Apologies for any cross posting

 

Gender, Work & Organization
11th Biennial International Interdisciplinary Conference
  24th to 26th June 2020
Transforming Contexts, Transforming Selves: Gender in New Times
University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

Stream No. 25


Stream: Transforming survival and/or surviving trauma
Stream Convenors: Rima Hussein, Saoirse Caitlin O’Shea and Steff Worst
Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University
Email Abstracts to Saoirse Caitlin O’Shea [log in to unmask]

30 years after Donna Haraway questioned the preferencing of work as a patriarchal public space that reaches beyond itself in to a private sphere and 20 since Samuel Delaney traced the increasing domination of public space by neo-liberal institutions work increasingly becomes a promotion and protection of the values of a putative neoliberal, white, masculine but fragile ego, which the marginalised benefit little from and must resist it in order to survive.
The #MeToo (sexual violence) and Extinction Rebellion (XR, global warming and the environment) are important recent examples of people attempting to speak out and speak up on social issues. In this stream we wish to ask what and how have the organization and organising of individuals and organizations fundamentally been transformed beyond brief spells of media interest and the arrest and prosecution of a few high profile individuals? Has the focus on high profile cases or the mass arrest of protestors transformed the lives and the ability of silenced voices to speak out and be heard? What has changed in the sphere of work now that a patriarchal society has re-centred itself to protect fragile yet abusive male egos (Peck, 2019)? Does the deliberate appeal for mass arrest by XR take away limited resources that other, less financially privileged protestors require (see Green and Black Cross, 2019)? This is not to say that #MeToo victims or XR protestors should be silent but to ask how we may also respect the voices of those who are too often silenced and silent in a world of gender, social and financial privilege.
We draw attention to systems that propagate the shutting down of voice and consequently thrust the silent into navigating labyrinthine institutions that present truthiness (Colbert, 2005) whilst gendered privilege continues unabashed in organizations. The (re)presentation of truth provides us with pale imitation and illusion; ‘justice’ within law courts, ‘autonomy’ in medical decisions over bodies and normativity within corporate life that shut us up and keep us down. The prevalence and practice of non-disclosure agreements exercised within academic institutions, prominent corporates as well as political leadership render silence cheap whilst keeping reputations neat and tidy. We call out this consistent sanitising and silencing of the messy, distressing, violent ramifications for the vulnerable, as it is those on the margins that see this truthiness as neo-liberal facade. 
Surviving and witnessing these systems hold invaluable narratives of experiential truth of brokenness, vulnerability and scarring. This raises questions of how we enact spaces for these truths to be heard fully and enable potential resistance, surrender and mobilisation. There is rage to be felt meaningfully in public spaces.
Where are the voices of those who are not a privileged, mostly white, well-educated and social media astute elite in management studies? If the privileged struggle to have a voice in a modern patriarchal society when will others more marginalised be heard? As we move from the centre to the margin why do the marginalised seem to be heard less and silenced more in ways that marginalise them further (Scheman, 1997)?
A different world is possible if we can move toward a non-normative, queerer future that breaks down and unlearns the perpetuation of patriarchal power dynamics. Can organizations that are stuck reinforcing neoliberal discourse become transformative vehicles?  In a world where we continue to discuss how to ‘fix’ and ‘cure’ the marginalised, may we draw on queer resistance and rage to examine transformative potentials? To what extent and how may we harness this rage to become meaningful and transformative beyond lip service?
In this stream we wish to invite contributions that may consider but are not necessarily limited to:
Body/embodiment as sites of resistance to violence and transformative work:
	What does it mean to survive trauma/violence? 
	How do survivors see/speak/reclaim themselves and what impact does this have within organisational spaces? 
	What might that look like in a relational and embodied world? 
	Is the growth of ‘well-being’ sufficient and/or appropriate to support those who have suffered abuse?
	Who are those who suffer sexual violence – only women, what ‘types’ of women; women as perpetrators?
	What can we understand about lived experiences of violence/ abuse towards different bodies, including queer ones; how do experiences resist or reinforce patterns?

Organising of violence
	How do neoliberal systems including work attack the autonomy and rights of the person through bodies including abortion legislation in US, birth oppression, body modification, trans* rights?
	How are these attacks constructed and how is violence organised and normalised through silencing, marginalisation, containment, further victimisation…?
	How do we unconsciously, inadvertently or purposefully buy in to, perpetuate, resist or embody a potential to transform?

How may work be transformed
	Is there a need to critically reassess neo-liberalism and public space? 
	How can we challenge neo-liberalism and begin transforming and queering spaces to allow for non-normative embodiments, identities and conceptualisation of family?
	How and why are work and organizations structured to support sexual violence materially, relationally, hierarchically and socially?
	How are victims transformed at work to become the source of abuse for male fragility?
	How should organizations, including universities, respond to the victims of abuse to hear and support them rather than, say, protect the organization’s reputation?
	Why is abuse a private matter particularly where it occurs in the public space of work that expands in to private space in neo-liberalism?

How to submit
Abstracts of approximately 500 words (submitted direct to stream leaders, ONE page, WORD NOT PDF, single spaced, excluding any references, no headers, footers or track changes) are invited by Friday 1st November 2019.
Decisions on acceptance of abstracts will be made by stream leaders within one month and communicated to authors by Monday 2nd December 2019.  All contributions will be independently refereed.  Abstracts should include FULL contact details, including name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, and e-mail address.
Abstracts should be emailed to [log in to unmask]


References
Colbert, Stephen The Colbert Report, original broadcast to air 17/1/2005. © Comedy Central.
Delaney, Samuel R. (1999) Times Square red, Times Square blue New York: New York University Press.
Green and Black Cross (2019) Statement on Extinction Rebellion.  https://greenandblackcross.org/statement-on-extinction-rebellion-xr-why-we-can-no-longer-work-with-xr-organiser.
Haraway, Donna J. (1991 [1987]) ‘Gender’ for a Marxist dictionary: The sexual politics of a word. In, Donna J. Haraway Simians, cyborgs and women. The reinvention of nature. London: free Association. 
Peck, Emily (2019) Me Too backlash is getting worse. Huffington Post, 17/5/2019. Available from https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/me-too-backlash-getting-worse_n_5cddd96de4b00e035b8ce786
Scheman, Naomi (1997) Queering the Center by Centering the Queer. Reflections on Transsexuals and Secular Jews. In D Tiejens Meyers (ed.) Feminists rethink the self. Boulder: Westview Press, 124-162.
Convenor biographical notes
Rima Hussein 
Mother, Senior Lecturer, DV survivor in the family law courts. I work at Newcastle Business School as Senior Lecturer and the experience of being mother, academic and survivor shapes my research world as I focus on how systems perpetuate silencing, the treatment of ‘others’ and the enacting of spaces of activism and visibility. Current projects explore the public sector landscape within Palestinian occupied territories and the experience of working within an austerity driven UK Fire Brigade.

Saoirse Caitlin O’Shea
Hi, I identify as non-binary and am currently in medical transition. Still – 4 and ½ years and counting. I usually write about the experiences of trans and non-binary folk in the UK and some journals are generous enough to publish my fluff including Organization, Management Learning, Culture and Organization and Sociology. I like chocolate, cats, DMs and stuff.

Steff Worst 
I’m a Senior Lecturer in the department of Leadership & Human Resource Development at Newcastle Business School. I hold a PhD exploring lesbian and gay experiences of expectations on gender and sexuality at work. I am passionate in researching the day-to-day life of LGBT* people and the potential of non-normative identities to challenge and broaden embedded modes of thinking from a queer theoretical perspective.

########################################################################

To unsubscribe from the EPHEMERA list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=EPHEMERA&A=1