Australasian Women in Ancient World Studies (AWAWS)
by Sheira Cohen on behalf of the AWAWS Executive
Australasian Women in Ancient World Studies (AWAWS) is a professional organization founded in 2011 to promote gender equity and diversity in ancient world studies across New Zealand and Australia. Our aim is to promote and foster relationships between our members through local and national events, creating a professional network to rival the “old boys’ club” that has characterised Classics and Ancient History in Australasia for many decades. Through outreach and advocacy work we have been able to raise awareness about gender discrimination and bias and have helped to promote the exceptional research of women scholars — past and present. AWAWS has continued to grow since our foundation, and now has a regular presence at national conferences. Our latest statistics (Fig. 1.) demonstrate the importance of AWAWS in Australasia, as men still outnumber women in full-time academic positions, particularly at the senior levels. With the demonstrably negative effect of the changing university landscape on women, and the institutional challenges faced by Classics departments, AWAWS’ importance cannot be understated.
AWAWS currently has 79 members (as of August 2016), including permanent and short-term academic staff, graduate students, early-career scholars, unaffiliated scholars, and school teachers. Our members come from a range of institutions across Australasia and have diverse research interests and work environments. Because of this diversity, AWAWS faces a number of unique challenges in maintaining a vibrant and effective organisation but we have striven to overcome these through innovative and inclusive activities, such as a vibrant social media presence, online AGM’s, financial support of local chapters, as well as sponsorship of panels and informal get-togethers at national conferences. Many of the relevant departments across the region are small and lack a large body of graduate students and faculty members. The establishment of local chapters is therefore difficult as there are often few people to carry the organizational burden and attendance at local events is sometimes limited. The Executive Committee supports local chapters with small grants to defray costs and gives occasional logistical support. Smaller chapters host informal meetings throughout the year where members are able to discuss local issues and plan for future events. This has been crucial in growing interest in AWAWS among students and creating a strong core of active members.
Geographical constraints also negatively affect attendance at conferences held throughout the year in Australasia. Many of our members face logistical obstacles such as limited childcare options or institutional funding. While we initially held our AGM at the Annual Meeting of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies (ASCS), we have moved to an online platform which allows our more remote members to participate in elections and decision-making. We also solicit suggestions and feedback from our members through online surveys. The larger conferences still provide an excellent platform for networking and we continue to hold an informal lunchtime meeting at the ASCS conference every year. These meetings provide another avenue for discussion concerning the direction and purpose of AWAWS. Additionally, we host social events at most major conferences which serve to strengthen bonds between members and attract new members. In addition to our financial contribution to the opening receptions of both ASCS and the annual postgraduate conference (AMPHORAE), these events have helped to boost the profile of AWAWS, increase membership, and establish AWAWS as a staple member of the Australasian academic world.
AWAWS and Research
AWAWS is committed to supporting innovative and exciting research by women scholars, as well as promoting the study of gender in the ancient world. We have implemented an annual research grant open to all members at all levels of their careers. Unlike many funding bodies, AWAWS is interested in the individual and institutional barriers that may have hindered an applicant’s research. Many early-career scholars lack the support of their institutions for family-related costs, and have limited funds to conduct research overseas or attend international conferences. Additionally, major grants require considerable preparation prior to applying — time which adjuncts and early-career scholars often lack. The AWAWS research grant recognises the financial burden of research and helps promising scholars overcome these barriers. In addition to considering the particular needs of applicants and the strength of their research, AWAWS also considers how an applicant’s research supports the society’s aims. This includes the examination of gender in the ancient world, the development of feminist pedagogy, as well as supporting applicants whose research has been adversely affected by institutionalised gender bias. While we acknowledge that not all scholars specifically address gender in their work, the study of gender in the ancient world has often been relegated to a niche area, and the roles of women in the past have been downplayed and ignored. We therefore support the inclusion and integration of gender studies in all areas of ancient world studies.
Previous winners of the AWAWS research grant include Leanne Michelle Campbell (University of Melbourne), Dr Michelle Negus Cleary (University of Sydney) and Elizabeth Stockdale (Macquarie University). Leanne’s PhD research examined human representations in the Bronze Age Aegean and the role of these representations in the constructions of socio-economic, gender identity, and cultural and political conclusions. AWAWS’s funding supported her presentation at an international conference as well as a research trip to view her subject materials in person. Michelle’s research focuses on settlement strategies employed by mobile agro-pastoral peoples in Eurasia, specifically, the ancient and medieval agro-pastoral societies of Georgia. AWAWS’s funding supported her involvement in the Landscape Archaeology of Georgia Project and the development of a post-doctoral project examining gendered spaces in pastoral landscapes. Elizabeth, the most recent recipient, works on Homer, cultural memory, and the representation of Helen within the value systems of Athens in the fifth century. AWAWS’s funding will allow her to attend specialist international conferences where she can further develop her work in preparation for publication.
In addition to our annual research grant, AWAWS also hosts an annual panel at the ASCS conference and the annual postgraduate conference (AMPHORAE) on a range of gender-related issues. The panel at ASCS 37 (2016) featured papers by three prominent scholars: Associate Professor Louise Hitchcock, Dr Emily Baragwanath (the conference’s keynote speaker) and Associate Professor Marguerite Johnson. The panelists used diverse methodologies from both textual studies and archaeology to examine the role of women in the ancient world. The panel at AMPHORAE IX (2015) featured papers by Julia Hamilton and Judy Stove, who spoke about women scholars whose work has either been unrecognised or has been credited to male colleagues. We have sponsored panels in previous years that have highlighted the experiences of indigenous women within Australian academia and the diverse experiences of women scholars. Our local chapters have also hosted successful academic events that highlight gender in the ancient world as well as promoting the work of upcoming and established women scholars. In 2015, the Auckland chapter of AWAWS co-hosted a two-day workshop at the University of Auckland, ‘Gender, Identity and Intersectionality in Antiquity: models of oppression and privilege,’ which explored whether intersectionality is a useful model for oppression in antiquity. The keynote lecture was given by Professor Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz of Hamilton College, New York and attendees came from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the U.S.A., and the Netherlands. Local chapters have also hosted talks on a diverse range of topics that serve to stimulate discussion around gender issues and provide a supportive environment for scholars to present their research.
The Digital Future
Innovation and outreach are vital for any professional organization in the modern academic climate. AWAWS has managed to overcome the geographical distance that separates Australasia from the USA and Europe, as well as the distance that separates our members, through the use of social media and digital platforms. Our primary outlet is Facebook, where an active page is used to disseminate event information and important details as well as to engage our followers with the wider issues of gender discrimination and bias in academia. Social media also provides an opportunity to engage with non-members about these issues and hopefully promote a wider cultural change within the academic community. Australasian universities have large alumni networks around the world, and social media allows us to stay connected with our past members and to engage with issues that affect our discipline on a global level. As most members are unable to travel regularly to international conferences or to attend workshops by WCC, Women’s Network (Classical Association of Canada) or WCC UK, we rely on the social media activity of our sister organisations to help keep AWAWS connected with the global community. We are seeking to expand our digital activity this year to include an ‘Everyday Sexism in Academia’ project that will allow people across Australasia to share their experiences in a safe and supportive environment. We also hope that this project will provide important feedback about the types of behaviours that are common in our institutions, which we can then use to advocate for cultural change in our discipline. In the future, we aim to create a multi-level organisation that has strong local, national, and international ties, one that will be able to support the developing needs of our members and foster on-going change in terms of equity and diversity in our profession. This is not something that we can do alone, and we look forward to creating closer ties with WCC, Women’s Network, and WCC UK through digital platforms and conference attendance.
If you have any questions or would like to be more involved, please visit our website and like us on Facebook. You can also email the Executive Committee at socawaws@gmail.com
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