Women’s Studies Without Walls

Women’s Studies Without Walls (WSWW) is an initiative launched by The Feminist Library in Autumn 2012. In a very short time it has drawn in a cross-section of feminists of all generations from within academia and without, and from all round the country – we are already in touch with women from Cardiff, Swansea, Shrewsbury, the East Midlands, Leeds, and Oxford.

The impetus for WSWW was a concern that much of what is now taught in universities as Gender Studies has lost touch with grassroots feminist activism, coupled with a fear that the neo-liberal and cuts agenda across education will remove any possibility of radical education at any stage of learning. WSWW plans to return Women’s Studies to its rightful place – informing and encouraging women to take radical feminist action through learning and sharing skills, experience, and information.

We are launching WSWW with a weekend of assorted workshops, talks, and skill-sharing at the Feminist Library on 19-20th January 2013, the theme of which will be ‘The Personal is Political’. This will be followed by a weekly series of WSWW evening events at the Feminist Library, and, we hope, by sister events elsewhere. We are very open to all your input, and we want to broaden out to include a wide range of contacts, and indeed, geographical areas – we are, after all, without walls.

Please email wsww@feministlibrary.co.uk for more information, any input or suggestions you may have, and for dates of upcoming WSWW organising meetings.

Podcasts made by Yula Burin and women at the inaugural Women’s Studies Without Walls event are available to listen via Camden Community Radio.

Women’s Studies Without Walls Programme

Women’s Studies Without Walls: Weekend gathering on the theme ‘The Personal is Political’– 19th and 20th January 2013, Feminist Library.

Saturday 19th January

	Room 2	Room 3	Periodicals Room	Room 4	Room 1
11am – 1pm				Plenary: Feminist Library + other groups. Open discussion, why we are here, the Cuts etc
1pm – 2pm Lunch
2pm – 3.30pm	Feeling feminist — an old-fashioned consciousness-raising workshop – Rob and Jane	Recording Women: Part 1 – Yula		Abortion politics and Ireland – Anne and Marian	Women taking part: an empowering learning programme — Sue and Jill
3.30pm – 4pm Tea Break
4pm – 5.30pm	Feminism, identity and difference – Terese and Aura	Feminism, Photography, History – Patrizia	Creating a Zine – Scarlett	Feminist Sex and Relationships Education –Feminist Fightback	Stuff Your Sexist Boss! – South London Solidarity Federation
6pm onwards	Social event: food, feminist open mic, film shows

Sunday 20th January

	Room 2	Room 3	Periodicals Room	Room 4	Room 1
11am – 1pm	A practical introduction to consciousness-raisingGail and Ruth	Recording Women: Part 2 – Yula	Writing Feminist Flash Fiction – Zoë	Feminist Reflections on Developing Women’s Studies – Miriam	Women’s Self Defence – Carolyn
1pm – 2pm Lunch
2pm – 3.30pm				WSWW – Future Planning, including spreading to other places. General FeedbackMeeting room
3.30/4pm onwards	Playback from Recording Women sessions, informal networking: food, film, fun.

The PDF of the programme can be found here.

Feeling Feminist: an old fashioned consciousness raising workshop

Roberta and Jane

Feeling feminist: an old fashioned feminist consciousness raising workshop exploring what it means to be feminist by reflecting on our own experiences, hopes and dreams, hardships and real world realities.

Recording Women: Part 1

Yula

An exploration into the historical importance of women’s stories in feminist activism, and how audio recordings are an important means of conveying those stories. Participants will learn how to operate recorders and prepare questions for interviewees, to be completed during the course of the weekend.

Abortion Politics and Ireland

Ann and Marian

This brainstorming workshop aims to confound the image of Irish abortion seekers who cross the Irish Sea in droves as silent victims of draconian anti-abortion laws in both Irish states.

Women and Transformational Leadership

Sue and Jill

In this workshop we would like to share our experience of developing and delivering learning programmes that support and encourage women to be active, critical and challenging citizens.

Feminism, Identity and Difference

Aura

Gender, ethnicity, class, dis/ability, age, sexuality, religion: different parts of our identities influence how we experience the world, including the ways in which we are oppressed and privileged. In this workshop, we’ll discuss how understanding our different backgrounds and experiences is crucial, and share strategies for anti-oppressive feminist organising.

Feminism, Photography and History

Patrizia

In this workshop we are going to discuss the late photographer Jo Spence’s collaborative work to raise the issue of how it might be possible to celebrate the achievements of women artists without creating canonical figures that subscribe to notion of the artist as a special, privileged, unique individual.

Creating a Zine

Scarlett

Feminist Sex and Relationships Education

Feminist Fightback

As a society we have problems discussing, and having, sex and relationships in empowering ways. As we are all potential learners and teachers of SRE we need to find ways to change attitudes. A workshop to explore ways and means to do that!

Stuff Your Sexist Boss!

South London Solidarity Federation

Part of the London Solidarity Federation’s ongoing project to produce a new pamphlet about practical methods of resisting sexual harassment in the workplace. Come along, share your own experiences if you wish, and exchange ideas on tactics for working collectively against workplace harassment and discrimination.

A practical introduction to consciousness-raising

Gail and Ruth

Recording Women: Part 2

Yula

Following on from Saturday’s session. In this workshop we will engage in the challenge that is editing in order to create a prepared piece from the previous day’s recordings for a broadcast at the end of the day.

Writing Feminist Flash Fiction

Zoë

Flash fiction is fiction you can read in a flash. Fiction that makes you blink – and think. Writing Feminist Flash Fiction with Zoë Fairbairns is open to a maximum of 10 participants. Please bring your own writing materials.

Feminist Reflections on Developing Women’s Studies

Miriam

What are the contributions of feminism to the development of pedagogies in and outside universities? Miriam will offer insights from her book: Passion, Pedagogies and Politics: Feminism, Gender & Universities (Routledge 2013) about this creative endeavour.

Women’s Self Defence

Carolyn

A look at how and why feminists organise women’s self defence classes, and the revolutionary potential of doing so. A chance to experience a short “radical practical feminist self defence” class, and learn/ practice/ share some basic strategies -verbal and physical techniques- that we can use to defend ourselves, assert our boundaries, and confront problem behaviour. All women, ages and abilities welcome; we can adapt what we do to suit your body. Any questions? Please email us: feministselfdefence @ yahoo.co.uk.