On 4 November 2013 CEU and Andrassy University co-organized the “Tuning Gender Studies: Teaching Gender Studies between Hopes and Expectations” workshop - sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Institute, Czech Institute, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the Slovak Institute - as a second manifestation of their cooperation agreement. The workshop offered an opportunity for representatives of universities and NGOs from both Hungary and its neighboring countries to discuss university level teaching and research in Gender Studies in the region. Participants of the workshop from Hungary, Austria and Slovakia emphasized interdisciplinarity, critical thinking and the promotion of an open, democratic society as the main assets and goals of the field of Gender Studies.
The State of Art introductory session was dedicated to a reflection on the history of the field in the respective countries, including a discussion of common challenges that Gender Studies as an intellectual and social project faces in the region. Since Gender Studies in state universities of the region has not been institutionalized, teaching gender as an elective study track can be challenging because of the need to compete with other elective courses, the limited academic prestige it is associated with and the misrepresentation of the field as women's advancement. Individual gender experts, academic professionals and Gender Studies in the academia face challenges as a result of the incongruence between the disciplinary organization of higher education programs in state universities and the interdisciplinary commitment of Gender Studies and also because of the limited gender-related career opportunities in the CEE region. Participants discussed the relation between Gender Studies in academia and activism, they were divided between the view that university education should prepare students for a career in the NGO sector and the understanding of theory and activism as more separate fields. Regarding the scope of teaching with gender, participants agreed that Gender Studies should not be restricted to the MA level.
During the Curriculum Development section the discussion started from the premise that this issue depends on whether the goal is to gender-sensitivize other fields or to strengthen the legitimacy of Gender Studies as an interdisciplinary academic field or a combination of the two goals. The curriculum was interpreted both as a form of indirect statement of self-definition of the field and as a possible regulatory manifestation of state control. In line with students’ expectations of Gender Studies programs, gender-related skills such as gender sensitivity were discussed, which can provide students with a brighter outlook at career opportunities at a time of financial crisis and de-prioritization of the Humanities and Social Sciences in national educational schemes. Participants, reflecting on the relation between academia and activism concluded that there is a need to educate both top researchers and to contribute to local activism through the epistemological device of the curriculum.
In the Future Directions session main strategies to overcome the previously mentioned challenges were considered, mainly increasing the visibility of Gender Studies programs, specializations and elective courses, developing and strengthening alliances between academic professionals working on gender-related researches from different disciplinary backgrounds. The suggestion was raised to reconsider the politics of location through a reflection on the postsocialist history of the region, by revisiting the research conducted on the region during the 90ies mainly from the Western perspective and by consciously reflecting on the politics of such a rereading. Further, participants discussed the importance of regional, EU-level and international networks to enhance professional cooperation among gender experts, attributing varying emphasis to these alliances.
At the end of the workshop participants reached an agreement regarding the importance of a double track strategy for Gender Studies - foregrounding both mainstreaming of gender as a category of analysis into other academic fields and the institutionalization of departments - and the significance of promoting local research and knowledge through cooperation on both regional and EU level. The workshop ended on an optimistic note regarding the future of gender research thanks to the EU’s new agenda Horizon 2020 defining gender as an independent research category and regarding digital alternative forms of education that can be perceived as a promising way of advancing teaching and research in Gender Studies.
Protocol by Edit Kovács