions:
-Experiences of both situated and systemic inequalities throughout the academic career (under-representation, precariousness, discrimination, harassment, fear of retaliation, work-life imbalances, etc.) and how to challenge these.
-Burnout and ‘feeling like leaving’: mental health, alienation and dejection in academic-scientific environments.
-Interrogation of the modern foundations of academic knowledge: the potential of critical theories, methodologies, ethics and pedagogies (intersectional, feminist, antiracist, queer, postcolonial and decolonial, etc.). What can we learn beyond Academia?
-Funding, research agendas, and private interests. Are there alternatives to this model?
-For a slow scholarship: how the affective turn and the ethics of care defy the individualist, competitive, productive and emotionally detached hegemonic path in academic circuits.
-Multiplicitous agency and networked solidarities: collective strategies and tactics within academic environments.
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| Time to be determined | Chair: Miriam Comet Donoso | The gendered science
Contrary to popular belief, science (from now on we will refer to “science” for the set of experimental sciences) is driven by gender, race, and economic class, among others. Many authors indicate that feminist epistemology should be considered when analyzing scientific knowledge. Feminist epistemology is diversified into several currents but is the main idea behind applying it to scientific knowledge is that all sorts of knowledge are situated. This allows us to establish that the producer of knowledge is influenced by a given historical, material and cultural moment.
In the same vein, when we analyze the choice of pursuing scientific careers, studies suggest that there is a negative perception of experimental sciences among young people. Science is seen as an area of knowledge inaccessible and difficult which conditions the subsequent professional choice, perpetuating that science is understood as an appreciable knowledge only by some people.
Besides, Lian and colleagues demonstrated that perceptions of science are gendered; from the age of six, girls in childhood feel “less brilliant” than boys because the set of boys associates the roles “smart and bright” with the masculine gender. This fact conditions young people in the subsequent choice towards those areas of knowledge that they consider need more “intelligence”, perpetuating the gender gap in this discipline and the postulates that may arise from it.
On the other hand, several authors, such as Anne Fausto-Sterling, have already shown how cultural contexts and social values condition the way scientific narratives are constructed, and therefore the construction of scientific knowledge, in a cultural and social context. Moreover, when inequalities have a place, they can be an element of exclusion, becoming a factor that perpetuates and spreads arguments of inequality. Angela Saini also warns us how scientific racism is used to justify inequalities.
From the point of view of neuroscience, scientist Ginna Rippon try to counters the biological arguments that seek to explain the bias between boys and girls: according to Rippon, all people have the same skills related to scientific and technical knowledge and according to Nussbaum all human beings have a tendency to develop their abilities to the fullest, so the difference lies in our cognitive development that it will be conditioned by the stimuli offered to us, therefore, in a world that segregates expectations and stimuli according to gender, cognitive development will also be segregated by gender.
The aim of this symposium is to address how the gender and intersectional perspective is being overlooked in relation to the scientific discipline and how it could change the access, participation and construction of knowledge if it were contemplated. This change of perspective is not only necessary in order to understand the situated knowledge that we spoke about before, but also to strengthen the scientific community itself with the incorporation of women and all dissident identities that now they don’t feel called to participate and also, to strengthen the knowledge that is produced from this discipline.
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| Time to be determined | Chairs: Gabriele Salciute Civiliene & Barbara McGillivray | Towards Inclusive Pedagogical Foundations of Information Communication Technology Curriculum in Digital Humanities
This symposium aims to bring together innovative examples and cases of how to design and implement inclusive and emancipatory pedagogies for Information Communication Technology (ICT) curriculum of Digital Humanities (DH) programmes in response to a wide range of diverse learning needs. Across various institutions, the DH has proven to be a highly hybrid teaching space with variably intersecting needs and challenges characteristic of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts) fields. The challenges of teaching coding, programming, software engineering and the like in this area include, for example, the increasing numbers of students with no prior coding experience in technology-oriented programmes, remote collaborative initiatives across disciplines and institutions, a short window for developing technical and digital competences, a changing job market requiring technical skills in areas which previously did not require them (such as editorial, analyst and social media positions), students changing or returning after a long career break, and so on.
The event will provide a space to discuss and share the latest practices and initiatives in developing inquiry-based, creative, and experiential pedagogies sensitive to these specific needs and contexts of learning on the ICT curriculum. Student-oriented pedagogies summon critical questions about the cognitive, social, and ethical relevance and effectiveness of instructional language, learning environments, assessment patterns and materials used in teaching computational and procedural thinking, which have been largely informed by mathematics and computer sciences. The suitability of the pedagogical foundations they provide for computing in arts and humanities, social sciences, and other disciplines has been recently and vigorously interrogated. Ferguson (1994, p. 168), for example, questions the arbitrary superiority of formal over intuitive learning in engineering education. Formal mathematical approaches have been recognized to have limitations because they are exclusive of learner agency. Naur (2010) argues that computational logic and rules are subject to phenomenological aspects, including a programmer’s personality and preferences. The notion of alternative computing will be hence formative in this discussion. The event will feature presentations from HE practitioners, academics, and research software engineers with various expertise and experience in teaching coding and programming to STEM and SHAPE students.
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| Time to be determined | Chair: Paula González | Gender bias in neurosciences
The symposium will bring together experts from diverse backgrounds to share different perspectives on gender bias in neurosciences. The topics include but are not limited to: the effects of social gendering on brain research; gender stereotypes and brain plasticity; and gender imbalance in the neuroscience field. Participants are also encouraged to share their own academic trajectories. The ultimate goal is to promote a critical reflection on how gender inequality permeates society in general and the production of knowledge in neurosciences in particular.
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| Time to be determined | Chairs: Mar Sobral & Sara Varela | Solutions to fight the structural discrimination against women: The case of maternity issues
Based on the available data, we know that mothers of young children are
35 % less likely to get a permanent position in Academia compared to
male parents of young children, and 33 % less likely than women without
children. However, women without children have the same probability of
getting an academic job as men without children.
Altogether these data raise questions about: (i) sexism in Academia,
(ii) a reproductive cost on academic careers, and more importantly (iii)
a strong interaction between scientists’ gender and reproduction over
their academic success.
In other words the formation of the family may be the main factor that
determines why women are systematically underrepresented in Academia.
In this symposium, we want to address issues related to motherhood and
scientific career, possible solutions, and measures to correct this
situation
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| Time to be determined | Chairs: Ana Galán López & Ana Abrunhosa & Joana Valdez-Tullet | Past, present and future of women and gender studies in Archaeology
Historically, women in general (including cis and trans) have suffered from sexual harassment, discrimination, gender bias and stereotypes perpetuated by the patriarchal values of western societies, to which Archaeology is no stranger.
Women’s role in narratives of past societies has often been made invisible, given the predominant male influence on the discipline. Following a trend reported by UNESCO in 2021, in Archeology women are too a minority in senior academic positions (e.g. professorships, senior lectureships, etc), and are under-represented in peer review journals. This lack of representation is reflected in the narrow-minded interpretations of the past in which men are predominantly depicted as active, brave and important for the sustainability of the family individuals, while women tend to be represented in passive and caring activities, leading to the infantilization of their roles in the past.
In this symposium, we aim to address the main issues that affect women as archaeological professionals and issues with gender stereotypes extrapolated from contemporary societies to the past. We will address four main themes:
1 – The biography of the involvement of women with Archaeology as a discipline, up to our days;
2 – Women in archaeological narratives and interpretations;
3 – Discrimination against women in an archaeological work framework;
4 – Where do we go from here? The future of women in Archaeology.
Each topic will be briefly discussed by a collective, but we welcome posters about any of these themes, particularly discussing specific case studies. The aim of this symposium is to raise awareness of the obstacles and difficulties that women face in archaeology and create a space for an open and honest discussion. We also aim to foster international networking, given that in many countries there are several groups working on these issues but not necessarily communicating between them, and bring together colleagues, in an effort to strengthen our future actions.
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| Time to be determined | Chairs: Soledad De Esteban-Trivigno & Lydia Gil | Outreach initiatives to increase gender diversity in science
There are many outreach projects related to increasing the gender diversity in science. Many of them have their focus in increasing the visibility of scientific women, or members of the LGTBIQ+ community. Others focus on exposing problems and data. They can be addressed to the general public, or to other scientists. But all of them have in common is to address gender issues in science.
The objective of this symposium is to gather different initiatives aimed to promote a more diverse science, creating a space to expose their objectives and results, share their experiences, and having the space to generate a network that foster current projects and develop new ones.
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