NeuroCultures – NeuroGenderings II

About the NeuroGenderings Network

Formation

In March 2010, the Center for Gender Research, Uppsala University, hosted the international and transdisciplinary workshop "NeuroGenderings", funded from the Swedish Research Council in the excellence program "GenNa: Nature/culture and transgressive encounters" and by its Body/Embodiment Group.  Experts in the field of gender & brain research evaluated the current state of neuroscience methods, evidence, and interpretations regarding sex/gender  in the brain. As result of this meeting, scientists from Europe, the US, Canada and Australia from different disciplines such as neuroscience, neurocultures, the humanities, social and cultural studies, gender studies, feminist science studies, and science and technology studies, launched the Network NeuroGenderings to improve reflective analysis within/of the neurosciences and to initiate dialogue across disciplinary borders.

Aims

The aim of this group is to elaborate innovative theoretical and empirical approaches to address the question of sex and gender in the brain; to analyze the social and political underpinnings of the ongoing "cerebralization" of human life and especially of gender; to evaluate the current state of neuroscientific methods, evidence, and interpretations regarding sex/gender in the brain, and to discuss the impacts of neuroscientific gender research in socio-political and cultural fields. Some of these approaches can already be read in a special issue of Neuroethics, "Neuroethics and Gender" (papers published online first; the final issue will be available in late 2012).

Members

The present members of the NeuroGenderings Network are

  • Isabelle Dussauge (University of Uppsala, History of Technology and Science)
  • Cordelia Fine (University of Melbourne, Cognitive Neurosciences/Psychology and Gender)
  • Hannah Fitsch (Technical University Berlin, Psychology)
  • Katarina Hamberg (Umeå University, Healthcare and Clinical Medicine)
  • Rebecca Jordan-Young (Columbia University, Social Medicine and Gender)
  • Anelis Kaiser (University of Freiburg, Neuropsychology and Feminist Science Studies)
  • Cynthia Kraus (Lausanne University, Philosophy and Gender Studies)
  • Emily Ngubia Kuria (Charité, Physics and Neurosciences)
  • Katrin Nikoleyczik (University of Freiburg and University of Basel, Biology and Women’s Studies)
  • Marianne Regard (University Clinic Zürich, Neuropsychology)
  • Deboleena Roy (Emory University, Neuroendocrinology and Molecular Biology)
  • Raffaela Rumiati (University Trento, Cognitive Neurosciences)
  • Sigrid Schmitz (University of Vienna, Biology and Gender and Science Technology Studies)
  • Iris Sommer (University Clinic Utrecht, Neurosciences/Psychiatry)
  • Catherine Vidal (Institute Pasteur Paris, Neurobiology)


The present members aim to expand the network and invite scholars and students who engage with neuroscientific research as neuroscientists and/or brain science studies scholars with insights from the social and cultural studies of science, technology, and medicine, as well as from feminist and queer theory to discuss current developments in the field of neurocultures and gender.