Dr. Philathia Bolton at Faber Residency in Spain in January 2020
The focus of this residency is the result of a previous Faber residency program in October 2018. The theme of this initial residency was broadly related to and brought together 12 women from across the world (Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Catalonia, Columbia, Finland, Iran, Mexico, Spain, and the United States) recognized as academics and/or activists in their respective fields/areas.
Through sharing our research projects and interests, a common theme started to emerge – gender inequity and how the gender gap plays out in various ways in different context and areas of study. In capitalizing on this unique connection and seeing an opportunity to explore the gender gap from a range of perspectives, key questions underpinning the development of an edited collection formed: What does our diverse work tell us about gender inequality globally? And what hope does the work of academics and activists bring to finding (creative) solutions to bridging this gap?
A book, to be published with Springer in mid-2020, will explore the notion of the gender gap from a number of angles using evidence-based insights and rich narrative traditions to capture and share the interventions that are happening in this space globally. Six of the original group members are involved in the project.
This collection – Storying interventions against the Gender Gap from a Global perspective: (Still) minding the gap – is a unique offering in the wider fields of feminism, women’s studies and gender studies as it is truly interdisciplinary and multi-faceted. This approach has been enabled by uniting the chapter contributions through a theme rather than a topic, which means that a broader brush approach to exploring the key issues and experiences of the gender gap, in this case, is possible.
An interdisciplinary exploration is important and valuable because it means that a more holistic understanding of the lived experiences of gender inequity will be documented and shared. This will result in a more realistic determination of the key issues and concerns from the perspective of key stakeholders, which will ultimately inform and insightful discussions about the implications – locally and globally – of these varied research projects.