Are you interested in research and teaching on gender and women?

Then join us for the 2024 (Not Very Far) Away Day of the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender!

The CSWG (Not Very Far) Away Day (NVFAD) provides an opportunity for scholars and students interested in gender and feminism from across the University of Warwick to meet and find out about each other's research. It is an informal space which aims to strengthen connections across departments, energise those of us doing feminist and queer research, and generate new ideas for future CSWG initiatives.

We are delighted to announce that the NVFAD is returning this year!

It will be taking place on
Thursday, June 13^th, 2024
from 10.30 - 3.00 (including lunch)
on campus (room to be confirmed)

The NVFAD is open to all staff and students at Warwick, from across all faculties and services within the University.

It will include a discussion session on the current state and future directions of research and teaching on gender at Warwick, a poster exhibition, a publications fair and a networking lunch.

The NVFAD will be followed (from 3.00 to 5.00) by a talk by Prof. Karen Throsby (University of Leeds) on her new book Sugar rush: Science, politics and the demonisation of fatness. (Further details to follow.)
You can attend both events, or just one of them. If you can’t be with us for the full duration of the NVFAD, it’s fine to join only for some of the sessions. The programme will be shared with registered participants nearer the time.

If you are interested, you have the chance in the NVFAD to exhibit a poster presenting your research on gender or to bring copies of your publications for the publications fair. Both are optional; they are not a requirement of participation. You will find some guidelines and poster templates here.

To REGISTER for the CSWG (Not Very Far) Away Day, click HERE.

If you have any questions about the event, please email cswg@warwick.ac.uk

If you have accessibility requirements or there are any adjustments we can make to support your full participation, you can let us know through the booking page.

You are warmly invited to the following event, taking place on campus:

"The (In)Visible Inequalities of the Attack on Sugar"
Prof Karen Throsby (University of Leeds)

Abstract:

Since the early 2010s, sugar has found itself the subject of a proliferating raft of newspaper articles, popular science books, self-help guides and national and international policies, supplanting dietary fat in the public imagination as the primary cause of obesity. The framing of sugar as the dietary enemy du jour has a commonsense appeal, breathing new life into the foundering ‘war on obesity’ and aligning easily with the rhetorics of individual responsible citizenship and household economy that characterise both austerity politics and responses to the current cost-of-living crisis. Sugar reduction, we are repeatedly told, will boost individual wellbeing, reduce health and welfare costs and protect the NHS. It is, we are assured, a win for all, if only people will do their part. But I want to argue that despite the appealing simplicity of a single-nutrient public health campaign and its optimistic promises of good for all, the weight of these expectations falls very unevenly onto those who are already most marginalised in society. Drawing on evidence from news, policy, popular science, self-help and media sources, and focusing on the social inequalities of gender, race and class, the talk explores the ways in which those most disadvantaged are defined as targets for intervention while discrediting the difficult lived realities within which food choices are made, rendering those people simultaneously hyper-visible and invisible. I argue that this focus on food choices rather than political choices is an act of damaging foreclosure, masquerading as care, that not only sets the terms of the debate but also delimits the solutions we can imagine, compounding rather than alleviating disadvantage and marginalisation.

Speaker Bio:

Karen Throsby is Professor of Gender Studies and Head of the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on the intersecting issues of gender, technology, the body, health and food, which she has explored in relation to reproductive technology, surgical weight management, endurance sport, menopause and, most recently, the social life of sugar. She is the author of When IVF Fails: Feminism, Infertility and the Negotiation of Normality (2004, Palgrave), Immersion: Marathon Swimming, Embodiment and Identity (Manchester University Press, 2016) and Sugar Rush: Science, Politics and the Demonisation of Fatness (Manchester University Press, 2023).

This face to face seminar is free and open to all, but advance registration is required.

To register for a place, CLICK HERE.

If you have any questions about the event, please email cswg-events@warwick.ac.uk

If you have accessibility requirements or there are any adjustments we can make to support your full participation, you can let us know through the booking page. 

This event is organised by the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender at the University of Warwick. If you wish to receive information about CSWG events, please subscribe to our mailing list.