 Right, so I'm going to start the webinar now. As I said, welcome everyone. I'm Dr Gina Heathcote from the Centre for Gender Studies. So this is what I'm going to go through today. I'm going to just talk a little bit about the centre or what I'm, I've now christened CDS online. Talk to you a little bit more about the MA programme itself and in particular the core module, which would be the first module that you would be taking on if you commence this course in October. To give you a little bit more of a flavour of what we do at CDS in particular, but also at SOAS, I've included some links to some upcoming events in the next two weeks. That I would encourage you to get along to if you're kind of considering coming on any of our programmes. This would give you a sense of the kind of scholarship that we're undertaking and that are central, I think, to the perspectives and the work that you will encounter at CDS. Great. So first of all, welcome to CDS online. So as I said before, what, what the reason we moved or developed this specific online programme was after discussions about things about what we thought were problems with the ever-increasing kind of fees in the UK and therefore access to higher education, problems around the cost of living in London and lots of inquiries from potential students who were saying to us that they couldn't really afford to come to London, but they wanted to be part of the work that we were doing. And because we do regard ourselves as a transnational feminist space that is committed to activism and it's into engagement with the Academy, we were very much aware that the people that were doing our courses were also people that were quickly kind of were not able to come to us, partly because they were engaged in activism and policy spaces in their own communities, but also around the cost, increasing costs of UK higher education. So we wanted to develop a CDS online space and online degree that helped kind of think about what transnational spaces in fact really are and to reach out to people that maybe wouldn't be coming to London for lots of other reasons. But it was there was a kind of political commitment behind the setting up of the transnational, so it's heading up with the online degree. And then, of course, it's just gone live and it's something that we're putting in place when actually we're all online, whether or not we're in London or not at the moment. So we've been teaching online since March because of the COVID-19 situation in London when most of London has been on lockdown. And we haven't been back into the education spaces or the buildings at SARS. But because we've already set up the online degree, what the online degree holds is our commitment to interdisciplinary transnational approaches to gender and sexuality. And we think about this partly through the theoretical modes that we bring into the classroom, partly methodological in the sense of the way we think about what work we're doing with you as students, but also through learning methods themselves and the pedagogy. I think I should explain what I mean by that. And I think what's most important is that the degrees have never been about one disciplinary approach to gender studies. We're not a gender studies unit that works from within sociology or from within politics or even within law development studies. What we are very, very blessed to have is colleagues working in all disciplines at SARS that might not be in the kind of core staff team in CGS, but that are certainly working with us and part of our wider membership for the Centre for Gender Studies. And this inflects everything that we do. And of course, the other multi-disciplinary, interdisciplinary aspect of the work we do is that our students come from different disciplines through gender studies. I mean, some of them come from gender studies backgrounds, whether that's academic or activist or policy and practitioner, but many of our students come from very different backgrounds. And so when we come to teaching, so the pedagogies and when we come to methodologies, so the way we conduct research, or when we come to the theories that we're bringing and presenting in the classroom, we're always thinking about that interdisciplinary space. And I guess for me, and I would say for my colleagues, that's more than saying we all come from many disciplines. So with that multi-disciplinary for me, what interdisciplinary means is we think about what happens that's different when we come together across our disciplines and sit in the place between them. And I always think that's, you know, what gender, the study of gender instability allows us to do a space between the disciplines, interdisciplinary, that is productive in a different way from being sat in a specific discipline such as law or development studies or politics or sociology. So a really important part of the degree is both the different disciplines that you all bring into our classrooms, as well as the different disciplines that we encounter as researchers at SOAS and in the centre for gender studies. So we're interested in, and for me, the beauty of being in CDS is an opportunity to ask what happens when I stand in that interdisciplinary space. It challenges me to think differently and to think with greater care and to look where there's replication and to look also where there's difference and ask different kinds of questions around what theories are drawn in, what methods are drawn in and what learning styles. And I hope that this will be reproduced through your online spaces that you join us in as well. At the same time, we regard the work that we're doing is committed to a transnational approach to gender and sexuality. So what do I mean by this? Well, actually, when we're talking about gender and sexuality, and we're talking about transnational spaces, I think it has two dimensions. One attends to our very definition of gender and sexuality. And for me, a transnational approach to gender and sexuality acknowledges that the words gender and sexuality become placeholders for a great deal of global diversity. And that there is a necessity to undo the expectation that Western and European articulations of what gender and sexuality mean. And those assumptions that are held in there need to be undone through a transnational approach that doesn't bring any assumptions about how either gender or sexuality functions elsewhere. And if you want to have an example of this, actually, I could perhaps send you all to a puppet little note in the chat, actually. So some of my own working on work on this in my book Feminist Dialogues on International Law. And there's a chapter on OUP, they have a special page on Promise of International Law, and they have one of my chapters up there. And it has a chapter from my book on feminist dialogues, I've put it in the chat. And one of the studies I looked at was the different Oxfam projects around sanitation and hygiene after the Ebola crisis in West Africa, and some of the assumptions that Oxfam brought there around gender. And there's in a very kind of important study of how international expertise kind of undermines itself by assuming that when we talk about gender, we're talking about how Western or European or even international kind of actors imagine gender to happen. And actually a transnational approach to gender starts with the very knowledge that we don't know about gender anywhere else than the kind of communities and spaces that we're already familiar with. And they might be institutional spaces, they might be communities that we belong to, they might be national spaces. And unless we have a transnational approach, we will be bringing our own baggage, so to speak, about gender and sexuality and kind of imposing that on others. Our approach at the centre is to start from this point of understanding transnational approaches to gender and sexuality as informed by local communities or different communities, different institutions, and as disrupting expectations about how European and Western ideas around gender and sexuality work. So when we talk about the study of gender and sexuality in the context of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, what we're talking about is a transnational approach and understanding of gender. So that's my first understanding of transnational functions within CGS, but the other side of it is about a recognition of the activists and practitioners spaces that transnational and that organise, I think that is horizontal rather than top down or bottom up. But actually I think there are global next works for transnational and feminist women's LGBTI spaces where knowledge is shared in a kind of horizontal fashion and that we often miss and kind of disregard the kind of learning and the knowledge that happens. And so much of the work that we do looks at how that knowledge travels across different communities. So it's not only a definition of gender and sexuality that respects its diversity and explores that diverse understandings and differential meanings, but also an understanding of how activism and practitioner spaces with respect to gender and sexuality don't necessarily have to go up to the international nor do they have to stay in the local, but they might actually kind of be regional or they might be transnational, but there's a kind of knowledge sharing. And again, an example, if you think about the history of activism around domestic violence, although of course there is national state led and also some international work. For example, around the Convention on the Elimination Discrimination Against Women. But actually, if you look into it, the best on the most successful changes around challenging domestic violence have often occurred through knowledge sharing across feminist communities and they don't need to go up and through the state to happen. They often happen in transnational feminist conferences, for example, and this kind of horizontal knowledge where women from perhaps the Pacific meet women at a conference from East Asia and they share what works and what doesn't work in their context and they translate it and they make sense in terms of how gender and sexuality is understood in their own context. So when we're talking about transnational approaches, we're also talking about understanding that activist and practitioner space, which I think doesn't necessarily have to come up international, as I'm thinking of the international there, but not as it only sit in the local but is often kind of dispersed across the horizontal spaces of transnational knowledge sharing. I think it's important that you understand that that's our approach to gender and sexuality in the centre. And honestly, as somebody that's worked in the centre for almost a decade, much of that approach is informed by the students that come to serve us as much as it is informed by those of us that work in that space. This informs the kind of learning space that we try to cultivate for you all an innovative learning space that is collaborative with our students. I appreciate I've just been talking along so I want to check that I'm not going too fast or too slow. If you think I'm going too slow or too fast, just let me know. Just click on as we saw before the little feedback session thing down the bottom or let me know if you're happy as well. So in terms of organising that space, certainly on campus, it's always been one that's been a kind of shared learning experience and I always tell my students I learn as much from them as I hope they learn from me. And we think about that through both through how we organise our lectures and our tutorials and online. That's also going to be our eForum. So these are the kinds. One of the kind of key activities that you do in the online space is participate in a text driven eForum where you give feedback to students where your lecturer will also be participating and there's a kind of dialogical conversation going on. Knitted into that will be opportunities for some lectures and tutorials, including the events that we're going to be hosting online in the next few weeks or so. And a host of regular eTivities. So the eTivities are about building knowledge over time, doing small tasks that lead towards your final task. And as I move on to the structure of the MA in and of itself, I think that will become more clear to you all. We also, and this is the kind of COVID bit, but I think it really will be how we change our practices going forward. There are a host of events online that you'll be able to participate in and join on campus students for, certainly in term one of next academic session possibly through going forward as well. So we've got annual lectures, set up some activist panels, and then we always have student led events. And what we're hoping is that our first cohort of online students will also help us facilitate some online events, which so, for example, if you're working in a specific network or there are local speakers or not so local speakers that you'd like us to invite into that space, we'll be hosting events for you around that. Now, just as I said, one of our kind of goals in setting this up was kind of addressing what we think are some of the inequalities about UK education around the cost. So one of the things that you've probably noted already is that you pay by module as you go. Let's have a look at what that means in terms of the degree structure. I'm sorry that this is a little bit small to see. But essentially what happens on the program is that you undertake for taught modules. And you do one module at a time, and you also undertake a dissertation module. So the dissertation module kind of snaps into false or smaller pieces, and you do a little bit of the dissertation module as you do the whole program. If you were to enroll now you would be expected to undertake the first core or compulsory module in October. And that will be the Gender, Sexuality and Global Politics Core module which lasts for 16 weeks. At the end of that you'd have a short study break and then you'd have eight more weeks to take the first bit of your dissertation study which is the research mini module which lasts for eight weeks. You would then pick up your second core module which looks like going to be gender and social inequalities are also worth 30 credits in April. In October you then pick up your third core compulsory module which is gender conflict and the Middle East. And then you have the opportunity to choose an optional module in April sorry I put the wrong date. That should be April 2021 and gender conflict and the Middle East is also in April 2021. So you do this over two years, one module at a time. Each module lasts for 16 weeks. At the end of the 16 weeks there's a two week reading week and there's an eight week mini module which is your dissertation. Kind of building towards your dissertation and then there's a break and you come back in April for your second module. The final module being your optional one and that also includes your final dissertation project in that eight weeks at the end of that. So any questions about that in the chat box for me. I'm going to flip to the next slide. These are the optional modules that we currently have and I thought it was important that I put them on here because I'm just chasing up on the size website to make sure they all get up there. The two that come from gender studies are the first two. So we have a new module on gender law reform which is a module I'll be teaching and a module on gender and security in Africa which I think is already listed. Which is run by my colleague Awina O'Ketch. The rest of the modules, these are the optional modules for you, allow you to go outside of gender studies. It might be digital diplomacy, like the media and religion, media and gender, global diplomacy, the Muslim minorities modules, etc. So there's a little bit of flexibility in the final module for you to pick up and choose something that may or may not be gender studies but obviously that some of those are specifically from the gender studies program. So just looking back so it's clear again and I'll point with you do the dissertation and this kind of stacks into little pieces at the end of each module. Do your core module, gender, sexuality and global politics, which is what you enroll in for October 2020. In April 2021, sorry about my typing errors, I just want to say in 2020 forever, not at all. So April 2021, you will take the core module, gender and sexuality inequality. October 2021, you take gender conflict in the Middle East. And then you do your optional module. Actually, that will be April 2022. And as I said, at the end of each compulsory module, you'll have your eight weeks of research. Mini module, which builds towards your dissertation, which after your guided option or your option, one of these that you have chosen, you put together your final dissertation project. So this is based on a model that we already use, but they're now populated with specifically gender studies modules and courses for you to take. Any questions on all of that sounds like it looks like you're kind of that's all okay. But if anyone wants to write, ask me a question, just pop it in the text. And so I wonder if you could just type the question into the text, because where can you find the links to join the online events by CGS. Thanks, Mayor. I while I'm waiting for the other question, I'll answer that one. So I've got them coming up in another slide. But probably the thing to do if you want to come to the event. So it's just in a subsequent slide is to have a look at our Facebook page. If you're on Facebook or I will tweet about them later today. So if you follow both our Facebook page and our Twitter. Right, we're going to Carly's question. What's the workload like per module? Can you effectively balance it balance working alongside the masters? Well, I think that's a great question. I think the advantage of the online degree as opposed to the on campus is that you probably can balance it while working. Some of you may have heard me talking about that I've been undertaking a similar type program. While I've been working full time over the last six months are more than six months nearly 12 months now. And it does require a little bit of it does require quite a lot of organization and some time, but you can be working while you do this because you're doing one module at a time. What I find I need to do to keep up with the workload is just really allocate weekend time for my reading because I find while I'm working full time I can't keep up with the reading. So I think you can balance it a long time alongside working. And of course, because it's online, you choose which part of the week you're going to attend and participate. But there's a certain amount of work that you need to do every week. I would say that the biggest work is in keeping up with the ring. But you also need to allocate time to make sure you're kind of keeping up with the discussions, the forums, etc. Now in terms of assignments, we have lots of many tasks. The first few won't go towards your final result and they kind of build up towards your final task is an essay at the end of the module. And you will need a little bit of time to do that. Of course, you've got your reading weeks at the end of the course to kind of cut up your writing done. And what we hope through the guided tasks, the smaller tasks that happen as you go, you are kind of putting together the work that kind of leads towards the final task. And actually I can show you, I think it's on the next slide a little bit clearer towards this. So the kinds of what we call activities that you do. Thanks, Kali, for coming back to me. You know, like you review a piece of writing or you review some of the literature as a small task, or we ask you in the eForum to develop a critical response to a reading, or you write about your understanding of a key term. So by participating in the weekly forum, what you're actually doing in conversation with your peers is building the kinds of text and understanding that then goes into your final essay. And we're there with you every step of the way. And I think by the time you get to the essay, you've got all the content, including the forum discussions, including the different work that you do to really develop that. Now, NERS asked me if you are assigned a supervisor. Now, I'm not, different universities in different places have a slightly different meaning around the word supervisor. I think it probably mean in relation to the dissertation. Is that right, NERS? If it is in relation to the supervisor, in relation to your dissertation, the answer is yes. Yeah, that's right. So in your final dissertation, you will have a supervisor to work with. Probably be the program convener, which at the moment is me. But we can work with you on that. And in addition to that, some people think about supervisors just in terms of academic advisors. And again, the academic advisor will be the program convener, which is me. And I'm more than happy to have kind of meetings with people, checking how you're going one-to-ones as an academic advisor as well as any kind of supervision role. Great, thanks NERS. What I put on here is the structure of our first core module, which is what we'll be running for 16 weeks from the beginning of October. And this, you know, you can see some of the kinds of topics that we will be presenting to you, thinking both some sort of specialist subjects, women as agents of violence, thinking through conflict and almost like a preliminary look on gender and conflict. And a case that almost that was what you wanted to go on and look at in your work. But some of the early writing or earlier weeks, thinking about transnational feminist approaches, going beyond the gender binary, you know, not fixating on, you know, this, I think, very European, Western kind of understanding of gender as being this binary between men and women and asking how we actually rewrite gender and sexuality through thinking about perspectives outside of the West, writing in the knowledge of the global South into our very kind of way of thinking about gender and sexuality. And to thinking towards the end of the course around what's happening now with gender and sexuality. So for example, if you look at the last three topics, sexual regimes and borders, disabled bodies, cyborgs, gender and technology. So picking up, you might look into some of my own writing, some of the work that I've written around this, thinking about how without technology, gender and sexuality at this moment, are asking questions about, you know, I think now fairly mainstream concepts in gender theory, for example, around intersectionality and asking what it means to take serious a politics of intersectionality that's not just around gender and race, although it starts from a history of critical race, feminism, to ask about disability, to ask about sexuality, to ask about us and how we hold all those intersectional understandings together as being productive of power in the different spaces that we live and work in. What obviously gender sexuality and protest are being very much of this moment, but also thinking about that as a kind of contemporary manifestation of different gender and sexuality projects and activism and bringing them live into the classroom. The great thing is that you will all bring in your own perspectives and understandings on these matters. And I assure you that you'll be learning as much from your peers as you will be from any of those that are teaching on the course. Great. I think I've got all your questions. You can see in the chat, if you're not on the chat already, you can follow the link directly to the Centre for Gender Studies Facebook page. If you are on Facebook or you can follow the link to the Twitter page. If you're not on social media, just drop me an email and I'll send you the information and the links to the various different events that are coming up. So in terms of the events, I think they're on the next slide. These are just two of the many events that we host. They are online because, as I was saying before, London has not yet opened a business quite so much to have the university campus again. So these are two events that are coming up over the next fortnight. In addition to that, if you like listening to me, tomorrow at 1pm London time I'm running a master class on women, peace and security, which is my area of research. You're most welcome to come along with that as well. You can access that on the Sores website. This is where my colleagues work next Wednesday, the 24th of June and to give you a sense of the kinds of things we're talking about in the classrooms at CGS. Particularly, draw your attention to this because the panel will be former students of ours. So all the participants in this panel, except for Dr. Samir Kutun, who's one of my colleagues. Everybody else are former or current students on the CGS master's program. And in particular, what they'll be discussing is Lola Olufumi. I don't know if you've read her wonderful book, Philanism Interrupted, but we're very, very proud that Lola is also our former MA in gender studies student. If you want to know more about the content, you could go along and listen to them talk. It's two hours and it's an event you can join via the Facebook page. As I said, if you don't have access to Facebook, drop me a line. And I will make sure you can get access to the webinar. And then the second event listed there will be run by my colleague, Gawino O'Ketch on global blackness and transnational solidarity. You can book your ticket via Eventbrite. And again, you can also access information around that on the SOAS Facebook page. So that's, I think the last slide is just my contact details. So I really wanted to have enough space to chat with you all, to meet you, hear what you're interested in. Find out if you have any questions.