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University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies

 

Introduction

Professors Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi

The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professorship was generously endowed by Carl Djerassi (Professor Emeritus, Stanford University and inventor of the contraceptive pill) in honour of his late wife Diane Middlebrook (Professor Emerita and Head of Gender Studies, Stanford University). The Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professors each give a high profile public lecture on a gender related topic.  

Previous Visiting Professorship Lecture recordings

  

Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professorship Lecture: Michaelmas 2022

Professor Cynthia Enloe, Research Professor, Clark University, gave the Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professorship Lecture on Making Feminist Sense of the Ukraine War on Monday 7 November at the Yusuf Hamied Theatre, Christ's College, Cambridge.

We send our sincere thanks to Professor Enloe for a fascinating lecture, which attracted a capacity audience, and to all contributors. The lecture was followed by a Q&A and drinks reception. 

Recording of lecture available here

The sheer brutality of the Russia-provoked war in Ukraine can tempt us to shove aside gender analysis, as if it were trivial, best left to some post-war later era. Nonetheless, feminist studies of multiple armed conflicts - from World War I to the recent current wars in Ethiopia and Colombia - have taught us that the time to start investigating the militarized workings of femininities and masculinities is before the first gun is even fired. Ukrainian feminists are among those now conducting this crucial gender analysis.