On Friday, April 1st at 10 AM, we have the opportunity to host a guest lecture for our class ‘Elections and Political Representation’.

In this, Prof. Dr. Meryl Kenny will share her expertise on gender party research based on her recent article: “Reclaiming party politics research" (see also the brief summary below and the link to the article: Reclaiming party politics research | SpringerLink).

The event is fully online and in English. If you would be interested to participate, please join the Zoom Meeting below.

We kindly ask that people from outside the department who wish to participate first register by sending an email to Audrey Vandeleene.

In this way we can prevent unwanted guests from disturbing the lecture.

       https://ugent-be.zoom.us/j/93446044583?pwd=am5vcjhwek10K1ZsVURneXVwVWt3UT09

Meeting ID: 934 4604 4583
Passcode: CFq76dy0

Brief summary: In recent decades, global developments including the feminization of politics – that is, the political integration of women and women’s policy concerns – and the rise of gender quotas have transformed the social and political context within which parties and legislatures operate. Yet research on gender and political parties continues to be sidelined, rather than mainstreamed in party politics scholarship more generally, if included at all. This lecture examines the existing divide between gender party research and ‘mainstream’ party politics scholarship, highlighting the tendency of these two fields to talk past, rather than to, each other. Drawing on the burgeoning field of gender and party research, it argues that a gendered lens fundamentally enhances and transforms key questions in the field around what party politics scholars study, how and why they conduct their research, with relevant consequences for whose work is included. By failing to engage with these insights, party politics scholars have deprived themselves of the capacity to address pressing concerns around contemporary challenges to political parties and wider issues of power, democracy, and representation.