Finding Joy and Resistance in Gender and Sexuality Research in a Polarised Climate

Researching gender and sexuality can feel hard in a polarised political climate but it also matters more.

This two-hour workshop, led by Dr Roz Ward, takes a strengths-based approach to working and writing in a highly contested environment. What keeps our research going, what it makes possible, and how do we make sure we do it well?

Drawing on experience co-founding Safe Schools Coalition Australia and writing from within the field, Roz will explore the value of insider positions and autotheory as ways of producing rigorous, honest and politically meaningful scholarship.

Together we’ll consider how to tell stories of resistance and possibility rather than focusing on harm, and how to build the collegial and community connections that sustain a research career.

The session will include an introduction from Roz, followed by provocations and questions for small-group discussion where participants will be able to share their own projects, questions and sources of energy. HDRs from Western Sydney University and the University of Sydney are welcome from any discipline working on, or near, gender and sexuality

Dr Roz Ward is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Education at Deakin University, based in the Research for Educational Impact (REDI) centre. Roz's research focuses on sexuality and gender in schooling, teachers’ work and lives, and inclusive school cultures, using strengths-based approaches informed by Marxist social reproduction theory, queer theory and autotheory. Roz is a co-founder of Safe Schools Coalition Australia and completed their PhD at RMIT University, where they received the AARE Ray Debus Award. They also co-convene the Teachers’ Work and Lives SIG at AARE and are Associate Editor ECR Intern at the Australian Educational Researcher.