BU Research Blog

Category / Women’s Academic Network

May 29, 2015

GENERATION EXODUS! Rising from brutality’s crucible

Featured academics, Global engagement, Public engagement, Research communication, Research news, Women's Academic Network Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

Professor Otto Hutter

As part of our on-going successful research seminar series at the Faculty of Heath & Social Sciences’ Centre for Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy, on the 27^th May we were very privileged to be able to invite back Professor Otto Hutter, former Regius Professor of Physiology at the University of Glasgow (1971 to 1990). This was a hugely successful public engagement event that attracted an audience of 52 people, drawn in part via the Dorset Race Equality Council, the Bournemouth Council of Christians and Jews and composed of a large number of the general public, our Visiting Fellow, the Rector of St Peter’s Church, Revd Dr Ian Terry, BU students and staff from the Midwifery, Social Work and Sociology teams and the Public Engagement team.

Educated in Vienna and England, Professor Hutter graduated with a BSc and PhD from University College, London and worked in the Department of Physiology there focusing on neuromuscular and synaptic transmissions and cardiac and skeletal muscle. He was a member of the staff of the National Institute for Medical Research from 1961 and joined the University of Glasgow ten years later, eventually becoming an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the School of Life Sciences at the University.

His childhood experiences, however, are even more astonishing. Back in 1938 with the black clouds of war looming over Europe, Stanley Baldwin, the former Prime Minister, made an impassioned appeal on radio for public aid on the 8^th Dec 1938, in the wake of the infamous Kristallnacht pogrom that had just taken place a month earlier in Germany. Over £522,000 – a huge sum then – was raised in answer to the call from the concerned, ecumenical British public. This provided the impetus for the famous Kindertransport Movement that sought to rescue as many endangered Jewish children as possible from Nazi oppression.

Otto, as a 14-year-old boy, was one of the first children to reach sanctuary in Britain on the Kindertransport. He was eventually taken under the wing of his British sponsors and soon after excelled at the public school, Bishop’s Stortford College, as public schools also rose to the challenge of taking in refugee children on a scholarship basis. From there, he continued his rise to eminence.

However, since retirement to Bournemouth, Professor Hutter has been a tireless member of the local community, giving and attending talks at Holocaust Commemoration events. About 18 months ago Professor Hutter was kind enough to give a talk to our BU sociology students. It was so very good, so deeply moving – as many students told us later – that we wanted him to repeat it. However, Professor Hutter told us that he does not like repeating the same talk and so this time the seminar focused on the individual research he has painstakingly undertaken to uncover the stories of the 40 Viennese school mates from the academically elite Chajes Gymnasium in Vienna that he left behind upon his escape to Britain.

A quite incredible piece of social history was revealed emerging from the darkest period of modern European history; and yet among the tragic examples there were many more where the classmates had survived through combinations of ingenuity, luck, sheer perseverance and opportunism – not forgetting the key element for many tales of survival: the diligence and self-effacing devotion of the parents of these gifted children.

More of these youngsters than might reasonably be supposed went to on survive and prosper across the globe as far afield as Latin America, North America, the UK and, in particular, Israel. A high proportion went on to become academics, like Professor Hutter himself, along with others who became successful professionals and entrepreneurs. Jewish refugees, including some classmates, who escaped to Ecuador, were apparently later celebrated by the Ecuadorian Government as having brought vital technical innovation and European know-how to greatly benefit this formerly undeveloped, agrarian society.

Professor Hutter had the audience delighted by the account of an incredible escape of a particularly irresistibly charming classmate, who having escaped to Vichy France, had been rounded up for deportation and was rescued on the eve of his journey to death by the plucky daughter of a high powered Vichy politician.

However, equally those who did not survive need to be commemorated as the unforgotten victims of the Holocaust. We heard of one young girl who died of typhoid fever, having nursed fellow sufferers among the refugee ship to Cuba, where very sadly she succumbed to the disease upon docking at Havana. Professor Hutter told us about other classmates who had escaped to Belgium but were then captured and sent first to Theresienstadt concentration camp and then to their deaths in Auschwitz. One of the most moving accounts was that of young man and his sister who were killed in 1945, having managed to survive in hiding in Vienna for so long. The brother was captured in a bunker with nine other Jews as the SS were fleeing from the city ahead of the Allies, but still determined to kill as many of the dispersed Jewish community as could be found. Each captured individual was taken out one-by-one where those inside could hear the rattle and blast of the machine-guns and hand-grenades used for execution. Prof Hutter’s former classmate was the first to die.

The highly picaresque and deeply poignant were all covered in this splendid piece of research, which completely engaged the audience. However, these are also lessons from history that hold powerful resonance for today’s political arena, where European governments seem to gravitate towards entrenched right-wing positions, as can be seen by the election results in both the UK and Israel.

Each survivor from the Viennese Gymnasium enriched the countries immeasurably with their intelligence and their talent. These immigrants had no choice but to try to make a new life for themselves in their adopted countries and did so with extraordinary energy, zeal and optimism. This is the real story of why immigration remains the life-blood of progressive nations – and yet is so little heard of these fundamentally positive aspects in today’s ignorant and short-sighted political rhetoric that panders to xenophobia and isolationism. Today UK governments might well have been tempted not allow individuals like Otto Hutter into this country in the first place or equally tempted to deport them back again to their countries of origins. It makes one pause for a long moment to truly take in the full consequences of such disastrous and bigoted attitudes and associated actions.

Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Jonathan Parker

May 5, 2015

Seeing through the Confucian ceiling: Chinese and Korean mothers in England

BU research, Women's Academic Network hlim

Dr Hyun-Joo Lim

This year’s British Sociological Association annual conference was held at Glasgow Caledonian University on the theme of ‘Societies in Transition: Progression or Regression?’ Taking place in April each year, it is the biggest Sociology conference in the UK. With so many great opportunities to meet new and old academics, I always find this event utterly exciting and inspiring.

At this conference I presented a paper examining the experiences of Chinese and Korean mothers in England – titled ‘Seeing through the Confucian Ceiling’. This paper is drawn from life history interviews with ten Korean and eight Chinese mothers living in England. I analysed my data using six analytical categories, which are: motherhood and gender ideology; educational level; reasons for migration; the length of stay in England; economic circumstances of the family; and the local communities in which they reside. The paper has been submitted to Families, Relationships and Societies and is currently under review. It aims to address the following questions:

1. In what ways does the motherhood ideology of Chinese and Korean mothers in England differ, and what impact does this have on their decision towards childcare and employment?

2. What are the major factors affecting such attitudes and behaviours in a diasporic setting?

3. What implications does this have on gender relations at home for these women?

I focus on the different motherhood ideologies of Chinese and Korean women and how this impacts on their employment and childcare.

Historically both China and South Korea have been heavily influenced by Confucianism, an ancient Chinese tradition that is refined by Confucius, which supports patriarchal gender relations. The key principles of Confucianism include: hierarchical human relationships, fulfilment of individual duties, communitarian values over individual ones, filial piety, and importance of seniority. Yet, simultaneously China and Korea have undergone divergent socio, political and economic development. For instance, China has only opened up the economy to market competition since 1978, much later than Korea, whilst maintaining its socialist political system. On the other hand, Korea has followed the capitalist market economy and the democratic political system since the establishment of the Republic of Korea in 1948. As a consequence of this, China and Korea have developed different ‘national cultures’, founded on the distinctive socio, economic and political characteristics of the individual countries. In line with this, existing studies conducted in these countries have indicated that despite the impact of Confucian patriarchal ideals on both societies, women in China and Korea have heterogeneous understandings of what constitutes ‘good’ mothering (e.g. Cho, 2002; Rofel, 1999). Thus, there are notable differences in the employment patterns of women with dependent children between China and Korea (see Brinton, et al. 1995; Cook and Dong, 2011).

My findings suggest that Korean mothers retained their traditional values and gendered roles, having chosen not to get involved in paid employment in order to undertake childcare responsibilities. They strongly supported intensive mothering, in which the mother takes the major responsibility for her children. Often the women described mother’s employment as having a detrimental impact on their children’s emotional wellbeing. Even those who were in employment did not show much difference in terms of their support for intensive motherhood.

By contrast, Chinese mothers did not endorse intensive mothering and showed their strong inclination to work even after moving to England, similar to their middle-class counterparts living in urban China. They constructed this as an effect of Mao’s socialist work ethic, under which they were brought up, irrespective of their economic circumstances and educational levels. In this sense, their paid work was not a mere means to provide financial support for the family, unlike existing literature has suggested, but also a crucial part of their identity.

However, despite seemingly stark differences between the two groups, gender relations at home appear to be similar. Although the accounts of Chinese mothers seem to indicate gender equality on the surface, their interview data suggest continuing gender inequality for the majority of these women, taking the double burden of childcare and paid work. Although Chinese and Korean mothers showed very different beliefs and attitudes towards employment, all the women took the primary responsibility for household labour, regardless of their educational level and employment status.

In terms of intersecting analytical components, Chinese and Korean women’s motherhood and gender ideology as obtained in their country of origin, along with their settlement into respective ethnic communities, continued to have a dominant impact on their lives in England. As for the other four analytical categories, they seem to have had less obvious impact on Chinese and Korean women’s lives. However, drawing on Hall (1990), it could be suggested that what is considered to be ‘an East Asian way’ in a transnational setting is not the same as what it is in their ‘home’ countries because it is ‘imagined’ and ‘reconfigured’ in a diasporic context. In this sense, I argue that the mothering ideologies and gendered lives for my participants are ‘hybridised’ forms that are distinctive from those existing in both their ‘home’ countries and England.

March 30, 2015

The ‘Alternative Jerusalem Tour – after Jericho

Global engagement, Public engagement, Research Integritiy, Women's Academic Network Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

A few days ago I wrote a BU blog reporting on a Palestinian-Israeli peace and reconciliation conference where I had invited to give a keynote lecture – a great and challenging honour. As stated, I was greatly impressed by the openness of the mixed group of participants to engage in very difficult discussions.

Following the workshop, however, one of the participants, a Palestinian health professional, expressed his sense of disillusionment that the Israeli participants seemed to know little of the realities of the lives of Palestinian in Jerusalem. That therefore the dialogues, although constructive, were self-referential in merely speaking parallel discourses without achieving a breakthrough into true awareness of the other. If this were so here, in this welcoming forum, what hope was there beyond that in wider Israel?

‘People don’t want to see what it is really like for Palestinians in Jerusalem’ he said despondently.

‘I do!’ I replied.

He brightened up. I did? I really did? How much time did I have? One morning only before I left for London but it would have to be enough.

The next day I met Mas’ud in the hotel lobby. I witnessed him being interrogated by our tough looking Israeli security man before being allowed in. I was uncomfortably aware of the hard stares we were given as I got into his car. I had no doubt at all that the car’s registration number was being taken down. None of this seemed to mar Mas’ud’s happy mood to have me travelling with him. He stopped and drew a map of the country on a scrap of paper. ‘I shall not call it Israel,’ he said meaningfully to me. ‘This is a map of Palestine.’ We passed by a Court of Law and Masu’d said how Palestinians hated this place: ‘all our sons are judged here’ under Israeli law. Even ‘ten, twelve-year-old-children – for throwing stones’.

From the Jerusalem escarpment we saw the great panorama of the outskirts of the city with its ancient boundaries. The Mount of Olives rises from a deep valley and all down the side of the valley one can see small white houses on a vertical rise. The view from this high vantage point is incredible. It might be thought colourfully picturesque in a primitive way if one did not know what it meant. The most compressed space imaginable for the Palestinians, where blocks of residences cling to the side of the mountain precariously like birds nesting on a sheer cliff face. I am told that all the lands behind the Mount of Olives are occupied by Jewish settlers.

The golden dome of the Russian Orthodox Church glints in the sunlight. Below that is the Church of the Last Supper, full of tourist pilgrims as usual. Mas’ud says he doesn’t know much about Christianity but says he knows that Christ walked and preached in these hills. Mas’ud tells me that not only are Christians liked but more, they are ‘loved’. Indeed I have seen with what great reverence the Christian monks and nuns are held in here in Jerusalem. He confirms something I have already observed that Muslims send their children to Christian schools and that the children of both religions mix happily together without problems. From what I have read in my visit to churches here in the Holy Lands the oppression of Muslims and Christians is felt to be shared – and thus the bond between them is very close as two of the three offspring of the Abrahamic legacy. But I am also told that the Palestinian Christians and Muslims cannot access the holy sites even on special holy days if they live outside of the checkpoints. To pass through is infinitely complex, uncertain and fraught and full of ritual mortification – the pain and humiliation of which some Palestinians tried to express in the conference.

From birds-eye viewpoints we can see a sinister grey tentacle that winds itself around Jerusalem. What it can be is hard to make out from here, as indeed is the scale of it. We pass by the Hebrew University – ‘built on Palestinian land’ is the cold comment. The big hospital ‘over there’ is built on Masu’d’s village land that the families are unable to return to. He also tells me that they are trying to protect it from being built on by Jewish settlers, not on the grounds of legal ownership but because of archaeological interest – it isn’t stated as such but the implications are very clear, archaeology is seen as a more legitimate claim.

We drive up the road and pass Al Aqsa – the ancient and deeply venerated mosque. It is large, imposing, simple and sand-coloured. There was a footbridge that can still be seen to which the faithful could travel from this side where we are, but the bridge is now adjacent to a police checkpoint, where it is illegal to park. We cannot stay there long, a quick look and then we must go. The Israeli guard was hesitant to let us in to the compound in the first place but being a British citizen still carries some weight. I ask Masu’d if I can enter, but no apparently foreigners cannot go in – but it is not the Palestinians who would keep me out though, he says.

Very close by there is the so-called ‘City of David’, a compound opposite Al Aqsa, for Jewish Israelis only. In the valley along the road close by is a Jewish cemetery. When it is Jewish holy days the entire area is closed down and no Palestinian can move there. Given its proximity to Palestinian enclaves this must be an intolerable curfew. The Israeli Star of David flag is spotted everywhere in this tightly packed Palestinian residential area. Masu’d tell me that the police set up surveillance areas on top of living quarters. Therefore families of Palestinians literally have the Israeli police above them – I am left to contemplate how that must feel for those families daily.

It would seem as though there has been a major bombing raid round here, so many houses lie in ruins, demolished. They have actually been demolished by the Israeli State. Apparently Palestinians find it very hard to get a building license and this costs 200,000 shekels (approximately £34,000) (prior to any construction costs). Without that the building gets demolished (residents are given the choice of pulling it down themselves) and then, incredibly, the State sends a bill to the luckless resident for the bulldozing charges!

Incredibly the Palestinians have to pay the same taxes as ever other Israeli and yet not only is life so oppressed and tenuous, in many places they have no amenities either. By amenities, Masu’d means, rubbish removal, pavements, any kind of half civilised housing, playgrounds, a single miserable patch of grass, security. Some neighbourhoods we pass through are completely devoid of any security measures at all and every other welfare facility to boot. Needless to say it attracts many criminals and all manner of crimes are carried out and go unpunished.

I am stunned by the numbers of families living in these unutterably compressed and squalid places, Here is one miserable, dirty, dusty enclave where families live on top of each like stacked shoeboxes in some long forgotten warehouse. Here there are 55,000 people living, there 40,000, somewhere else (I see a distant view of dystopic high-rises behind the ubiquitous wall), 70,000, and so it goes on. We pass a Palestinian mother with three little tots stumbling along – they have no choice but to walk on the road, there is no paving. We drive on winding around the babies and the cars, and the overflowing mess of un-emptied bins, rubbish everywhere, a few miserable ducks drinking from a filthy puddle, pass a sign for the UAE Red Crescent charities. We pass a Christian priest hurrying along to catch a bus. We pass another ghetto down the hill where no car can pass as there is only one entrance impeded deliberately by huge boulders and, guarded by the ubiquitous Israeli police.

We pass Israeli apartments, a few times. The contrast between these and the Palestinian homes is completely and brutally stark. One typical example is a row of apartments or townhouses of good architecture with wide terraces on pleasant streets with trees and flowers. An excellent recycle waste-disposal unit stands ready for use by residents. In another such area a children’s playground with good equipment is a hop-and-skip from pleasant homes. Orthodox Jewish children dressed in black play sedately here. Three minutes by car stands another neighbourhood – graced by incredible poverty, filth and deprivation. No doubt these Israeli children go to nice, well-equipped schools, but in Jerusalem Palestinian children can take hours to travel through the checkpoints in the morning although the school incredibly actually stand within sight. They are the lucky ones, thousands of others have no school to go to.

And everywhere we go winds the great, grey wall that divides neighbourhoods, communities and families from each other. Even, and this is quite incredible – one house from another – the wall extrudes from a house – simply cuts it off. The wall is huge, immense and topped by fencing and wire. The perfect canvas of course for furious, anti-Israeli slogans although oddly I don’t see many. What happens to graffiti artists here? I wonder nervously.

Masu’d asks with passionate rhetoric, ‘How can the kids in this place put their hands into that of the Israelis?” He goes on. ‘The Israelis say they want peace after they have taken everything, everything from us! The wall in Berlin was destroyed’, he says, ‘but here they think it brings them security. It won’t. I have my work, I have my kids but those who have nothing, because a man cannot get work – because he cannot pass through the checkpoints that day, he has no food, he has no schooling for his children, nothing!’…. What has he to lose? Is the message. ‘Better to die once than die every day!’

We end our tour in the most agonising way imaginable. Mas’ud’s neighbours wish us to visit them to speak of their recent loss. Mohammed was their fourteen-year-old son (their photos show a skinny little lad with a sweetly gormless grin). Last July during Ramadan, while sitting outside his parent’s shop waiting for the mosque to open for dawn prayers, he was forcibly abducted by three young Israelis bent on revenge for the shooting of three Israeli youths.

The family show me harrowing but brief CTV footage they still have of the beginnings of the abduction. Mohammed was driven off to a nearby forest. His mouth was filled with petrol and his head set alight, the family tell me. When he didn’t expire quickly enough the rest of him was burned alive. When his body was found Jerusalem went wild with protests. Shimon Perez offered to meet the family but they regard Israeli policy as directly complicit in Mohammed’s death and refused to meet him, although have received condolences from Israeli sympathisers.

I also hear that there has been no formal help given to this family at all to help them cope with appalling trauma. Needless to say the younger siblings are completely traumatised as well as the parents. Even Mas’ud’s three-year-old child knows of Mohammed’s death. Mas’ud says he misses hearing Mohammed’s step on the stairs – it is a reminder of not only what close proximity the people here live in but in all ways, the trauma is a collective one. As we leave the family press on me gifts of beads that they brought back from the hajj as mementoes – the pilgrimage made on behalf of Mohammed who will never now make the journey. They press on me a bag of sage, a poster of their beloved son. They tell me I always have a home in Jerusalem now – their home. They break my heart.

Within an hour, Moishe, my friendly, Iraqi-Jewish-Israeli taxi driver is driving me to Tel Aviv Airport. We pass the West Bank, even I am becoming used to the sight now of all the gun turrets and armed checkpoints we pass by. I remember something Mas’ud said to me earlier: ‘Every family here has lost someone, a son, a daughter.’

‘Arab village’ Moishe says, waving to his left as we drive by. Now on the right, ‘Here, Settlement!

What do you think of the all these walls all over Jerusalem, Moishe?’ I ask.

‘Oh, you need walls, for roads,’ he says, adding after a pause, ‘and to keep the Palestinians out.’

‘Do people feel safer with all these walls everywhere?’

‘Well, better to have peace of course,’ he says. ‘But first have the peace and then the walls can go down.’

‘Perhaps there would be peace more quickly if the walls came down first.’

No reply. I leave it – for now.

Professor Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

March 20, 2015

‘And the walls came tumbling down’ – BU involved in Palestinian-Israeli peace and reconciliation dialogues

Global engagement, Women's Academic Network Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict represents one of the most protracted and volatile in contemporary global politics. In Europe, we witness events from the outside through the shock and glare of television newsflashes. We are uncomfortably aware of the huge gulf between the world we inhabit of quotidian demands and trivial, micro conflicts – and that other world that vibrates terrifyingly with the devastating and cataclysmic, horrifyingly symbolised by the bodies of the killed, so many of them young children.

Given my academic interests I was therefore deeply honoured to be invited on an all-expenses paid trip to Israel recently, by our Visiting Professor to the currently named Centre of Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy (CSWSSP) in FHSS – Professor Alean Al-Krenawi – a world renowned social work scholar of Bedouin heritage. The invitation was to give a keynote lecture in Jerusalem at the final conference/workshop under the ‘Building Peace Through Knowledge Program’, a Palestinian-Israeli project, under the auspices of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and generously funded by the USAID Conflict Mitigation and Reconciliation Program. This three-year project was developed by Professor Al-Krenawi and his impressive colleague, Dr Tawfiq Salman, the General Director of the Palestinian Neuropsychiatric Rehabilitation Center (PNRC) Bethlehem and President of the Palestinian Association for Child & Adolescence Mental Health (PACAMH). The aims of the project have been to bring together participant dialogue groups in conference workshops – and this final event would seek to embed, encapsulate and take forward the good work developed so far.

The invitation therefore was both a great privilege and honour – and an undeniably challenging one, replete with huge, raw sensitivities to acknowledge and yawning pits for the vigilant, let alone unwary, to carefully negotiate. Here, to a large mixed audience of Israeli and Palestinian professionals working across the domains of human services, education and health disciplines, I presented a paper entitled ‘Chaos and coalescence in the narratives of hardship: a new pedagogy for human services’. The aim was to begin to create a meta-narrative of hardship and suffering in order to recognise fully the humanity and the pain of the ‘other’; and to find a universal commonality transcending the barriers of ethnicity, religion and years of violent oppression and conflict.

A highly ambitious undertaking therefore, which could only be attempted with great humility to be open to truly hearing and acknowledging the stories and accounts from participants – often exceedingly painful and occasionally inflammatory to others. The potential for offence was extremely high, but so too were the stakes for greater understanding and accord together with individual commitment to working towards a more peaceful and equitable future.

Following my talk the audience were then encouraged to break into small, mixed ethnic discussion groups to discuss narratives of hardship and suffering that they had encountered, engaged in or witnessed – and to reflect on these in terms of the impact upon individuals at the personal and professional levels. An excellent omen, I wryly noticed, was that one of the conference rooms where I was helping to facilitate discussion groups was called ‘Jericho’ – and thus together we began to bring down the walls.

I was deeply impressed by the willingness of the audience to engage in these difficult discussions. A few Palestinian and Israeli participants had already been able to develop close friendships through these dialogue encounters, maintained even across the worst of the fighting of the Intifadas. Yet, as we learn, there have been more peace and reconciliation dialogue groups taking place in Israel than in any other country globally – and sadly to little overall effect. Worse still such dialogues by the very act of breaking down personal-political barriers can exacerbate the huge of sense of (now) personal betrayal felt by participants in ensuing violence.

A key component of success we heard about is to ‘scale up’: in other words to increase the social impact of the good will developed in dialogue groups by expanding their influence externally. Accordingly, the aim is to expand both horizontally by creating meta-networks and vertically to reach government levels for necessary policy change. At the moment extremely aggressive hawks have been in the ascendance but the Israeli general elections are being held very soon. Accordingly many Israeli participants at the workshop expressed the hope that the political landscape would soon be changed by a more moderate government through democratic processes. Sadly, however, some of the Palestinian colleagues at the workshop had no voting rights despite being life-long Jerusalem residents. There is clearly still much work to do in such a troubled and unequal region of the world.

Dr Tawfiq Salman & Prof Alean Al-Krenawi

Bringing down the walls in Jericho

On a final constructive note, BU Sociology+ academics are able to continue some of this important work in Israel. Via these connections BU is now the British partner for a Palestinian-Israeli, USA and UK conference on diversity and multiculturalism (a key research theme within CSWSSP) to be held in 2016 under the auspices of the Achva Academic College, whose President is our much-esteemed colleague and friend, Alean Al-Krenawi.

Professor Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

March 17, 2015

International Women’s Day Celebration Event held by WAN

Uncategorized, Women's Academic Network Chris Shiel

Bournemouth University’s Women’s Academic Network (WAN) met at the Executive Business Centre to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) on 6 March 2015. It provided space for reflection on WAN’s next steps at BU and recognition about women’s progress since the early 20^th century. Indeed, the first official day to recognise women’s contribution to society was held in 1910 in Copenhagen, and this was a precursor to gradual policy change across Europe to support women’s suffrage and the right to work. International Women’s Day, as we know it now, is a more recent development launched by the United Nations in 1975.

Our guest speaker for International Women’s Day was Siobhan Benita, Chief Policy and Strategy Officer, at Warwick University’s Department of Economics, and co-director of the Warwick Policy Lab. Prior to joining Warwick, Siobhan achieved significant results as a senior civil servant who also led gender balance and diversity policies across Whitehall.

A quick Google of images when typing in the search terms ‘vice chancellor’, ‘FTSE chief executive’, ‘permanent secretary’, ‘MP’, or indeed, any major influential role in British society and the pictures that emerge are still overwhelmingly of middle-aged men clad in the classic grey business suit.

Siobhan recollected that when she joined Civil Service Fast Stream 15 years ago, one of her team found an old letters file from the HR archive. It was from women begging to be reinstated to their Civil Service jobs after their fiancés had jilted them before their wedding day. The file was from 1973; at the time Home Civil Service rules stipulated that women resign from their posts if they intended to get married.

Thirty years later, Siobhan has overseen changes that would have been unthinkable a decade earlier. Achieving greater diversity at all levels in the Civil Service has also ensured that policy design works better, because it reflects the fabric of the UK’s communities better.

What made the difference was that Siobhan was given active support from the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, Sir Gus O’ Donnell, who also wanted to make equality and diversity a visible and measurable outcome in how the Civil Service operated. The class system was a particular challenge to overcome. Sir Gus made it a performance requirement for all Permanent Secretaries (CEO’s of government departments) to demonstrate that they had promoted suitably qualified and talented women and people from diverse backgrounds to senior roles.

This also meant that every government department had to provide annual diversity league tables and facilitate women’s networks in the Civil Service. Fantastic women, who later were recognised for their excellent work, were promoted including the World Bank economist Nemat ‘Minouche’ Shafik, who became Permanent Secretary, DFID. It is one of the most demanding posts in government with its 24/7 response to global crises, yet Minouche negotiated a workday that allowed her to also manage her family responsibilities. By 2011, as a result of this culture change, gender balance was achieved in almost 50% of senior civil service posting, including some of the more traditionally challenging areas such as the Home Office, MOD and Health.

One of the philosophies behind the policy was that any targets set, needed to work at all levels of the organisation, not just the top.

After stepping down from the Civil Service in 2012, Siobhan took a leap of faith and stood as an independent candidate during the Mayor for London elections opposite Boris Johnson. Her manifesto represented communities and young people. She received no funding and had no party machine behind her, yet still managed to achieve 250,000 votes, coming fifth, behind the Liberal Democrat candidate, Brian Paddick.

This was quite an achievement, as at the time, it was almost impossible for an independent Mayoral candidate to achieve airtime at the BBC. Siobhan campaigned with the BBC Trust to incorporate the Electoral Society rules in their decision-making on representation, as their campaign reports focused almost entirely on the Johnson/Livingstone/Paddick offer. As a result of Siobhan’s personal intervention, the rules have been changed to include independents.

It didn’t also help that the press coverage for Siobhan’s campaign, even with solid briefings on policy, budget and planning were left out, while Siobhan’s role as a mother, her clothes, hairdo made up 90% of any feature. This made it very difficult for her to explain how her policies differed from the other candidates..

Siobhan culminated her presentation with her contention that BU’s WAN network should ensure that its objectives were visible and continually at the forefront of university decision-making. She praised WAN’s work at BU and urged everyone – men and women across the university, to keep plugging away to achieve change.

Athena Swan Bronze Update

Professor Tiantian Zhang, Head of the Graduate School at Bournemouth University, gave WAN members the latest update on BU’s Athena Swan submission to achieve equality in both science and academic research. Significant effort had gone into building evidence to support BU’s application and WAN’s contribution and objectives had made a significant difference to its Athena Swan application this time around; keeping up WAN’s visibility and impact would be important in the future.

This led to facilitated table discussions from WAN members about its future goals and meetings. One of the suggestions to support BU achieving the Bronze Athena SWAN award was a campus to campus procession of BU academics in October, as it was a visible statement of progress.

Several ideas for events were suggested, including joint meetings with WAN groups from other universities to share knowledge and best practice and taking forward the Action Learning Sets. A presentation to the BU Executive and academics from Sir Gus O’ Donnell might also be helpful in achieving a framework that could lead to some useful outcomes.

Report from Natasha Tobin

February 11, 2015

BU Faculty of Health & Social Sciences’ academics on Andalusian scientific committee

BU research, Global engagement, Women's Academic Network Jonathan Parker

BU Faculty of Health & Social Sciences academics, Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Prof Jonathan Parker, have been invited to join the scientific committee of Universidad de Málaga’s Project PASOS (Proposals for actions and sustainability parameters in the access and housing rehabilitation in Andalusia) led by the Centre for Social Work, Sociology and Social Policy’s visiting fellow Prof Dr Maria Luisa Gomez-Jimenez. This important project seeks to relieve housing distress and improve accessibility in Andalusia at a time of continued austerity.

A description of the project follows and the full web-site can be found at: http://www.pasosvivienda.uma.es.

Social exclusion increases as evictions do, and the right to housing, established in Statute, is now in question. Thus, in synergy with policies that have been developed by the Andalusian Autonomous Government in defense of the right to housing the project brings to the fore debate and research for enhancing housing policies through various cognate areas: legal, economic, geographical, social, architectural and in the sustainable and green economy.

The PASOS project seeks to:

Promote studies and research for the development of accessibility policies in the field of housing that contribute to social cohesion and provide the improvement of life quality for citizens.
Develop studies and research related to “sustainable building” as strategic line define by the PAIDI (Andalusian Plan of research and development and innovation) in the area of competencies of the Building and Housing Counselling.
Improve the processes of building and preservation applying new technologies to building.
Improve efficiency in energy consumption in building processes and the production of renewable energy in building.

January 19, 2015

Athena SWAN: A Dean’s perspective

BU research, Women's Academic Network Jo Garrad

Speaker: Professor Andrew W. Lloyd

Date and time: 3 Feburary 2015, 15:00-17:00

Location: K101, Kimmeridge House, Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University

Event Description: This presentation will outline the challenges and opportunities of developing both the Institutional Athena Swan Bronze Application and the subsequent development of the individual School Applications within the University of Brighton. It will discuss both the methods used to obtain and analyse the various datasets and the approaches adopted in terms of developing an action plan which would build on our existing practices to improve gender equality and develop a more inclusive and progressive culture within the university.

After the presentation there will be the opportunity for individuals to find out more about the Athena SWAN work at BU and take part in a focus group.

Biography

Professor Andrew W. Lloyd MA (Cantab.) PhD CSci CChem FRSC FBSE FIMMM FHEA
Dean of the College of Life, Health & Physical Sciences, Professor of Biomedical Materials

Andrew Lloyd graduated from Robinson College, University of Cambridge in 1986 with a degree in Natural Sciences, specialising in bioorganic chemistry, biochemistry and pharmacology. He completed his PhD in biopharmaceutics and was appointed to the academic staff in the Department of Pharmacy, University of Brighton as a Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1989, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1993. He was made Reader in Biopharmaceutical Sciences and elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1998 and awarded the chair in Biomedical Materials in 2000. He was appointed as Joint Head of Research with responsibility for strategic planning in the School of Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences in 2000, Dean of the Faculty of Science & Engineering in 2003 and to his present post as Dean of the College of Life, Health & Physical Sciences in 2014.

Professor Lloyd led the Institution’s Athena Swan Self-Assessment Steering Group which secured the University Bronze Award in 2012 and chairs both the University Athena Swan Steering Group, which presently oversees the development of the School-based Award Applications, and the University Research Concordat Implementation Steering Group.

Event Schedule

15:00 Welcome from Professor Tiantian Zhang, Head of Graduate School and Chair of BU Athena SWAN institutional self-assessment team

15:05 Talk from Professor Andrew W. Lloyd

16:00 Overview of the BU Athena SWAN submission, Professor Tiantian Zhang/James Palfreman-Kay

16:10 Group discussions to consider what more should we do:

• in addressing gender balance at BU?

• in supporting and advancing women’s careers?

• in organisation and culture change to enhance gender equality?

• in supporting flexible working and managing career breaks?

16:55 Closing comments, Professor Tiantian Zhang

17:00 Event closes

December 18, 2014

BU academics appointed as dual editors-in-chief

BU research, EU, Women's Academic Network Jonathan Parker

Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Professor Jonathan Parker of the Centre for Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy have been appointed as joint editors-in-chief for a journal published by UK publishing house Whiting & Birch and the Tbilisi SState University in Georgia: Social Policy & Social Work in Transition.

The journal stemmed from an earlier EU-funded Tempus project between Sheffield Hallam University and post-Soviet Eastern European states, including Georgia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and has recently negotiated a bipartite arrangement with Whiting & Birch to ensure its sustainability.

The journal aims to provide a platform for developing insight and research into transitions in social policy and social work predominantly in Eastern European countries, and this remains its primary focus. However, the new editors-in-chief will also expand the journal’s reach into Asia, the Asia Pacific region, Africa and the Americas especially in countries moving through complex socio-political, economic, historical and post-colonial transitions.

This important position was confirmed on the basis of the new editors’ international research links and reputations and adds to the strengths of the Centre for Social Work, Sociology and Social Policy at BU. Dr Ashencaen Crabtree and Professor Parker will lead a multinational editorial board assisted by continuing editors Professor Iago Kachkachishvili of Tbilisi State University, Georgia and Dr Tetyana Semigina of National University ‘Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’, Ukraine (current Secretary of the International Association of Schools of Social Work). Outgoing editor, Professor Emeritus Mark Doel, Sheffield Hallam University, will also remain on the board.

The position offers a springboard to further collaborative social science research in Eastern European and Balkan states, something which the journal is committed to developing.

Prof Jonathan Parker & Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

October 23, 2014

Shaping European Social Work: BU Hosts Erasmus SOCNET 98

BU research, EU, Publishing, student research, Women's Academic Network Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

Sara Ashencaen Crabtree & Jill Davey

For the first time in April 2013 BU hosted the SOCNET International University Week (IUW). This is a high profile international event held rotationally at host European universities drawn from across the 19 Higher Education Institution (HEI) members of the SOCNET community. This important annual event brings together a wide range of European academics and students with an interest in social work and social welfare.

It also provides an opportunity for HSC Social Work and Sociology & Social Policy students to interact with international academics and accompanying European students with educational, cultural and social aims in mind. During the IUW a busy series of workshops and lectures are offered based on a particular chosen theme, to which both academics and students contribute as pedagogic peers. Learning through active scholarly participation is the pedagogic approach that has proved very popular and successful over the years.

The theme of each IUW, alongside other organisational business vital to the continuation and the expansion of Erasmus SOCNET initiative, is managed at each host university in the month of October. Consequently, the Centre of Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy was proud to host this year’s organisational event, represented by HSC Erasmus Coordinator, Jill Davey, and Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, Deputy Director of the Centre.

Attendees included academic representatives from across the SocNet-work at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Austria; School of Social Work, Leuven, Belgium; University College Lillebaelt, Denmark; Hochschule Bremen – University of Applied Sciences, School of Social Work, Germany; Ernst-Abbe Fachhochschule University of Applied Sciences Jena, Germany; Department of Social Science and Care Social Work and Nursing Management, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic; Faculty of Social and Health Studies, Telemark, Denmark; University College, Department of Social Studies, Faculty of Health and Social Studies, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, Netherlands; Humak University of applied sciences, Finland; University of Malaga, and finally, Bournemouth University.

A highly productive and sociable set of meetings took place over the course of several days, where, alongside discussing the European Masters in Social Work (where a UK partner is currently being identified for collaboration), the issues of venue and theme for this year’s International University Week were discussed. Since then invitations from the following four universities have been issued to academics and their students across the SOCNET community to attend the IUW (April 20^th – 24^th 2015) hosted by four international HEIs:

University College Lillebaelt – Department of Social Work. Theme: Trends in social work in the year 2015.
Ernst-Abbe Hochschule, University of Applied Sciences Jena. Theme: Diversity and Innovation in European Social Work and Welfare States.
Telemark University College – Department of Social Studies. Theme: Diversity in Social Work.
Hochschule Bremen. Theme: Methods and Methodologies of Social Work – Reflecting Professional Interventions.

While the IUW clearly emphasises teaching and learning initiatives, together with internationalisation, the research element has been less publicly evident; although scholarship has always fed into the programme through the synergies between education and research.

However, over the past few years BU has altered the SOCNET landscape and is influencing the development of future trends here; where BU academics advocated for the need for high quality publications to be developed from the important lectures and workshops being annually produced in the IUW events.

Accordingly BU input has been instrumental towards developing robust academic output, which also serves to meet the BU Fusion agenda and KPIs. Thus, from the 2012 IUW at the University of Malaga, which carried the theme of ‘Active Ageing’, Professor Maria Luisa Gómez Jiménez and Professor Jonathan Parker developed the first edited SOCNET publication under London publishers, Whiting & Birch’s innovative social science monograph series, ‘Critical Studies in Socio-cultural Diversity’.

Following fast on the heels of this success, in 2013 Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, proposed and developed the second edited volume from the BU event. Moreover, in Volume II, and in keeping with the sprit of SOCNET, strong chapter contributions have featured from students from Bremen and BU (Samineh Richardson neé Hall, BA Sociology & Social Policy and PhD candidate, David Galley).

The next SOCNET publication will be forthcoming from the IUW held at Hochschule Bremen under our esteemed colleague, Professor Christian Spatscheck and colleagues. This will continue an exciting precedence, first initiated and supported to-date by BU under the Centre for Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy; a fact that we are quietly very proud of.

October 12, 2014

Congratulations to Malala Yousafzai !

Public engagement, Uncategorized, Women's Academic Network Edwin van Teijlingen

The Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health would like to take the opportunity to congratulate 17-year old Malala Yousafzai on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Her call for education for every child, especially every girl, is praiseworthy. But her work is more than a local activism; she put her life at risk. Two years ago she was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating the education of girls and women!

We know from our research in Nepal that educating girls has all sorts of positive effects. For example, it means they are likely to marry later, with is associated with having the first child later and having fewer children in total. This in turn means they have a greater chance of survival in childbirth. In Nepal the overall literacy rate (aged 5 years and above) rose from 54.1% in 2001 to 65.9% in 2011, but women (57.4%) still lag behind men (75.1%). We have seen a reduction in maternal mortality over the past two decades, which is in part driven the increase in education levels of girls.

As educators we feel strongly affiliated with her calling, but we must acknowledge that Malala was one of two winners this year. We would also like to congratulate Indian Human Rights Activist Kailash Satyarthi. Mr Satyarthi fights the grave exploitation of children for financial gain.

Malala is not only part of the minority of women who have ever won the Nobel Peace Prize, she is also the youngest ever to win the award!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

October 3, 2014

‘It’s Only Banter!’ – ‘Lad Culture’ in University settings

Public engagement, Research themes, Women's Academic Network Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

On the evening of the 30^th September, the Women’s Academic Network hosted a well attended debate on ‘lad culture’ in the wake of the published NUS research report on women’s experiences of this phenomenon in Higher Education Institutions in the UK. The report entitled That’s what she said was based on commissioned research undertaken by the Centre for Gender Studies at Sussex University.

Crucially for our institution, two of our speakers that night were undergraduate students at BU. They were supported on the debating panel by Blogger and journalist, Reni Eddo Lodge and ‘No More Page 3’ campaign founder Lucy Ann Holmes.

The prevalence of so-called ‘lad culture’, constitutes an important debate to be had at any contemporary UK HEI; and where none are likely to be insulated from this widespread social phenomenon, which appears to be becoming more entrenched in university life, for reasons that are unclear. We were thus particularly pleased that BU took a lead in further illuminating this worrying social issue in this manner. However, the seriousness of lad culture was greatly underestimated by the organisers until this was more fully illuminated by the visceral personal accounts of the speakers.

Consequently, due to the deeply personal nature of these accounts verbatim details of the speakers’ experiences were requested to be withheld from public dissemination; permission for photographs was not given; and the names of student panellists are anonymised. Nonetheless we are able to offer the following issues and insights that we believe are crucial for all HEIs. These seek to address the student experience in relation to the personal safety of students, both female and male, as well as seeking to implement a zero tolerance approach towards intimidation, harassment and the assault of students by students, many of whom have their first encounters of such in Freshers’ Week. During the Week, as we have learned, too often a mixture of a heady sense of freedom from authoritarian constraints, and fuelled by heavy levels of alcohol consumption, create a lack of inhibition for group dynamics that can be experienced as highly confrontational and indeed menacing.

The audience, composed of a mixture of primarily academics and students of both sexes, engaged enthusiastically with the debate – articulating their own sense of unease and even distress at the manifestations of ‘lad culture’ they or their relatives had been exposed at various UK HEIs, including sadly, at BU. These experiences ranged from students (in this case, male students) feeling put off joining sporting activities at university because of the perceived, overtly alpha male, über-macho environment. Worse still were stories of aggressive verbal attacks on other students, often strangers, and often with overtly sexist and racist overtones attached. Additional examples ranged from public belittling and bullying behaviour to the revolting public rating of unwitting, student, sexual partners on an open Facebook site. Furthermore, we heard about alarming sexual molestation towards primarily female, but also male students, escalating to examples of serious assault, including rape, where victims may continue to have to face their attacker in classroom settings.

Although aware to a greater or lesser extent of the ‘lad culture’ issue (and not regarding ourselves as particularly naïve) we were still both profoundly shocked and disturbed to hear these stories, some coming from our own students. The debate put flesh on the vague, skeletal suspicions we have occasionally harboured of possible harassment and bullying of some of our students that may have been responsible for the regrettable decision of, otherwise promising, students who suddenly drop out of their programmes.

Academics, by and large, are usually blissfully unaware of the extent of these kinds of intimidation taking place in the student body. If students do complain of their treatment, it is usually not to academics that they turn, for some reason – this is particularly worrying when the pastoral role of Academic Advisors is strongly promoted. Our guess is that harassment, intimidation and assault is seen as something outside of the rarefied academic setting and as not directly linked to student studies – although of course the ramifications of these situations are clearly apparent to student progress and retention.

What therefore should be done? The extent of these events needs to be investigated and recorded rigorously in order to develop a clearer idea of the extent of the problem. The agenda to enhance the student experience at BU, laudable though it indubitably is, will not in itself eradicate victimisation of students by students; but it can be used to greatly extend its remit to offer enhanced protection of students and to severely penalise those who prey upon their fellows. It can also be used to further inform and bolster the role of the Academic Advisor as one that is integrally conjoined into a pastoral and academic enhancing role.

We would also be keen to see additional institutional support towards student safety initiatives; for example, embedding ‘consent’ workshops into Freshers’ induction in relation to sexual experimentation; in addition to the aforementioned zero tolerance policies towards the abusive repercussions of ‘lad culture’. We would like to see visible ‘safe’ spaces where women who have been assaulted can go; and in this vein, should there be a need, appropriate services for male victims. The issue of what constitutes rape and sexual assault in relation to student safety is of such gravity that more attention needs to be given from the outset to raise awareness of this among student groups, particularly among our vulnerable new Level C students, many of whom are recent school leavers.

The debate left us with mixed views: horror that these were some of the ‘normal’ experiences that predominantly (but not always) female students have; but also reassurance that at least this is an institution where we are able to talk about this issue. Now that it has been publicly raised momentum needs to be maintained: we need to talk about it, to act upon it and we look to colleagues for support in this regard.

Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Heather Savigny

August 12, 2014

Reflections on an Oasis

BU research, Fusion, Research news, Women's Academic Network Jonathan Parker

Our final blog concerning our Fusion Investment Funded study leave, ENABLE: Establishing Sustainable Research Networks and Building Learning Environments, is written with very mixed feelings in mind.

For seven months we have worked across Southeast Asia to develop and establish links and research collaborations, teaching and education partnerships and to rediscover our passion for social action as ‘professional practice’ associated with our disciplines. The work has been intense, tiring, sometimes frustrating, but always illuminating and productive. It was a wrench to leave.

The return journey began with raised anxieties, heightened a couple of weeks earlier by the awful shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines aeroplane following the same route (although by then re-routed), and exacerbated when we were separated into two distinct travelling units, Jonathan with one child and Sara with the other, because the previous university travel firm booked tickets as two separate families! To make matters worse only Jonathan and Isabel’s tickets showed up and we had to wait to secure the other tickets. We were then given seats at opposite ends of the aeroplane and had to wait again for re-seating. The flight began well enough and was fairly smooth, only briefly punctuated by a somewhat antisocial ‘ramming’ of chair in front into one of our legs with particular force by someone who thought ‘turn off your electronics’ meant send texts to your friends!

However, we landed in one piece and breathed a sigh of relief, or possibly resignation, until, as in our usual practice of each taking one of the children through immigration the UKBA officer asked Jonathan rather sternly ‘where is the child’s mother?’ and when indicating where Sara was the officer proceeded to say that children have to be seen with their mother because mother’s are in general the carers of children and if present they have to be with the child. ‘Red rags and bulls’ often appear to Jonathan in unjust situations and he, as usual, took issue with this, but whilst we all got through immigration clearance more quickly, the officer insisted that his rather warped and myopic view of British law and custom was now right. Oh dear! We wondered what had happened in the seven months we had been away and whether we were entering Gormenghast!

But, back to the project itself! Our four key objectives have been met throughout the project, with varying degrees of success and changing morphologies:

1. Establish a sustainable research network promoting social sciences and interdisciplinary research at BU:

We have made contacts with individual academics, departments and universities across Southeast Asia, notably Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Universiti Utara Malaysia, alongside contacts with Massey University in New Zealand, Hong Kong University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Myanmar Institute of Theology.

We have given names and contacts to people abroad and within BU to follow up. Research projects are being developed, publications are in train or planned for the future.

2. Develop research streams of locally specific or cross-cultural relevance:

Our research, completed with the Orang Asli as part of the Tasik Chini Research Centre, has culminated in numerous publications being submitted, developed and developing, wide dissemination across many fora, and establishing on-going research links.

3. Engage and promote educational initiatives via guest lectures/research seminars, developing joint postgraduate research supervision and educational initiatives promoting student mobility:

We have presented lectures and seminars, provided postgraduate supervision and contributed to curriculum planning and development discussions, as well as negotiated an important credit transfer scheme (although uptake has been delayed until we can find students both able and willing to go on this exciting opportunity!). Professional papers have been written and submitted.

4. Engage in discipline-specific activities in relation to social work:

a number of discipline specific activities concerning social action and development have been undertaken, including curriculum planning, assisting in education developments in Myanmar and in Malaysia in reference to the new (to be implemented) standardised Malaysian Diploma Social Work, alongside contributing to NGO development work.

Overall, during the study leave period, there has been 57 outputs, also including on-going work and connections to be completed over time. The 57 outputs included:

6 books (3 published)
14 book chapters (11 published or in press)
12 peer reviewed papers (9 published or in press)
3 professional papers
1 book review
16 conference presentations/open lectures etc.
10 blogs
6 media presentations

During our time away we have worked across five countries: Malaysia, Hong Kong SAR, Australia, Myanmar and Cambodia in order to carry out our research or present it, along with capacity-building missions for professional, social work training. We have undertaken respectively between 24 to 28 flights (trying, when one of us dislikes flying) and stayed in some extraordinarily interesting as well as very grim places during our fieldwork, resulting in abuse from miscellaneous assortments of blood-sucking insects (outsized mosquitoes, the usual bed bugs and fever-inducing leeches) bedding down with us or boisterously noisy lizards, both small and decidedly large, showering us with ordure from above.

One of us was joyfully returning ‘home’ to pioneering fieldwork in Southeast Asia and the other was equally rapturous to be introduced to it. We have developed a new appreciation of the diversity of international driving styles when finding it not unusual to be driven by taxi in the wrong direction through chaotic Yangon in the middle of two long lines of equally erratic cars heading in the right direction – towards us. Above all, we remember the various wonderfully funny, kind, clever, intriguing and endlessly good-natured people we me: all our participants, our various helpers, interpreters, drivers, guides and advisors, the academic staff and students who welcomed us so warmly, the inspiring NGO workers and service users; not forgetting the local café owner in Penang, who wept when we left before running to get her camera for group photos to remember us by.

Also, we will always remember just how much our children, Isabel and Milly grew and developed in stature (in all ways possible): learning the research process, engaging with children amongst the village communities, and themselves collecting valuable data and compiling magnificent school projects on their adventures and experiences. The children put up with a good deal with great fortitude, willingness and humour (or when the going got tough – heavy irony), easily comprehending the importance of the work undertaken; albeit, as 10 year-old Milly gravely commented in her write-up later, ‘fieldwork has its dark side’! Indeed, so impressed were we with them that they will be contributing their experiences and acting as co-authors to the forthcoming book on the Tasik Chini area.

Alongside the outputs, the work is now to capitalise on the study leave by the development and submission of funded research projects. Currently, these include gendered rituals in professional working, problematizing research ethics and learning disabilities, understanding religion as resistance, and gender in higher education.

The study leave represented a life-giving oasis, somewhere to wash and attend to our own sacred cattle as in the photo from Cambodia, and we gratefully acknowledge the help and supported afforded us by Bournemouth University and our two main host universities in Malaysia (UKM and USM). We would encourage other academic staff to apply for study leave and we think that the productivity of our period of study leave indicates how important this can be to both individual academics but also to the greater good of Bournemouth University.

Jonathan Parker & Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

July 17, 2014

BU presenters at Joint World Conference on Social Work, Education and Social Development, Melbourne, Australia

BU research, Fusion, Women's Academic Network Jonathan Parker

Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Professor Jonathan Parker presented their research at the Joint World Conference on Social Work, Education and Social Development, in Melbourne, Australia, 9^th-12^th July 2014.

In a well-received paper concerning the importance of student social workers learning about the causes, impacts and ways of working with the consequences of terrorism, and the problems of rigidity in the current English curriculum, conference delegates were introduced to a two-year study which revealed that student participants felt that a more extensive and sensitive range of intervention tools needed to be taught and deployed via a coherent and nuanced understanding of the geo-political dimensions surrounding the construction of ‘global terrorism’, together with its potential impact on local populations and vulnerable communities. Research findings highlighted the importance of earlier generic community-based and therapeutic approaches, which were favoured above contemporary neoliberal emphases in English social work education concerning assessment, safeguarding and social policing. Addressing these findings would demand a much needed rebalancing of the curriculum to reinstate essential practitioner skills transferrable to a range of situations and crises – skills that have long been viewed as integral to the social work role by the international community. This research was published earlier in 2014 in the journal Social Policy & Social Work in Transition, DOI: 10.1921/4704030201, http://essential.metapress.com/content/26170w57262444gp/ and was reported in the Guardian on 25^th June 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2014/jun/24/how-can-social-work-education-address-terrorism?CMP=new_1194.

The second presentation reported aspects of the highly successful UK-Malaysian study of reactions to and cross-cultural learning from international placements, research that has challenged preconceived notions of anti-oppressive practices and demonstrates the need to move beyond post-colonial analyses of Western social work towards a post-post-colonial dialectic of shared and cultural appropriate practices. This research, funded by a British Council PMI2 grant, took place over three-years, with three separate cohorts of students supported by two Malaysian universities, Universiti Sains Malaysia on the peninsular and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak in Borneo. The success of this study which combined research rigour focusing on pedagogy with student mobility opportunities has been affirmed by the British Council as one of their most successful funded projects. This study has to-date produced a raft of publications: 2 book chapters, 5 peer-reviewed papers and 5 international conference presentations, including one keynote lecture. The latest research paper has just been published in the prestigious European Jounral of Social Work, Jonathan Parker, Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, Azlinda Azman, Dolly Paul Carlo & Clare Cutler (2014): Problematising international placements as a site of intercultural learning, European Journal of Social Work, DOI: 10.1080/13691457.2014.925849.

Jonathan Parker and Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

June 27, 2014

Problematising Values, Ethics and Assessment: Research seminars to ENABLE good social work practices

BU research, Fusion, Public engagement, Women's Academic Network Jonathan Parker

We were extremely fortunate and, indeed, honoured to be invited to give public research seminars at Universiti Sains Malaysia, a premier (Apex) research university in Southeast Asia where we are currently visiting professors on Fusion funded study leave. The event was widely publicised and attended by students, faculty and numerous representatives from social welfare NGOs working in and around Penang. Many of the latter have provided our past students with placement experiences in the past, and in respect of whom we have researched student learning and experiences through our earlier British Council PMI 2 grant.

We gave two seminars taken from our research and academic passions of great import to these services and to fostering good educational experiences and practices across the university and the NGOs with which they work; notably social work ethics and global issues and assessment problematics.

The first seminar, entitled ‘Reviewing Social Work Values & Ethics in the light of global, professionalised standards and definitions’ explored values and ethics as a core aspect of social work education to which all social work students are or should be exposed to in their education and training. Dr Ashencaen Crabtree argued that the challenge for social work is to ensure that what is learned in classroom settings then translates into daily practice and serves to improve the lives of service users/client groups, families and communities. She explored some of the unspoken assumptions that abound in this area stating that as well as providing guidance, professional codes of ethics create moral dilemmas and contradictions for many social workers at some point in their career wherever they practice and with whatever client or service group.

To illustrate points several case examples were used, some taken from Dr Ashencaen Crabtree’s previous research into social work practice in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. The seminar sought to problematise social work values and ethics by reflecting on international definitions and social work standards as articulated by the International Federation of Social Work (IFSW) and the Global Agenda for Social Work, together with a review of human rights as they relate to the profession.

This well-received seminar in which values and ethics were likened to the ‘mother’ of good social work practice, led into the second in which assessment was considered the ‘father’: ‘Assessment in Social Work: A complex and problematic concept for practice’.

Prof Parker opined that assessment is fundamental to social work practice throughout the world, drawing from his latest book: Parker & Bradley, Social Work Practice, 4th ed., Sage. Whilst it has been said that a good social work assessment is the keystone of good practice, however, it is equally true that a bad social work assessment makes for poor social work practice. However, whilst it is assumed we know what assessment entails and how it might or ought to be conducted, the seminar illuminated many of the hidden and unquestioned assumptions that often lead or underpin practice.

This seminar examined what we know already from research about social work assessment, what it is and how it can be used across the world and in different settings. We investigated some of the political and ethical purposes of social work assessment, focusing on the values that underpin good social work practice whilst considering some of the potentially problematic uses to which it is put. The seminar explored some of the complexities and cultural variants that abound in social work. It considered how these affect social work assessment and made suggestions for future learning and practice in different fields of social work, introducing the model the speakers have developed and researched comparatively across countries.

Prof Jonathan Parker & Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

June 23, 2014

Day trip to St Thomas’ Hospital with thanks to Santander for the funding.

BU research, Funding opportunities, Public engagement, Women's Academic Network dwiggins

I had the privilege to visit St Thomas’ hospital on the 15^th April, having been invited to attend their lunchtime seminar and to do some networking. Being so close to London waterloo I enjoyed a gentle walk along Tower Bridge on what was such a beautifully warm and sunny day. Walking up to St Thomas’ was a poignant moment for me, working in Queen Alexandra which is a large and very new hospital in Cosham, I always feel like a small cog in a big machine. But looking from the bottom of the path, St Thomas’ was even larger, with its 12 floors dominating the immediate skyline.

Upon Arrival

My nerves that had been brewing were quickly dissipated by the warm welcome and introductions by Dr Kirstie Coxon, a research fellow whose research and Ph.D. looked at maternal choice regarding place of birth with regards to risk perception, this directly relates to my own doctoral study that Is assessing a decision support app created by Portsmouth Hospital NHS trust to support decision making and information gathering relating to choice of birthplace. I had previously had the opportunity to meet with Kirstie after she visited Portsmouth where we discussed relevant literature related to choice of place of birth.

Kirstie took me around the Women’s Health Academic Centre, home to many research fellows and research midwives conducting several research projects in the area of women’s health. I was introduced to her colleague’s and happily began sharing our different research passions and projects.

The Seminar

This week’s seminar was regarding post-traumatic stress disorder and the incidence of intimate partner violence in pregnancy presented by a third year Ph.D. student based in Mexico over in London for 6 months to present the findings of the research so far.

The seminar was informal involving other Ph.D. students, research midwives, fellows and the professor of midwifery. I felt extremely grateful to be invited into the seminar and involved in the discussion. I felt slightly anxious at the thought that I would be in this position at different points in my research study and I actively took notes for hints and tips on presenting.

The research was extremely interesting and provoked various discussions within the group such as how to identify intimate partner violence in pregnancy but more importantly how we can help those individuals identified. Following the seminar I had an opportunity to meet with Professor Jane Sandall who enthusiastically listened to my proposed research study giving me her years of experience and some avenues to think about perusing relating to my doctoral study such as possibly involving partners within the interview process. Taking to Jane about methodologies and how my Doctoral study will link with work already produced in the field confirmed my excitement in the project.

Following this I was introduced to Jenny Carter a research midwife who was involved in the preeclampsia study related to antihypertensive use to reduce stillbirths and neonatal deaths, she has just begun the process of a Ph.D. and we discussed our relevant areas of studies and methodologies.

The afternoon was finished by Kirstie showing me round their home from home birth centre and their obstetric centre, which was fairly similar to QA in setting however St Thomas’s provides women with amazing views across the Thames to sights that included the London eye, a major selling point to induce calm and serenity.

Final Thoughts

Overall a thoroughly enjoyable, extremely enlightening and thought provoking trip; It gave me a greater understanding of the other areas of research under the umbrella term of women’s health and it also gave me further avenues to consider for my own research. I would like to thank all those at the Women’s health academic centre for making me feel so welcome and also Santander for awarding me the funding to make the visit possible.

June 21, 2014

Stripping Back the Layers: Women’s spiritual quest for religious authenticity

BU research, Fusion, Women's Academic Network Sara Ashencaen Crabtree

Having failed to get it externally funded, I decided to hell with it! I would do the project anyway. It was too important a topic to abort on such flimsy grounds; and anyway in the social sciences funding has never been a precursor to undertaking excellent and original scholarship, and this promised to be that.

I have long been fascinated by religion and spirituality as integral to cultural diversity, and this interest has underpinned much of my scholarship in both social work and sociology. Gender studies are equally a passion and so it seemed natural to form a happy union of the two.

For the past eighteen months, and thanks to recent Fusion Funding for part of the project, I have been undertaking a cross-cultural study of women’s experiences of religious commitment across several faith groups in the UK and Malaysia. Both countries share a common historical heritage through the ties of colonialism, where additionally wide-scale migration has forged multicultural and therefore multifaith societies. Each modern nation also struggles to resolve the contradictions and paradoxes created through multiculturalism and claims to a specific national religion.

The aim of the study is to examine the constructions and meanings that women bring to religious beliefs and daily practices, which may be distinctive to those of men, particularly given the extremely powerful influences of patriarchy in organised religion. Thus, the working assumption behind this study is that women will bring their own gendered priorities and understandings as women (and variously as wives/partners, mothers, daughters and sisters) to their individual religious and spiritual beliefs.

For an in-depth ethnographic study the participant sample is extensive, and where by the end of this year, 48-50 individual narratives will complete the data gathering stage. The level of complexity is high for not only does this study cover two contemporary societies, but it also seeks to cover representatives from several different faith groups. Thus, in Southwest England I am seeking to capture the voices of Buddhist, Jewish, Christian and Muslim women, as well as hoping to access female followers of one of the ‘New Religions’.

Across Malaysia, I have covered the same groups but substituted Jewish participants for Hindus. I also hope to access indigeneous Animists to compare with the revival in pre-Christian ‘nature religions’ that may be found in the evocatively pagan, Dorset/Somerset/Wiltshire landscapes.

Such a large and highly diverse sample group represents a major study of contemporary, gendered faith practices in modern, multicultural societies; and where despite woman-centric theological re-interpretations, such as, for example, Christian feminists theologies or Malaysia’s ‘Sisters in Islam’, the insights from this study are already proving to be original and profound. My initial hypothesis has been both affirmed and challenged by participants struggling to engage with the politics of ethnicity, culture, gender constructions and gender oppression; together with the business of daily negotiating the politics of church/temple/mosque/synagogue – not forgetting, of course, the politics of the home and family.

Participant accounts have been deeply moving at times; and where to my surprise, I have been frequently thanked for giving participants the opportunity to be able to express that which is so important to their individual integrity and sense of purpose in life – and yet which remains a submerged discourse. There are many reasons, political, social and personal for religious expression among women to be largely unheard (and sometimes even a forbidden) discourse in both countries. These too are critical issues of context that are analysed alongside the narratives.

With REF2020 beginning to appear over the horizon, I will seek to do justice to these remarkable narratives in my analysis and the research monograph and peer-reviewed papers being planned. However, what is strikingly apparent is the intense interest participants hold towards their own spiritual journey, where they are also eager to read the finished publications in order to find further insights and connections with other women: impact in itself.

What this reveals to me is that not only is the area of inquiry extremely rich in theme, nuance and contemporary relevance, but that in respect of social impact (however one defines that term) much more is needed of me. Accordingly I am pondering deeply on how I may return and somehow multiply the fruits of this research to the global community of women for whom it carries such intense meaning and many shared commonalities in an otherwise divided world.

Volunteering to be a participant

If this Blog has resonated with you as a woman embracing a religious faith, or as someone who may know of such, I would be extremely grateful if you would contact me directly on scrabtree@bournemouth.ac.uk. Muslim, Jewish and ‘New Religion’ women’s voices in England are still under-represented in the study but all participants from other faith groups are equally welcome.

June 17, 2014

WAN Mentoring Event – July 10th

Women's Academic Network Vanora Hundley

Facilitated by: Dr Colleen Harding, Head of Organisational and Staff Development, Tamsyn Dent, Post-Graduate Researcher, Media School

This session is aimed at: all staff, male and female, and will be of particular interest to those who are interested in academic mentoring for women, and who are willing to be a mentor; would like to work with a mentor; or who support staff who would like to engage in mentoring.

When: July 10th 13:00 – 16:30

Where: The Octagon

The purpose of the event is to provide an opportunity for the Women’s Academic Network to:

Discuss the benefits of engaging in mentoring
Find out more about how mentoring currently works at BU
Consider some of the options available to set up an academic mentoring network that specifically supports the needs of female academics at BU
To identify the steps that we need to take in order to set up an effective mentoring network.

By the end of the event participants will have:

Discussed some models of coaching and mentoring, including the findings from a doctoral study on the transitional space provided by coaching and mentoring for emerging academics
Discussed some of the research studies on mentoring relevant to women in academia
Identified the critical steps necessary to set up a mentoring network that specifically supports the needs of female academics at BU

Register through staff development

June 5, 2014

Global Demand for English Higher Education: An Analysis of International Student

Uncategorized, Women's Academic Network ibuciak

Next in the series of Women’s Academic Network events, Dr Ilieva will elaborate on her recent report of Global Demand for English Higher Education: An Analysis of International Students, which has been widely cited in the media including BBC, Times Higher Education and the Guardian.

This report examines shifts in enrolments of international students in higher education in England, and explores what might have caused them. It focuses on the entrant student population, which indicates the latest developments in student enrolments. It is one of a series of analyses by HEFCE of current data and future trends in higher education.

This talk will take place on Monday 9 June, 10am – noon on Lansdowne Campus. To book your place or for more information please visit the Staff Development & Engagement Staff Intranet Pages.

Category / Women’s Academic Network

International Women’s Day Celebration Event held by WAN

Athena SWAN: A Dean’s perspective

Day trip to St Thomas’ Hospital with thanks to Santander for the funding.

WAN Mentoring Event – July 10th

Global Demand for English Higher Education: An Analysis of International Student

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