This network aims to bring together scholars focusing on issues of gender and sexuality. Gender and Sexuality are well established themes within anthropology and we consider it an important task to bring together professionals doing anthropological research on these themes from different perspectives.
The idea to create this network first arose in late 2009 and throughout the years we have been establishing collaborations and exchanges with scholars in the Netherlands and Portugal but also in Spain, France, the United Kingdom as well as other European countries. Many developments within Europe and the wider world make it necessary to bring together scholarship on these topics to facilitate intellectual exchange and comparative work. These developments include long-lasting processes such the multitude of institutionalized forms of male domination, as well as daily practices of hegemonic masculinity and the use of stereotyped concepts of masculinity, femininity and heteronormativity to legitimize sexist and homophobic practices
There are also more recent phenomena such as the perceived threat to liberal values concerning gender and sexuality from migrant groups in Europe, the broad discussions on gay marriage in many countries, but also the ways in which feminist agenda’s are (ab)used to legitimize neo-colonial and military interventions, and the rise of ‘sexual nationalism’ in Africa and Europe.
These and other developments all plead for a higher profile of studies of gender and sexuality that are grounded in ethnographic fieldwork and are thereby able to resist or question political agendas, processes of othering and stereotyping. Furthermore, there is a continued need to centralize gender as an important dimension of social reality within the discipline in general.
Objectives
The network will facilitate contacts between scholars working ethnographically on sexuality and gender. We aim to make this a very broad network, facilitating discussion, comparison and theoretical work grounded in ethnography across contexts. The network will also raise the profile of the study of gender and sexuality within the different sub-fields of anthropology and related disciplines, as well as initiate publications and discussions related to current debates on gender and sexuality in the public sphere. Lastly, the network will facilitate the exchange of information on job vacancies, conferences, and publications.
Aims
- Discuss and develop methodologies enabling to deconstruct from an anthropological perspective stereotypes related to gender and sexuality;
- Focus on ethical issues related to gender and sexuality in research as well as in teaching;
- Promote interdisciplinary and international academic research on gender and sexuality and enhance the creation of joint research projects, conferences, special issues and edited volumes.
Activities
- Organize a themed session at the EASA 2014 conference Initiate a special issue on the ethnography of gender and sexuality
- Establish a listserv and a blog
- Organize yearly network meetings to promote gender- and sexuality oriented scholarship, develop innovative methodologies and exchange findings.
