GENDER.ED’s Annual Research Showcase returned after a two-year halt as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The showcase was an opportunity to learn about the cutting-edge gender and sexualities research projects and initiatives at the University of Edinburgh.

Pre-pandemic, GENDER.ED hosted its showcase in a large hall with stalls, posters and banners. This year, the team replicated this model online through the tool gather.town. This was a novel experience for most attendees. The platform itself was oddly reminiscent of computer games from the 1990s!

Here are some of the highlights of the event:

Dr Radhika Govinda kicks off with the Director’s Report

In the online space, Dr Govinda shared highlights of GENDER.ED’s key activities and achievements over the last year, and noted that this was a momentous occasion for the interdisciplinary hub with its fifth anniversary approaching. She also announced the winners of the first GENDER.ED-EUSA UG Feminist Trailblazers, a series that recognises excellent feminist research, advocacy and activist work being carried out by the University of Edinburgh’s undergraduate students.

Reflective roundtable on Doing Gender and Sexualities Research

Following Dr Govinda’s introduction was a roundtable discussion chaired by Professor Fiona Mackay and featuring Dr Ale Boussalem (GeoSciences), Dr Rosalind Cavaghan (independent researcher), Professor Louise Jackson (History, Classics and Archaeology) and Dr Radhika Govinda (Social and Political Science). They engaged in thought-provoking reflections and discussions on what it means to be a feminist/queer researcher in the academy.

Poster session

The attendees were then invited to walk around the poster rooms, which featured 26 posters capturing gender and sexualities-related research created by more than 30 academics from various schools and centres across The University of Edinburgh, including Education, Geosciences, Edinburgh College of Arts, PPLS, Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities, and Centre for Research Collections. The posters visualised a diverse range of topics covering:

• sexual and gender-based violence in protracted displacement contexts
• navigating hierarchies
• ignorance and epistemological tensions in the GCRF
• gendering the future of work
• cultural geographies of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurship experience in Scotland
• feminism, hashtags and digital consciousness-raising in Brazil
• Muslim women’s lived experiences beyond religion and gender in South Asia and its diasporas

In-person reception to conclude the showcase

The showcase ended with an in-person reception in the Project Room at 50 George Square.

The GENDER.ED team would like to thank everyone who presented and participated in the event, as well as those who joined on the day. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to GENDER.ED’s Steering Group members and the Organising Team who planned and curated and coordinated the showcase event.

What’s next

We invite you to keep an eye out for a series of blog posts on research presented at the Showcase.

An earlier version of this blog post was published as part of the School of Social and Political Science’s News Digest on 14 June 2022.