Hive for Feminist Research

Donna Trembinski, Jonathan Langdon, Claudia Schaler, Susan Vincent, Rachel Hurst, Clare Fawcett, Eileen Alma, Nancy Forestell, Laura-Lee Kearns, Charmaine MacPherson and Rhonda Semple at April meeting

An interdisciplinary research group formed to increase the visibility and understanding of feminist research at StFX in all its diversity has just concluded a very successful first year.

On April 7, 2014, the Hive for Feminist Research completed activities for the 2013-14 academic year.

“We had an exciting and innovative year,” says StFX women’s and gender studies professor Dr. Rachel Hurst, who constructed the Hive in the summer of 2013 to offer a space for researchers at StFX to share and discuss feminist research.

Membership swelled to 45 people and the Hive became the first interdisciplinary research group on campus to bring together members of all four faculties—arts,  business, education, and science—as well as the Angus L. Macdonald Library, the Coady International Institute, Service Learning, and the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health.

“The Hive defines feminist research broadly as a type of inquiry concerned with understanding relations of power, particularly those based on gender as it intersects with race, sexuality, class, and ability,” Dr. Hurst says.

The Hive met eight times during the academic year, and featured presentations by 14 members representing 13 departments and interdisciplinary programs.

Topics of study were diverse, and demonstrated the breadth of feminist research at StFX, she says, from policy issues in education and health; women’s activism historically in mid-twentieth century Canada and in contemporary Ghana; to elder care in Peru; narratives of depression and anxiety; women in early Christianity; to settler photography of Indigenous women in The Beaver magazine.
 
Dr. Hurst says momentum and interest is strong.

Eileen Alma of the Coady and history and women’s and gender studies professor Dr. Nancy Forestell will take over organizing responsibilities, and are looking forward to an exciting year for 2014-2015, she says.

Possible activities talked about for the coming year include featuring the work of participants in the Coady Global Change Leaders program, a workshop on regional Aboriginal issues, a PechaKucha event on feminist research for students, a feminist theory reading group, and the construction of a virtual Hive.

Dr. Hurst says all are welcome to join. Announcements of future events will be sent in the fall, or interested people can email Dr. Hurst at @email.

L-r, committee members include Dr. Rachel Hurst, Catherine Irving, inaugural speaker Dr. Argelia Gonzáles Hurtado, Melanie Warner, Rebecca Mesay and Dr. Charlene Weaving.

Feminist research at StFX will be celebrated in a newly established speaker series designed to showcase the full range of feminist research happening at the university. 

The Hive for Feminist Research Annual Lecture Series, which launches on March 23, is an initiative of the Hive for Feminist Research, an interdisciplinary research group formed in 2013 to increase the visibility and understanding of feminist research at StFX in all its diversity. 

The inaugural speaker is Dr. Argelia Gonzáles Hurtado of the Department of Modern Languages (Spanish) who will address "Re-memory and Re-inventing Stories: Decolonizing Mexican Indigenous Women through the Video” on March 23 at 7 p.m. in Schwartz 205.

“I’m really excited about the lecture series. It’s a bridge of what we’ve built collaboratively, and it’s bringing some of these activities to a wider audience,” says StFX women’s and gender studies professor Dr. Rachel Hurst who constructed the Hive in the summer of 2013 to offer a space for StFX researchers to share and discuss work.

Membership swelled to 45 people and the Hive became the first interdisciplinary research group on campus to bring together members of all four faculties—arts,  business, education, and science—as well as the Angus L. Macdonald Library, the Coady International Institute, Service Learning, and the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health.
“When the Hive started we were interested in learning from each other. It’s nice to see the maturation of this,” says Catherine Irving of the Coady International Institute.

Students Melanie Warner and Rebecca Mesay say this is a great opportunity to showcase feminist research from new to established faculty members and is showing a shift in establishing and supporting a feminist atmosphere on campus. It also showcases interesting topics, they says. 
“It’s important to share and work together. It broadens people’s thinking,” says Dr. Gonzáles Hurtado.
The Hive defines feminist research broadly as a type of inquiry concerned with understanding relations of power, particularly those based on gender as it intersects with race, sexuality, class, and ability, Dr. Hurst says
The lecture series will run on a three-year cycle, with a speaker from the Arts/Science/Library in year one, a speaker from Business/Education in year two, and from the Coady International Institute in year three. 

Members of the Hive for Feminist Research Annual Lecture Series committee include Rita Campbell (Library), Rachel Hurst (Arts), Catherine Irving (Coady), Opal Leung (Business), Rebecca Mesay (WMGS Student Society), Jennifer Mitton-Kukner (Education), Melanie Warner (WMGS Student Society), and Charlene Weaving (Science).

The Hive for Feminist Research, an interdisciplinary research group formed at StFX to showcase the depth and diversity of feminist research happening across campus, will present its second annual lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. in Schwartz 205.

The Hive for Feminist Research Annual Lecture Series is an initiative of the research group formed in 2013 to increase the visibility and understanding of feminist research at StFX in all its diversity. A reception will follow the lecture and all are welcome. 

This year’s speaker is Shelley Price of the StFX Gerald Schwartz School of Business who will present her work on Indigenous North American stories of creation via the Sky Woman using an ecofeminist perspective. For this lecture, entitled "Ecofeminism and Interconnectivity via the Skywoman and Sedna Creation Stories,” the stories of Skywoman and Sedna will be shared and explored through the concepts of ecofeminism and interconnectivity. 

To the ecofeminist, people, animals and the earth itself are regarded as equal partners in evolution and no living being is privileged over another (Spretnak, 1990; Bullis & Glaser, 1992; Warren & Erkal, 1997), thus creating space for peaceful cohabitation through the respect of all forms of life and constituent voices. Skywoman and Sedna also help explore the concept of interconnectivity and the cycle of life as bound to spirit rather than body and form. In many Indigenous stories, ‘people, animals and the earth’ are not distinct and separate (different and categorized) bodies. People, animal and earth are of ‘the land,’ from ‘the land,’ and they are ‘the land’ (Momaday, 1969; Silko, 1981; Deloria, 1992; Yunupingu, 1997; Archibald, 2008).  

StFX women’s and gender studies professor Dr. Rachel Hurst, founder of the Hive for Feminist Research, constructed the Hive in the summer of 2013 to offer a space for StFX researchers to share and discuss work. The Hive defines feminist research broadly as a type of inquiry concerned with understanding relations of power, particularly those based on gender as it intersects with race, sexuality, class, and ability.

The Hive for Feminist Research Annual Lecture Series serves as a connection between all four faculties, the Coady International Institute, and the Angus L. Macdonald Library. The lecture series runs on a three-year cycle, with a speaker from the Arts/Science/Library in year one, a speaker from Business/Education in year two, and from the Coady International Institute in year three. 

Members of the Hive for Feminist Research Annual Lecture Series committee include Rita Campbell (Library), Clare Fawcett (Arts), Catherine Irving (Coady), Opal Leung (Business), Rebecca Mesay (Women’s and Gender Studies Student Society), Jennifer Mitton-Kukner (Education), Melanie Warner (Women’s and Gender Studies Student Society), and Charlene Weaving (Science).

This research is, in part, made possible by the Government of Canada Research Support Fund.