The ‘Welcome and Welcome Back’ was our event to bring together students, researchers, practitioners, and activists across and outside of the CHASE network who are engaged with thinking, research, pedagogy, and practice that inspires forms of feminist resistance. A huge thanks to those who attended for the fantastic discussions that will help drive our activities as we move forward.
We had a number of interactive excercises to discuss the direction of the network and what we can do in the year ahead. We discussed the importance for a working feminist network to be a space where people are actively listening, working collaboratively, understanding opinions, differences and conflicts, being intersectional, the importance of the personal being political and being critical of the language used.
We discussed the pervasive nature of systematic sexism, and how we have to overcome the inequalities that previous generations though they had already sorted. Unfair gendered divisions of labour are still apparent , particularly when it comes to fighting for gender equality. Racism and transphobia in the academy needs to be dealt with in a different way, it requires a whole new level of deconstruction, there are inadequate institutional solutions.. We criticised the self-congratulatory nature of the academic y, which often use the language of diversity to celebrate without actually taking any action.
We discussed how discussions of men’s issues as separate, as not being helpful, but also the need to avoid the narrative of what-aboutism which undermines genuine issues and oppressions. There were also discussions of the the divisions inside the feminist movement that can lead to a lack of momentum. There is the need to be self-critical and avoid from a type of feminism ‘in name only’ which has no substance, or just replicates existing inequality.
We also made a couple of exciting announcements…
The start of the new Flow and Flux Sessions, the first one is the 22 November in London full details here: https://chasefeministnetwork.wordpress.com/2019/11/07/flow-n-flux-1-encountering-feminism-and-feminist-hope/
Also, we launched the CFP for our sharing feminist network and practice event, full details are available here: https://chasefeministnetwork.wordpress.com/2019/10/15/call-for-sessions-sharing-feminist-research-and-practice-friday-28-and-saturday-29-february-2019-the-foundling-museum-london/
We also got loads of great feedback on our draft manifesto, this will be updated soon!
PowerPoint from the event is available here https://drive.google.com/open?id=1N0ZYxPU4f1YwMdZYQgOwu9iq8uNzGBwk
CHASE Feminist Network 