Introduction

The Association for Gender Research in Denmark and Copenhagen Business School hosted the 2024 Gender Conference, focusing on “intersectionality.” This concept, introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw in the late 1980s, addresses how overlapping aspects of identity, such as race and gender, result in unique forms of discrimination and inequality. Crenshaw is a professor at the UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School and an Ohio native who has spent more than 30 years studying civil rights, race, and racism.

The 2024 Danish Gender Conference invited research that delves into the diverse intersections of gender and continues the conversation on combating intersecting forms of oppression. According to the website of the Carlsberg Foundation, the conference is held in different locations each time, and the local research environments take turns organising the conference in the different university cities across the country.

Day1

The Copenhagen Business School (CBS) hosted the sessions, keynote speeches and workshops this year. The CBS campus is spread across six locations in Porcelænshaven, the former Royal Porcelain Factory. This area, which was an active porcelain factory from the late 1800s until the early 2000s, has been preserved and modernised. Today, it features a mix of private residences and CBS buildings, maintaining the historical charm while fostering a vibrant academic environment.

2 Keynote Sessions, 7 Academic Paper Sessions, 3 Workshops, and 2 Book Presentations were on the agenda for Day 1 with a wide range of topics being discussed. The sessions were conducted parallelly making it impossible for a single reporter to cover them all. The conference opened with keynote speeches from Ravinder Kaur , Professor of Asian Studies at the Københavns Universitet – University of Copenhagen; Ina Knobblock, Sámi and Tornedalian feminist scholar, Mid Sweden University.

Too Impulsive, Too Involved, Too Strong, needs to cool down – Ravinder Kaur

Prof. Kaur read out a bunch of similar phrases which are associated with women in positions of control/power. She argued that instead of fixing the flaws in the system, policymakers label women and people of colour as ‘flawed’. There is also the accusation of undue favouritism.

“I thought I did not work on gender until I realised I do,” said Kaur to the audience who were beginning to fill in the conference hall. Kaur touched upon how DEI is now an existing framework in most organisations however, one needs to learn to play ‘the game’. “I did not know what that meant when I heard it for the first time,” Kaur confesses. By the end of her speech, she explains that the game has no fixed rules and is highly subjective and figuring this out is a game within itself.

On 27th September, Ravinder will hold an inaugural professor talk on Drawing the Global South: India and Beyond at the South Campus, Auditorium 4A-0-69 of the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at Copenhagen University. More details here: https://ccrs.ku.dk/calendar/2024/drawing-the-global-south/

A Rape of the Earth – Ina Knobblock

Ina Knobblock (she/her) is a Sámi and Tornedalian feminist scholar. Now that I have had time to reflect on Ina’s speech, one thing that stood out is Ina’s impactful storytelling. Her research interests focus on Sámi and Indigenous feminisms, exploring the relationships between gender and Indigeneity, as well as Indigenous relationality and resurgence. Additionally, they delve into the intersections of gender, identity, and Indigenous culture, emphasising Indigenous methodologies, particularly in creative writing, as key tools for expressing and advancing these themes.

“The core value of Indigenous feminism is Relationality,” stated Ina. According to this article in the Journal of Indigenous Social Development, Indigenous peoples recognize that human life is intricately connected to and reliant on maintaining respectful relationships with others, including ancestors, plants, animals, and the broader natural world.

“Everything is explained in a relational sense,” added Ina. She also emphasised the role of Indigenous Resurgence for environmental justice. In the book Indigenous Resurgence, Decolonization, and Movements for Environmental Justice published in 2022, the editor Jaskiran Dhillon mentions that Indigenous communities and collectives across the planet currently protect eighty per cent of the world’s biodiversity.

In the article “A Rape of the Earth”: Sámi Feminists against Mines, Ina argues that the Sámi people’s resistance to mining in Sápmi is deeply rooted in their emphasis on the interconnectedness of land, humans, nonhuman beings, and the environment. This sense of relationality and interdependence forms the foundation of their struggle, as they advocate for the protection of their ancestral lands and ecosystems, which are integral to their culture, identity, and survival.

“We die with the land. The most essential thing in life is that everything circulates..” she said, narrating a poem at the end of her speech. Upon hearing Ina’s words my mind could not help but cast itself to memories of another powerful civil rights activist, academic, writer and poet who goes by the name of Maya Angelou.

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour and some style” – Maya Angelou: In her own words

Both the keynote speakers thanked Dr. Poornima Luthra (She/ Her) for moderating the session and for bringing two presentations that could not be more ‘chalk’ and ‘cheese’. And yet, there were narratives and similarities with intersections that carved into the stories of both the presenters. The Danish Gender Conference was off to a strong start celebrating intersectionality right off the blocks. To best describe the initial feelings, I go back to Prof. Kimberle Crenshaw:  “This is what happens when an idea travels beyond the context and the content”

The Paper Presentations

What sets apart the Danish Gender Conference from any other conference I have attended in Copenhagen is the agency and space made for internationals. I was grateful to sit on the paper presentations of academics from such diverse backgrounds.

Comfort and Agency

Iba Alnemi, a PhD candidate at the University of Glasgow, presented a paper she co-wrote with Coderre-LaPalme & Kathleen Riach on the experiences of Saudi women in gig work.

“ While it might be the first job for many of the participants, it is providing them a competitive advantage in a non-judgemental space”, said Iba in her presentation.

As an outsider who was at the conference only to report my observations, I was surprised to note a few things. At the end of Iba’s presentation, several questions were asked around resistance and perception of women in gig work which to me came from a sense of saviourism. I guess some stereotypes are too hard to break through.

Who do you think of?

Nondumiso (Noni) Hlophe started her presentation by showcasing images of three black women in positions of leadership and influence on geopolitics and defence environments.

“Can you identify them?”, she asked the audience in the rooms and very few hands were raised. My silence was deafening to my sense of knowledge since I had no clue who these women were.

Noni’s area of research was Sub-Saharan women who had achieved leadership in regional, national and international settings. She seeks to answer how intersectionality influences leadership in international affairs.

There were several moments during Noni’s presentation when I was in awe. I felt grateful to be in a room where I was encountering several of my own biases face-to-face and now I had the opportunity to relearn. One quote from Noni shall stay with me forever:

“Any time one gets to academically study women’s lives, it is a privilege”.

End of Part 1 of 2

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