SPEAR'S FINAL CONFERENCE "THE FUTURE OF (GENDER) EQUALITY, INCLUSIVITY AND DEMOCRATIC VALUES IN EUROPEAN ACADEMIA: PRACTICES, PREREQUISITES, PUSHBACK AND PROSPECTIVES"

SPEAR’s final conference sets a large agenda: to place Gender Equality Projects in the context of the future of (gender) equality, inclusivity and democratic values in European Academia. Four lenses to this are explored: Practices, prerequisites, pushback and prospectives. 
Throughout the day, these themes and lenses will be highlighted and put into perspective. 
 
In the first session of the day, we will start out with three welcome addresses. Then we will shine the light on SPEAR, by having our SPEAR experts, leaders and advisors share SPEAR’s objectives, methodology, output and impact. We offer these as examples of practices and prerequisites for inclusive gender equality change endeavours anno 2023.
Since we want to share our experiences and knowledge as widely as possible with anyone who may benefit from our achievements as well as be inspired for possible collaborations and future promotion of gender equality in academia, the first part of the conference, 9.00-11.00, is a hybrid session with both online and in-person participation.

Output from the conference will be shared on SPEAR’s website after the conference. 
 

Download the conference programme here.

 

 

SPEAR's key impacts – inspiration for thinking ahead!

Experts, leaders and advisors of the SPEAR consortium present SPEAR’s objectives, methodology, output and impact as examples of practices and prerequisites for inclusive gender equality in European Academia, anno 2023. We highlight SPEAR’s GEP implementation and showcase our output virtual materials and practice-based expert resources and tools. Our focus is on the power of community for learning, support and joint reflection – the foundation for qualifying structural change endeavours, reach and vision and for enabling and empowering individuals and organizations to act in the face of obstacles and opportunities.

Featured speakers, all affiliated with SPEAR:

• Coordinators Eva Sophia Myers & Liv Baisner Petersen, University of Southern Denmark
• WP-leader for GEP implementation Minna Salminen-Karlsson, Uppsala University, Sweden
• WP-leader for Learning and Support Nathalie Wolf, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
• WP-leader for Communication, Director Gabriella Lovasz, Europa Media, Hungary
• Team leader Professor Aurelija Novelskaitė, Vilnius University, Lithuania
• Team leader, Rector, Professor Georgi Apostolov, International Business School, Sofia, Bulgaria
• Former team leader, Minister, Professor Elvira Fortunato, NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal
• Team leader, Rector, Professor Snježana Prijić Samaržija, University of Rijeka, Croatia
• WP-leader for evaluation Florian Holzinger, Joanneum Research, Austria
• SPEAR advisors:
  • Mateja Medlobi, Policy Advisor to MEP, Croatia
  • Martina Schraudner, Professor, Doctor, chair of Gender and Diversity in Technology and Product Development at Technical University of Berlin, Germany
  • Rachel Palmén, Senior Researcher, Open University of Catalunya, Spain

Moderator:

•  Yvonne Benschop, Professor of Organizational Behaviour, Radboud University, Netherlands

 

Gender Dimension in (all) research – always there, often forgotten: Challenges and possibilities

The gender dimension of research has gained importance, and knowledge of how to implement it in all fields is growing. In the first decade of this century, the argument of the quality of research was in the foreground. Often the focus was explicitly on areas where the inclusion of sex and gender should have been obvious, although too often not fully understood nor implemented. Today it is an established fact, that the integration of the gender dimension in all relevant fields of research is a must if science is to contribute to an inclusive, fair and just transformation, as called for in e.g., the European Green Deal.

In this workshop we will focus on two questions:

• How can we ensure that the underlying data is used proactively in future developments, so as to complement sex and gender analysis?
• How do we approach the inclusion of the gender dimension in fields where it is not “obvious” (to the practitioners) and the resistance to it is strong?

Presenters:

• Martina Schraudner, Professor, Doctor, chair of Gender and Diversity in Technology and Product Development" at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany
• Tomas Brage, Professor of Mathematical Physics, Lund University, Sweden

SPEAR Moderators:

• Sybille Reidl, Senior Researcher, Joanneum Research, Austria
• Florian Holzinger, Senior Researcher, Joanneum Research, Austria
• Nathalie Wolf, Diversity Consultant and Project Coordinator, RWTH Aachen, Germany

 

Sexism in Academia: recognizing, responding, resisting

Far from being an issue set in the past, sexism is still an everyday phenomenon in many academic environments in Europe and beyond. In fact, sexism is particularly prevalent in Academia due to the intricate power relations.

In this participatory workshop, we will focus on how to learn to recognize different forms and arenas of sexism, and how to respond and resist sexism individually and/or collectively. The workshop aims to be a safe space to share insights on how sexism works in academia, and individual and collective survival skills.

Presenters:

• Dalia Leinartė, Professor of History, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania, and Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, UK
• Liisa Husu, Professor of Gender Studies, Örebro University, Sweden, and Hanken School of Economics, Finland

SPEAR Moderators:

• Natalija Mažeikeinė; Professor of Philosophy & Gender Studies, Vytautus Magnus University, Lithuania
• Aurelija Novelskaitė, Professor of Gender Studies, Vilnius University, Lithuania
• Marija Norvaisitė, Equal Opportunities Coordinator, Vilnius University, Lithuania

 

How does the policy apparatus work in Europe & how can we become a part of it? 

In this workshop, you will get an insight into currently active anti-gender movements across Europe and how they erode European democracy.

The workshop will include your active participation in all policy levels. You will develop a strategy on how to participate in creating European policy priorities in the area of gender equality and thus contribute to a more equal, social and just Europe.

Presenters:

• Mateja Medlobi, Policy Advisor/Accredited Parliamentary Assistant to MEP Predrag Fred Matić, Croatia
• Gionathan Lo Mascolo, Independent Researcher, Project Manager and editor of the forthcoming volume "The Christian Right in Europe: "Movements, Networks and Denominations", Germany

SPEAR Moderators:

• Snježana Prijić Samaržija, Professor of Philosophy, Rector, University of Rijeka, Croatia
• Sanja Barić, Professor of Law, Rector's Assistant for Institutional Capacity and Policies, University of Rijeka, Croatia
• Daria Glavan Šćulac, LLM, Head of Legal, Ethics, Diversity and Inclusivity, University of Rijeka, Croatia

 

WORKSHOP 4, PUSHBACK AND PROSPECTIVES:  

Creating a future for inclusive gender equality in times of multiple crises: learning from past experiences to better respond to changing and declining opportunity structures

In a changed and changing Europe, campaigns against feminism, and racial and sexual equality show their traditionalist, masculinist, capitalist, and authoritarian roots very clearly. In the worrying societal and political practices of these campaigns, threats to democracy and (intersectional) feminism are strongly linked.

There is strong need to better ground initiatives and actions towards inclusive gender equality in these new, contextually different realities. In this workshop, we will address how we can learn from past experiences in order to blaze trails for gender equality strategies and frames that are better adapted to weather our challenging times. We will do this by presenting two complementary approaches: one is to balance between “carrot” and “stick” tactics that have shown to work against resistance, and the other is to take a social complexity approach and focus on impacting crucial positive and negative feedback loops.

Presenters:

• Jeremy Sanders, Professor of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK and Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Royal Society, UK
• Mieke Verloo, Professor of Comparative Politics and Inequality Issues, Radboud University, Netherlands and Non-Residential Permanent Fellow, IWM, Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, Austria

SPEAR Moderators:

• Georgi Apostolov, Professor of Philosophy, Rector, International Business School, Sofia, Bulgaria
• Minna Salminen-Karlsson, Gender Equality Specialist and Researcher, Uppsala University, Sweden
• Atanaska Cholakova, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, International Business School, Sofia, Bulgaria

 

Download the conference programme here.

 

At SPEAR Final Conference you will hear from GE practitioners, researchers, professors and policymakers who through their expertise and support are helping steer our impacts across Europe.

Click on the cards below to get to know our speakers.

Visit our networking area and take part in the interactive project presentation and pitch-session, where over 20 sister GE-project will share their experiences, results and future perspectives.

TRANSPORTATION

Busses back and forth from the conference

Busses will depart from Kongens Nytorv by the French Embassy. Look for purple-coloured “Copenhagen Coach” buses. You can take the metro lines M2 and M3 directly to the square.

The buses will depart at 8.30 AM and take you directly to the conference at Refshalevej 167G, 1432 Copenhagen.

By the end of the conference, the buses will depart from the venue at 6 PM and drive back to Kongens Nytorv.

 

Arriving at the conference by car

Please download and pay for your parking with the Easy Park app and remember to set your parking disc. The parking lot is just in front of Skabelonloftet. The area is patrolled often.

 

From Copenhagen Airport to Copenhagen Centre

From Terminal 3 at Copenhagen Airport, you have access to trains and the metro. The trains depart every 10. minute during the day from the airport to Copenhagen Central Station. The metro departs frequently and takes you right through the centre of Copenhagen.

Metro
Metros can be used day and night throughout the entire week. You can take the Metro from Copenhagen Airport and northwest through the city centre (M1 and M2). The “Circle Line” connects the neighbourhoods of Copenhagen, Vesterbro, Frederiksberg, Nørrebro, Østerbro and the city centre (M3 and M4). All metro lines depart every 3-6 minutes.

S-Train
The S-Trains connect the suburbs to the city centre. Depending on the line the trains depart every 5-20 minutes.

Bus

The A-buses are the primary buses in central Copenhagen, catch one every 3-7 minutes during rush hour, which is between 7.00-9.00 AM and 3.30-5.30 PM.

Plan your public transport with Google Maps or Journey Planner.

Tickets

You can buy your train-, bus- and metro tickets at the ticket machines accepting both Danish kroner (DKK) and common credit cards. From the airport to the city centre, you will need a 3 zones ticket, which costs 36 DKK. Travelling within the city centre you will need a 2 zones ticket costing 24 DKK.

 

Bike

If want to ride a bike in Copenhagen, try the bike-sharing system Donkey Republic. You find and unlock a bike with their app, and you can make stops by unlocking and locking your bike as many times as you want during your rental. Please mind the biking rules.

 

Taxi

If you need a taxi, please call 0045 35 35 35 35. You can pay by card and cash.

 

Currency Exchange

Banks offer currency exchange for a small fee. At Copenhagen Central Station you can find Forex, also offering currency exchange for a small fee, which is open Monday to Friday from 9 AM to 7 PM and Saturday from 10 AM to 4 PM.

 

 

In case of emergency

Call (+45) 112 for life-threatening emergencies and ask for the police, fire department or ambulance service.

Call (+45) 1813 for injuries or sudden illness and speak to a nurse or doctor, or to go to a hospital emergency department.

Call (+45) 114 for police, when it is not an emergency.

For more information, please visit: https://www.visitcopenhagen.com/node/1312

 

Museums in Copenhagen

If you are interested in visiting some of Copenhagen’s museums during the week, please see our offers below.

 

The David Collection, Kronprinsessegade 30-32, 1306 Copenhagen

At the Collection, you can find a comprehensive collection of Islamic art, a selection of European 18th-century art and a smaller representation of Danish early modern painting, sculpture, and ceramics.

The entrance is free, and the opening hours are Tuesday-Sunday from 10 AM to 5 PM, except for Wednesday when the museum closes at 9 PM.

The museum offers free entrance to all collections and exhibitions.

Getting there

By train: Take the S-train or regional train to Nørreport or Østerport Station.

By Metro: Tale the M1 or M2 line to Nørreport Station or the M3 or M4 line to Marmorkirken and Kongens Nytorv.

 

 

DAC - The Danish Architecture Center, Bryghuspladsen 10, 1473 Copenhagen

DAC is the new meeting place for architecture, design, and urban culture in Denmark. You can visit the exhibitions Our Architecture with Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects who has been creating architecture that functions well for people and diverse life situations for the past 100 years or several permanent installations.

The museum has kindly offered guests from SPEAR’s Final Conference 20% of the entrance fee.

Getting there

DAC is located just 10 minutes from Copenhagen City Hall Square and 15-20 minutes from both Copenhagen Central Station and the Metro.

By bus: Line 37, 31, 23 and 2A to Stormgade, line 5C and 68 to Otto Mønsteds Plads or line 26 to the Royal Danish Library.

By train: Take the regional or S-train to Copenhagen Central Station.

By Metro: Take the M3 or M4 line to Copenhagen City Hall, Gammel Strand or Copenhagen Central Station.

 

Cosmic Dancers, Ofelia Plads, Kvæsthusbroen, 1250 København (by The Royal Danish Theatre)

You can walk (or dance) around the cosmic dancers by Lin Utzon. Ofelia Plads is a spot in the evening with lights from the city harbour, the Opera House and Refshaleøen.

The exhibition is free of charge.

Getting there

By bus: Take line 26 to Sankt Annæ Plads

By Train: Take the regional or S-train to Nørreport.

By Metro: Take the M3 or M4 line to Marmorkirken or the M1 or M2 lines to Kogens Nytorv.