Board Elections by At Gender

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Feminist Heritages - Feminist Futuresâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Spring Conference Utrecht, April 8th, 9th & 10th, 2011

General Assembly Meeting Board Member Elections

BOARD VOTING FORM 2011 The list of candidates presented by the Elections Committee follows Atgender guidelines of having a wide representation of European Women’s Studies, based on professional, geographical and generational diversity. 1) If you are an individual member, you may cast one vote. Institutional members may cast three votes (please use three separate voting forms). 2) Tick at least one (1), and maximum ten (10) candidates.

CANDIDATE

INSTITUTION

VOTE (X)

Aleksandrova, Nadezhda Petrova

Sofia University, Department of Bulgarian Literature, Bulgaria

_______

Bagilhole, Barbara

Loughborough University, Department of Social Sciences, UK

_______

Hiltunen, Aino-Maja

University of Helsinki,Hilma – Network for Gender Studies, Finland

_______

Jähnert, Gabriele

Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies (CTG), Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany

_______

Liinason, Mia

Lund University, Center for Gender Studies, Sweden

_______

Magaraggia, Sveva

University of Milan Bicocca, Department of Sociology and Social Research, Italy

_______

Peto, Andrea

Central European University, Department of Gender Studies, Hungary

_______

van der Tuin, Iris

Utrecht University, Gender Studies, Netherlands

_______

Veltrop, Adinda

Utrecht University, Gender Studies, Netherlands

_______

Vriend, Tilly

Aletta- Institute for Women’s History Netherlands

_______

Treusch, Patricia

ZIFG (Center for interdisciplinary Women and Gender Studies), Technical University Berlin and Humboldt-University, Berlin, Germany

_______

Waaldijk, Berteke

Utrecht University, Gender Studies

_______

Identify yourself, by choosing the option which fits your situation: O I am an Atgender individual member. O I am an institutional member of ATGender entitled to three votes.

CANDIDATE

INSTITUTION

VOTE (X)

Aleksandrova, Nadezhda Petrova

Sofia University, Department of Bulgarian Literature, Bulgaria

_______

Bagilhole, Barbara

Loughborough University, Department of Social Sciences, UK

_______

Hiltunen, Aino-Maja

University of Helsinki,Hilma – Network for Gender Studies, Finland

_______

Jähnert, Gabriele

Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies (CTG), Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany

_______

Liinason, Mia

Lund University, Center for Gender Studies, Sweden

_______

Magaraggia, Sveva

University of Milan Bicocca, Department of Sociology and Social Research, Italy

_______

Peto, Andrea

Central European University, Department of Gender Studies, Hungary

_______

van der Tuin, Iris

Utrecht University, Gender Studies, Netherlands

_______

Veltrop, Adinda

Utrecht University, Gender Studies, Netherlands

_______

Vriend, Tilly

Aletta- Institute for Women’s History Netherlands

_______

Treusch, Patricia

ZIFG (Center for interdisciplinary Women and Gender Studies), Technical University Berlin and Humboldt-University, Berlin, Germany

_______

Waaldijk, Berteke

Utrecht University, Gender Studies

_______

Identify yourself, by choosing the option which fits your situation: O I am an Atgender individual member. O I am an institutional member of ATGender entitled to three votes.

Aleksandrova, Nadezhda Petrova

Assistant Professor Institution: Sofia University, Department of Bulgarian Literature Country: Bulgaria

1. Personal statement: The description of my previous professional experience in the field of gender and women’s rights encompasses three types of activism teaching in Academia, acting for gender equality and networking across disciplines. The first significant point in my feminist biography in the field of education is my second MA degree in Gender and Culture obtained from the Central European University, Budapest in 2000. Since 2001, I am an assistant-professor at the department of Bulgarian Literature at the Faculty of Slavic Studies at Sofia University. My courses integrate interdisciplinary methods and discuss various representations of women in the European cultural context. Beside my main course on the “History of Bulgarian 19th c Literature”, I also teach three gender related courses in different academic levels and programs. In the BA of Bulgarian and Slavic Studies my course is entitled “The representations of women in 19thc Bulgarian literature”, and at the MA program in Anthropology at the same faculty I apply a contemporary perspective to the topic “Gender studies in Bulgarian context of literary history”. In addition, I also teach a course at the European Master Program in Women’s and Gender History MATILDA, called “Tales of Love: Affective Relationships in the Literature of Southeastern Europe”. As a major academic achievement I regard my PhD research, defended last year. It interprets the debate on “the women’s questions” in the 19thc Bulgarian press. The second sphere of my activism is the participation in internal research projects. As a result of such an initiative, performed between 2001-20113 in cooperation with prominent scholars such as Luisa Passerini, Rosi Braidotti, Hanne Petersen, Miglena Nikolchina and Andrea Peto, we published the book called “Women from East to West: Gender Mobility and Belonging in Contemporary Europe”. (Berghahn Books, 2007). Another similar research, in which I took part, was the project “Enlargement, Gender And Governance: The Civic And Political Participation And Representation Of Women In The EU Candidate Countries (2002-2005). In the past year I have been a coordinator of the initiative “Gender relations in Educational Policy and Practice in the Danube region- Experience, Analysis and Impulses”. It is supported by the Danube women’s network (http://womens-danube-network.eu) and Donau Bureau in ULM, Germany and includes researchers from six countries: Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. The third perspective “at gender” is my involvement in several academic networks.

Beside the above mentioned Women’s Danube Network., I participate regularly at the IRFWH conferences and contribute to “Aspasia. The International Yearbook of Central, Eastern and Southeastern European Women’s and Gender History”. As a literary historian I am part of the Bulgarian team of the COST action “Women Writers in History” (http://www.womenswriters.nl/index.php/Women_writers%27_networks) and co-researcher in another regional academic network Inter-confessional Relations in SE Europe and the eastern Mediterranean since 1852( http://interconf.efa.gr/index.php/ pub_homes/splash/). Locally, I am also a member of the gender Studies Center at Sofia university and of the Bulgarian Association of university Women. Through these rhizomes of different networks I increase the level of academic exchange and cooperation among scholars across Europe.

2. Prospective role on AtGender’s Board: Following the objectives of ATGENDER, I envision my contribution to the association on the basis of my professional experience –as a professor, as a researcher in the field of gender and as an active participant in international exchange of knowledge. My first priority will be to monitor the level and efficiency of the existing Gender and Women’s Studies programs at the universities across Europe. Especially in view of the closure of such programs and departments, which happens due to financial hardship or lack of institutional support, I think that a common goal should be to receive current information about their activities and curricula and to provide best practices and recommendations for raising gender awareness in society through education. Secondly, I can convince the beneficiaries of the association of the importance to create new research groups, sensitive not also to the discrepancy in the representation of women in political and cultural life, but also to the current changes of global trends, such as migration flows and social exclusion. I will use my experience as a coordinator and participant in a number of international academic events in the organization of trainings, meetings and conferences. Moreover, my contacts with students and young researchers, especially coming from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, can act for the promotion of the association, and more broadly can raise the value of feminist research among the new generations of European scholars.

Link home page:

http://zograph-studio.com/publics/index.html

Bagilhole, Barbara

Professor Institution: Loughborough University, Department of Social Sciences Country: United Kingdom

1. Personal statement: Barbara Bagilhole has a long and string commitment to Gender Studies and Equal Opportunities and Diversity. She is Professor of Equal opportunities and Social Policy, in the School of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, UK. She has researched and published extensively in the area of equal opportunities and diversity across gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, and intersectionality. Her latest books are Understanding Equal Opportunities and Diversity: The social differentiations and intersections of inequality, (2009), Policy Press; and Bagilhole, B. and White, K. (eds) (2010) Gender, Power and Management: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Higher Education, Palgrave Macmillan. She delivered the first Executive Dean’s Lecture Series at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia; was visiting Chair of Gender Studies British Council and Autonomous Government of Madrid Visiting Chair of Gender Studies at the University Complutense, Madrid, Spain; visiting Professor at Institute of Management, Kampala, Uganda; member of the International Visiting Faculty on the MA. Family and Society, at the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE), Department of Sociology, University of Lisbon, Portugal; and member of the International Guest Faculty, Indian National Institute of Construction Management and Research (NICMAR), Postgraduate Studies in Construction Management, Mumbai, Delhi and Pune, India.

2. Prospective role on AtGender’s Board: In the past, she has been an elected member of Women’s International Studies Europe ‘WISE’, the international Association for Gender, Science and Technology ‘GASAT’, and the Uk Through The Glass Ceiling Association, supporting and encouraging women into Higher Education leadership. She is currently part of two relevant research projects; an FP7 European Union funded research group ‘Higher Education Leading to ENgineering And scientific careers’ (HELENA) exploring how to encourage and support the success of women engineering students through Interdisciplinary programmes across Austria, France, Lithuania, Spain, UK and Serbia; and the International Women in Higher Education Management Network (WHEM) investigating women’s lack of representation in Higher Education leadership across Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, and the UK. She was a Co-coordinator of Working Group 3B of the ATHENA II Network ‘Reconceptualising/Rethinking Equal Opportunities, Policy (Instru-

ments) and Aims – A Joint Effort of Women’s and Gender Studies in the Academia (Research and Training), Policy Makers and Women’s Organizations’, and Taskforce member and Co-ordinator of Portfolio Five, ‘Strengthening Ties with Academia and Society’ in Athena III. She was a member of the Founding Committee of ATGender, the Professional European Association of Women’s and Gender Studies, Feminist Research, Gender Equality and Diversity. She is the current Treasurer of ATGender.

Link home page:

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ss/staff/bagilhole.html

Hiltunen, Aino-Maja

Coordinator Institution: University of Helsinki, Hilma – Network for Gender Studies Country: Finland

1. Personal statement: Working in University of Helsinki in administration and development tasks since 1996 (in comparative religion and gender studies). Coordination of HILMA, national Gender Studies Network in Finland (2001), Board member of Association for Women’s Studies in Finland (2002-2008), secretary of Finnish Women’s Science Foundation (2009-). ATHENA-Task-Force-member (2004-2009), project coordinator for gender and ICTgroup (2004-2009). Member of subject area group in Tuning-project (2007-2010), member of editorial board of Teaching ATHENA-book series (2009-2010). Member of organizing committee for EFRS, Budapest 2012. Confidential posts inside University of Helsinki: member of the Jury for Educational technology prize (2004-2008), member of ICT-development group of Faculty of Arts (2002-2009). Member of Advisory Board for Equality (2001-2002), member in development board for education and pedagogy (201-03, 2010-). Experience especially in networking, gender and ICT-topics, quality assurance and pedagogical development of universities. Languages: Finnish, English, Swedish, German, French, Spanish. Newest publication: Kirkup, Schmitz, Kotkamp, Rommes & Hiltunen: “Towards a feminist manifesto for e-learning: principles to inform practices”, in Gender issues in learning and Working with Information Technology, Social constructs and cultural contexts (ed. Booth, Goodman, Kirkup). Information Science Reference. Hershey. New York. 2010. Vice-chair of Finlands Committee for Nordic Forum (1992-1995), Board member (and chair of educational section) of International Alliance of Women (IAW= (1992-1996), contact person for international affairs in Nordisk Kvinnoforeningarnas Samorganisation (NKS) (1993-1994), Board member (1995-1999) & vice-chair (1997-1999) for International Institute for Women and Management.

Various work in adult education, training and consultancy (1994-2000).

2. Prospective role on AtGenderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Board: I would like to bring in AtGender expertise of national and international multidisciplinary networking, especially between universities and other organizations. With my experience in European ATHENA-network since 2001, I hope to work for continuity of development work done in ATHENA-network and help to transfer it to AtGender. Experience of virtual and digital communities and e-learning, as well as development of multidisciplinarity and feminist pedagogy are also close and important to me. I also represent administrative stuff of gender studies, and find working life relevance of the field and links between academia and civil society both challenging and important.

Jähnert, Gabriele

Executive Director Institution: Humboldt University of Berlin (CTG) Country: Germany

1. Personal statement: Is the executive director of the Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies (CTG) at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (HU). She holds a PhD in Germanics and is the editor of several publications of the CTG, in particular the “Bulletin-Texte”. Currently, she is working on the history of women scientists at Humboldt University. G. Jähnert is also one of the co-initiators of the Gender Studies Masters programmes at the HU, the network of Women’s and Gender Studies Institutions in German Speaking Countries (KeG http://www.genderkonferenz.eu/) and one of the initiators and of the Gender Studies Association in Germany (http://www.fg-gender.de/wordpress/). In her function as director, she supports the communication between academics in various disciplines and supports their initiatives. Moreover, through her active engagement in education policy she promotes the further establishment of Gender Studies in Berlin and Germany. I was a member of Athena II and III as an official representative of Humboldt University Berlin. For me the network of the European Gender Studies which was coordinated by Athena was very fruitful for further developing our cooperation with other institutions and also for the exchange of experiences. The discussions during the Athena meetings helped me very much to understand German’s specific and general questions of institutionalization of Gender Studies

2. Prospective role on AtGender’s Board: It will be a great honour for me to promote the development of AtGender and help to continue the cooperation which has been built during Athena. I would like to be a bridge between the discussions in Gender Studies in Germany and AtGender. I hope, because of my long term experiences in institutionalisation of Gender Studies in Germany, I may contribute ideas for projects and also strategies.l

Liinason, Mia

Junior Teacher Institution: Lund University, Center for Gender Studies Country: Sweden

1. Personal statement: I am a post doc scholar and junior teacher at the Centre for Gender Studies, Lund University, Sweden. My research areas are feminist epistemologies and methodologies, and I work in the field of trans/national gender studies. In February 2011, I defended my PhD-thesis Feminism and the Academy. Exploring the politics of institutionalization in gender studies in Sweden, which was a study where I investigated the paradoxical effects of a successful institutionalization of gender studies. I participate in several international networks, boards and committees with an interest in strengthening the institutional security as well as theoretical development of womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s/gender/feminist studies.

2. Prospective role on AtGenderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Board: As a prospective board member of ATGENDER, I would like to develop and strengthen ATGENDER as an organization where a long-lasting structure for collaborations between feminist scholars and feminist activists from different regions in Europe can take shape. In ATGENDER, I am particularly interested in developing routes for an exchange of experiences and interventions developed with an aim to increase the knowledge about how gender, race/ethnicity and sexuality organizes and structures our lives in different national and transnational contexts. I am also interested in taking an active role in supporting ATGENDER as a cross road for the exchange of knowledge around different ways of practicing womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s/gender/feminist studies in, as well as beyond Europe, and different strategies used in the development of secure institutional platforms for feminist knowledge production. I think that it is important to pay extra attention to finding ways for the exchange of feminist knowledge across various institutional borders, such as academy-activism-social policy, but also across geographical borders, and across hierarchical divisions, such as students-young scholars-professors.

Link home page:

http://www.genus.lu.se/o.o.i.s/23392

Magaraggia, Sveva

Post-Doc Institution: University of Milan Bicocca, Department of Sociology and Social Research Country: Italy

1. Personal statement: I mainly work in University doing research activities, teaching assistance in Women’s Studies. I’m also part of the Interdepartmental Research Institute on Gender Issues. These experiences of work permitted me to develop skills and qualifications that are essential for a Communication and Awareness Raising position useful to AtGender. It has always been a strong motivation for me to during my higher education (MA in UK and PhD in Italy) to organize group discussions and team work, in order to develop organizational and interpersonal skills in a multicultural environment. I was part of the founding group of the Italian M-list prec@s that collects Italian scholars of Women’s and Gender Studies. These attitudes were reinforced during the research activities at European level (FPV, FPVI, FPVII), that were based on ability to maintain transdisciplinary (and transnational) working relations. As the research language was English, I have an excellent command of spoken and written English. During my years in University, I was heavily involved in managing and coordinating the activities in establishing an Interdepartmental Research Institute for Gender Issues. I was involved at the strategic level to develop the Organization’s response and also reinforce strategic partnership inside and outside the University environment. My work experience outside the University with Women’s Press and as Project manager made me gain journalistic skills and contributed to the implementation of my communication and media information abilities.

2. Prospective role on AtGender’s Board: Some priorities that I see now are: The preparation of incisive information campaign that will help us to highlight how the participating institutions/individuals can profit from their membership, and more generally what we can offer. The development and increase of the exchanges of Women’s Studies expertise, ideas and projects at an European level. As ATHENA has been in the past years, also AtGen-

der has to become the main reference point for whom is and will be working in the broad field of Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Studies. To be locally organized: as said in Bruxelles, we could think of having referents on a national level that monitor the different Gender associations/experts that are active there. To work against the replication of duties and responsibilities. Use what partners have to offer, so work on the links between them, on developing their communication through us.

Peto, Andrea

Associate Professor Institution: Central European University, Department of Gender Studies Country: Hungary

1. Personal statement: Andrea PETŐ is an associate professor at the Department of Gender Studies. She published three monographs in Hungarian, English, German and Bulgarian, edited twelve volumes in English, six volumes in Hungarian, two in Russian. Her works appeared in different languages, including Bulgarian, Croatian, English, French, Georgian, German, Hungarian, Italian, Russian and Serbian. She serves on the board of several journals in the field of women’s history (Gender and History, Clio) and Contemporary European History. She is also the president of the gender and women’s history section of the Hungarian Historical Association and the Feminist Section of the Hungarian Sociological Association. Besides Peto’s participation in the rapidly changing higher educational structures in Eastern Europe, South Eastern Europe and Central Asia, she participates in European scholarly life among others as a board member of the International Association of Cultural History. In addition, she was a member of a European network of excellence in gender studies and history (CLIOHRES). She was awarded by President of the Hungarian Republic with the Officer’s Cross Order of Merit of The Republic of Hungary in 2005 and Bolyai Prize by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2006.

2. Prospective role on AtGender’s Board: Andrea PETŐ was a member of ATHENA from its foundation. She was a participant in ATHEN1 Panel 1b: Teaching materials in European women’s studies, in ATHENA 2 she was the member of the Task Force 2003-2006 and also a coordinator of Panel 1b4: Memories, histories and narratives. She co-edited two volumes of the Teaching Gender Studies Series. She joined the board of ATGENDER in 2009. She is also a co-editor of the Series: Teaching with Gender, which coordinates pioneering work in the field of teaching gender in Europe. Peto also participated in preparing the brochure: Tuning Educational structures in Europe. Reference Points for Design and Delivery of Degree Programs in Gender Studies which offers an overview of teaching gender studies in Europe and represented ATGENDER at the opening of EIGE in Vilnius in 2009.

During the past two decades of research and teaching she developed a scholarly network stretching over the different parts of Europe, Central Asia, Latin America and the United States. As a re-elected Board member she would feel strongly motivated to expand her broad expertise as a scholar and networker, as well as her capacity to conceptualize new fields of research, apply for funding, and manage the teamwork involved.

Link home page:

www.gend.ceu.hu/habil_andrea_pet.php

Treusch, Patricia

PhD Student Institution: ZIFG (Center for interdisciplinary Women and Gender Studies), Technical, Berlin University / Humboldt-University Country: Germany

1. Personal statement: In my graduate as well as my postgraduate studies in Sociology I am engaged with interdisciplinary approaches of a Sociology of the body, especially from a Gender and Science and Technology Studies perspective. Since October 2010 I am a PhD student at the ZIFG (Center for interdisciplinary Women and Gender Studies), Technical University Berlin and since January 2011 I am a scholar of the Junior Research Unit “Gender as a Category of Knowledge“ at the HumboldtUniversity, Berlin (http://www2.hu-berlin.de/gkgeschlecht/stip.php). My PhD-Thesis: “Care-Robot & Co.: Humanoids as social actors using the example of technological mediated Care-Work“(working title) is supervised by Prof.Dr. Sabine Hark. In my PhD project I focus on the (laboratory-)practices of implosion and hybridization of boundaries between human/machine, natural/artificial, organic/inorganic in a selected field of (humanoid) service robotics, using the example of the Care-Robot as a mode of technological embodiment to analyze the material and discursive transformations along the triangle nature, culture and sex/gender which accomplish this innovation. From December 2005 until May 2007 – during my graduate studies in Sociology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt/Main – I’ve been a member of the Women Lesbian-Department (AFLR), one of the autonomously organized boards of the student’s union executive committee of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University. My time at the Women Lesbian-Department is marked by a very vivid exchange of feminist academic research and theory with political activism. Our goal was to bring together academic debates on feminist questions of identity, identity as a conception of life, practices of a way of life and Corporealities of Women, Lesbians, Queers and Trans* with activists negotiations and political implications of everyday life on identities along several cultural contexts. I appreciate the experiences I made in cooperation and networking with other student’s union executive committee’s boards (like the Gay-Department f.e.) as well as non-academic groups (like the Ladyfest group f.e.) to conceptualize and realize events, speeches and workshops together. In my postgraduate studies I am a member of the Gender Studies Association in Germany since January 2010 and since January 2011 I am also a member of the the Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies (CTG), Humboldt-University, Berlin.

2. Prospective role on AtGenderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Board: It would be a great honour to build up Cooperation and Network between (PhD) students of AtGender. To me that means bringing together doctoral candidates and other students engaged in feminist research, theory and activism with various disciplinary backgrounds and from varying cultural contexts to exchange experiences in establishing Gender Studies as an academic field of research (from the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perspective) in a supportive manner.

van der Tuin, Iris

Assistant Professor Institution: Utrecht University, Gender Studies Country: Netherlands

1. Personal statement: Iris van der Tuin (1978) is assistant professor of Gender Studies in the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her work on feminist epistemologies and generations within feminism has received attention in journals as European Journal of Women’s Studies, Australian Feminist Studies and Women: A Cultural Review and in for instance Theories and Methodologies in Postgraduate Feminist Research: Researching Differently (eds. Buikema, Griffin and Lykke, 2011). Recently, her research on ‘The Material Turn in Humanities’ has been awarded with a three-year post-doc grant by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Van der Tuin’s track record displays networking activities since the year 2000, when she began representing students in the Board of the Dutch Association for Women’s Studies (NGV). After a consecutive 5-year period as co-coordinator of WeAVE, the student network of ATHENA2 and ATHENA3, Van der Tuin accepted the invitation to become a co-chair of ATGENDER to continue the legacy of ATHENA, AOIFE and WISE. Since October 1st of 2009, Van der Tuin and co-chair Prof. Harriet Silius have been involved in establishing the new organization of ATGENDER, the first professional association for Gender Research, Education and Documentation within Europe. With ATGENDER’s first, preliminary Board, we have worked hard on settling ATGENDER’s internal organization, increasing the number of members, continuing the activities of ATHENA, AOIFE and WISE, and strengthening the communication and cooperation with key players in Europe (e.g. the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), Quality in Gender+ Equality Policies (QUING), and several journals in the field of European Gender/Women’s/Feminist Studies). The 8th European Feminist Research Conference has been high on our agenda.

2. Prospective role on AtGender’s Board: ATGENDER promotes a balanced regional, professional, and generational representation in its Board, membership, and activities. Continuing as a Board member, the generational emphasis in maintaining a dialogue among researchers, teachers, professional gender specialists, and activists will remain my number one priority. Here, the bridge between my research interests and my work for the professional association

ATGENDER can be found. The key in strengthening the field of European Gender Research, Education and Documentation, in my opinion, lays in transferring best practices and knowledges from one generation to the other following the path of what I have called ‘jumping generations’ (see my chapter in Teaching with the Third Wave in the Teaching-with-Gender series). After all, this field constantly changes and finds itself in continuously shifting circumstances. Strengthening the field implies that these all changes and their diverse impacts need innovative contemporary answers that fully respect feminist legacies. Creating the structure for feminist mentoring is but one example of what ATGENDER can do, or at least facilitate, this context. As all of you are, I am concerned about budget cuts in European academia, about the impact of the rapid rise of right wing politics and other crises on women in Europe, and about the widespread appropriation of feminism by non-feminist parties. I see the networking activities of ATGENDER and its members, as well as ATGENDER’s position to ‘network networks’ as a political and deliberate key factor in the current climate. For this reason I wholeheartedly support ATGENDER, and hope to continue as one of ATGENDER’s chairs in order to work towards reaching these goals.

Link home page:

http://www.genderstudies.nl/index.php?pageid=56

Veltrop, Adinda

BA Student, Editor-In-Chief Institution: Utrecht University, Gender Studies Country: Netherlands

1. Personal statement: Adinda Veltrop is a gender scholar at Utrecht University, and the editor-in-chief of POTENTIA magazine. Her background in media, communication and marketing places her at an advantage to intersect academic theory with practical execution. She has worked as an intern at the ATGENDER head office for 9 months, developing a detailed communication plan, a new online platform as well as conducted many (re)organizational activities. Veltrop has been a board member at Dutch feminist magazine LOVER, where she set up a new (social) media strategy and worked as PR consultant and social media coordinator. Her work on gender and ethnicity has been published in De Volkskrant , LA Cine and DUBnieuws. Before her academic career, Veltrop has been trained as an all-round Multimedia Designer in A/V, graphic, interactive and marketing development at the Grafisch Lyceum Eindhoven. She has worked for media companies Storm Scott and Media Profile B.V., and as a media editor and R&D assistant for OUT TV, the Dutch branch of the renowned gay television network. As a student of International Communicaton & Media at the Hogeschool Utrecht, she co-launched the international faculty paper The Neo Times, managing journalist and PR/advertising activities. She has worked over a decade as a media and marketing expert in the music & entertainment sector, cooperating with Sony Music, Maverick Latino and most recently Hit Magazine International, to engage with international target audiences in a multi-lingual manner. This includes the organization and design of charity projects, raising over $10.000 for several foundations. Her main research interests are media literacy in a contemporary feminist context, religion and identity in Cuban diaspora, and critical theory with an emphasis on queer theory. Veltrop is the founder and editor-in-chief of POTENTIA magazine; a glossy, visually captivating publication about sexuality, gender and power relations, combined with striking art and design. The magazine delivers knowledge without pretense, offering an inclusive platform for scholars, activists, artists and people determined to show their potential, while creating a transversal dialogue without restrictions of background or education level. Unique in its concept and high quality delivery, POTENTIA magazine is a first-class example of a new media literacy arising in the field of gender, shaped by the influence of the Utrecht School.

2. Prospective role on AtGender’s Board: In a role as a student representative for ATGENDER, I find it crucial that ATGENDER fully realizes its objectives to enhance connectivity between gender networks and institutions, as well as explicitly focus on working with non-linear generationality within feminism and gender studies. There is a strong need for engagement among scholars that transcends borders and unites the European network, thereby improving the possibilities to cooperate with scholars and institutions beyond Europe. While online activism and expressions of feminism are more interactive than ever, the persistent whispers from third wave feminist scholars about exclusivity and frustration are now so frequent that they cannot be ignored anymore. Therefore my objectives as a student representative are not surprising, yet extremely necessary, back upped by the knowledge and drive to make things happen. - To serve as a representative for gender, feminist and equality students throughout Europe, by working through a feminist/gender framework that leaves room for diversity. - To focus on connectivity between the academic and non-academic dialogues regarding gender in a manner that is inclusive, attractive and comprehensible. This requires dealing consciously with the ‘local within the global’ by representing (gender) scholars from ALL parts of Europe and beyond. - To firmly position ATGENDER as a key player in European and digital network structures on gender by enhancing interaction with its members, while simultaneously engaging with representatives outside of Europe and conventional gender institutions. - To maintain a professional and efficient online platform that represents ATGENDER’s work and the European field of gender studies and research, creating a digital archive.

Link home page:

www.PotentiaMagazine.com www.facebook.com/PotentiaMagazine

Vriend, Tilly

Senior project manager Institution: Aletta - Institute for Women’s History Country: Netherlands

1. Personal statement: Making women and gender information accessible, visible and available has been the focus of my career since 1982. As Coordinator databases/Senior Project Manager at ALETTA, Institute for women’s history, The Netherlands, I managed many national and international projects, organized trainings and was a speaker at many conferences concerning the accessibility and visibility of information. Through these activities and my experience as (board) member of national and international networks in the field of women and gender information, I have acquired broad expertise and many contacts in this field. I have been and active ATHENA member since 2003. In 2006 I was the coordinator of the International programmer committee of the “Know How Conferences in Women’s Information”. As an active board member of WINE, the Women’s Information Network in Europe (a network that represents the majority of women’s information centres in Europe) I intend to contribute to the interests of and represent these centres within the board of AtGender. As project manager of the EU Fragen project (a subproject of QUING) I am working at the intersection of academia and information centres in the creation of a database of core feminist texts in Europe.

2. Prospective role on AtGender’s Board: It is my intention: To represent the interests of information and documentation centres on gender and related issues within AtGender and to bring the competence within these centres into the work of AtGender, especially when it comes to information strategies. To work towards bridging the gap between academia and women/gender information and documentation centers, as well as NGO’s, e.g. by organizing encounters and meaningful co-operation around themes based on collective agenda setting. We can serve each other better and create a true partnership within Atgender. Through these encounters we can actively promote the use of the relevant resources, such as AtGender relevant products in our centers, but also learn about and adapt to the demands of researchers and teachers. Information centers, libraries and archives are experts in making women’s and gender related information accessible to different groups of users. Many researchers, teachers, students and trainers need up to date information

for their work and studies, but lack the time or knowledge to search for relevant information, especially abroad and in other regions than their own. Through WINE we have a good network for locating competence, sources and relevant documents across Europe-and beyond. To promote mutual cooperation of women and gender information centers and academia by developing international projects and networks, organizing meetings, symposia and seminars as well as digital resources to enhance our co-operation. To ensure de dissemination of information (e.g. generated within AtGender) through our centers and networks.

Waaldijk, Berteke

Full Professor Institution: Utrecht University, Gender Studies Country: Netherlands

1. Personal statement: Trained as a historian, I worked since 1987 as an academic researcher and teacher in gender studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Eight years in temporary part time jobs, eight years as assistant professor, and almost eight yeasr as full professor. I am deeply convinced of the importance of creating institutional spaces for critical thinking about gender, women and feminism. They change the maps of knowledge inside and outside the university. I consider ATGENDER such a space. In my own live, I have always enjoyed the existence of such spaces created by pioneers before me, and I am committed to expanding and strengthening them for the future. In the local Dutch context I co-founded the Utrecht gender studies program. At the moment I am a full professor and vice-dean for education of the Utrecht Faculty of Humanities. In the European context, I chaired a working group on ‘Work Gender Society’ in Cliohres, an EU-sponsored FW6 research network of excellence. Here I helped to design the ‘Cliohres Gender & Career Workshop’. I have been the academic coordinator of ATHENA2, taking over this role from Rosi Braidotti in 2005, and of ATHENA3 (2006-2009). I am still impressed with the enormous amount of work that gender and women’s studies scholars all over Europe have put in this network and the results it brought. Within ATHENA, I have worked towards the Tuning Gender Studies Brochure, an official EU-recognized tool for quality assessment of gender studies degree programmes. I am convinced that such a tool will be crucial in many fights for survival or recognition of gender studies programmes. In research my focus is on citizenship, culture and gender. I have published, often with others, books on women and gender in Dutch colonial culture, women and gender in history of social work in Europe, the US and the Netherlands and on feminist activism in Dutch health care. In teaching I am proud of having designed and co-developed in successive NOISE summer schools the ‘fore-mother-assignment’ – inviting students to explore the (dis-) connections between private memories and public histories. In Cliohres, I helped to design the ‘Cliores Gender & Career Workshop’ , an instrument that invites advisors and phd candidates to interview each other about professional, public and private aspects of pursuing a career in academic scholarship. Students and teachers can learn so much more from each other when the process of knowledge exchange is mutual.

I have by now a lot of experience in management and organizing. At Utrecht University I chair the liberal arts programme, where undergraduate students can opt for interdisciplinary fields of knowledge. This programme has been one of the strongholds of gender studies at Utrecht University. For the coming years (2010-213) I am vice dean for education of the faculty of humanities at Utrecht University. This job leaves me time for a tiny bit of teaching, for some serious research (gender and citizenship) and for being a board member of ATGENDER. As the academic coordinator of ATHENA I had a position in between on the one hand the inspiration, the ambitions and the imagination of all the ATHENA-partners, and on the other hand EU-requirements for funding (about reporting, budgeting, work plans, deliverables) . I enjoy making these two ends meet. I also enjoy exploring the system and find out where there are possibilities for funding and support for women’s and gender studies can be found.

2. Prospective role on AtGender’s Board: In my eyes, ATGENDER is crucial for many feminist futures. Connections between feminist activism, teaching, research and policy making can and should be cultivated through networking (European Feminist Research Conferences), publications (Teaching with Gender book series), research projects, educational experiments and educational consolidation (Tuning-brochure). ATGENDER should prevent the field of gender studies from being hijacked by others. I am convinced that ATGENDER will only succeed in this mission when its members channel some of their energy, creativity and imagination through this organization. I believe in transparent structures of management. I look forward to continuing my work in the ATGENDER board because it is a space where –unlike in EU-supported projects - we invent our own rules and criteria. We as ATGENDER members can and should decide what and how we run our organization. The disadvantage of being a membership based self sustaining organization, is that we do not have large budgets. In ATGENDER we can only survive when our members find other sources of funding. Increased membership, liberal policies for reduced membership fees, transparent budgets, creative invention of other sources will allow us to make ATGENDER inclusive. At the moment, for many in ATGENDER, active participation is only possible when there are grants for travel. The difference in budgets and possibilities between Northern and Southern Europe, between Western and Eastern Europe, between big universities and small ones, between activists, young professionals and tenured academics, between students from different regions, between policy makers from different countries, are staggering. Still, for ATGENDER it is vital to enable these many expert agents on gender, women and feminism to continue to work with each other.

I want ATGENDER to play a major role in defining quality in gender and women’s studies, feminist research and gender equality. Research, educational experiments, publications on best practices, and strengthening the infrastructure of quality assessment for gender studies programmes is crucial here. We cannot afford to let traditional disciplines to define what is a good gender studies programme, we cannot afford to leave judgment on excellence in feminist research to anti-feminist scientific authorities. We need ATGENDER to show how European women’s studies have in close cooperation between academic and non-academic knowledge productions, developed its own quality and diversity and its own standards Finally a word on the European-ness of ATGENDER. I think it is a good thing to have in ATGENDER an explicitly European association, because it helps feminists and gender experts in Europe to think about the specificity of being in Europe. European histories are composed of war and peace, colonial states and welfare states, democratic movements and dictatorships, racism and xenophobia, nationalism and transnational inspiration. Critical work on gender in Europe requires reflection on these histories. Marking ATGENDER as a European association breaks with ‘European’ as an unmarked category and opens up to global cooperation. Concrete points: • I will propose for ATGENDER to play a role in bringing together again, as WISE did splendidly in the past, the national associations in Europe for gender and women’s studies in Europe. • I will propose to create the possibility for ‘wealthy’ ATGENDER members to support the association with extra donations. • I will search for ways to disseminate and make useful the Tuning Gender Studies Brochure in processes of accreditation and quality assessment of gender studies programmes.

Visit us at www.atgender.eu for more information or membership benefits.

General Assembly Meeting- Board Member Elections Utrecht, April 2011. All rights are reserved.