BU Research Blog

Generation Zed: “fluid” and “ambiguous” are watchwords

A blog piece entitled, “Thoughts on Gender in the 21st Century University Environment” is live on Sage’s Social Science Space from today. The article was inspired  by the recent FHSS Research Committee’s call for dialogue on Gender and Research and informed by an earlier Workshop on Gender and Sexuality in the 21st Century held at Bournemouth in 2017.

In the article, Kip Jones asks academics to pause for a moment and reconsider our definition of gender at a time when the very concept of gender is becoming more fluid for many in the wider population, and particulary amongst youth. The article suggests that “it may be time to redefine the terms by which measurements are made concerning gender in the university workplace. Vocabularies need to reflect more precisely the cultural changes in gender that are taking place both within and outside of the University”.

Jones and the Project Zed team have formed a working group for a proposal for a study to engage GenerationZ teens in developing their own stories on gender, sexuality, and socialisation. The teens will then create a YouTube broadcast series of their own design and production. The Project Zed team includes members from FHSS and FMC, working across several disciplines.