GEA Conference 2025

Announcing the 21st Gender and Education Association international conference hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK!

Conference Website

For more details and up to date information, visit the GEA conference 2025 website:

http://mmu.ac.uk/gea25

For questions about the conference, please email GEA25@mmu.ac.uk

Conference Dates

Tuesday 27 May               Pre-conference day, ECR workshops (12.00-17.00)

Wednesday 28 May         Welcome, Keynote V. Walkerdine, parallel sessions, Keynote F. Nxumalo, wine reception.

Thursday 29 May              Keynote M.Bey, parallel sessions, Keynote Panel 1, GEA Exec meeting, conference dinner.

Friday 30 May                    Parallel sessions, Keynote Panel 2, conference close, Teachers’ evening workshops.

Call for Abstracts

Exploring multiple and alternative routes for generating feminist knowledge otherwise actively challenges the many normative ways ‘to conference’ (Osgood et al. 2022). In this conference we seek papers, panels and performances that engage with the conference themes above. We also invite participants to create spaces to ask: what is the potential of non-voice, withdrawal, opacity and (non)performance?

Abstracts to be submitted by 20th December 2024 via the conference website

Symposium: abstract of 500 words maximum, to include title, overview, and synopsis of each contribution

Individual papers/performances: abstract of 250 words maximum

Conference Theme

GEA2025 is an opportunity to explore our roots and imagine new possible futures and directions as we recontextualise our work in a new age of extremes.  By focusing on the roots and routes of gender in education we invite participants to enter into debates about what it might mean to look back to our roots; Re-imagining how we might Diversify routes into the future, including its natal forms; so as to Trans*form Routes; Activate Routes and Re-Route Policy and Practice. 

Diversifying routes to, from and through intersectional (Crenshaw 1994) and intra-sectional (Puar 2012) feminist practices in education necessarily requires approaches that reside in our sense of rootlessness as a way towards transformation— in the active sense of always being “on the run” (Spivak, 2004).  We invite proposals that align with our Re-Routing and Re-Imagining themes.

Knowing routes – It is worth recalling the long and entangled historical struggles we have endured to ensure that gender remains on educational and research agendas.

Diversifying routes – Whilst the field of Gender and Education has made significant inroads in addressing marginalisation, exclusion and othering, there remains much to do.

Trans*forming Routes – Gender’s increasingly contested and politicised status in education policy and wider public understandings have profound implications for education and life-long learning.

Activating Routes – Feminist research is often marbled with activist tendencies that urge a more direct connection with, and responsibility for, how academic research comes to matter.

Re-routing Policy – In the context of disinformation and culture wars, what role does feminist research play in policy formation? 

We will invite contributions in a range of diverse formats including (and not limited to) 20-minute oral presentations, posters (digital and onsite), roundtables, themed panels, symposia, workshops, creative presentations and ‘other’ which will be led by the abstracts received.

About GEA Conferences

If this will be your first GEA conference, then you can learn more about the previous 19 conferences here. You can also read reflections from previous conference attendees to learn more about what to expect at a GEA conference:

About The Gender and Education Association: GEA is a volunteer-led international intersectional feminist charity. Since 1997, our community of educators, researchers, activists, leaders, artists, and more have been working to challenge and eradicate gender stereotyping, sexism, and gender inequality within and through education. UK charity number: 1159145