Feminist research at StFX showcased in launch of speaker series

March 11th, 2016

The Hive for Feminist Research Annual Lecture Series, which launches on March 23, is an initiative of the Hive for Feminist Research, an interdisciplinary research group formed in 2013 to increase the visibility and understanding of feminist research at StFX in all its diversity. 

 

The inaugural speaker is Dr. Argelia Gonzáles Hurtado of the Department of Modern Languages (Spanish) who will address "Re-memory and Re-inventing Stories: Decolonizing Mexican Indigenous Women through the Video” on March 23 at 7 p.m. in Schwartz 205.
 

“I’m really excited about the lecture series. It’s a bridge of what we’ve built collaboratively, and it’s bringing some of these activities to a wider audience,” says StFX women’s and gender studies professor Dr. Rachel Hurst who constructed the Hive in the summer of 2013 to offer a space for StFX researchers to share and discuss work.

Membership swelled to 45 people and the Hive became the first interdisciplinary research group on campus to bring together members of all four faculties—arts,  business, education, and science—as well as the Angus L. Macdonald Library, the Coady International Institute, Service Learning, and the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health.

“When the Hive started we were interested in learning from each other. It’s nice to see the maturation of this,” says Catherine Irving of the Coady International Institute.
 

Students Melanie Warner and Rebecca Mesay say this is a great opportunity to showcase feminist research from new to established faculty members and is showing a shift in establishing and supporting a feminist atmosphere on campus. It also showcases interesting topics, they says. 

“It’s important to share and work together. It broadens people’s thinking,” says Dr. Gonzáles Hurtado.

The Hive defines feminist research broadly as a type of inquiry concerned with understanding relations of power, particularly those based on gender as it intersects with race, sexuality, class, and ability, Dr. Hurst says

The lecture series will run on a three-year cycle, with a speaker from the Arts/Science/Library in year one, a speaker from Business/Education in year two, and from the Coady International Institute in year three. 

 

Members of the Hive for Feminist Research Annual Lecture Series committee include Rita Campbell (Library), Rachel Hurst (Arts), Catherine Irving (Coady), Opal Leung (Business), Rebecca Mesay (WMGS Student Society), Jennifer Mitton-Kukner (Education), Melanie Warner (WMGS Student Society), and Charlene Weaving (Science).