September 2013
GEMMA 7th Edition Opening Act
On Friday, September 20th, the 7th edition of GEMMA Erasmus Mundus Master’s Degree in Women’s and Gender Studies was presented in the Assembly Hall of the Scientific Documentation Centre of the University of Granada. The event was chaired by the GEMMA Consortium Coordinator, Adelina Sánchez Espinosa, the Academic Coordinator in Granada, Maria José Osorio Pérez, and the director of the Institute for the Study of Women and Gender at the University of Granada, Nuria Romo Avilés. Some of the students and scholars of this new edition attended the event.
An article on GEMMA appeared in the newspaper El Pais, on Sunday September 29
October 2013
Invited Scholars
Mercedes Agustín Puerta, an equal opportunity agent in the Provincial Council of Granada, was the first scholar invited for the subject History of Feminism: Women's Movements in the World (coordinated by Professor Victoria Robles Sanjuán). The issues addressed in her sessions on October 3rd and 4th were:
- Women's movements and the feminist agenda of the Transition to Democracy until present day.
Yolanda Oliva Peña is a researcher and Professor from the Regional Research Center of the Autonomous University of Yucatán (Mexico). As a sociologist, with a Ph.D. in Educational Research, she has participated in projects on gender, violence, health and environment. She is a member of the Network of Gender Studies South - East ANUIES. Teacher and facilitator of workshops on gender, education and violence. This professor´s lectures, on October 10th and 11th, were part of the course History of Feminism: Women's Movements in the World.
The sessions focused on:
- Feminisms in Latin America: The Case of Mexico.
November 2013
Inaugural Conference
Frances Negrón-Muntaner is an Associate Professor of English and Literature at the Columbia University, New York. Besides literature, her field of study encompasses cinema and politics. She has received several awards and is considered one of the most recognized filmmakers, writers and researchers in Puerto Rico and Latin America. The inaugural conference this year, entitled ¨What to do with all this beauty: Latinas in U.S. popular culture¨, took place on November 8th in the Auditorium of the Center for Scientific Documentation of the University of Granada.
In addition, lectures with Frances Negrón were part of the programme of Gender, Art and Literature and Case Studies II, coordinated by Professor Adelina Sánchez Espinosa. The filmmaker devoted several sessions to the intriguing topics of gender and music of the Caribbean diaspora.
Invited scholars
Rosa Cobo Bedía is a Professor of Sociology of Gender at the University of A Coruña. She is the founder and was the first director of the Women's Studies Interdisciplinary Seminar at this University between 2000 and 2003. She coordinated the Master´s Programme on Gender and Equality Policies at the Universidad of A Coruña from 2005 until 2008. Her main field of research is Feminist Theory and Sociology of Gender. Professor Cobo was the first scholar invited to teach part of the subject Feminist Theory: Equality, Difference and Diversity, coordinated by Professor Cándida Martínez. Her classes took place on November 6th and 7th. The topics covered in her sessions were:
- Feminism, multiculturalism and globalization. Neoliberalism and the feminization of poverty. Feminism and human development. Politics of vindication and parity democracy.
Maria Ángeles Durán, Professor of Sociology and researcher specialized in Social Sciences at the National Research Council, was the first woman to obtain the chairmanship of a department of Sociology in Spain. She is the founder of the Institute of Women's Studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid. She was the president of the Spanish Federation of Sociology, as well as a member of the executive committee of the International Sociology Association. Earlier in 2013, she was awared the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Granada. The highlights of her intellectual work include her ongoing efforts to open up new fields of research, making visible the interdependence between private and public life, as well as the situation of social groups that had hitherto attracted little interest in Sociology and Economics. Professor Durán´s lectures on November 25th and 26th were part of the Feminist Theory course. Students discussed the following texts by Durán:
- “De puertas adentro” (Behind closed doors)
- “Liberación y Utopia” (Liberation and Utopia)
Dorota Golanska is a Professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Łódź (Poland). Some of her fields of research include Feminist Studies, as well as Visual and American Studies. Golanska was invited to teach two sessions of the course Gender, Art and Literature and Feminist Research. She focused on the Feminist Methodology of Writing, Feminist Auto/Biography and Methodology of Language and Academic Writing in Feminist Research.
Marek M. Wojtaszek is a Professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Łódź (Poland) and a member of the Women's Studies Center. His research focuses on Aesthetics, Critical Theory (especially the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze) and Feminist Criticism. He was invited to teach two sessions on “Politics of Language and Writing.”
December 2013
Invited Scholars
We finished the first term with the presence of Professor Katherine O'Donnell, from the University of Dublin, whose two lectures on December 3rd and 4th were part of the courses Gender, Art and Literature and Feminist Research. The title of this Professor´s sessions was “Justice for Magdalenes Campaign An Academic -Activist Alliance.”
Other Activities
A series of seminars entitled “Politics of Equality: Action and Change in Times of Crisis” took place in the Assembly Hall of the Scientific Documentation Center of the University of Granada between November 27th and December 3rd. It was organized at the request of The Institute of Women´s and Gender Studies and GEMMA Master´s Programme, with the cooperation of the Mediterranean Center of the University of Granada. Attendance to the course counted for elective course credits.
January 2014
We started 2014 with the conference “Culture, Practice and Knowledge of Women in Argentina” chaired by the lecturer of the National University of Luján (Argentina), Cecilia Lagunas. The conference took place in the hall of the Scientific Documentation Centre of the University of Granada.
Invited Scholars
Jasmina Lukic is a lecturer from the Central European University whose work focuses on Transnational Literature and Women's Literature in Gender Perspective, legacies of formalism and Feminist Literary Theory. She was invited as visiting scholar for two lectures, on January 28th and 29th. She discussed Transnational Literature and numerous Feminisms supported by the theories of Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Silvia Scheltermandl. She also dealt with literature and migration following Arjun Appadurai´s theories and Seyhan Azade´s work.
Vita Fortunati is a Professor of English Literature at the University of Bologna (Italy). Her main fields of research include the concepts of utopia, Modernism, the word, and the relationship between the image and the aging body, all from the multidisciplinary perspective of gender. During her lectures, on January 23rd and 28th, she discussed exile, dislocation and nostalgia in women´s transnational literature. What is more, she addressed the idea of autobiography as a complex literary genre and the tension and differences between private and collective memory. In the context of transnational literature, the complexity of talking about ¨the other¨ plays an important role in building subjectivity. Ethics and responsibility are invaluable elements to bear in mind when doing research. Some of the texts discussed were: Ornella Vorpsi, La mano che non Mordi, Torino, Einaudi: 2007, and Lilia Bicec, Miei cari figli vi scrivo, Torino, Einaudi: 2013. She discussed the biographical, contextual, and corporal factors as the main components which determine the labour, the discoveries and the interests of researchers.
Sonia Fernández Hoyos, from the University of Metz, visited the Institute of Women´s and Gender Studies on January 21st and 23rd. Her research focuses on topics such as the Aesthetics of Otherness in the work of the poet Trina Mercader (2006). In her sessions she discussed literary theory, reading as a woman, female readers and the literary canon (how we read and what we read), reading women´s writing and feminist models of reading. The problem of reading and interpreting in androcentric culture was another topic that was discussed.
February 2014
Teresa del Valle Murga, Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology at the University of País Vasco and Emakunde to Equality Award winner (2010), was invited as visiting scholar for the subject Methodologies C on February 3rd, 5th and 6th. She discussed memory and creativity and their importance for Ethnography.
March 2014
Pedro Antonio Férez Mora, Professor at the University of Murcia, was invited to give two lectures in which he focused on three main themes: “Nowhere de Gregg Araki: problematizando el esencialismo y el constructivismo en el entendimiento de la identidad sexual”, (Gregg Araki´s Nowhere: problems with essentialism and constructivism in understanding sexual identity), “The Dream Police de Dennis Cooper: en busca de lo Imaginario lacaniano en la identidad sexual” (Dennis Cooper´s The Dream Police: in search of Lacan´s the Imaginary in sexual identity) y “Chaperos de Dennis Cooper: las fantasías de la identidad sexual” (Dennis Cooper´s rent boys: fantasies of sexual identity). Professor Férez Mora was invited on March 20th and 21st as visiting scholar for the class Feminist Investigations: Case Studies I.
April 2014
Alejandra Moreno, Professor at the University of Gijón and Laura Viñuela from Consultoría de Género Espora (Espora Gender Consultancy) were the following guest speakers for the course Feminist Investigations: Case Studies I, coordinated by Pilar Villar Argáiz and Gerardo Rodríguez Salas. Professor Alejandra covered the following topics in her sessions: 1) Deconstruction of the Cartesian Subject “I think, therefore I am”; 2) Difference, Identity and Feminism: a close look at the theories of Luce Irigaray; 3) Linda Hutcheon. Irony, satire and parody. A practical look at irony; 4) Strategies of Subversion: Orlan and Louis Bourgeois; and 5) Feminism and Postcolonialism. Zadie Smith White Teeth (2000); Andrea Levy Small Island (2004). In her first class Laura Viñuela aimed to share her professional experience as the director of the gender consultancy ESPORA. Her second session was more academically oriented, as it centered on feminist research into music. The guest speakers participated in the course on April 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
Eugenia Gil García, Professor in the departament of Nursing at the University of Seville, is a women´s health specialist who was invited as a guest speaker for the course Gender, Body and Women in History, coordinated by Professor Teresa Ortiz. During her session on April 7th Professor Eugenia focused on the medical discourse surrounding anorexia and bulimia, as seen from the perspective of gender.
On Friday, April 25th, the Spanish actress Guadalupe Lancho was invited to the projection and discussion of Evelyn, the first full-length film directed by Isabel de Ocampo (2012). The film was shown in the hall of the Scientific Documentation Centre of the University of Granada as part of the course Feminist Investigations: Case Studies I and “Encuentros de Arte” (The meeting places of Art), dedicated to cinema and gender. The event was coordinated by the directors of the course, Gerardo Rodríguez Salas and Pilar Villar Argáiz, and the debate, prepared and led by the students of the programme. Some of the issues discussed included prostitution and human trafficking, with occassional references to the film Whistleblower (Brad Furman, 2010), which was shown within “Encuentros de Arte” in March.
May 2014
Mª Carmen Agulló Díaz, Professor of Theory and History of Education at the University of València, was invited as a guest speaker for the course Socioeducational Transformations in 20th century Spain, coordinated by Professor Victoria Robles. María Carmen Agulló Díaz is famous for her work on the book Las Maestras de la República, which was made into a film under the same title directed by Pilar Pérez Solano.In 2014, the film Las Maestras de la República (2013) was awarded the prestigious Goya award for best documentary.
June 2014
Begonya Enguix Grau, Professor at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, was the last guest speaker for the course Feminist Perspectives in Social Anthropology, coordinated by Carmen Gregorio and Ana Alcázar. Her main areas of interest include gender and sexuality from an anthropological perspective, in relation to the body and the media. As part of the I+D+I research group, she specializes in urban identities and the anthropology of the media. Thus, with this last visiting professor, ends the academic year of GEMMA at the University of Granada.