Sibéal Conference 2010 Report

Women in Action – Active Genders:
An Evening Celebration of Women’s Activism and Creativity; an Interdisciplinary Gender and Feminist Postgraduate Conference; Sibeal’s first AGM

26 and 27 November 2010

An event organised by Sibéal in collaboration with the Global Women’s StudiesProgram, NUI Galway.This successful two-day event was different from our two previous Sibeal conferences. Up to now our conferences have had a purely academic focus, but this time we combined cultural and academic activity, thus seeking to highlight how feminism needs both theory and practice in order to effectively work for equality.

Secondly, while Sibeal has been hosted by academic institutions in the past, this was our first attempt at fully collaborating with an academic programme and even have work on our conference incorporated into accredited student work. Through our successful collaboration with NUI Galway’s Global Women’s Studies Programme (GWSP) we tested our belief that this model holds much promise for the future.

Not only does it serve to maximise resources in economically strained times, it also provides students with real opportunities to apply theory in practical contexts. Thirdly, Sibeal was founded in 2006 and has been very active since its inception.However, it has never been placed on a formal constitutional basis, a move which the current membership considerd necessary to secure the founding vision of our organisation and our sustainable future. That is why this conference incorporated our first AGM at which we adopted our Constitution.

Report on all three events follow:

The cultural event:
The cultural event was mainly organised by PhD students from the GWSP with the help of BA students on NUIG’s BA Connect Programme. The evening, held in the Crane Bar, included awareness raising and a fundraiser for Galway Rape Crises Centre.

Through ticket sales and a well supported raffle we raised just over €1,300. Sixteen artists participated on the evening, and all gave their time voluntarily to the event. Participants included well known Galway artists as well as conference presenters, staff and students from NUIG.

The performances covered a wide range of the arts, including singing (contemporary, traditional and operatic), musical performances, classical dance from India, poetry readings, story-telling, the screening of two short films and a display of photographic work. The range and talent on display was truly rousing. In the words of one member of the audience; it was the best feminist gathering since the 1970’s! A full programme, including biographies of the performers is available on this website.

The academic conference:
The academic conference consisted twenty-three presentations from post-graduate scholars from NUIG, UL, NUIM, UCC, DCU, TCD and the Institute of Conflict Research in Belfast, as such it was the broadest cross-Ireland representation we have ever had at a Sibeal conference.The papers were grouped into six thematic panels, covering several disciplines; Child and Family Research, History, International Law, Politics, Public Administration, Sociology, Hispanic Studies, Global Women’s Studies, Gender Studies, Conflict Research, Geography, Education, Film and Cultural Studies, thus proving that feminist research is today penetrating into every realm of academia and that opportunities to look at themes from various disciplinary perspectives adds depth of insight. The scholarly standard of all papers was high, and a wide range of theoretical perspectives and methodologies were employed.

Attending a Sibeal conference is thus an inspiring experience for qualified academics and students alike, by demonstrating that contemporary feminist research can be pursued in many different ways, in varyingcontexts. The full conference programme, including biographies of presenters can be downloaded on from this website.

Sibéal’s AGM and future plans:
The conference concluded with Sibeal’s first AGM. The current Trustees gave an account of Sibeal’s activities, including our financial income and expenditure over the past year. We presented our vision for the future, which is that Sibeal will have a national committee, who will continue to co-ordinate the membership, develop the website and annual conference, but that this group will be augmented by branches based in academic institutions across Ireland, who will facilitate networking and information exchange at a local level. At the AGM we recruited local representatives for NUIG and UL.

If you are interested in starting a Sibeal branch in your college or university please contact us and we will do our best to help you get started.

A draft constitution was presented to the membership and was unanimously adopted. The full text is available on the website. From now on, we will hold an annual AGM, in conjunction with our annual conference, thus ensuring full accountability and engagement with all our members. We are confident that placing the organisation of Sibeal onto a more formal footing will enable new members to become actively involved in the network, while members who have served out their term – and hopefully graduated with their degrees – can move on knowing that the management of the network has a sound basis for continuation.

Other organisational changes are that we have now instituted an annual membership fee of €10, to enable the network to provide some start up support for local branches. Furthermore, we have introduced a new category of membership for those who have completed their studies but who wish to stay in touch with the work of Sibeal.

Finally, Sibeal voted to affliate with the National Women’s Council of Ireland, in line with our commitment to continue to build links between feminist academia and activism.

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To see a gallery of photos from the event, click here.