The Provocateurs: Gender fears, and Haunted Mouths
Aug 1, 2025
Location
The Stand Comedy Club
16 North St Andrews Street, Edinburgh , EH2 1HJ
tel.: 0131 558 9005
Description
The Provocateurs: Gender fears, and Haunted Mouths is EDINBURGH FRINGE 2025 show, hosted by comedian Susan Morrison. Dr Roberto Kulpa & Dr Adrianna Zabrzewska (Edinburgh Napier University) discuss why people who reject gender equalities turn to homophobic, transphobic, and anti-feminist fearmongers. Dr Daphne Loads (The University of Edinburgh) explores the histories of words and discovers some disturbing truths about the things we say. She asks, Is your mouth haunted?
Confronting "Anti-Gender" Mobilizations across Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and Russia: Challenges and Queer-Feminist Resistances
Mar 3, 2025
Location
Date: Monday, March 3, 2025; 9:30–16:30 CET (Warsaw time); Online & In-person: Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Staszic Palace (Pałac Staszica), Nowy Świat 72, 00-330 Warsaw, Poland
Registration link (for both on
Description
We invite researchers, students, activists, and the public to participate in our one-day workshop (hybrid-online and in-person sessions). During the event, the RESIST Project Team and our guest speakers will lead discussions on queer-feminist resistances to “anti-gender” mobilizations in and across Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and Russia – four distinct national case studies that intersect at a transnational level through migration patterns, recently amplified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the 2020 and 2025 presidential elections in Belarus ( Filep, 2024).
While studies show that “anti-gender” and anti-immigration mobilizations are often closely intertwined ( RESIST Project Team, 2024), issues related to gender identity and sexuality may be deprioritized by women and queer persons amid immediate survival challenges, such as migrant status, housing, employment, and health. Even in contexts not immediately threatened by war or political repression, multiply marginalized persons might be forced to choose between the ideals of gender and sexual diversity and pragmatic solutions related to other identity positions, e.g. living with a physical disability or experiencing homelessness ( Kulpa and Kania, 2024). Still, addressing and resisting “anti-gender” violence remains vital to queer-feminist movements both within and across Eastern European nations, with migration opening the possibility of cross-national collaboration. The dynamics of de- and reprioritization invite critical reflection, along with the internal tensions stemming from individual intersectional identities and the patterns of solidarity and animosity that develop across borders, migratory routes, and communities. Together, these factors create a complex landscape of displacement and belonging, shaping the experiences of individuals navigating “anti-gender” politics in the region.
Starting with a presentation of findings from the RESIST Project’s Polish and Belarusian cases, we would like to open the floor for a broader discussion on resistances to “anti-gender” mobilizations in Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Russia and transnationally along migratory routes. By combining panel presentations with free-flowing ideation workshop and experience-sharing sessions, we hope to create a space of creative and respectful discussion.
This event is co-organised by the RESIST Project, the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, and Edinburgh Napier University.
Gender and Sexuality Research at Edinburgh Napier University
Mar 6, 2024
Location
Merchiston Campus, room: MER_H11
Description
Let’s get together and listen to colleagues working on gender and sexuality! And then let’s talk about their fascinating ideas, and how they relate to our own work and topics! This event is envisaged as informal and friendly gathering, following the success of similar gathering in 2023. We want to continue on this good tradition, and build new connections, learn about inspiring research we are doing across the university, feel inspired and nurtured.
Please send any queries to: Dr Roberto Kulpa (r.kulpa@napier.ac.uk)
SCHEDULE
14:00-14:10
Welcome (Roberto Kulpa)
14:10-15:00 TRANS LIVES
GUEST: Gina Gwenffrewi (University of Edinburgh) will start with an input about trans* people's cultural production online (i.e. YouTube, Twitter/X), framing the moral panic, and its impact on the trans* communities.
Rob Clucas (Law) will speak to the latest ‘gender critical’ challenge to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 in the appeal to the Supreme Court in the For Women Scotland case. He suggests that a solution to the current poisonous polemic around trans* rights can usefully be sought in the dialogic theory of Martin Buber (Buber 1958).
Toni Kania (Social Sciences) will introduce their PhD project about conceptualising bodily autonomy and sovereignty of trans* people – and from trans* peoples’ perspective – in Poland.
15:00-15:10 Coffee and pastries break
15:10-16:00 GENDERED VIOLENCE
Amy Beddows (Counselling) will speak about the potential of horror texts as tools for survivors processing the experiences of gendered violence.
Anne Schwan (English) will reflect on femicide, perpetrator narratives and the challenge of restorative justice, drawing from her analysis of Em Strang's novel “Quinn” (2023).
Fiona McQueen (Social Sciences) will conclude this section pondering on her project on Scottish young men’s attitudes towards prevention messages on violence against women, incl. queer & trans men’s accounts and insights.
16:00-16:10 Coffee and pastries break
16:10-17:00 REPRESENTATIONS
Yen Nee Wong (Social Sciences) will introduce us to queer cultures of ballroom dancing and the role of Strictly Come Dancing’s representations and mainstreaming.
David Bishop (Creative Writing) will speak about his creative writing PhD, instigation into the scarcity of queer sleuths in historical mystery fiction set before the Victorian era, and the politics of outing and authorship.
Phiona Stanley (Tourism) will talk about labels – ‘spinsters’, ‘crazy cat ladies’, ‘witches’. It is also, in theoretical terms, about queering queerness by negotiating the queer and deeply gendered queerness of spinsterhood.
17:00-17:10 Coffee and pastries break
17:10-17:45 POP!
Ashley Stein (Music) will introduce their PhD project on how hyperpop and other electronic music practices can be used to destabilise gender binaries.
Frederik Byrn Køhlert (English, Visual Cultures) will close this input section with a reflection on the representation of gender and sexuality in comics & graphic novels, incl. examples from work as editor of a Routledge series on Gender, Sexuality, and Comics.
17:45-onwards: Post-Event Drinks & Food at nearby The Golf Tavern
30-31 Wright's Houses, Bruntsfield, EH10 4HR
Event Organisation:
Dr Roberto Kulpa
School of Applied Sciences: Deputy Research Degrees Lead
Co-Director: MSc Applied Social Research
Co-Investigator: (2022-2026) ‘RESIST. Fostering Queer Feminist Intersectional Resistances against Transnational Anti-Gender Politics’ (EU Horizon Europe grant no. 101060749).
Engaging £eithChooses - a community conversation
May 3, 2023
Location
Norton park Conference Centre
57 Albion Rd
Edinburgh
EH7 5QY
Description
An opportunity for in person networking around £eithChooses (http://www.leithchooses.net) & learning how to improve community-based participatory budgeting (PB) for future years.
Attendees will include representatives of organisations that have or may in future apply for funding from LeithChooses, which disburses funding from Edinburgh Council for the Leith 'neighbourhood network' area. Other attendees will be representatives of Edinburgh Council, COSLA, Scottish Government who have interests in participatory budgeting.
Dark Tourism Research Symposium: Memory, Pilgrimage and the Digital Realm
May 5, 2022
Location
Craiglockhart Campus
Description
The Tourism and Languages Subject Group (the Business School) and the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University are delighted to announce details of a dark tourism research symposium, which will take place at the Craiglockhart Campus at Edinburgh Napier University and online on May 5th, 2022.
A growing interest in dark tourism as a recognised special category of tourism behaviour continues to attract the attention of academics from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, cultural studies and anthropology. Recent contributors to the field have looked at contexts such as gulag tourism in Kazakhstan, edutainment interpretation at ‘lighter’ dark tourism attractions, the ethics and politics of digital displays in police museums, and the use of netnographic research methods to understand the motives and reactions of visitors to iconic Holocaust heritage sites.
This interdisciplinary symposium led by Professor Anne Schwan, Dr Craig Wight, and Dr Phiona Stanley seeks to bring together academics from a range of backgrounds to share ideas and recent research achievements as well as foster conversations between academic researchers and tourism or creative practitioners.
Speakers include:
Kat Brogan (Managing Director, Mercat Tours Edinburgh)
Professor John Lennon (Glasgow Caledonian University)
Professors Justin Piché (University of Ottawa) and Kevin Walby (University of Winnipeg)
Dr Brianna Wyatt (Oxford Brookes University)
Professor Jeffrey S Podoshen (Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania, USA)
The symposium organizers welcome theoretical or applied research contributions in the form of structured abstracts on the following topics:
Digital dark tourism, including, but not limited to netnographic research and the uses of social media and web 2.0 in dark tourism
Dark tourism and memory
Visitor motives and visitor interpretation
Ethics and social justice in relation to dark tourism sites
Prisons and other penal history sites as examples of dark tourism
Creative practice artefacts involving dark tourism, e.g. films/photographs/installations
Dark tourism, mobilities and pilgrimage
Novel research methodological approaches and dark tourism
Deadline for abstract submissions: 1st February 2022
Please send your 250-word abstract and a short biographical statement (no more than 100 words) to darktourism@napier.ac.uk.
The Lions' Gate Garden: ENU, 10 Colinton Road, EH10 5DT
Description
Over 30 attendees ate, drank, blethered, engaged, questioned, laughed, listened, chilled-out, and learnt a thing or two about what living sustainably actually is.
We unveiled our interactive storytelling chair and memorial to Professor David Benyon, crafted by Neil Fyffe (https://www.facebook.com/Neil-Fyffes-Workshop-1405191703026383). Brian Davison demonstrated an environmental sensor network developed in collaboration with students. Kris Plum exhibited an interactive plastics-recycling bin. Aisling Murphy delved into the wildlife and plants of The Lions' Gate and demonstrated Shona Burns' interactive Lions' Gate audio tour. Graham Bell talked eloquently of the history of Hasten Slowly (Festina Lente), the impact of climate collapse, and shared insights into how to live sustainably. Participants added their wishes to our COP26 Wishing Tree on tags with seeds embedded in them, that we'll plant up as a COP26 garden. Juliete, Sally and Zhoa served up - herb teas, courgette cake and pizzas. Allan MacMillan provided soothing background to it all with delightful acoustic guitar work.
We kept the door to the library open, and inside was a wee chill-out area next to our book case.
Circular Economy Masterclass: Turning Liabilities into Assets
Dec 12, 2019
Description
Masterclass Details
Using a value regeneration approach, we will be examining how we can redevelop value at different elements including financial, materials, customer, carbon, water and other areas. The aim is to develop opportunities for business while regenerating environmental, economic, and societal value within ecosystems.
We focus on using cases to demonstrate the “Circular Systems: Assets & Liabilities Transformation“(CSALT) methodology in action to build your skills, knowledge, and understanding. We will then apply the CSALT methodology to a real-world problem within the university. Students and staff will work together to identify solutions to a problem and suggest a strategy to take forward for the university
