Centre for the Study of Women and Gender Events

You are warmly invited to step into a dialogue on Power, Resistance and Knowledge: Brazilian Feminist Perspectives, exploring how Brazilian feminisms reveal power structures, inform strategies of resistance, and link local struggles to global conversations on social justice.

The event will feature presentations by our speakers, followed by a Q&A session, designed to highlight the theoretical and practical potential of Brazilian feminisms while fostering dialogue with feminist movements worldwide.

About the Talks:

Jocieli Decol will present key contributions from Brazilian feminist theory, engaging with the work of thinkers such as Lélia Gonzalez, Sueli Carneiro, and Heleieth Saffioti. These authors offer important insights into the power structures that shape local and global forms of social oppression, while introducing new concepts and analytical lenses for understanding the complexity of contemporary feminist struggles.

Claire Blencowe will focus on the practical dimensions of resistance through the experiences of women in the Maré favela complex in Rio de Janeiro. Her presentation examines collective practices of survival and self-care developed in response to police violence, which can be understood as forms of refusal, disruption, and moments of respite from the carceral geographies and violent racism that structure the biopolitical order.

The discussant will be Mara Silva Hope, whose perspective, grounded in Chilean feminism, helps situate local struggles in Latin America within broader debates on social justice worldwide.

Speaker Bios:

• Jocieli Decol is a PhD student at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, and currently a visiting researcher at the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, University of Warwick. Her work focuses on the development of feminist epistemologies and feminist science theories, as well as the meanings and interpretations attributed to this field in Brazilian academia.
• Claire Blencowe is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. Her work interrogates the cultural structures of racial capitalism, including interests in the role of religion in supporting and contesting extractive industry expansion and colonialism, and the racialised violence of capitalist urban geography especially in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Alongside critical theoretical and historical analysis she is cultivating participatory research practices celebrating the creativity and wisdom of people who are often denigrated in those contexts.
• Mara Silva Hope is a Latin American PhD student at the University of Warwick. She has worked in various projects on gender policies and knowledge in higher education in the Chilean context. Her doctoral research looks into equality work and the complex interplay between experiences, policies and practices in UK higher education institutions.

This event 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 above.

This event is organised by the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, University of Warwick.
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Are you looking for a supportive environment and dedicated time to focus on writing? CSWG invites you to join the Centre's structured writing sessions.

These sessions are open to both staff and students. They will run during the Spring Term, as follows:

• Before term starts: Friday 9 January, 9 am – 1 pm (Wolfson Room 3)
• Week 2: Friday 23 January, 9 am – 1 pm (Wolfson Room 1+2)
• Week 4: Thursday 5 February, 9.30 am - 12.30 pm (Wolfson Room 1+2)
• Week 5: Friday 13 February, 9 am – 1 pm (Wolfson Room 3)
• Week 7: Friday 27 February, 9 am – 1 pm (Wolfson Room 1+2)
• Week 9: Thursday 12 March, 9.30 am - 12.30 pm (Wolfson Room 1+2)
• Week 10: Friday 20 March, 9 am - 1 pm (Wolfson Room 3)

Sessions will be held at the Wolfson Research Exchange, located on the 3rd floor of Warwick Library. Advance registration is not required - just turn up!

Access to Wolfson requires a staff card or a PhD student card, so please bring your card with you. If you are an UG or MA student, or a CSWG member external to Warwick, please email Sílvia Gomes (silvia.gomes@warwick.ac.uk) or Akane Kanai (Akane.Kanai@warwick.ac.uk) in advance so arrangements can be made to give you access to the venue.

Sessions will be based on the highly successful Sociological Review Writing Retreat model, in which sessions are facilitated and divided into a series of fixed, timed writing slots, with everyone working in the same room at the same time. Details on how the sessions will run are outlined below.

Plans for the Sessions
We will discuss our writing/research goals at the beginning and end of the session, and the facilitator will tell you when to start and when to stop writing. Writing blocks will typically last 30–45 minutes or up to 1 hour, with 10-minute breaks in between. The facilitator will use a timer, so you can focus entirely on your work without watching the clock.

We work to a policy of 'no surveillance', so you’ll be responsible for setting your own writing goals and monitoring your progress. The use of phones and the internet during the writing sessions will be discouraged (unless needed).

How to prepare?
To make the most out of the writing time, we advise the following:

• Decide on a writing project (a chapter of your thesis, a journal article or book chapter);
• Undertake most of the reading needed for your piece of writing;
• Decide on the draft structure of your paper/chapter, including notes, plans, outlines, data, etc.
• Bring all you need to spend the time writing - laptop, charger, notes, readings.

If necessary, you may use the sessions for preparatory tasks such as reading articles, provided this does not disturb others who are writing.

For information on the speakers and abstracts, see here.

We are excited to invite you to join our Black Feminist Thought Group, open to all students and postgraduate researchers at all levels who are interested in or are already actively engaging with Black feminist scholarship, practice and creative work.

This group will be more than a traditional reading group. Inspired by the core principles of Black feminist thought—collective growth, intersectionality and radical imagination—we’ll create a collaborative space that welcomes a range of materials, voices and forms of expression.

The group will run once a month for a 2-hour session on the dates below. All these sessions will take place face-to-face and on Teams.

• Friday, February 27th, 2pm, A1.11
• Friday, March 27th, 2pm, A1.11
• Friday, April 24th, 2pm, S0.52

The group is led by Marie Casafina-Orwin and Diana Olaleye.

Whether you’re already engaged in Black feminist work or just starting to explore it, you’re welcome to join.

If you're interested in joining or want to hear more, you can register here. If you have any questions, you can email Marie at marie.casafina-orwin@warwick.ac.uk

We are excited to invite you to join our Black Feminist Thought Group, open to all students and postgraduate researchers at all levels who are interested in or are already actively engaging with Black feminist scholarship, practice and creative work.

This group will be more than a traditional reading group. Inspired by the core principles of Black feminist thought—collective growth, intersectionality and radical imagination—we’ll create a collaborative space that welcomes a range of materials, voices and forms of expression.

The group will run once a month for a 2-hour session on the dates below. All these sessions will take place face-to-face and on Teams.

• Friday, February 27th, 2pm, A1.11
• Friday, March 27th, 2pm, A1.11
• Friday, April 24th, 2pm, S0.52

The group is led by Marie Casafina-Orwin and Diana Olaleye.

Whether you’re already engaged in Black feminist work or just starting to explore it, you’re welcome to join.

If you're interested in joining or want to hear more, you can register here. If you have any questions, you can email Marie at marie.casafina-orwin@warwick.ac.uk