WeAVE

WeAVE est un réseau pour les étudiant·e·s, doctorant·e·s, docteur·e·s, post-doctorant·e·s, jeunes enseignant·e·s-chercheur·e·s européen·ne·s en études genre, et toute personne intéressée par ce champ de recherche. WeAVE est issu du Forum Étudiant ATHENA, un réseau international d’étudiant·e·s né au sein du Réseau Thématique pour les Études Européennes sur les Femmes (Thematic Network for European Women’s Studies) : ATHENA.

Le nom de WeAVE incorpore deux lignes thématiques qui définissent l’organisation du réseau. Premièrement, l’image de tisser (to weave, en anglais) renvoie à la connectivité et à l’interaction que WeAVE vise à créer. Deuxièmement, la référence à la « vague » (wave, en anglais), qui apparaît en majuscule dans le nom du réseau, met en avant l’odée de l’émergence d’une troisième vague du féminisme et à l’avenir des études féministes / études genre en Europe.

Site Internet : www.weave-network.eu

Pour une présentation plus détaillée : BLANCHARD Soline, « WeAVE : un réseau européen de jeunes chercheur-e-s en études féministes / études genre », Bulletin de l’ANEF, n° 51, 2007, pp. 31-36. [En ligne ici].

Manifesto :

Who are the future of European women’s studies? How can the diverse members of this future begin to speak to each other?

WeAVE provides a space for this future by creating a forum for dialogue, exchange, and interaction among gender studies students, postgraduate students, PhDs, post-doc researchers, junior teachers or anyone else interested in this field of study. On a European level, gender studies students and junior scholars already participate in existing networks but do not possess their own. The student perspective is thus relatively invisible in the larger field of gender research. WeAVE’s aim is to address this deficiency.

WeAVE’s main objective is to network the existing gender studies networks, as well as encouraging new networks to be formed in order to create an ever expanding and transforming tapestry of European feminist futures. WeAVE is interested in publishing, communication, and maintaining a platform for the exchange of ideas. It promotes new perspectives in the fields of gender theory, gender methodology, and ‘feminist academic careers’.

WeAVE emerged from the ATHENA Student Forum, an international network of students that was formed inside the Thematic Network for European Women’s Studies, ATHENA. ATHENA brings together 82 universities from numerous countries and is, and has been, encouraging universities to contribute to the network of gender studies scholars and students. WeAVE expands the scope of the ATHENA Student Forum by building a network of gender studies scholars and students that goes beyond the reach of ATHENA. It aims to initiate connections across diverse regions of Europe.

WeAVE was launched at the 6th European Gender Research Conference which took place at the University of Lodz, Poland from the 31st of August to the 3rd of September 2006 (www.gender2006.pl – http://www.gender2006.pl/). WeAVE activities at this conference included a student/postdoc informal get together, a plenary session, and a workshop on feminist academic careers. Following the launch, the main goals of WeAVE in terms of activities are to participate in smaller and larger conferences and to organise network meetings and seminar series relating to European women’s studies. WeAVE has also build a password-protected web-forum, on which e-meetings will take place and information on all members is made available.

The name WeAVE incorporates two thematic lines which define our network organisation. The image of weaving refers to the connectivity and interaction which WeAVE aims to create. Similarly, the WAVE capitalised in the title points towards a new third wave feminist generation, the future of European gender studies.