23 May 2018. Always ready to move to a new place of work, writing publications at a high rate, and part of a global network: an academic career requires great speed and the readiness for permanent mobility. What impact do these requirements have on researchers’ lives? What will have to change in the academic business for women and men to be offered equal opportunities? Such questions will be discussed by experts on the occasion of the public conference on “Engendering Academia: Emotions, Strategies and Alternatives” in St.Gallen on 4 and 5 June 2018. The conference will take place in the HSG building in Tellstrasse 2, room 58-022.

At Swiss universities, and indeed at German-speaking and European ones, it is still more likely for a man to become a professor than it is for a woman. In recent years research – and equal opportunities practice – have been dealing intensively with the causes and necessary changes to academic careers, such as support measures for women, but less with the actual life situation experienced by academics.

The conference will shed light on academics’ modus operandi and vivendi under the conditions of international competition. Experts from Europe and Switzerland will discuss the features that characterise career trajectories today, the “emotional regimes” that are typical of the academic world and how they influence academic work. With this conference, the peer mentoring network of the postdoc academics at the University of St.Gallen will provide thinking space for an inclusive, diverse and healthy academic environment.

The following experts have been invited to the conference:

• Prof. Dr. Yvonne Benschop, Professor of Strategic Human Ressource Management, Radboud Universisty
• Prof. Dr. Kathy Davis, Professor of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Prof. Dr. Gudrun-Axeli Knapp, Professor emerita of the Psychological Institute, University of Hanover
• Prof. Dr. Andrea Maihofer, Professor of Gender Studies, University of Basel
• Prof. Dr. Franz Schultheis, Professor of Sociology, University of St.Gallen
• Conference management: Dr. Christa Binswanger (HSG), Dr. Federica Gregoratto (HSG), Dr. Sunčana Laketa (HSG)

Photo: Fotolia / Delphotostock