InterGender – International Consortium for Interdisciplinary Feminist Research Training
For this course PhD candidates, but also advanced Master’s students are eligible to apply.

Title of the Course: Technocultural assemblages: Methods and methodologies in focus

Time: 6-8 April 2021

Location: Online
Deadline for applications: 7 March 2021
Applications should be sent to:
InterGender Consortium Coordinator Edyta Just (edyta.just[at]liu.se)
Maximum number of participants: 30
Organized by:
Local InterGender Course Organizer: Gothenburg University, Sweden
InterGender, International Consortium for Interdisciplinary Feminist Research Training
Course coordinators:
Local InterGender Course Coordinator: Lena Martinsson
InterGender Consortium Coordinator: Edyta Just (edyta.just[at]liu.se)
Teachers:
Mia Liinason, Professor of Gender Studies, University of Gothenburg
Naila Sahar, Assistant Professor in English at Forman University College, Lahore
Cathy Urquhart, Professor of Digital Business at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School
Course description:
This course shines a light on methods and methodologies of studying connections between the digital, the social and the cultural – what we call ’technocultural assemblages’. Diverse phenomena, from video games and dating apps to political activisms, are examples of technocultural assemblages. In focus of the course are the methodological challenges connected to study such assemblages in research on eg. political activisms, community building, intimacies and friendships, and other ephemeral material at the borderlands between ‘the digital’ and ‘the real’.
This course argues that digital technologies also are political. As such, digital technologies are always entangled with transnational and local formations of genders and sexualities. Digital technologies have a capacity to both reiterate and transform colonial, gendered and racial regimes. Simultaneously, they offer tremendous possibilities for various communities, such as feminist, queer or antigender networks, to emerge and connect across geographical distances. This course offers in-depth and case based lectures from the teacher’s ongoing research. Case based lectures will cover challenges and ways of working with qualitative data analysis in research on social media, postcolonial approaches to women’s digital activism in and beyond South Asia, and methodologies for researching offline/online entanglements in transnational feminist and LGBTI+ activism.

Lectures:
Mia Liinason, Professor of Gender Studies, University of Gothenburg. Lecture: “Researching offline/online entanglements in transnational feminist and LGBTI+ activism”

Cathy Urquhart, Professor of Digital Business at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School. Lecture: “Qualitative Data Analysis in Social Media: Challenges and Approaches”

Naila Sahar, Assistant Professor in English at Forman University College, Lahore.
Lecture: “Postcolonial feminism: Women’s digital activism in South Asia with focus on Pakistan”

Schedule of the course:
Day 1
10.15-10.30 Introduction
Lena Martinsson with all teachers
10.30-12.30 Lecture
Lecture 1: Mia Liinason
Each zoom lecture is structured along the following:
10.30-11.15 45 min lecture
15 min break
11.30-11.45 Breakout rooms, 15 min discussion in small groups around readings and concepts
11.45-12.30 Re-assembling: We go around and listen to the discussions of each group, Q & A
12.30-13.30 Lunch break
13.30-15.30 Workshop with 15 minutes break
Workshop with feedback on course participants’ papers. Three groups, each teacher is chair of one group.
15.30-16.00 Wrap up
We re-assemble in the main zoom room. Reflections, questions.

Day 2
10.30-12.30 Lecture
Lecture 2: Cathy Urquhart
12.30-13.30 Lunch break
13.30-15.30 Workshop with 15 minutes break
Workshop with feedback on course participants’ papers. Three groups, each teacher is chair of one group.
15.30-16.00 Wrap up
We re-assemble in the main zoom room. Reflections, questions.

Day 3
10.30-12.30 Lecture
Lecture 3: Naila Sahar
12.30-13.30 Lunch break
13.30-14.00 Evaluation
Final session with evaluation
Course readings: Will be provided after the acceptance to the course

Obligatory Preparations after the acceptance to the course:
– Course readings
– Paper (2–5 pages describing research problem related to the participant’s PhD thesis project or MA thesis project) to be sent to the InterGender Consortium Coordinator Edyta Just (edyta.just[at]liu.se) AT THE LATEST TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE COURSE STARTS. Remember to mark it with your name and the course name.
– All participants are expected to read the paper of their fellow group members before the course and be prepared to offer constructive comments in the group sessions and workshops. The papers will be made available online.

Optional Essay after the end of the course:
– An essay of 6000-7000 words to be handed in no later than 3 months after the course. One copy should be sent to the teacher, who chaired the group in which the candidate/student presented her/his/their paper at the course and who is going to evaluate it, and one to the InterGender Consortium Coordinator Edyta Just (edyta.just[at]liu.se). The teacher has 3 months to evaluate the essay.
– The essay should strike a balance between addressing a theme that has been part of course (lectures, discussions, reading material), and be relevant for participant’s own research.
– The essay should, moreover, be considered as an exercise in doing a written presentation aimed at an academic readership not familiar with the author’s research. The essay should constitute a whole and explain relevant contexts.

Accreditation and examination:

• 7,5 ECTS credits are given for active participation and a short paper, 2-5 pages (graded pass/fail) for 3 days course.
• 10 ECTS credits are given for active participation plus an essay (graded pass/fail) for 3 days course.
• An essay of 6000-7000 words to be handed in no later than 3 months after the course. One copy should be sent to the teacher, who chaired the group in which the candidate/student presented her/his/their paper at the course and who is going to evaluate it, and one to the InterGender Consortium Coordinator Edyta Just (edyta.just[at]liu.se). The teacher has 3 months to evaluate the essay.

Course Certificate:
In order to request the certificate, please send an e-mail to Edyta Just(edyta.just[at]liu.se).
The Consortium Coordinator issues, upon request, a certificate indicating to how many ECTS credits course participation is considered equal. It is the candidate/student’s own responsibility to ask her/his/their home institution about its accreditation rules and to obtain appropriate credit for participation in InterGender course within the enrolled curriculum.

Applications should be written in English and include:

name, affiliation, full address, e-mail, phone * name and affiliation of PhD supervisor or MA supervisor * brief CV * description of PhD project or MA project (1-2 pages) * motivation: why do you want to participate in the course (1-2 pages) * please, indicate if you are in the first/middle/last phase of your PhD research or if you are advanced MA student.

Information on Admission:

1.Participants have to be registered as PhD candidates or advanced MA students.

2. The InterGender courses are open for PhD and advance MA students from all disciplines and countries.

3. Participants will be selected on the basis of an evaluation of their CV, project description and a letter of motivation.

4. If there are more applicants who qualify for participation, than there are places, the places will be distributed along the following criteria:
a) Applicants registered as PhD candidates or advanced MA students at a Partner Unit will be prioritized for a maximum of 90% of places with approximately 25 % of the 90% open to MA-students. When the places are distributed among the Partner Units, a good spread between these units will also be ensured.
b) Applicants registered as PhD candidates in another unit at the Partner Higher Education Establishments will be prioritized for 10 % of the places. When the places are distributed among the Partner Higher Education Establishments, a good spread between these establishments will also be ensured. If places remain of the 90 % prioritized for PhD candidates and advanced MA students registered at a Partner Unit, these places will instead be prioritized for PhD candidates registered at a Partner Higher Education Establishments.
c) If the applicants according to a) and b) do not fill all the places, remaining places will be open for competition between all eligible and qualifying applicants from any higher education establishment.

5. If there are more eligible and qualified applicants for the available places, a selection process will take place, which, in addition to academic quality and motivation/relevance, will use non-discriminatory selection criteria, which will ensure a spread of nationalities, regions, institutions and disciplines.

6. An additional lot drawing procedure will be used, if several eligible and in all respects equally qualified applicants are competing for the limited number of places in the different categories.

7. In case of too many eligible and qualifying applicants, a waiting list will also be organized, and places will be offered to applicants on this list, should some of the selected participants cancels her/his/their participation.

8. The consortium coordinator (5.3) selects participants under the auspice of the Board, and is required to report to the Board how selection is distributed between the Consortium Partners. If the Board finds that the distribution is uneven, the Consortium Coordinator shall compensate for this in future selections.

9. Upon request of a Partner/Partner Unit/Partner Higher Education Establishment, the Consortium Coordinator (5.3) issues a certificate indicating how many ECTS credits should be awarded for the participation in a particular course. It is the candidate/student’s own responsibility to ask her/his/their home institution about its accreditation rules and to obtain appropriate credit for participation in InterGender course within the enrolled curriculum.

InterGender Partner Units and Higher Education Establishments

• Higher Education Establishment: Linköping University, Partner Units: Unit of Gender Studies, Department of Thematic Studies, Coordinating Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: Göteborg University, Partner Unit: Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, Full Partner 3. Higher Education Establishment: Karlstad University, Partner Unit: Centre for Gender Studies, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: Luleå University of Technology, Partner Unit: Department of Business Administration, Technology and Social Science, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: Lund University, Partner Unit: Department of Gender Studies, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: Mid Sweden University, Partner Unit: Research Subject Sociology and Forum for Gender Studies, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: The Norwegian National Research School in Gender Studies, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: Södertörn University, Partner Unit: Gender Studies, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: Umeå University, Partner Unit: Umeå Centre for Gender Studies, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: Goethe University Frankfurt, Partner Unit: Cornelia Goethe Center/GRADE Center Gender, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: University of Granada, Partner Unit: Grupo Investigación PAI Hum592 Recepcion, Modos y Géneros de la Literatura en Lengua Inglesa, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Partner Unit: Center for transdisciplinary Gender Studies, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: University of Innsbruck, Partner Unit: Center for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies Innsbruck (CGI), Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: University of Lodz, Partner Unit: Women’s Studies Centre, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: University of Oviedo, Partner Unit: Gender and Diversity PhD and MA Programmes, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: Utrecht University, Partner Unit: Graduate Gender Programme/Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies, Full Partner
• Higher Education Establishment: University of Vienna, Partner Unit: Gender Research Office, Full Partner