ADVANCING GENDER+TRAINING IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

An inter­na­tional event for prac­ti­tion­ers, experts and commis­sion­ers in Gender+ train­ing

Complutense Univer­sity, Madrid, Febru­ary 3–4, 2011

This event aims to bring together academ­ics, prac­ti­tion­ers, policy-makers and commis­sion­ers to discuss gender+ train­ing.  A number of themes will be addressed, such as ensur­ing qual­ity in gender+ train­ing; devel­op­ing prac­tice through reflex­iv­ity; and strength­en­ing gender+ train­ing through a Community of Prac­tice.  Keynote speak­ers include Carol Bacchi (Univer­sity of Adelaide) and Mieke Verloo (Radboud Univer­sity, Nijme­gen). 

For more inform­a­tion please see below or visit www.quing.eu.  All quer­ies should be direc­ted to oper­a­con­fer­encegmail [ punto ] com (oper­a­con­fer­ence[at]gmail[dot]com).  Dead­line for proposal submis­sions Friday 22^nd Octo­ber 2010.

ADVAN­CING GENDER­+TRAIN­ING IN THEORY AND PRAC­TICE

An inter­na­tional event for prac­ti­tion­ers, experts and commis­sion­ers in Gender+ train­ing

Complutense Univer­sity, Madrid, Febru­ary 3–4, 2011

Train­ing activ­it­ies in public and private organ­isa­tions to enhance gender equal­ity policies and tackle gender-based – and inter­sect­ing, which is what we mean by ‘gender+’- discrim­in­a­tions cover a broad­en­ing scope of purposes, mean­ings and prac­tices. A grow­ing number and vari­ety of actors are involved in these activ­it­ies, includ­ing train­ers, private and public sector commis­sion­ers, experts in gender+ and/or manage­ment issues. These actors engage with differ­ent audi­ences at differ­ent levels – subn­a­tional, national, European, inter­na­tional- and in differ­ent sectors.  As such, there is a grow­ing need for setting qual­ity stand­ards, main­stream­ing ‘prac­tices with poten­tial’ and discuss­ing commonly faced resist­ances. 

Qual­ity criteria and best prac­tices in gender+ train­ing should not be imposed from above, but should rather emerge from exchanges between prac­ti­tion­ers, commis­sion­ers and academ­ics work­ing on know­ledge trans­fer issues. This confer­ence provides a plat­form for such engage­ment and aims to estab­lish networks for the strength­en­ing and devel­op­ment of a future Community of Prac­tice for gender+ train­ing in the European Union.  

The aim of the confer­ence is to dissem­in­ate the results and activ­it­ies of the OPERA compon­ent of the Qual­ity in Gender Equal­ity Policies (QUING) project, funded by the European Commis­sion’s 6^th Frame­work Programme.  QUING focuses on the qual­it­at­ive dimen­sions of gender equal­ity policies in the European Union, and  OPERA involves the integ­ra­tion of know­ledge into oper­a­tional stand­ards for gender+ train­ing. A number of key themes have emerged through OPER­A’s activ­it­ies with gender+ train­ers, such as: defin­ing qual­ity criteria and curriculum stand­ards; using femin­ist and gender+ theory in train­ing; deal­ing with resist­ances to gender+ train­ing; devel­op­ing parti­cip­at­ory-exper­i­en­tial meth­od­o­lo­gies; and nego­ti­at­ing with commis­sion­ers.  

The format of the confer­ence will be parti­cip­at­ory and prac­tice-oriented in order to provide an enabling envir­on­ment for dialogue, reflex­iv­ity and collab­or­at­ive work­ing. The confer­ence themes will be explored through a series of work­shops to be held in English, and plen­ary sessions. The confer­ence will include inputs from distin­guished schol­ars in the field of gender equal­ity policies, such as Carol Bacchi (Univer­sity of Adelaide) and Mieke Verloo (Radboud Univer­sity, Nijme­gen), and present­a­tions by high level commis­sion­ers of gender+ train­ing activ­it­ies at the EU and the national level. 

We invite oral contri­bu­tions of approx­im­ately twenty minutes which address one of the themes outlined in the attached docu­ment. These could take the form of inter­act­ive activ­it­ies, shar­ing of good prac­tices, reflec­tions on aspects of the train­ing exper­i­ence, or more tradi­tional academic present­a­tions. Propos­als submit­ted by gender+ train­ing prac­ti­tion­ers both in the private and the public sector as well as by academ­ics work­ing on gender+ train­ing and know­ledge trans­fer issues will be espe­cially welcome.

To parti­cip­ate in the confer­ence, please send a brief biography along with a descrip­tion of your proposed contri­bu­tion (250 words maximum) in English.  Those whose propos­als are selec­ted will be eligible to apply for a limited number of bursar­ies in order to cover their travel and accom­mod­a­tion expenses.          

Please send propos­als to oper­a­con­fer­encegmail [ punto ] com (oper­a­con­fer­ence[at]gmail[dot]com) by 22nd Octo­ber 2010. 

For further details, please contact Maxime Forest or Lucy Ferguson at this address.