While many areas of reproductive health have been radically transformed by social and medical progress, menopause has remained stubbornly attached to conventional scripts and social norms about gender, sexuality, and the life course.
Supported by TASA's Gary Bouma Workshop grant, UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture (Paddington campus) is hosting a series of intersecting workshop dialogues exploring how narratives and responses to menopause, and other acute hormonal fluctuations in later life, can be made more inclusive of those whose bodies, identities or experiences are an uneasy fit with these norms, particularly compulsory heterosexuality, cisgenderism, and parenthood.
Program
Across three sessions, this workshop will feature short provocations from invited speakers:
The social reimagining of menopause across biomedicine (Celia Roberts), feminisms (Lucy Nicholas), and policy (kylie valentine).
The creative reimagining of menopause through queer installation arts (Macon Reed), First Nations theatre making (Liza-Mare Syron), sex tech, fem tech and meno tech (Kath Albury), followed by an interactive activity (Katherine Moline).
The clinical reimagining of menopause through dialogue across professional and lived forms of expertise (Deborah Bateson, Haryana Dhillon and more to be confirmed).
The workshop aims to bring together people from diverse perspectives to explore these radical imaginaries, contributing to the development of a localised and inclusive sociology of menopause.
This is a hybrid workshop and will be available both in person and online. In person participants will be engaged in dialogue and interactive activities, and online participants can propose topics for discussion through the hybrid presentation chat function. RSVPs are essential.
Event Details
Date: Friday, May 31 2024
Time: 12:30- 4:30pm AEST
Location: UNSW Paddington, Cnr Oxford Street and Greens Road Paddington, NSW 2052
*Registrations are now open. Limited space is available, so please register ASAP if you would like to join in person
WORKSHOP CHAIRS
Dr Kerryn Drysdale (she/her) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH), a specialist research centre at UNSW Sydney. Through her disciplinary background in Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, and Queer Theory, she endeavours to bring a critical cultural lens to everyday lived experiences of pervasive health inequities and social determinants of health. In particular, Kerryn works with marginalised or vulnerable populations to determine their health and wellbeing needs.
Katherine Moline (she/her) is Associate Professor at UNSW Arts, Design and Architecture. Her research focuses on the dynamics between technological and social forces in art and design. As UNSW Faculty Research Fellow Katherine led the curatorial team for the touring exhibition The Data Imaginary: Fears and Fantasies, for Griffith University Art Museum (2021), Flinders University Museum of Art (2022), and the ANU School of Art & Design Gallery (2023). She is currently writing a book on socially engaged design and the radical imaginary commissioned by Bloomsbury.
Professor Christy E. Newman (they/them) is a social researcher of health, gender, and sexuality at the Centre for Social Research in Health and Deputy Dean Research in UNSW Arts, Design and Architecture. Over the last 20 years, Christy has contributed expertise on qualitative social research, critical health sociology, and gender and sexuality diversity to multidisciplinary research on the social aspects of sexual and reproductive health, foregrounding community perspectives and partnerships.