Perspectives on Gender & Care at February 2nd Impulse Talk Workshop
The Hub’s inaugural Impulse Talk Workshop kicked off in the Syndicate Room of St. Antony’s College on February 2, bringing together researchers, activists, students, and Hub staff for an interdisciplinary discussion on gender and care issues. The hybrid workshop, which included in-person and Zoom participation, connected individuals located in Oxford and abroad through a series of member-led “impulse talks.”
Over tea and coffee, introductions highlighted attendees’ wide-ranging research and professional backgrounds. These were followed by brief “impulse talks” from Ekaterina Hertog, Lamiaa Shehata, Sneha Krishnan, Agnieszka Kościańska, and Rachel Murphy, who presented on their own gender and care-related projects before shifting to group discussion and Q&A. Closing reflections involved remarks on the larger implications of this research, as well as suggestions for Hub programming moving forward.
The workshop proved a great success, allowing participants to learn from fellow Hub members while contributing valuable, interdisciplinary insights on relevant care issues.
The Hub thanks all who attended—in person or virtually— for their lively participation in this event. We are especially grateful to our presenters for discussing such important research and look forward to hosting more Impulse Talks in the future!
Presenters and their topics:
Ekaterina Hertog (Associate Professor, Oxford Internet Institute)
Expanding on her research with DomesticAI, a project exploring AI applications for housework and care tasks, Ekaterina highlighted automation’s potential to transform the gendered dynamics of unpaid domestic work.
Lamiaa Shehata (Senior Consultant, Itad)
Lamiaa presented findings from her consultancy work with Women’s Integrated Sexual Health (WISH), a programme offering integrated sexual and reproductive health services to marginalized and hard to reach populations in Asia and Africa.
Sneha Krishnan (Associate Professor, Oxford School of Geography and the Environment)
Sneha spoke about two forthcoming projects; In Gilded Cages, a monograph outlining how urban India’s hostels for girls symbolize enduring coloniality in the country, and a project analysing the impact of women's friendships established through humanitarian exchange programs in the early 20th century.
Agnieszka Kościańska (Associate Professor, University of Warsaw Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology)
Agnieszka presented on “Gender Wars: East and South” a research project* investigating religious, institutional, and cultural impacts on anti-gender backlash in Central/Eastern Europe and Latin America. Her talk outlined dynamics of care discourse in these settings, highlighting their emphasis on “traditional” family care provision.
*Co-PI Nicolette Mackovicky (Departmental Lecturer, Oxford School of Global and Area Studies) was unable to attend the Impulse Talk workshop
Rachel Murphy (Professor, Oxford School of Global and Area Studies)
Rachel discussed the relationship between social inflation and ongoing care struggles in contemporary China, stressing the need for context-specific reconceptualization of “care” to properly address care problems.
