Dear WGSG members,

The annual conference seems to be approaching very quickly now, so here is
advanced warning of the WGSG events taking place - and a plea for anyone
who wishes to get involved on the committee.

1.	Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday 31st August from
13.10 to 13.50 (check programme for room allocation)
All are welcome.

At present the agenda contains the following items:

* Annual report
* Reports from committee members
* Update on WGSG publication 'Geography and Gender Reconsidered'
* Nomination and selection of a new WGSG chair and committee members
* Update and discussion on the planned workshop 'Geographies of hope,
geographies of    fear in the academy'
* Indication of possible conference sessions at RGS-IBG 2007
* Long-listing for RGS-IBG medals nominations 2007

Key things for us to discuss are plans for the year ahead. One of the
ideas that came out of the Reading Weekend was to look more at our
emotions within the academy. Ruth Healey has been collecting ideas via the
WGSG list for this event, and the AGM will be an opportunity to discuss
these and makes plans. Ruth's original email is below if you want a
reminder of the ideas prior to the AGM.

If anyone isn't going to make the AGM but has ideas/ suggestions, please
feel free to get in touch beforehand and let us know.

The other really important thing is that Fiona  is coming to the end of
her term as Chair for the WGSG so we urgently need someone who is willing
to do this role. Please consider if you are able to undertake this role.

In addition we are always looking for new people to get involved on the
committee or with ideas, so come along and join in.

2. On the evening of the AGM (Thursday) we will be having the WGSG dinner,
which all are welcome to attend. Please see Kendra's email for further
information.

3. In between all this, there are some great-looking sessions and papers
during the conference including the WGSG sponsored sessions:

'Postcoloniality and responsibility' 2 sessions on Thursday afternoon,
(sponsored by WGSG and DARG)

'International perspectives on gender and geographical knowledges'
Friday morning (sponsored by WGSG and HPGRG)

'Young people and children's engagements with sustainability' two
sessions on Friday afternoon (sponsored by WGSG)


Look forward to seeing everyone in London.
All the best
Fiona and Nicola


*Geographies of Fear/Geographies of Hope in the Academy*

Geographies of fear have permeated many realms of geographic research.
However, to my knowledge no one has specifically looked at the fears of
academics within the academy.  Following on from the WGSG reading weekend
loosely related to emotional geographies, and particularly inspired by Liz
Bondi’s open and honest reflection of her emotions around her PhD research
(Bondi 2005) and Bronwyn Davies et al’ (2005) piece discussing embodiment
in academic work, one of the ideas that came out of the weekend was to
look more at our emotions within the academy.

The idea is for another weekend meeting based around ‘eographies of
fear/geographies of hope in the academy’ which will be held this time next
year.  This would involve looking specifically at our fears and doubts
within the academy alongside the joy and pleasure that we receive from our
work.  The meeting could run in different ways depending on your responses
to the ideas below, but the main starting point would be for participants
to write short reflexive points about their personal fears/hopes/pleasures
about their work to stimulate discussion at the meeting.  These could be
anonymous or named just to
get ideas flowing.   Due to the personal nature of this suggestion I think
the group as a whole should have the opportunity to decide how the meeting
should then run.  Please see some questions below on ideas of different
ways of running the meeting:

•        Invite specific people at different stages within their
career to discuss this theme in relation to their current feelings within
the academy e.g. Liz Bondi/postgraduate researchers/possibly established
male academics?  Alongside a few talks or just written pieces for reading,
we split into smaller groups to discuss themes within the fear/hope in the
academy idea.

•        Should this be a collaborative piece with another group, or
would it be best started as a WGSG project and then if we wanted to, we
could broaden it out to other groups and include a gender dimension at a
later date?

•        Would people prefer to consider the weekend as a cathartic
exercise through which people can vocalise their concerns and/or
achievements within a supportive atmosphere?  Or would people like it to
be an opportunity to aim for a group publication from the discussions?

If you are interested in participating in this meeting, wish to comment on
the
above questions, or have any other ideas to contribute, please email me at
[log in to unmask]

Thanks,

Ruth

Bondi, Liz (2005) The place of emotions in research: from partitioning
emotion and research to the emotional dynamics of research relations, in
Joyce Davidson, Liz Bondi and Mick Smith (Eds.) Emotional Geographies
(Ashgate:
Hampshire).
Davies, Bronwyn; Browne, Jenny; Gannon, Susanne; Honan, Eileen and
Somerville, Margaret (2005) Embodied women at work in neoliberal times and
places, Gender, Work and Organisation 12(4): 343-362.