Speakers:

Associate Professor Robyn Barnacle is a research education specialist and higher education scholar. Her research is often cross-disciplinary and focuses on researcher capability and development, education and gender, and philosophy of higher education. It is published widely in leading higher education journals. Her latest book is The PhD at the End of the World, published with Springer (2021).

Professor Denise Cuthbert has an education in the humanities and works across several fields in the humanities and social sciences. Her current research focuses on gender and higher education. She has published on a range of topics related to women and children, and on higher education policy and practice including doctoral education. Her work appears in leading journals including Gender and Education, Higher Education, Studies in Higher Education and Higher Education Quarterly.

Leul Tadesse Sidelil has recently completed a PhD and is currently a research assistant in the School of Graduate Research, RMIT University, Australia. His research interests include social justice and inclusion in education, education policy and gender inequality in STEMM education and career.

Chair:

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

Time:

May 9th. 09:00-10.00 CET (UTC+2)

Abstract

In this talk we discuss our work delivering a respect-based culture change initiative in graduate research. This transformative project aims at sexual assault and sexual harassment prevention by addressing the various risk factors that distinguish graduate research from undergraduate education, particularly power imbalances. The focus of our talk will be the multi-layered processes involved in enabling and undertaking institution-wide culture change of this kind, particularly the stealth feminist approaches adopted during design and delivery. Respect and cognate, moderate feminist, concepts are increasingly prevalent as oblique, or stealth, approaches to gender equality in contexts in which doing so openly may be counterproductive. By adopting a feminist insider perspective, we highlight resistance and receptivity to the initiative and how these were either countered or harnessed, thus providing practical insights into what works in practice.

A Zoom-link will be shared with the participants closer to the event.