The Department of Marketing, Lancaster University is hosting a free Zoom event for the Journal of Consumer Affairs Special Issue ‘GenderS and Consumer Well-Being’ – with a keynote talk from Prof Nick Rumens, Oxford Brookes University:
“Queering gender norms: possibilities for rethinking gender in consumer affairs research”
24th March 2021, 4pm-6pm (UK) (11am EST, 8am PT)
To register : please contact Dr. Mo Cheded at m.cheded@lancaster.ac.uk (the Zoom link will be provided upon registration)
Enhancing the luminosity of gender as a research topic in consumer affairs is both apposite and important. Gender is an undeveloped area of study in this academic domain and gender inequalities can impact negatively on consumer well-being. Advancing gender in consumer affairs can be supported by engaging with feminist theories, but also by galvanising queer theories. Emerging in the late 1990s and rooted in poststructuralism, gay and lesbian studies and feminism, queer theory has sought to question and challenge normative regimes through its focus on anti-normativity. One central branch of queer theory is the interrogation of norms that reproduce restrictive constructions of gender and sexuality. Indeed, early seminal contributions to queer theory focused on critiquing essentialist approaches to gender theorising by claiming gender is performative (Butler, 1990, 1993). The ongoing attention paid to gender by queer theorists has generated new theories of gender and trajectories of research, some of which have been borrowed by scholars in those disciplines where gender has been overlooked or approached as a fixed internal state of the individual. Drawing from this rich reservoir of queer theorising, this presentation outlines how consumer affairs scholars can undermine disciplinary norms that constrain how gender is theorised and ascribed scholarly status. With an emphasis placed on rupturing gender norms through a process of queering, ideas and research directions are outlined to help scholars to advance the topic of gender and consumer affairs in different directions.
The talk will be followed by Q&A about the topic and special issue. Participants will also be able to run their ideas for the special by the editors: Dr Laurel Steinfield (Bentley University), Dr Martina Hutton (Winchester University), and Dr Mo Cheded (Lancaster University). Details about the special issue can be found in this link.
Speaker biography
Nick Rumens is Professor of Business and Management at Oxford Brookes University, UK. His main research interests are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) sexualities and genders in organisations, workplace friendships and queer and feminist theories. He has published on these topics in journals including Human Relations, Organization Studies, British Journal of Management, Organization, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Personal and Social Relationships, Sociological Review and Gender, Work & Organization. He has also (co)authored and (co)edited books including Contemporary perspectives on ecofeminism (Routledge, 2016); Sexual Orientation at Work: International issues and perspectives (Routledge, 2014); Queer Company: Friendship in the work lives of gay men (Ashgate, 2011). His latest single authored book is Queer Business: Queering organisation sexualities (Routledge, 2018).