Astrida Neimanis, Degree Convenor for the MSc Gender and MSc Gender (Research) 2011-2012
-
Wednesday 2 May 2012
-
5.00-6.00pm
-
Alumni Theatre, NAB.LG.09, New Academic Buliding
-
Chaired by Professor Anne Phillips, LSE Gender Institute Director
Open to all - no booking required.
Abstract
According to Gaston Bachelard, language is drawn from the material world. In this sense, the materiality of water--its logics, movements, textures and grammars--, can help us think, speak, and theorize. Immersed in an aqueous imaginary, we have access to ways of thinking that more terrestrial logics might hide. In this seminar, I consider how thinking with water can inspire—and trouble—the concepts and frameworks that comprise feminist thought's theoretical ground. Specifically, I consider how feminist thinking around sexuality, on the one hand, and epistemology, on the other, can be productively "watered." These ideas emerge from my collaborative work on the Thinking with Water project over the past three years, but also from my time spent in the past year at LSE thinking with my students about these questions in feminist theory.
Biography
Astrida Neimanis is Degree Convenor at the Gender Institute for the MSc Gender and MSc Gender (Research) for 2011-2012. Her research interests include feminist theories of embodiment, feminist methodologies, and critical materialist approaches to transnational feminisms. Water, as both an urgent ecological issue and a lively "thing to think with," is her area of specialization. Deeply interdisciplinary, her work also engages posthumanist theory, science studies, and critical animal studies from feminist perspectives. Prior to joining the Gender Institute, Astrida taught gender studies, peace studies and philosophy at several universities in Canada, and is the recipient of numerous teaching awards. Astrida also has extensive experience as a policy consultant on gender for the United Nations Development Program.