Women’s Studies Now!

From the climate emergency through attacks on women’s bodily autonomy to the place of gender in far-right populist discourse, Women’s Studies is uniquely placed to shine a critical light on some of the most urgent topics facing the world today. Women’s Studies Now! brings together some of the cutting-edge feminist research being conducted at the University of York and beyond.

Upcoming events

Past events

Women's Studies Now! 'Challenges for Palestinian Feminists Now’ with Dr Nabila Espanioly

Wednesday 6 March 2024

During York International Women’s Week, the Centre for Women’s Studies (in association with the Centre for Applied Human Rights and the University of York Palestinian Solidarity Collective) will be hosting a talk by clinical psychologist Nabila Espanioly, a feminist and activist from Nazareth.

Roundtable Discussion: Mobilising Women’s Studies Now! Feminist Activism and Scholarship in Dialogue

Tuesday 6 June 2023

Chaired by Boriana Alexandrova (CWS, University of York, the event features the following speakers: Ann Kaloski Ruth Kelly Anugya Kunwar Mariam Topchishvili

Cleanfluencing: The Spectacular Return of the Housewife in the Late Modern Digital Age

Tuesday 2 May 2023

Popular depictions of housework as ‘sparking joy’; as the preserve of the ‘happy housewife’; as key to a happy family; as an expression of ‘care’; and as ‘women’s work’, have a long and stubborn history. Today, digital social media is flooded with images of gleaming, immaculately tidy homes with accounts dedicated to reproducing images of women cleaning, tidying and ordering domestic spaces omnipresent across social media. The influencer boon, alongside a renewed post-pandemic focus on keeping homes clean, germ-free and ‘safe’, has culminated in the burgeoning popularity of ‘cleanfluencing’; an online re-configuration of the white woman housewife, responsible for curating digital images of the perfect home and with overwhelmingly women followers. And yet housework remains one of the most unequal institutions globally.

Centre for Women’s Studies Annual Lecture: Thinking Decolonially through an Intersectional Lens

Wednesday 8 March 2023

Speaker: Avtar Brah, Professor Emerita in Sociology at Birkbeck Chaired by Rachel Alsop, Director of CWS

Roundtable Discussion: Queer Now!

Tuesday 7 February 2023

Speaker(s): Chaired by Ann Kaloski Naylor (CWS, UoY), the event features four speakers.

Roundtable on Gender and Violence

Monday 21 November 2022

Chaired by Clare Bielby

“Women, Life, Freedom”: A Feminist Uprising in Iran

Tuesday 25 October 2022

Speaker: Zahra Tizro

Roundtable on Gender and Migration

Wednesday 19 October 2022

Chaired by Rachel Alsop