Pushing Boundaries – Holding Space: Mentoring and Writing workshop in Feminist Geography
June 15-17, 2022
About the workshop:
We are inviting applications from early-career scholars for a mentoring and writing workshop in feminist geography. The workshop is an intensive three-day session where scholars will develop an ongoing piece of writing through discussions and mentoring. Scholars will be mentored by Prof. Anindita Datta and Dr. Anu Sabhlok. In addition, the workshop will include quiet time for writing, sharing work with peers, reworking drafts, and pedagogical sessions on emerging themes within feminist geography. We will also explore diverse forms of knowledge-making and expression that foster feminist thinking, practice, and solidarity. The idea is to create long-standing support amongst emerging scholars that builds on notions of care, creativity, and compassion along with rigor in research and writing. Scholars will have the opportunity to enhance their writing skills and find their voice in a nurturing and supportive environment. A component of the workshop will also talk through the nuts and bolts of publishing in feminist journals and forums. This workshop is being held in conjunction with the 3rd International Feminist Geography Conference which is envisaged as a multi-sited event.
Who is this workshop for: Early career scholars with a background in geography who have an ongoing piece of feminist geographic writing are encouraged to apply.
How to apply:
Interested individuals, please send the following to feministgeogwork@gmail.com by April 30th, 2022:
- A cover letter outlining your aspirations for the workshop
- A brief CV with contact information
- A 500 word abstract of the paper that you hope to develop through this workshop
- Please mention the fee category as per the below sliding scale
Dates of the workshop: 15th to 17th June 2022
Venue: Sambhaavnaa Institute, Kandbari, Himachal Pradesh
Contribution: These amounts are inclusive of accommodation and food for the duration of your stay. We have 3 different categories. It is on a sliding scale basis:
1. The first category is for participants that can pay the full fees of Rs. 1500 per day.
2. The second category is for participants that opt to pay a subsidized amount of Rs. 1100 per day, as they may not be able to pay the amount of the full fee.
3. The third category is for students and people from marginalized groups, non-funded social, political, or student movements, for whom the amount will be Rs. 800 per day.
We have a limited number of waivers so please apply for a fee waiver only if you need it. Do remember that there may be others who need it more than you.
About the mentors:
Anindita Datta: “A feminist geographer, traveling mother, collector of stories, dog whisperer and cat mom, the connections of gender with space have always fascinated me. As a specialist in gender and feminist geographies, my main proficiency lies in articulating the spatiality of gender and gendered spaces. My research trajectory has moved from a development-oriented approach to mapping gender disparities in social well-being to explorations of gendered violence, geographies of care and spaces of resistance and agency embedded within the everyday. My publications have spanned several journals such as Progress in Human Geography, Emotion Space and Society, Dialogues in Human Geography and Gender Place and Culture and include the edited volume Gender Space and Agency in India: Exploring Regional Genderscapes (2020) as well as the Routledge Handbook of Gender and Feminist Geography co-edited with Peter Hopkins, Lynda Johnston, Elizabeth Olsen and Joseli M Silva. I serve on the international editorial boards of Social & Cultural Geography, Taylor and Francis (2020 – ) Spaces and Practices of Justice, Bristol University Press, UK (2018 – ) and GeoJournal Book Library. I am currently a Professor at the Dept of Geography, Delhi School of Economics and Chair, IGU Commission on Gender and Geography.”
Anu Sabhlok: “I am intrigued by the dynamic relationship between identity (gender, class, caste…) and space and my ethnographic work explores these dynamics in urban and infrastructural settings. I draw from frameworks in feminist, urban and labor geography and critical infrastructure studies. There are two research projects that I am currently engaged in: One – understanding the everyday lives of road construction workers as they migrate across the plains of India to build border roads in the upper Himalayas. Two – investigating how infrastructural assemblages are gendered in the way they are built, symbolized and experienced. I am currently an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali and have previously taught at the University of Louisville, KY and at Penn State University, PA. I was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO from 2017-2018. I serve on the editorial boards of Geoforum. Geopolitics and Dialogues in Human Geography and have been published widely in national and international journals. Trained as a critical geographer, feminist scholar and architect, I have refused to let disciplinary boundaries, geographical barriers and the artificial division between teaching, research and activism come in the way of my engagements. Teaching, learning, research, writing, baking, walking, singing and dancing are all integral parts of my life and bring me great joy.”
Selected participants will be notified by May 15th, 2022