Nina Perger ‘Sexism in higher education’

The paper addresses sexism in higher education, focusing on conceptualizations of sexism by individuals employed in pedagogic and professional positions at one of the Faculties at the University of Ljubljana. The field of higher education is conceptualized as a gendered and gendering institution with an androcentric gender regime, reproduced both at the level of formal hierarchy, where decision-making positions are largely occupied by individuals, socially recognized as men, as well as at the level of informal power relations, marked by masculine domination. On the basis of empirical research with in-depth semi-structured interviews, individual conceptualizations of sexism are addressed in relation to the perception of sexism in the field of higher education, in/direct experiences with sexism, and ways of responding to experienced sexism and mechanisms used for the legitimation of sexism.

Nina Perger (1990) has a degree in Sociology (Faculty of Social Sciences) and Social Pedagogy (Faculty of Education), where she also finished Master’s programme. Her theoretical interests range from feminist and queer theories to sexuality and gender studies. She has also been working as a feminist and LGBT activist in the non-governmental sphere and youth work. She is currently a young researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana.

Klara Otorepec ‘Feminist guilt or feminist ambivalence about beauty practices’

The lecture is based on the homonymous diploma thesis which researched various factors that form and produce the concept of feminist guilt. The latter denotes the uneasy feeling which arises as the response to the difficulties caused by enforcing feminist principles in everyday life with regard to practicing (or refusing to practice) beauty practices, and the strain between feminist ideology and the patriarchal social order. The lecture will focus on the role (current) feminist perspectives play in forming that feeling – alongside other factors, such as the pressure or normative femininity as the Foucauldian disciplinary project of contemporary society, femininity as part of the construction of the individual self, the connection of that construction to consumer habits in late capitalism, and guilt as the basic form of women’s perception of their position and reality. To which degree do these perspectives prevent collective confrontation with the problem of feminist guilt; do they create their own normative demands on feminist aesthetic; and if so, what is their effect on the individuals who consider themselves feminists? These are the questions the lecture will address, while also attempting to identify and research how feminist individuals react to feeling feminist guilt in their everyday actions, and how that can be used for better understanding of the problem.

Klara Otorepec (1989), who has a degree in Social Pedagogy, is a journalist, co-creator of the feminist show Sektor Ž at Radio Študent, and a collaborator of the Institute for Labour Studies, as well as an occasional poet and activist. She graduated from the Faculty of Education in 2015; her thesis “Feminist Guilt or Feminist Ambivalence about Beauty Practices” earned her the Faculty Prešeren Award for Students.

In Slovene.

Free entrance.

Co-organization: Klub Gromka

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