This was quite possibly my last conference for quite a while organised in Perth by the Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Association. Given that Gender Studies isn’t my home field I only registered for one day. (Well, to be honest, that wasn’t the only reason. I’ve run out of non-competitive funding money to apply for, which means I couldn’t really afford to go for one day, let alone the whole thing!)
I arrived in time for the first session in the morning only to find that my friend Sandra seemed to be the only presenter in that panel who had actually come to the conference! Luckily, someone else from UWA switched panels to keep her company. Both of their papers were excellent, and I was really interested to hear about their research.
My paper was first in the “Science” panel, and I was glad to get it over with. It went ok, and I got some interesting comments and questions, although I felt that I had lost quite a few members of the audience. Given my communication theory bias, towards a phenomenological understanding of the irreducible otherness of the Other, I suppose I shouldn’t have found my inability to share all of my ideas that much of a surprise. Anyway, I definitely feel that my suggestion that machine-like robots could possibly escape being gendered, which I was already aware was colander-like, was irrefutably shot down.
I was so depressed after the conference that I went to Geraldton. Many people I know in Perth wouldn’t go there if you paid them, but I actually had a very pleasant time staying with friends, having a really nice meal out with my husband and also missing the worst of the rain (which really hit Perth that week).
