
  • Staff
  • Students
  • Library
Flinders University Logo Flinders University Logo
  • Study

    Study areas

    • Business
    • Computer science and information technology
    • Creative arts and media
    • Criminology
    • Defence and national security
    • Education
    • Engineering
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Humanities and social sciences
    • Innovation and enterprise
    • International relations and political science
    • Languages and culture
    • Law
    • Medicine
    • Nursing and midwifery
    • Psychology
    • Science
    • Social work
    • Sport

    I am...

    • a high school student
    • a non-school leaver
    • a future honours student
    • a future postgraduate student
    • a future research student
    • a future online student
    • a future Indigenous student
    • an international student
    • a parent
    • a school counsellor/teacher
    Explore
    Admission pathways
    Apply
    Contact us
  • Study

    Study areas

    • Business
    • Creative arts
    • Education
    • Engineering
    • Environment
    • Government
    • Health sciences
    • Humanities
    • Information technology
    • Law
    • Medicine
    • Nursing
    • Psychology
    • Public health
    • Science
    • Social sciences
    • Social work

    International websites

    • China
    • Vietnam
    Explore Flinders
    Apply
    Contact us
  • Research

    Research areas

    • Engineering and technology
    • Health and medical
    • People and society
    • Science, environment and natural resources
    • Emerging research - Defence

    Fearless Research

    • Research Changing Lives

    I am...

    • a potential collaborator
    • a researcher
    • a potential research student
    • a current research student
    Research impact
    Institutes and centres
    Partner with us
    Participate
  • Research

    Research areas

    • Engineering and technology
    • Health and medical
    • People and society
    • Science, environment and natural resources
    • Emerging research - Defence

    Fearless Research

    • Research Changing Lives

    I am...

    • a potential collaborator
    • a researcher
    • a potential research student
    • a current research student
    Research impact
    Institutes and centres
    Partner with us
    Participate
  • Engage

    I want to...

    • Engage with us
    • Connect with students
    • Locate a clinic
    • Book a campus venue
    • Find a tender
    • Give to Flinders
    • Work at Flinders
    • Participate in a research study
    • See what's on
    • Shop Flinders merchandise

    Related links

    • Flinders New Venture Institute
    • Alumni
    • Health2Go
    • Flinders University Museum of Art
    • Flinders One Sport and Fitness
    Business and government
    Community
    Culture
    International
  • Alumni

    I want to...

    • Join an alumni network
    • Establish an alumni network
    • Share a memory
    • Access career services
    • Order a transcript
    • Give to Flinders
    • Update my details
    • Find a classmate
    • Shop Flinders merchandise
    Our alumni
    Benefits and services
    Get involved
    Stay connected
  • Giving

    Donate today

    • Donate online
    • Donate by mail
    • Giving online FAQs (PDF)
    • Staff Workplace Giving Program
    • Contact us

    Ways to give

    • Give in celebration or in memory
    • Leave a gift in your Will
    • Giving from overseas
    • Give a cultural gift
    • Get involved

    Donate to
    Why give
    Our donors
  • About

    The 2025 agenda

    • Vision and mission
    • Our strategic plan
    • Our values and ethos
    • Flinders Village

    Governance and leadership

    • University Council
    • Chancellor
    • Vice-Chancellor

    Our organisation

    • Colleges
    • Library
    • Professional services
    • Staff directory

    Campus and locations

    • Sustainability at Flinders
    • Bedford Park
    • Tonsley
    • Victoria Square
    • Flinders in the NT
    • Flinders at Festival Plaza
    Fast facts
    History
    Structure
    Contact us
  • Staff
  • Students
  • Library
  • You have no saved courses.

    Continue to explore your course options.

     
    Explore our courses

    Your saved courses

    {{{courseName}}}
    mail_outline
    delete
    View all saved courses
  • I am an
    International Student

    I am not a citizen of
    Australia or New Zealand


    Switch to International

    I am a
    Domestic Student

    I am an Australian or New Zealand Citizen

    I am an Australian Permanent Resident
    (including Humanitarian Visa holders)

    Switch to Domestic

  • Quick links 
    • Current students
    • Staff
    • Library
    • Flinders dashboard (Okta)
    • Ask Flinders
    • Flinders Learning Online (FLO)
    • Parking
    • Campus map: Bedford Park
    • Staff directory
    • Jobs at Flinders
    • Shop Flinders merchandise

 
  • I am a Domestic Student
  • I am an International Student
  • Engage 

    I want to...

    • Engage with the University
    • Connect with students
    • Locate a clinic
    • Find a short course
    • Book a campus venue
    • Find a tender
    • Give to Flinders
    • Work at Flinders
    • Participate in a research study
    • See what's on
    • PhD Research Partnerships

    Related links

    • Flinders New Venture Institute
    • Alumni
    • Health2Go
    • Flinders University Museum of Art
    • Flinders One Sport and Fitness
  • Business and government
  • Employment 
    • Employer services
    • Work Integrated Learning
  • Community 
    • Clinics, services and programs
    • Short courses
  • Culture 
    • What's on at Flinders
  • International engagement 
    • International partners
    • Networks and alliances
    • Transnational education
  • Campus

‘Unknowing’
Institutions:
Decolonisation
and Critical
Intersectional
Practice 

Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Association Biannual conference

13th – 16th July 2021

Flinders University City Campus,
Victoria Square, Adelaide

     Call for papers and key dates  Conference topics  Keynote speakers  Registration fees  Accommodation & Location

 This will be an on-line and/or face-to-face conference 

This conference asks: what does it mean to undertake feminist, queer and related critical work within and in relation to institutions that privilege certain ways of ‘knowing’.

Indigenous scholars, queer and feminist scholars, and those using intersectional theories, have long critiqued the politics and practices of knowledge production, along with the related inequalities which emerge across race, disability, class, gender, sexuality and age. In an era of neo-liberal instrumentalism, western epistemologies continue to sit at the heart of institutions which structure our work and/or form its point of reference – these highly particular ‘ways of knowing’ continue to determine what counts as legitimate knowledge, how knowledge is ‘built’, processed and obtained, and what counts as valuable knowledge ‘outputs’. They also contribute to material inequalities in a labour market which is increasingly casualised, precarious, inaccessible, and focused on narrow definitions of worth.

These practices of ‘knowing’ emerge from and reinforce the colonising project that structures dominant institutions. They also continue to centre the normative Australian citizen, and knowledge producer, as non-Indigenous, white, able-bodied, middle class, cis-male and heterosexual. Significantly, despite the assumed ‘neutrality’ of the neo-liberal individual, institutions continue to rest on patriarchal, colonising, abelist logics – and recently, corporate logics which seek to maximise ‘productivity’ have had very real effects on identities and forms of knowledge that are marginalised.

Through this conference, we emphasise two frames to think about what it might mean to ‘unknow’ the institutions that shape our work, or through which we are positioned as subjects, or from which we seek employment. Theories of decolonisation present a challenge to feminist, queer and related critical practice to reflect on what counts as legitimate knowledge, and by extension, how identities and subjectivities can be held accountable. They also present a challenge to take the radical goals of decolonisation seriously. While intersectionality has been critiqued as an approach that is at risk of ‘tick-boxing’ categories (with the power to determine those categories in the hands of the researcher) it remains a vital frame for thinking through privilege and marginality across race, class, disability, gender, sexuality and age.

Call for Papers and Key Dates

Abstracts due 22nd February 2021

  • Individual papers: Abstract 300 word maximum
  • Roundtable discussion, panel, workshop, creative intervention-performance: 400 words maximum.

Acceptance announced 15th March 2021

Please send abstracts to:

AWGSAconference2021

Conference Organising Committee: Dr Monique Mulholland, Assoc. Prof. Barbara Baird, Assoc. Prof. Catherine Kevin, Assoc. Prof. Kristin Natalier, Dr Simone Tur, Dr Ali Baker, Faye Rosas Blanch, Dr Tova Rozengarten, Dr Laura Roberts.

♿︎ The conference is wheelchair accessible

The 2021 AWGSA conference will bring together activists, academics, students, community leaders, artists, researchers, and policymakers to think through the idea of ‘unknowing’ in a multitude of ways, drawing on one or all of the key frames outlined below:

Positionality and Place

How we are positioned as subjects in the various institutions in which our work sits? Which identities are privileged and marginalised? What might it mean to decolonise and ‘unknow’ the privileged knowledges and subjectivities that inform the institutions in which our work is situated or from which it is excluded? What does it mean to unknow what we have come to know, and to know in different ways? 

Working with and about institutions

How do institutions open up or close down the work we can undertake – what we can say, how we can we express it, how we are privileged or exploited? What are the different practices of knowledge production, in different kinds of institutions? And who is the ‘we’ of institutions?

Resistance and transformation

How, and can, we decolonise the spaces in which we work? How, and can, we decolonise our own work? How can we undertake critical intersectional work in ways that avoid ‘tick-boxing’? What is possible? What might this look like in different institutions and institutional settings? Is it possible, and if so, what would a decolonising ethics of practice look like across diverse institutional contexts? 

Knowledge ‘outputs’ and ‘products’

What presently or currently constitutes legitimate knowledge products and outcomes in the spaces in which we work? How can we strategise to make room for a broad range of knowledge outputs – from ‘traditional’ academic publications, to art, theatre, spoken work, fiction and community and political activism?

This conference will be held on the traditional country of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today.

Face to Face Attendance Registration Fees

Book now

Early Bird

(Closes 14th June)

 

Standard Full Registration

(Open 15th June)

 
Full Conference Rate
 
Price
 
Full conference Rate
 
Price
 
Waged (membership not included in fee) $285 Waged (membership not included in fee) $320
Waged (fee will include AWGSA membership) $265 Waged (fee will include AWGSA membership) $300
Waged (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $245 Waged (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $280
Unwaged/Student/Low Income (membership not included in fee) $120 Unwaged/Student/Low Income (membership not included in fee) $140
Unwaged/Student/Low Income (fee will include AWGSA membership) $100 Unwaged/Student/Low Income (fee will include membership) $120
Unwaged/Student/Low Income (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $80 Unwaged/Student/Low Income (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $100
Day Rate
 
Price
 
Day Rate
 
Price
 
Waged (membership not included in fee) $200 Waged (membership not included in fee) $235
Waged (fee will include AWGSA membership) $180 Waged (fee will include AWGSA membership) $215
Waged (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $160 Waged (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $195
Unwaged/Student/Low Income (membership not included in fee) $80 Unwaged/Student/Low Income (membership not included in fee) $100
Unwaged/Student/Low Income (fee will include  AWGSA membership) $60 Unwaged/Student/Low Income (fee will include AWGSA membership) $80
Unwaged/Student/Low Income (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $40 Unwaged/Student/Low Income (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $60
Online Attendance Registration Fess

Please note: For online participants, catering costs have been removed from the registration fees

Book now

Early Bird

(Closes 14th June)

 

Standard Full Registration

(Open 15th June)

 
Full Conference Rate
 
Price
 
Full conference Rate
 
Price
 
Waged (membership not included in fee) $195 Waged (membership not included in fee) $230
Waged (fee will include AWGSA membership) $175 Waged (fee will include AWGSA membership) $210
Waged (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $155 Waged (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $190
Unwaged/Student/Low Income (membership not included in fee) $30 Unwaged/Student/Low Income (membership not included in fee) $50
Unwaged/Student/Low Income (fee will include AWGSA membership) $10 Unwaged/Student/Low Income (fee will include membership) $30
Unwaged/Student/Low Income (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $5 Unwaged/Student/Low Income (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $10
Day Rate
 
Price
 
Day Rate
 
Price
 
Waged (membership not included in fee) $170 Waged (membership not included in fee) $205
Waged (fee will include AWGSA membership) $150 Waged (fee will include AWGSA membership) $185
Waged (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $130 Waged (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $165
Unwaged/Student/Low Income (membership not included in fee) $50 Unwaged/Student/Low Income (membership not included in fee) $70
Unwaged/Student/Low Income (fee will include  AWGSA membership) $30 Unwaged/Student/Low Income (fee will include AWGSA membership) $50
Unwaged/Student/Low Income (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $10 Unwaged/Student/Low Income (for those who have pre-purchased existing membership) $30

Keynote Speakers

Dr-Chelsea-Bond.jpg

Associate Professor Chelsea Watego

Associate Professor Chelsea Watego is a Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman and a Principal Research Fellow within the School of Social Science at The University of Queensland. She has worked as an Aboriginal Health Worker and researcher in communities across south-east Queensland for the past 20 years with her work focused on interpreting and privileging Indigenous experiences of the health system and her current research supported by the Australian Research Council seeks to examine how race and racism operate within the health system in producing the persisting health disparities experienced by Indigenous peoples. A/Professor Watego is a board member of Inala Wangarra (an Indigenous community development association within her own community), and one half of the Wild Black Women on Brisbane’s 98.9FM and NITV’s The Point.

Jax-Brown.jpg

Jax Jacki Brown

Jax Jacki Brown is a disability and queer+ rights activist, writer, and educator. Through their tireless work as a writer, speaker, workshop and forum presenter, lecturer, spoken-word performer and theatre producer, Jax aims to challenge disability stereotypes and spotlight serious issues for change.  Jax is a member of the Victorian Ministerial Council on Women's Equality, and the Victorian governments' LGBTI taskforce Health and Human Services Working Group and formerly the Victorian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s Disability Reference Group. Jax is interested in how we can build resilience, pride and community for queer people with disabilities.

Unbound-collective.jpg

The Unbound Collective:
Dr Ali Gumilya Baker, Dr Simone Ulalka Tur, Faye Rosas Blanch and Dr Natalie Harkin

The Unbound Collective brings together years of research in a performance that moves through spaces that have historically seen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians excluded and reduced to tell untold chapters of Australia’s true history.

The Unbound Collective

Dr-Juliet-Watson.jpg

Dr Juliet Watson

Dr Juliet Watson is Deputy Director of the Unison Housing Research Lab within the Social and Global Studies Centre at RMIT University and President of the Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Association. A sociologist and social worker, Juliet has extensive research, teaching, and practice experience in homelessness and gender-based violence. Her work focuses on marginalised experiences of gender, and her research projects have included investigations of pregnancy and homelessness, crisis responses for women escaping domestic violence, and gender-based violence on mental health inpatient units. Her book, ‘Youth Homelessness and Survival Sex: Intimate Relationships and Gendered Subjectivities’ was published in 2018.

Accommodation

Accommodation suggestions: All of these have discounts available for conference participants, so if you want the link to access this, email conference organisers.
 

Franklin apartments – 10% discount, Very close, less than 5 minutes walk, good budget option – approx. $100 per night  

Ibis Hotel – 10% discount: Very close, between 5-10 mins walk – approx. $120 per night

Hilton Hotel – 15% discount: just across the square from the conference – approx. $194 (you can edit the dates on the link)

Quest – 20% discount: less than 5 mins walk – approx. $159 per night.

Location

Adelaide is situated on Kaurna Country, and we recognise the Traditional Custodians of the land on which the conference is being held. We pay our respects to Elders, past, present, and emerging. We acknowledge that this land was never ceded. We extend that respect to all Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders, and Indigenous People from other nations joining us.

The conference location is easily accessible via tram, train, and bus. The tram circles the city (and goes from the main train station to right outside the conference venue), so it easy to get around. The city is also relatedly small and easy to walk to most venues etc. Should you require more information to plan your transport, please visit: https://adelaidemetro.com.au/

In addition, Flinders at Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga is close to a variety of amenities for your convenience. The Adelaide Central Market is 2 mins away across the square, and Rundle Mall is within walking distance, whether you're looking for fresh, gourmet goods or an outdoor shopping experience. Within the CBD, you will also find many wonderful restaurants and cafes which serve a variety of cuisines to suit all tastes!

If you have a little more time during your stay, you might consider a visit to the beautiful Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley wine region, or a tram ride to the bustling Glenelg foreshore.

Call for papers and key dates

Conference topics

Keynote speakers

Flinders University Logo

Sturt Rd, Bedford Park
South Australia 5042

South Australia | Northern Territory
Global | Online

Information for

  • Future students
  • Alumni
  • Media
  • Business and community
  • Current students
  • Staff
  • External contractors

Directories

  • Contact us
  • Campus and locations
  • Staff directory
  • Colleges
  • Library
  • Research Institutes and Centres

Follow Flinders

Facebook - Flinders University Twitter - Flinders University YouTube - Flinders University Instagram - Flinders University LinkedIn - Flinders University

Brand SA logo Innovative Research University logo Indigenous communities

Website feedback

Disclaimer

Accessibility

Privacy

CRICOS Provider: 00114A      TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12097      TEQSA category: Australian University

Last Updated: 22 Jun 2021
Fearless Logo

This website uses cookies

Flinders University uses cookies to ensure website functionality, personalisation, and for a variety of purposes described in the website privacy statement. For details about these cookies and how to set your cookie preferences, refer to our website privacy statement.

You consent to the use of our cookies if you proceed.

Accept and continue