Gender, Labour and Activism Mini-Conference

This event brings together activists from the film and media industries as well as academics to explore the work that goes into doing activism in the cultural and creative industries, the Higher Education sector, and beyond. The event will include a panel discussion featuring Dr Joanna Abeyie, MBE (Head of Creative Diversity, BBC) and Jessica Levick (Co-founder, Raising Films), followed by two presentations by Prof Catherine Rottenberg and Dr Christina Scharff.

The Gender and Work in the Creative Industries research cluster, Culture, Media and Creative Industries (CMCI), King's College London has the pleasure of hosting this half-day event. All welcome, but please register as spaces are limited. Refreshments and a light lunch will be provided.

Funded by CMCI, King's College London and British Academy Mid-Career Grant 'Feminism is Trending: digital feminist activism, labour and subjectivity’ (Grant holder: Dr Christina Scharff)

Panel I: Industry Dialogue: Care and Inclusion in the UK Media Sector

Dr Joanna Abeyie, MBE (Head of Creative Diversity, BBC)

Jessica Levick (Co-founder, Raising Films)

[Chaired by Dr Tamsyn Dent, Lecturer in Cultural Work, King's College London]

Panel II: Activism and/as Work: Trade Union Organising and Feminist Activism

Catherine Rottenberg (Professor of Feminist Thought and Culture, University of Nottingham)

'Affective activism: the less visible labour in trade union organizing'

Dr Christina Scharff (Reader in Gender, Media and Culture, King's College London)

'Are we all influencers now? The work that goes into doing activism online'

Speakers' biographies:

Dr Joanna Abeyie MBE leads on the BBC's planning and development of diversity and inclusion initiatives related to on-air talent, commissioning guidelines, diverse audience panels, and monitoring and reporting. She joined the BBC in 2022 as a multi-award-winning social impact entrepreneur, journalist and broadcaster, and is the founder of executive search, diversity and inclusion consultancy Blue Moon. Joanna was awarded an MBE in the 2020 New Year Honours list for her services to diversity and inclusion in the creative and media industries. Joanna was instrumental in establishing the Creative Diversity All-Party Parliamentary Group, she’s a panel member for the Boundless Creativity project from the UKRI Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Expert Advisory Panel. She’s an active member of the DCMS, the Cultural Renewal Taskforce, and the Culture Committee chaired by Tracy Brabin MP.

Jessica Levick is an independent producer working across both fiction and documentary. Her first feature, the critically acclaimed BFI funded feature documentary Personal Best directed by Sam Blair (Keep Quiet, Make us Dream) was theatrically released in the UK by Verve Pictures in 2012. A graduate of the National Film and TV School Producing MA, she has produced a number of award winning music videos and short films, and her latest short film Saturday premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2015. Jessica is a co-founder of the parents and carers organisation, Raising Films.

Catherine Rottenberg is Professor of Feminist Thought and Culture in the Department of American and Canadian Studies at the University of Nottingham. Her academic books include The Rise of Neoliberal and the co-authored The Care Manifesto. She is also a long-time social justice and feminist grassroots activist and currently serves as Vice President of U of Nottingham’s UCU Branch.

Dr Christina Scharff is Reader in Gender, Media and Culture at King’s College London. She currently holds the British Academy grant ‘Feminism is Trending: digital feminist activism, labour and subjectivity’. Dr Scharff is author of numerous publications, including Repudiating Feminism: Young Women in a Neoliberal World (Routledge, 2012); Gender, subjectivity, and cultural work: The classical music profession (Routledge, 2018), and co-editor (with Rosalind Gill) of New Femininities: Postfeminism, neoliberalism and Subjectivity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).