Nelly Ali, a doctoral student, blogger and effective activist for street children everywhere, but specially in Egypt: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/geds/our-research/phd-students/nelly-ali and www.nellyali.wordpress.com.

Lucy Lake, chief executive of CAMFED: https://camfed.org/about/team/lucy-lake/.

Fahma Mohamed, Integrate Bristol, who spearheaded and is still active in the campaign to combat Female Genital Mutilation (FGM): http://integratebristol.org.uk/# for Integrate Bristol’s website and http://integratebristol.org.uk/2014/02/22/fahma-appeals-to-michael-gove-junior-trustee-of-integrate-bristol-launches-massive-campaign-with-the-guardian-and-change-org/.

Amaranta Thompson, Director of Development and Operations with the International Women’s Initiative: http://www.internationalwomensinitiative.org/#!management-team/c220n.

Key questions:

The conference aims to address the following key questions from feminist perspectives:

How can feminist theories of gender, education and pedagogy benefit from scholars from different parts of the world working together?

How do feminist activists around the world work to promote equality?

How can activists and academics work together to develop and promote equality through feminist and other approaches to pedagogy?

How can we build our understandings of education and/or pedagogy through critical analyses of power relations drawing on, for instance, feminist, subaltern, critical race and postcolonial theories?

How does power operate and influence educational and pedagogic processes, at local, national and global levels?

How do the political, economic and organisation contexts for the production of knowledge impact on the knowledge produced by feminist researchers and others, and what are the implications for social justice?

How can feminist and other approaches to education and pedagogy (e.g. Freirean, subaltern, critical race and postcolonial) reinforce, enrich and build on each other?

All papers, symposia and workshops should engage with educational/pedagogic issues, broadly defined. Within this broad context, examples of what the proposals for papers and symposia may cover include: feminist perspectives from different worldviews and political and theoretical perspectives; feminisms, social movements and pedagogies; the emergence and structuring of gender and education as a field of study in a range of national contexts; masculinities and femininities in education and/or pedagogy; popular culture, pedagogy and gender; policy, politics and practice in education; and neo-liberalism, globalisation and gender. However, this is in no way a comprehensive list and participants should not feel constrained by our suggestions, as we will finalise the conference streams in light of the papers, symposia and workshops accepted.

While contributions will critically engage with feminist theories, they may do so from a variety of fields and subject areas (e.g. gender studies, education, sociology, history, philosophy, linguistics, etc.) and theoretical perspectives. We invite proposals for individual papers and/or symposia from academics, students, policy makers and activists.

GEA featured symposia and workshops:

Featured symposia acknowledge the commitment of GEA to honour and showcase current and outstanding research and/or activism relating to gender and other differences that make a difference in education, broadly defined.  Symposia may consist of one or more two-hour sessions. If organised in a conventional format, each session should consist of a minimum of four and a maximum of six papers (including a discussant if any). We would also be interested in receiving proposals for symposia or workshops that do not follow this conventional format but are more innovative in their organisation. To be featured symposia or workshops, the proposal must show that it has widespread appeal, and explores contemporary and/or historical issues relevant to the aims and purposes of GEA. Please note that each submission will be assessed separately against each of the criteria (relevance to the work of GEA, outstanding research and/or activism). Normally however the symposium/workshop proposer should identify a convenor/chair/facilitator and may identify a discussant for the session. Non-conventional formats should be described and justified in the overview of the symposium or workshop.

Fahma Mohamed and Habiba Said, of Integrate Bristol, will be running a workshop at the conference on teaching about FGM in school and we are in the process of arranging other workshops. If you would like to offer a workshop, please contact Debbie.Epstein@roehampton.ac.uk to discuss this.

Proposals:

Proposals for individual papers, symposia and/or workshops should be sent to Julia.Noyce@roehampton.ac.uk for blind-peer review by 10 January 2015. Proposals for papers should give an abstract of no more than 250 words. Proposals for symposia consisting of four to six papers (or double sessions consisting of eight to 12) should give an overall summary of the theme of the symposium proposed in 250 words or less and brief abstracts (up to 150 words) of the individual papers to be included in it.

Please save your proposal for an individual paper with author name followed by ‘GEA_2015’ (e.g. NAME_ GEA_2015) with a brief biography and contact details on a separate page. For symposia, please give the symposium organiser’s name followed by ‘GEA_2015’ and contact details, plus the names and brief biographies of all contributors on a separate page.

You will be informed whether your paper/symposium/workshop has been accepted by 31 January 2015.

Free conference workshop on getting published:

A free pre-conference workshop for doctoral students attending the conference on getting published in international refereed journals, run by the editors of Gender and Education, will also be held on the afternoon of 23 June. Space permitting, this will also open to other early career researchers who are in their first academic posts or have not got an academic job but preference will be given to research students who are not in academic jobs and who have not yet published in international refereed journals. If you wish to attend this workshop, please indicate this on your booking form. Acceptance will be on a first come first served basis.

Conference fees:

In addition to the conference fee, all delegates will need to pay for one year’s membership of GEA (£30) to begin on 23 June 2015 for those joining for the first time. If you are already a member, this year will be added on to the end of your existing membership. If you are a life member, please contact Julia Noyce by email.

Early bird fees (to be booked by 31 March 2015):

Early bird rates are available for bookings made before 20 March 2015. It is probable that after that date there will be no further residential bookings available. We cannot guarantee accommodation for bookings made before 20 March, but have reserved a large number of rooms so hope there will be enough for everyone wanting accommodation.

Please note that residential bookings include accommodation on the night of 23 June 2015 and breakfast on 24 June as the conference will start no later than 9.30 am.

£275 – Early Bird conference booking fee (non residential package, inclusive of lunches and dinners)

£375 – Early Bird conference booking fee (full residential package, inclusive of three nights accommodation, breakfasts, lunches and dinners but please note that those in residence on Tuesday 23 June will need to sort out their own dinner)

£400 – Early Bird conference booking fee (full residential package, inclusive of three nights accommodation with ensuite, breakfasts, lunches and dinners but please note that those in residence on Tuesday 23 June will need to sort out their own dinner)

£110 – Early Bird conference booking fee (daily rate, inclusive of lunch and dinner)

Standard booking fees (from 1 April 2015):

£305 – Standard conference booking fee (non residential package, inclusive of lunches and dinners)

£405 – Standard conference booking fee (full residential package, inclusive of three nights accommodation, breakfasts, lunches and dinners but please note that those in residence on Tuesday 23 June will need to sort out their own dinner)

£430 – Standard conference booking fee (full residential package, inclusive of three nights accommodation with ensuite, breakfasts, lunches and dinners but please note that those in residence on Tuesday 23 June will need to sort out their own dinner)

£125 – Early Bird conference booking fee (daily rate, inclusive of lunch and dinner)

Accommodation is provided on campus but is limited. It will be available on a first come first served basis.

We have made arrangements with an excellent local nursery to accept children up to the age of 5 (subject to availability of places) from 8.00am-6.00pm during the conference at a daily charge of £58. Please contact Julia Noyce for details. See, also, bursaries, below.

Bursaries:

We will be offering a limited number of bursaries to those who are giving a paper, are unwaged (including doctoral students on studentships) and whose institutions will not support them to come to the conference.

Full conference fee waiver. This will be available to those coming from other countries and who meet the conditions above. They will be awarded on a competitive basis, as judged through a process of blind refereeing.

Fee waiver of £100. This will be available to those from within the UK who meet the conditions above.

An additional fee waiver of £100 towards any extra costs of caring provision (e.g. for children or frail/ill adults) incurred by coming to the conference.

If you wish to apply for any of these three bursaries, please submit a short paragraph with your abstract explaining why you need such a fee waiver in order to attend the conference. Katja Jonsas (Katja.Jonsas@roehampton.ac.uk) and Kate Hoskins (Kate.Hoskins@roehampton.ac.uk) will be looking after bursary applications and will let you know before the Early Bird date whether you have been successful in gaining fee waiver or not. If you have any queries about bursaries, please contact one of them. Please do not make your booking until you have heard from them as you will need to indicate on your booking form that you are in receipt of a fee waiver.

Booking your place:

To book your place at the conference please go to the Roehampton ‘online store’ where you will find a link to the GEA conference. To book your place please visit the online store url.  

Important information about visas:

Please note that we do not send letters of invitation out to all conference participants though we will, of course, provide receipts. However, should you require a letter to support your visa application, we will provide this once you have booked and paid for your place. We can then send a letter to state that you are intending to take part in the conference, and that you have paid. If for any reason your visa application is unsuccessful, we will refund your fee as long as you let us know by email no later than 29 May 2015.

For further information and updates, please visit the conference webpage.