Gender Discourse

Gender and Teaching in Higher Education by Margaret Miles

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

First thing to say is that your experience in teaching will be different than mine. Then was then (1978); now is... more First thing to say is that your experience in teaching will be different than mine. Then was then (1978); now is now.

My first position (GTU doctorate in history; assistant professor, tenure track) was at the Harvard University Divinity School. My starting pay was 15k and I felt rich because I’d been a grad student! The first thing I needed to know – and didn’t – was that everyone at HDS, students and faculty alike was sure that he/she, but especially she, was an imposter, the one that the search committee or admissions committee had made a mistake in inviting them. I became the first tenured woman at HDS in 1985. At the end of the 80s, still the only tenured woman, with a lot of help from my friends, I initiated a doctoral concentration in Religion, Gender, and Culture.

Bareed Mista3jil: Negotiating Gender, Sexuality, and Religion in Lebanon by Amy Levin

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on Feminism and Religion project

It’s not often (enough) that I (have the time to) come across non-academic books that articulate and reflect some of... more It’s not often (enough) that I (have the time to) come across non-academic books that articulate and reflect some of the most complex intersections between religion, gender, and sexuality. Those that do are commonly produced in the Western hemisphere, often representing the voices of Euro-American cultures and religious traditions. That is why I want to give voice to Bareed Mista3jil, a book, or collection of “41 true (and personal) stories from lesbians, bisexuals, queer and questioning women, and transgender persons from all over Lebanon.” Bareed Mista3jil was published in 2009 by the organization Meem, a community of lesbian, bisexual, queer women and transgender persons (including male-to-female and female-to-male) in addition to women questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity in Lebanon. The purpose of the book is to give voice to those in Lebanon with non-conforming sexualities and identities in order to give hope to this under-represented, often silenced population. Here is a description from Meem on the origin of the book:

Harming "Cultural Feelings": Images and Categorisation of Temporary Romani Migrants to Graz/Austria. In: Michael Stewart, Márton Rövid (Ed.): Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Romany Studies. Budapest: Central European University Press 2010. S. 71-90.

by Stefan Benedik

Rozvoj v pohybu. Souvislosti a důsledky transnacionální migrace Romů a Romek z okresu Rimavská Sobota/Rimaszombat (Slovensko) do Grazu (Rakousko)

by Stefan Benedik

co-authored with Barbara Tiefenbacher and Edit Szénássy, published in Romano Džaniben 17/1

Especially since the latest two EU-enlargements, the perception of Roma/Romnija in “western” European states is... more Especially since the latest two EU-enlargements, the perception of Roma/Romnija in “western” European states is predominantly linked with forms of migration that emerged in post-communist countries. Still, these migrations are not unidirectional and homogeneous, but contain multi-layered and diverse forms of movement. In this paper we aim to present some outcomes of a recent research-project, during which we
analyzed movements from Romani communities in southern Slovakia to the Austrian province of Styria. The discussed Romani communities are not separated from their mostly Hungarian surroundings, either linguistically or in terms of housing. Nevertheless, the migrations and, moreover, their effects foster differentiation and partly even increase segregation. Some NGO projects in the region and the depiction in Austrian media in particular intensified othering of these Slovakian/Hungarian Roma/Romnija.

In Darkest London: Investigating Destitution in the 1920s

by Kirsten Jarrett

A discussion on charity provision for the homeless and ‘destitute’, as recorded within Ada Chesterton’s In Darkest... more A discussion on charity provision for the homeless and ‘destitute’, as recorded within Ada Chesterton’s In Darkest London. This book, written in 1926, describes the author’s investigation of the London ‘underworld’, which she made in February 1925.

Childhood Innocence: Essence, Education and Performativity

by Robbie Duschinsky

Draft Only; forthcoming in Textual Practice

Building from an analysis of Wedekind and Foucault, it will be argued that modern childhood has been constructed as... more Building from an analysis of Wedekind and Foucault, it will be argued that modern childhood has been constructed as both natural and in need of cultivation and regulation. Through practices which seem to protect and nurture innocence, a particular account of the ‘natural purity’ of children can be materially and discursively produced without this seeming to be an artificial imposition. Moreover, I shall propose that imputing innocence to children allows a covert ontology to be constructed for particular groups of adults or society more generally; claims about the nature of the particular groups of adults, or society generally, can be smuggled into such accounts via claims about the child they may once have been. I shall depict innocence discourses as complex: capable of beneficial effects but also complicit in the production, stabilisation and occlusion of potentially troubling effects on relations of power, emotion and meaning in modern societies.

Changing Roles - Gender Differences in Poverty in an International Comparison

by TARKI Social Research Institute

Title of the Hungarian original: Szerepváltozások. Jelentés a nők és férfiak helyzetéről 2005
© TÁRKI, 2005
© Ifjúsági, Családügyi, Szociális és Esélyegyenlőségi Minisztérium, 2005

This book was published in English language with the support of the UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women, Central and Eastern Europe Regional Office, Bratislava).

English translation:
Anna Babarczy (papers 6-12)
Tibor Radványi (Introduction, papers 1-5, Bibliography)
Ildikó Nagy (Register of Researchers)

Language Editor: Clive Liddiard-Maár
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
© TÁRKI Social Research Institute, 2006
© Ildikó Nagy, 2006
© Marietta Pongrácz, 2006
© István György Tóth, 2006
ISBN 963 7869 39 5
Cover Design: Péter Maczó
Typography: András Nyíri

The current study examines gender differences in the various dimensions of pov-erty with the help of the Laeken... more The current study examines gender differences in the various dimensions of pov-erty with the help of the Laeken indicators. Comparison of the male and female populations in terms of the incidence and depth of poverty is carried out using the most recent available dataset that is best suited to a cross-sectional comparison.

Robertson, J. (1991). Memory, Counter-memory and Resistance: Childbirth as Critical Practice. The Journal of Learning About Learning. 1 (1): 50-61.

by Judith Robertson

Sole authored paper

An autobiographical memory piece on childbirth, using Michel Foucault's concepts of discourses and subversive knowledge. An autobiographical memory piece on childbirth, using Michel Foucault's concepts of discourses and subversive knowledge.

Experiments in discourse analysis impact on information classification and retrieval algorithms

by Jorge Morato

Morato, J.; Llorens, J., Genova, G., Moreiro, J. A. Experiments in discourse analysis impact on information classification and retrieval algorithms. Information Processing & Management, vol 39 nº 6 November 2003: 825- 851

Researchers in indexing and retrieval systems have been advocating the inclusion of more contextual information to... more Researchers in indexing and retrieval systems have been advocating the inclusion of more contextual information to improve results. The proliferation of full-text databases and advances in computer storage capacity have made it possible to carry out text analysis by means of linguistic and extralinguistic knowledge. Since the mid 80s, research has tended to pay more attention to context, giving discourse analysis a more central role. The research presented in this paper aims to check whether discourse variables have an impact on modern information retrieval and classification algorithms. In order to evaluate this hypothesis, a functional framework for information analysis in an automated environment has been proposed, where the n-grams (filtering) and the k-means and Chen's classification algorithms have been tested against sub-collections of documents based on the following discourse variables: "Genre", "Register", "Domain terminology", and "Document structure". The results obtained with the algorithms for the different sub-collections were compared to the MeSH information structure. These demonstrate that n-grams does not appear to have a clear dependence on discourse variables, though the k-means classification algorithm does, but only on domain terminology and document structure, and finally Chen's algorithm has a clear dependence on all of the discourse variables. This information could be used to design better classification algorithms, where discourse variables should be taken into account. Other minor conclusions drawn from these results are also presented.

(Re) producing gender: Management Accounts of Affirmative Action

by Susan Ainsworth

Expectant mothers and absent fathers: paid maternity leave in Australia

by Susan Ainsworth

The 'feminine advantage': A discursive analysis of the invisibility of older women workers

by Susan Ainsworth

Cybergirls in trouble: Fan fiction as a discursive space for interrogating gender and sexuality

by Sirpa Leppänen

Published in Caldas-Coulthard, Carmen-Rosa & Rick Iedema (Eds.). 2008. Identity Trouble: Critical discourse and contested identities. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 156-179.

The Contemporary Ballroom of Romance

by Moynagh Sullivan

Co-authored with Wanda Balzano, Director Gender and Women's Studies Centre, Wake Forest University, NC

Shifting the Gaze from Hysterical Mothers to 'Deadly Dads': Spectacle and the Antinuclear Movement

by Tina Managhan

Available in Review of International Studies, 33.4, 2007.

This article uses the trope of ‘hysterical motherhood’ to elucidate one of the unique forms that women’s protest... more This article uses the trope of ‘hysterical motherhood’ to elucidate one of the unique forms that women’s protest action took at the height of the American anti-nuclear movement. It advances an understanding of ‘hysterical motherhood’ as both an embodied tactic and a performative act, arguing that its tactical effectiveness lay in its ability to redirect the societal gaze from the ‘hystericized’ bodies of women to the bodies and practices of militarised men. In so doing, it (re)structured the field of the possible: constraining and enabling performative enactments of masculinity and the nuclear state.

Grieving Dead Soldiers, Disavowing Loss: Cindy Sheehan and the Im/Possibility of the American Antiwar Movement

by Tina Managhan

Available in Special Edition of the Journal 'Geopolitics', 16.2, Spring 2011.

The paper investigates the conditions of emergence of Cindy Sheehan (mother of soldier killed in Iraq) as a... more The paper investigates the conditions of emergence of Cindy Sheehan (mother of soldier killed in Iraq) as a spokesperson of the American antiwar movement and its so-called ‘spark.’ It interrogates the emotional pull of the current ‘support the troops’ rhetoric and the usurpation of this and other patriotic signs and symbols by various antiwar groups as both a constraint on the realm of legitimate dissent and an enabling condition of intelligible subject formation – particularly the figure of the grieving ‘mom.’ This paper argues that the sympathetic, albeit tenuous, identification with this figure emerged through a simultaneous psychic identification with and disavowal of loss, both of which aligned the war protester with the nation even in the course of dissent. . Borrowing from Judith Butler’s Psychic Life of Power, the imperative to support the troops may be described as a ‘loss of the loss’ such that the troops came to stand in for that which we could not bear to lose (and must vigorously protect and defend) and that which we already lost: amongst other things, an ideal of innocence in a nation that is dead and yet relentlessly persists. The ability of Sheehan to coax latent anxieties into political action and speech – indeed, the intelligibility of Sheehan as a legitimate political actor – will be explored in terms of the gendered socio-political narrative structures that shaped seemingly personal, affective responses to the current war in Iraq and in terms of the consequent im/possibility of dissent.

Highways, Heroes and Secular Martyrs: The Symbolics of Power and Sacrifice

by Tina Managhan

Forthcoming in Review of International Studies.  Currently available through 'First View' on the journal's website.

This paper examines the subtle and not so subtle shifts in Canadian political culture that have taken place in,... more This paper examines the subtle and not so subtle shifts in Canadian political culture that have taken place in, through and alongside the so-called ‘return’ of the Canadian warrior. It begins from the contention that while the racialized dimensions of the post 9/11 Canadian security state have been well analyzed elsewhere, the gendered dimensions have not been fully explored. This paper explores the re-emergence of a sacrificial imaginary in Canadian culture through an examination of seemingly irreconcilable accounts that have emerged of the Canadian security state – one that reads ‘Canada’ through the story of the torture and repatriation of Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, and one that tells the story of ‘Canada at War’ through the warrior’s return. It examines both in terms of the tensions and instabilities they reveal in the Western liberal imaginary and in terms of the ways in which they collectively operate to redefine the aesthetic borders of the Canadian political community. The paper argues that the sacralization of violence which has re-found this political community has been enabled by a re-masculinized aesthetic that delimits the ‘progressive liberalism’ which animated the Canada of Old – ostensibly in order to protect it.

Gender, Agency, War: The Maternalized Body in U.S. Foreign Policy

by Tina Managhan

Book Manuscript.  Forthcoming with Routledge (2012).

This book traces practices of militarization and resistance that have emerged under the sign of motherhood in US... more This book traces practices of militarization and resistance that have emerged under the sign of motherhood in US Foreign Policy. It examines these against the background of three key moments of American foreign policy formation: the anti-nuclear movement of the 1980s, the Gulf War of the early 1990s, and the recent invasion of Iraq. For each of these moments the author explores the emergence of a historically specific and emblematic maternalized mode of female embodiment (ranging from the ‘hysterical’ antinuclear protester to the figure of ‘Supermom’), in order to shed light on the various practices which define and enable expressions of American sovereignty. In so doing, the text argues that the emergence of particular raced, gendered, and maternalized bodies ought not to be read as merely tangential to affairs of state, but as instantiations of global politics. This work urges an approach that rereads the body as an ‘event’ – with significant implications for the ways in which international politics and gender are currently understood.

Vaid, J. (2009). Fair enough? Color and the commodification of self in Indian matrimonials. In E. Nakano Glenn (Ed.), Shades of Difference: Why skin color matters (pp. 148-165). Stanford: Stanford University Press.

by Jyotsna Vaid

Girls in primary school science classrooms: theorising beyond dominant discourses of gender

by Cleti Cervoni