Teaching with the third wave new feminists - MailChimp

PrefaceThe idea of writing this book emerged when the prospectus of the ATHENAbook series “Teaching with Gender” was discussed within WeAVE in theautumn of 2008. The title for this volume, “Teaching with the Third Wave –New feminists’ explorations of teaching and institutional contexts”, was settledquickly and supported with great enthusiasm by the group; this was becauseit is closely linked to the self-understanding of WeAVE and the aims withinthe network. WeAVE is a European gender studies network for students, postgraduatestudents, PhDs, post-doc researchers, and junior teachers that was formedinside the Thematic Network for European Women’s Studies, ATHENA. 1The term WeAVE is a play on the two themes that represent the core of thisnetwork: “The image of weaving refers to the connectivity and interactionwhich WeAVE aims to create. Similarly, the WAVE capitalised in the titlepoints towards a new third wave feminist generation, the future of Europeangender studies.” 2 The idea of addressing the challenges involved in practicinga feminist pedagogy from the perspective of young scholars in gender studieswas met with great enthusiasm. Almost all the authors have been involved inWeAVE and have been reflecting on their particular situatedness and what thatmeans for teaching/knowledge transfer under current conditions. The result isa collection of texts where contemporary young feminists examine both theirparticular position as instructors in feminist/gender studies and what in theirminds need to be addressed, added or worked through in pedagogical contexts.The contributions cover a broad field, including theoretical perspectivesas well as specific case studies ranging from the academic classroom to teachersin-service-training and the training of economic, social and political players.Hence this book especially addresses young scholars who already have beeninvolved or will be involved in teaching/transferring feminist knowledge indifferent pedagogical contexts; but it also invites other readers to reflect ontheir generational position and on their teaching practices.This book would not have been written and published without thehard work of the authors and the encouragement and ongoing support of theseries-editors of “Teaching with Gender”, Noemi Kakucs, Andrea Petö, AnnikaOlsson and Berteke Waaldijk. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude.1http://www.weave-network.eu2Quoted from Weave’s Manifesto, cf. www.weave-network.eu7