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Dear all,

Please see the message from Heather Savigny below with updates from the
PSA Conference in Sheffield this week. For those who were not able to
attend, the conference had an all (white) male keynote & plenary line-up,
and (from a preliminary count) more than 20+ panels that were men only
(incl. chairs), a real disappointment after last year's excellent
conference in Manchester (we are doing a more detailed gender breakdown,
which we will circulate). As Heather notes below, this was noted by the
Exec, as well as by many conference participants throughout the week, and
I raised the issue at the AGM.

Please do contact Heather directly to offer suggestions for keynote
speakers & named prizes. The plans for next year's Brighton conference
sound very promising - however, this 'forgetting' of previous commitments
to equality and diversity in panels/roundtables/keynotes (which Liz and
others had campaigned for after previous conferences) suggests that this
cannot be left to chance in the future - if members have ideas and
suggestions about how this might be formally institutionalised, and what
they would like to press for, please do share your views (and also contact
Heather as indicated below).

Have a good break.

All best, Meryl


On 2/04/15 4:36 PM, "Heather Savigny" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Dear All
>The point of this email is to introduce myself to you; invite your
>feedback and update you on PSA news.
>
>Thanks to yours and others' support I was elected as a Trustee to the PSA
>executive, which I have been delighted by! And, as you may (or indeed
>more likely may not!) remember I stood on a gender platform.
>
>I have just got back from the PSA conference where Fran did an amazing
>keynote for the PGN, Meryl made a very good impression on the Exec,
>especially the Chair.  It is also great to see an all women line up doing
>a fantastic job of running the PGN.  Sadly the conference this year
>featured a line up of all white male keynotes. This was commented on at
>the AGM, the Executive committee and throughout the event.
>
>Next year's PSA will be held at Brighton, and all keynotes will be women.
>(we are still looking at ways to address the issue of all male panels,
>and we are hoping to do this through specialist groups and the general
>CfP).  We have a few women in mind as keynotes, but if there is anyone
>you think would make a great keynote and give a 'wow' factor (on our list
>to invite at the moment are Judith Butler; Pippa Norris; Nancy Fraser)
>then please do drop me an email - offlist - at
>[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.  I would
>be particularly keen to hear of women of colour who might also be
>suitable as keynotes - so if you have ideas please send them along to me
>with a rationale.

>The other thing to let you know is that it was noted at Exec that all the
>academic prizes are in the name of white men. There was agreement to
>remedy this and I need to produce a brief summary of who we should have
>and a rationale.  At present the thinking is Elinor Ostrom and a prize
>for the thesis that challenges conventional wisdom.  If you can think of
>other women and rationales for that (and again, I would love it if we
>could have a woman of colour here) then again, please email me off list.
>
>There is also a conversation taking place (and to be continued at the
>Executive) about how we can introduce institutional measures in the PSA
>to ensure that what happened with the keynotes this year, does not happen
>again.
>
>There was also a conversation about Surrey (one of the few departments
>with disproportionately more women) and while we were given details in
>confidence, I was incredibly reassured and impressed by Matt Flinders'
>handling of this.  What I can say, is, in my view, he has acted with
>great wisdom, diplomacy and very strategically, and I would encourage
>colleagues' to support his approach.
>
>I should add that Matt Flinders (current PSA Chair) and the rest of the
>PSA Executive are very much behind these two initiatives, so I think we
>have an opportunity to capitalise on this. There is much support for your
>group and the great work you have already done here.
>
>If you have ideas, comments, observations about what you want from the
>PSA then please don't hesitate to contact me (again, for the sake of
>everyone's inboxes, offlist probably better!)?
>
>
>have a great Easter
>
>heather
>
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