We are devastated to hear of Emma’s passing. On behalf of the University of Edinburgh’s Gender Politics Research Group, we extend our condolences to Emma’s colleagues at Engender, her partner Kenny, and her family and friends. Emma was a true force in the Scottish women’s movement – brilliant, incisive, determined, but always approaching her work with a glint of humour. Gender politics researchers at Edinburgh have worked with Engender since its inception – and it was always a delight to work with Emma on research projects, panels, and events. You knew if you saw your name next to hers that yo ..read more

PeaceFem is a mobile phone app that illustrates women’s inclusion in peace processes around the world. PeaceFem provides information about strategies women’s rights advocates have used to influence peace agreements; information about the enabling and constraining factors that shaped the space for influence; and the gender provisions in the peace agreements that resulted and information as to how well they were implemented. A contribution to the growing field of PeaceTech, which uses technology to support peacebuilding, including peace mediation, PeaceFem brings together data on women and peac ..read more

Dr María López Belloso recently finished a nominated fellowship with IASH and genderED. This is a cross-post with the GEARING Roles blog. From its inception in the proposal-drafting phase, GEARING Roles partners bet on achieving institutional change through knowledge exchange and “learning by doing”. The European Commission has been funding institutional change projects since FP7, and therefore, there were so many actions and initiatives, toolkits and resources to learn from and get inspiration. Building on resources gathered in the GEAR tool, we designed the “pairing visits” p ..read more

Director Fiona Mackay reflects on the highlights of 2019-20 for genderED – the University of Edinburgh’s interdisciplinary hub for showcasing gender and sexualities studies. genderED is hosted by IASH (Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities) on behalf of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS), supported by Edinburgh University Students Association (EUSA), and powered by the School of Social and Political Science (SPS). Now approaching our third birthday, genderED has grown to around 160 researchers (from 85 at launch) and has more than 180 courses list ..read more

This is a guest post from Gabrielle Blackburn of the Scottish Feminist Judgements Podcast. The first episode of the Scottish Feminist Judgments Podcast launched on Thursday 20th of August, and new episodes come out every other Thursday, available on all the usual podcast streaming platforms.  The podcast is based on the legal research project of the same name and is directed at lay-people, as an accessible way to engage with law and think about its opportunities and limitations from a feminist perspective. While the content of the podcast focuses on the Scottish legal ..read more

Image by Urabenayaka on Wikimedia genderED would like to offer a heartfelt congratulations to Dr Harini Amarasuriya – 2019 IASH Nominated Fellow and former PhD Candidate in Social Anthropology – who was appointed as a Member of Parliament in Sri Lanka this Wednesday. After obtaining her PhD at University of Edinburgh in 2010, Dr Amarasuriya returned to Sri Lanka and was a Senior Lecturer in Social Studies at the Open University of Sri Lanka, establishing herself as a respected public intellectual. She will be one of only twelve women in the 225-seat Parliament. Dr Amarasuriya hopes to demonstr ..read more

Dr. Aidan McGlynn is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash My aim in this post is to examine the bearing of sexist pornography on the distinction between sexism and misogyny drawn by Kate Manne in her recent and highly influential book Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny (2018). Manne’s overarching project is to convince us to abandon what she calls the naïve conception of misogyny, according to which it is a matter of a large number of men directing hatred or hostility towards women—all or most women—simply on the grounds that the ..read more

This article originally appeared on Discover Society. Ashlee Cristoffersen is a PhD Candidate in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh and an equality research consultant. The disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in the UK (both within and outwith the medical professions) have sparked critical commentary, an evidence submission, and an official inquiry (headed by a ‘controversial’ figure largely discredited in antiracist, trade union and equality third sector circles). While racial inequalities in England and Wales have been d ..read more

Cross-post from Political Settlements Research Programme. Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP) Graduate Fellow, Fiona Knäussel, reflects on the programme’s thinking on women and PeaceTech, the challenges for women peacebuilders in using tech tools and how to address them, and on whether tech solutions are themselves gender-proofed. The outlined considerations were important in informing PSRP’s work on PeaceFem, a mobile app focussed on women’s peacebuilding efforts, which officially launched on 30 June 2020. This blog post is part of a series that aims to explain and ..read more

In April 2020, the University of Edinburgh Art Collection created a series of three commissions, inviting artists to reflect upon their personal experiences of COVID-19 and to respond to broader themes associated with the period of enforced physical distancing.  Manual Labours have used the commission funds to further enhance an existing project, The Global Staffroom, and to enable the production of the fifth manual in their ongoing series. The Global Staffroom is a live podcast hosted by Manual Labours (Jenny Richards and Sophie Hope), involving conversations with people a ..read more