Chair: Dr. Søren S.E. Bengtsen, Co-Director of CHEF, Aarhus University, Denmark

Abstract:

Based on the thesis that diversity work is ‘mood work’, the AUFF-funded project Affective Investments in Diversity Work in STEM at Danish Universities aims to explore and learn from affective practices taking place in and across local STEM micro-milieus at Danish universities. The project focuses upon the affective investments and atmospheres that channel and energise processes of diversity work. This approach allows us to explore how diversity work has different associations for different academics and STEM fields, as well as how moods and athmospheres shape the ways diversity work is received and organised. In the talk, I build on our very preliminary findings and make an outline on how hope and fear may shape diversity futures and how this make some (gender) ‘targets’, actions and imaginaries possible while other (ethnicity/race) ‘targets’, actions and imaginaries eventually disappear.

Bio:

Dorthe Staunæs is professor in social psychology at The Danish School of Education, Aarhus University.