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CWAG Graduate Workshops at the CAG-ACG-IGU 2018 Quebec City, August 6th-10th

This year, the Canadian Women and Geography study group (CWAG) is excited to introduce a series of graduate workshops to take place during the CAG-ACG-IGU in August. The workshops will bring together faculty with a small group of graduate students to discuss specific challenges in the practice of geographical research, writing, and teaching. The goal of the workshops is to create a more intimate mentorship context within the space of the conference. The workshop topics are the following (more details below):

  • Writing as creative practice (with Sarah de Leeuw, UNBC)
  • Research as practice (with Rosemary Collard, SFU)
  • Teaching as political practice (with JP Catungal, UBC)
  • Practicing for the job market (with Natalie Oswin, McGill University)

We are seeking 5-7 graduate students to join us in each session. You can register here. We will endeavor to fit everyone in but cannot promise due to capacity. We ask that you sign up for one workshop only, and we encourage grads to choose workshops with facilitators beyond their own department!

Please sign up by MARCH 5th. If you have any questions, feel free to email Kelsey Johnson (kelsey.johnson@geog.ubc.ca) or Juliane Collard (juliane.collard@geog.ubc.ca).

Workshop descriptions:

1. Writing as creative practice

Geography as a discipline has a long history of engaging narrative and story as avenues of geographical inquiry, often asking how the form of writing itself shapes knowledge production. Yet graduate training rarely focuses on the practice of writing itself. This session reflects on the idea of geographical writing as a creative practice. Participants are particularly encouraged to draw from current challenges they face in their own writing practice. What ethical questions arise from representing geographical knowledges in written form? How might experimentation with different forms of writing create opportunities to mobilize scholarship and influence social change?

2. Research as practice

Research methods vary widely in geography: from archival research to oral history, ethnography to participant observation, expert interviews to GI-science. This range of methods is part of what makes geography such an exciting and diverse field. But it can also complicate the research process. This session reflects on this tension, and on the practice of conducting research in geography. Participants will be asked to circulate a brief research reflection (no more than one page) one month before the CAG convenes in August. This can be a description of your project, an excerpt from your fieldnotes, ruminations on the challenges of your research, or any specific questions you have.

3. Teaching as political practice

Within geography, students and faculty alike have pointed to overt and covert racism in classes and expressed a need to incorporate analyses of colonialism, white supremacy, and other systems of structural oppression into geographical learning. This workshop will address practical concerns in teaching as critical geographers. Teaching responsibilities vary widely within and across graduate programs, but are often excluded from formal training within graduate programs. In this context, how do we prepare ourselves to teach, without losing sight of political practice? Participants in this session are invited to workshop a syllabus for a course that have taught or plan on teaching (though this is not mandatory for workshop participation).

4. Practicing for the job market

This workshop will focus on a particularly tricky component of academic job applications: The Cover Letter. What do search committees look for in a cover letter? What strategies have helped graduate students craft strong letters? Participants will be asked to circulate an example of a cover letter one month before the CAG convenes in August. Priority in this workshop will be given to PhD candidates in the final stages of their program.

CWAG Student Paper Competition 2017 - Winner Announcement

23 June 2017 CWAG Chair Dr. Ebru Ustundag shared this notice:

I am absolutely delighted to announce this year’s CWAG Graduate Student Paper Competition Winner. The award goes to Diandra Oliver from SFU. Diandra’s paper is titled ‘Fringe methodologies: A feminist analysis of Kear’s Governing Homo Subprimicus’

Diandra Oliver’s bio:

Diandra Oliver is a writer and researcher rooted in economic development, feminist and DIY communities. She is best known as a co-founder of Home Sweet Home, a community-funded social enterprise aimed at diversifying rural food economies through business modelling and extension services. Her PhD project at SFU Geography looks at the way youth in Spain have been discarded by the nation state following the EU Financial Crisis, and how they grapple with what they’ve identified as a state-imposed exile. She intends to address how Spanish youth experience a sort of diaspora in place, both within and outside of Spain, and how they respond by further distancing themselves from the goals of the neoliberal state.

Internet: https://www.sfu.ca/geography/people/profiles/diandra-oliver.html

It was an absolute pleasure to read Diandra’s inspiring paper. We wish Diandra all the best. - EU

The Canadian Women and Geography Study Group (CWAG) of the Canadian Association of Geographers invites submissions for its annual student paper competition. Paper entries must be based on research related to intersectional feminist geographies.

This year, we are excited to introduce two categories: undergraduate and graduate.

For undergraduates students, any paper written for a course during the 2016/2017 academic year can be submitted.

For graduate students, submissions papers must meet one of two criteria: (1) a paper presented at a regional meeting (ie. CAGONT, WDCAG, etc.) or that will be presented at CAGS during the 2016/2017 academic year; OR (2) a paper written for a graduate course during the 2016/2017 academic year.

Entries should be submitted electronically, in either French or English, and must not exceed 5,000 words, including references and footnotes. The deadline for submissions is MONDAY May 1st, 2017.

Please send papers (and any questions) to the attention of the CWAG Chair at: eustundag@brocku.ca.

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Prix du Meilleur Article Étudiant du CWAG

Le groupe d’étude sur les femmes et la géographie (CWAG) de l’Association canadienne des géographes vous invite à soumettre un texte pour son prix annuel du meilleur article étudiant. Les articles soumis doivent être basés sur un projet de recherche en lien aux géographies féministes intersectionnelles.

Nous sommes heureuses cette année de présenter deux catégories : baccalauréat et études graduées!

Pour les étudiant-es au baccalauréat, n’importe quel travail complété pour un cours de l’année académique 2016-2017 peut être proposé.

Pour les étudiant-es gradué-es, les articles proposés doivent remplir l’un de ces deux critères : (1) un article ayant été présenté à une conférence régionale (par exemple, le Regroupement des Géographes du Québec, le CAGONT, le WDCAG, etc.), ou présenté à la conférence de l’ACG, durant l’année académique 2016-2017; OU (2) un travail complété pour un cours gradué durant l’année académique 2016-2017.

Les propositions doivent être soumises électroniquement, en français ou en anglais, et ne doivent pas dépasser 5000 mots incluant les références et notes de bas de page. La date de tombée des soumissions est le lundi 1er mai 2017.

SVP envoyez votre article (et toute question) à l’attention de la présidente du CWAG à : eustundag@brocku.ca

Dr. Ebru Ustundag Associate Professor Graduate Program Director Department of Geography Brock University

UPDATES - June 18, 2015: New CWAG Listserv & History Project

1. New Listserv: CWAG has just set up a new listserve. If you are not already on the list, and would like to be on it, please visit: https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/cwag Subscription information available at this link.

2. CWAG History Project We are looking for documentary material from the Canadian Women and Geography Study Group, particularly newsletters, posters, letters, photos, etc. to fill in our archives, and write a history of the Study Group that turns 33 this year! If you have any material, please send it along by e- or snail mail. The late 1990s are particularly sparse so if you have any related documents, we would really appreciate your time and effort! - Ann Marie Murnaghan (CWAG@lists.uvic.ca)

CWAG aims to provide a forum for people interested in issues of access, equity, and the well-being of women in geography and for those whose research is linked to questions of gender as they relate to relations of class, race/ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, and ability.

CWAG particularly encourages student membership and participation in CWAG activities, including conference sessions, social events, newsletter contributions, and other opportunities.

CWAG is proud to present its annual lecture series: The Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lecture