Thursday 4 May - Saturday 6 May 2017. 

Call for Papers (Deadline 20th March 2017). Early bird registration closes 20th March. 

Organisers: Supporting Women in Geography (SWIG) Ireland. [log in to unmask]

Session abstract

This session, led by the newly established Supporting Women in Geography (SWIG) Ireland, seeks to explore the role of ‘Women in Geography’.  SWIG Ireland is one of a growing number of autonomous organisations across the U.S. with similar groups emerging in Canada and Europe that promote the participation and empowerment of women within the discipline of Geography.  We aim to bring women together in a supportive and engaging environment through which to tackle gender (and other intersectional) inequalities while also celebrating the diverse perspectives that women bring to the discipline of Geography.

 Drawing on the conference theme ‘Disruptions and Transgressions’ we would like to interrogate how women in geography “have challenged, and continue to challenge, existing practices, systems of provision and institutional arrangements”.  This session is interested in exploring the lived realities of ‘Women in Geography’ adding both an empirical and experiential layer to previous work within feminist geographies which have long sought to “improve women’s lives by understanding the sources, dynamics and spatiality of women’s oppression” (Dixon and Jones in S. Aitken and G. Valentine, 2006).   Therefore, we invite papers that address (but are not limited to) themes such as:

●     Challenges to institutional and/or societal sexism;

●     Being a female geographer ‘in the field’;

●     Challenges of early career geographers of all genders;

●     Geography,Geographer and Motherhood;

●     (Un)heard voices of female geographers;

●     Attitudes toward student care and it’s effect on career progression;

●     How the spaces of feminism are shaped;

●     In-depth interrogation of work from prominent female geographers.

This session is not prescriptive and we are interested in proposals for papers that are practice based or connect academic and activist work and/or delve into the real lived experiences of ‘Women in Geography’.  We also welcome contributions from postgraduate students and early career researchers.

Instructions for authors

Please submit your abstract through the CIG paper abstract form and select 'Women in Geography' as the themed session and forward your abstract and interest to session convenors.  Form can be found here: http://www.conferenceofirishgeographers.ie/abstract-submission-form-c1r5x

Please note: You cannot submit an abstract until you have registered for the conference which we urge you to do asap. 

The expected format is 15 minutes with 5 minutes for Q&A but is subject to change.