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The ReValuing Care Network
The ReValuing Care Research Network, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), will develop an international, interdisciplinary network of academics and related third sector professionals working together to interrogate contemporary and future approaches to conceptual and normative understandings of care.
Members of the network will include academics working on issues related to care from a variety of different sites, disciplines and contexts, including healthcare, childcare, eldercare, environmental issues, animal welfare and other related fields. The network builds on academic connections initially developed through the AHRC-funded Research Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality (CentreLGS, funded 2004-2009), and will facilitate the strengthening of links between centre partner institutions, (Keele, Kent and Westminster) and the creation of new research collaborations with the Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender at the University of Adelaide, alongside other new international and interdisciplinary academic collaborations that arise through the network activities. The Gender, Sexuality and Law research group at Keele, who will lead on the network, have an established international reputation for cutting edge scholarship in gender, sexuality and law. The Fay Gale Centre builds on interdisciplinary excellence in gender studies at the University of Adelaide to provide a focus for the development and uptake of new theoretical and methodological approaches relating to gender in society. In addition to these key partners in the network, we are keen to include anyone with an academic or professional interest in understanding care. If you’d like to get involved, please contact us, details below.
Care has been a mainstay of feminist research for the last three decades, with different approaches to care being ascendant at different times. The research questions at the heart of this research network will contribute to future conceptual understandings of care, through providing physical and virtual spaces for scholars to interact, discuss and present their work. The participants in the research network will be drawn from a variety of different disciplinary backgrounds and will therefore draw on a multiplicity of conceptual approaches and methodological tools. At the heart of the planned research network is a commitment to creating opportunities for open dialogue between academics and activists, advocates and others working in the third sector. To do so, the network will run two international, interdisciplinary workshops.
ReValuing Care Network Activities
The first workshop, 'Resourcing Care' will take place 19-20 September 2012 at Keele University, UK. Workshop 2, 'Caring about Social Interconnection' will take place in September 2013 at the University of Adelaide. The workshops will be carefully structured to provide space for discussion and interaction, as well as allowing for the presentation of both empirical and conceptual academic work. The workshop organizers will ensure that the format of each event is as inclusive and facilitative of non-academic engagement as possible.
Registration is open for Resourcing Care, please see the information below:
Project Team
Project Team
Dr Rosie Harding, Principal Investigator
Rosie studied for an LLB at the University of Edinburgh, an LLM at Keele University and a PhD at the University of Kent. Rosie's research explores the place of law in everyday life with a particular focus on legal consciousness studies, resistance and equality struggles. Her primary interests are in discrimination law and family law, particularly the regulation and recognition of caring and intimate relationships. Her broader research interests are in the gender, sexuality and law field, and also include human rights, labour law and the intersection of law and psychology. Her book, Regulating Sexuality was published by Routledge in September 2010, and won the 2011 Hart-SLSA Book Prize and Early Career Prize. Her current research focuses on the everyday legal aspects of dementia care. Her current research project 'Duties to Care: A socio-legal exploration of caring for people with dementia' seeks to understand how carers of people with dementia experience the regulatory frameworks surrounding accessing help with and financial assistance for care, and the sources of formal and informal support utilised by carers of PWD, through topics including recent changes to powers of attorney, and the personalisation of care budgets. For more information see the Dementia Project website.
Rosie founded and co-ordinated CentreLGS PECANS, from 2004-2011. PECANS is an international and interdisciplinary network of early career scholars working in the law, gender and sexuality field. PECANS was funded by the AHRC CentreLGS from 2004-2009, and the ESRC from 2009-2011.
Telephone :-+44 (0) 1782 734353
Email: r.harding@law.keele.ac.uk
Web: http://www.keele.ac.uk/law/staff/academicstaff/rosieharding/
Dr Ruth Fletcher, Co-Investigator
Ruth studied for an LLB at Trinity College Dublin and an MA in Women’s Studies at University College Cork. She lived in Toronto for 5 years while doing an LLM and a DJur at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, before joining Keele in 1999. Ruth’s research interests include Gender, sexuality and law, particularly reproduction, Health law, Feminist and critical socio-legal theory, Human rights and equality, Governance and civil society. Her current major research project is 'Peripheral Life': Governing Abortion in Transnational Times’. This book project draws on critical approaches to transnational governance to analyse abortion travel practices and their significance for key concepts of reproductive regulation
At Keele, Ruth co-ordinated an international research network (Leverhulme 2000-3) in Gender, Sexuality and Law with the Centre for Feminist Legal Research, Delhi and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, Leeds. In 2004-9, she was Associate Director for the AHRC Research Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality, and Co-ordinator of the Centre’s research cluster in healthcare law and bioethics 2004-7.
Telephone: + 44 (0) 1782 734361
Email: r.fletcher@law.keele.ac.uk
Web: http://www.keele.ac.uk/law/staff/academicstaff/ruthfletcher/
Susan Westwood, Project Researcher:
Sue has a professional background in health and social care. Caring for a family member who had dementia awakened Sue to older age inequalities, in particular older people’s human rights, carers’ rights, and gender and sexuality as dimensions of older age and care. After that particular caring role was over, Sue career changed, completing a Masters in Gerontology at Southampton University, a Graduate Diploma in Law with the College of Law, and then PGDip in ‘Gender, Sexuality and Human Rights’ at Keele University. Sue is now undertaking a PhD at Keele, which explores equality issues in relation to older people with lesbian, gay and bisexual identities, from a feminist socio-legal perspective. Sue has assisted on several research projects whilst at Keele, including the ‘Duties to Care’ dementia project. For more information see the Dementia Project website.
Sue was a Visiting Scholar, at the invitation of Professor Martha Fineman, at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 13th January 2011 – 27th January 2011. She was Chair and Convener of two LGBT ageing symposia at the British Society of Gerontology’s 2012 annual conference, held at Keele University. She is a student member of: the Law and Society Association; the Socio-Legal Studies Association; and the British Society of Gerontology. Sue is also a Global Affiliate of The Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative, Emory University.
Email:- s.westwood@ilpj.keele.ac.uk
Web: http://www.keele.ac.uk/risocsci/currentstudents/students/westwoodsue/
Tracey Harrison, Project Assistant:
Tracey works as the part-time Project Assistant for the project providing administrative support to the team. She has previous experience of work of this nature having been project administrator on two NDA-funded projects and an EU funded project. Tracey has a vast amount of administrative experience having worked in industry for some 20 years at Director level.
International Partners:
Associate Professor Christine Beasley, University of Adelaide
Co-Director of the Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender
Web: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/christine.beasley
Professor Martha Augoustinos, University of Adelaide
Co-Director of the Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender
Web: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/psychology/staff/augoustinos.html
