Gender and Neuroscience workshop & masterclass May 22/23

This workshop and masterclass will explore questions of sex / gender and sexuality in the brain. Despite growing counter-evidence, there is a general consensus, both in popular and scientific publications, that human brains come in a male and a female variety, and that this difference is hardwired. A well-established and ongoing tradition of feminist critique counters such theories of binary difference, typically by deconstructing the division between nature and culture that consistently underpins such research. Productive dialogues across disciplinary borders prove that neuroscience and feminist theory are not antithetical. They can meet over issues such as the (neuronal) embodiment of power mechanisms, including possible ways to intervene in these processes. Feminist scholars, collaborating with or situated within neuroscience, explore alternative research questions, models and methods that avoid the reproduction and reinforcement of binary sex differences and shift the focus of empirical inquiry towards these shared concerns. Over the course of two days, we will explore these possibilities further. We start from a conceptualization of gender informed by feminist theory that conceives of gender as a multi-level, complex, and ever-changing social system of differentiation in which power plays an important role. Given this concept of gender, what room is there is for doing experimental neuroscientific work on sex / gender and sexuality?

Workshop: May 22nd, University of Amsterdam

Speakers: Rebecca Jordan-Young, Anelis Kaiser, Hannah Fitsch

Masterclass: May 23rd, Radboud University Nijmegen

For detailed schedule, speaker biographies and registration details, please visit http://asca.uva.nl/events/start-events/start-events/content/folder/workshops/2014/05/gender-and-neuroscience.htm