In 100 words or less….
- Tell us what you are researching and why it matters to you?
- What has been your biggest, most frustrating challenge to date?
Convincing some of my colleagues that cooking groups for mothers can have a political dimension; that they are a legitimate area of study; and that we ignore them at our peril! I did get there in the end, but it involved a lot of banging my head against the wall along the way. I find that there are still a lot of underlying assumptions regarding what counts as political, and these assumptions are often based on rather dated, masculine notions and ideas.
- Share the dream! What impact do you hope your research will have down the track?
As per our Foundation’s name – I do hope that my research will help us move towards gender equality. It is a big dream, and no one can do this alone, but we can all do out bit and collaborate with one another to make us stronger. On a more personal level, I hope that by doing feminist research I can live the values I believe in, and show that academia doesn’t have to be a ‘winner takes it all’ blood sport.