SunGen Events / podcasts

Past events

International Women's Day 2022

SunGen continues to work with Sunderland Culture on the Rebel Women of Sunderland project. The project has attracted national attention and the BBC1 programme, Songs of Praise, highlighted the project in its recording from Sunderland that was broadcast on IWD. Angela was interviewed by one of the programme's presenters, discussing the life and work of Margaret Dryborough and the Quakers Women.

In March, SunGen also hosted two events for IWD in Pop Recs. The first was open to members of the public and featured local musicians, Paige Temperley and Holly Reese, who had written a song about the Quaker women celebrated as part of the Rebel Women project. Activities included inviting youngsters to nominate their own 'rebel woman'. Later in the week, SunGen hosted a second event based on this year's three Rebel Women: Ida B. Wells, Eileen O'Shaughnessy, and Catharine Backhouse (representing the Quaker women). Local schools came along and engaged in writing flash fiction inspired by the stories of these women.

Another thing SunGen has been doing this year is writing its third edited collection. The text for this is: Sustainable Development Goals — gender and sexuality

SunGen's third edited collection has been contracted by Palgrave. This collection will be edited by Drew Dalton and Angela Smith, and will feature chapters by SunGen members and others from the wider academic community. The chapters will apply issues of gender and sexuality to the UN's SDGs.

Decolonisation workshop
Wednesday 9 March 2022

In this session, Jass Thethi of Intersectional GLAM covered the definition of Decolonisation, explore how Colonisation is affecting our modern-day lives, how it fits into academia and decolonisation in practice.

Trans Awareness workshop
Wednesday 16 February 2022

The session was facilitated by Dr Kit Heyam and Jass Thethi.

This session provided a conversational, non-judgmental space to increase confidence and familiarity around trans issues, and to learn how to create a positive experience for trans staff and students in HE.

Dr Kit Heyam and Jass Thethi covered the basics of trans identities and related terminology alongside practical aspects of trans inclusivity in HE, including interpersonal interactions, handling trans people's data, supporting trans staff and students, and signalling that the university is a trans-friendly institution for potential applicants. They also talked about the journey of learning and growing as a trans ally.

Attendees had the chance to ask questions and discussed problems specific to their area of work, and there was also an opportunity to ask anonymous questions.

Black History Month - 'Black Lives Matter - Virtual unveiling of blue plaque to Celestine Edwards'
15 October 2020

This event saw the virtual unveiling of a blue plaque to anti-slavery campaigner Celestine Edwards. There is a recorded history of anti-slavery activities, first organised by the local Quakers in Sunderland during the early 18th century, and so in celebrating Celestine Edwards’ contribution it is possible to see how the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has local relevance going back nearly 300 years. This plaque was the first to celebrate a Black person in Sunderland.

The event included a short talk by Prof Donna Chambers and by University Chaplain Chris Howson.

Learn more about Black Lives Matter and the blue plaque commemorating Celestine Edwards.

Virtual book launch — 17 September 2020

Language and Gender Book Launch event - 12 December 2019

Those who braved the weather and politics were treated to a talk by Mary Talbot about the third edition of her internationally-famous text book, Language and Gender.  She talked about how the first edition in 1998 was written at a time of very different gender relations, and how the book has had to be extensively revised and updated for 2019. Mary’s talk was followed by a greater focus on how masculinities have shifted in the course of the period from 1998, by Angela Smith. We then had a fantastic interactive workshop with Drew Dalton, who got us all thinking about gender and sexuality in the last 30 years.

SunGen meeting - 1 October 2019

We hatched two new plans:

• For IWD, we will organise an event to draw attention to the need for help in preparing and attending interviews. We will invite some local organisations that deal with advising women on interviews and cv preparation, and then hold a tea party that will include the opportunity to donate suitable clothes and accessories that could be used at interview. Donna will contact the Bangladeshi Centre to see if we can use that as a venue, and Kim will contact the YAV and AWV charities to see if they can take part.
• A SunGen studentship! We plan to offer a SunGen studentship worth £500 each to two Stage 2 students to set up a project relating to gender and sexuality equality. Drew will contact the Employability and Enterprise Hub and the Enterprise Office to see if either or both can facilitate this.

Blue plaque unveiling - 13 September 2019

On 13th September, research by Dr Sarah Hellawell led to the unveiling of a plaque to Dr Marion Phillips at 18 Foyle Street, Sunderland.  Marion was Sunderland’s first female MP, and was in office from 1929 to 1931.  Sarah’s research into Marion’s important role in the Labour Party, and in particular how she sought to improve the lives of working people in the North East, also revealed the location of the Labour Party’s Sunderland Committee Rooms in Foyle Street.
This blue plaque is only the third dedicated to a woman in Sunderland (the other two are those for Elizabeth Donnison, founder of the Donnison School in the Old East End, and Ida and Louise Cook (who smuggled 29 people out of Nazi Germany at the outbreak of the Second World War: their blue plaque is on Chester Road, marking a spot close to where they were born).

The event was attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of Sunderland, the MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, Bridget Phillipson, and members of local gender activist groups NEFlow (which seeks to ameliorate “period poverty”), and pupils from St Wilfrid’s Catholic College who help run a project called Canny Clean, which seeks to ameliorate personal hygiene poverty in young people irrespective of their gender.  The young people in particular show that political activism is alive and well in the region, and would doubtless have made Marion very proud.

For more details on the event, please click here

Gendered Worlds event - 28 June 2019

On 28 June, SunGen co-hosted with the RaCE network a one-day event, Gendered Worlds. 
This event featured four fabulous external speakers, and an audience from across the university as well as those from the wider community.  The speakers covered a wide range of issues relating to gender and sexuality, but could all be said to be linked by the impetus to make people visible, whether this is through casting light on the shadowy world of misogyny and sexual assault (Prof Karen Boyle’s talk on MeToo); showing women that there is a place for them in mainstream sport (Tamara Taylor); revealing the scandal of the UK immigration system when it comes to those seeking refuge from persecution on the basis of their sexuality (Aderonke Apata); or celebrating gay sexuality (Roxy Bourdillon).

For more details, click here