June 2024

Tamsyn Dent, Lecturer in Cultural Work, CMCI, KCL

Our recent Gender Work and Creative Industries (GWCI) research hub event celebrated a former colleague from the CMCI department, Bridget Conor. Bridget, who is now an Assoc. Prof of Communication Cultures, Languages and Linguistics at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, found time in her trip to the UK to deliver a keynote paper titled Building a ‘Collective Sadness’: Notes from a Workplace Wellness Project in Aotearoa. The paper draws from Bridget’s work on ‘cosmic wellness’, how discourses of wellbeing and wellness are being used to rationalise neoliberal market practices to provide the necessary solutions for contemporary issues linked to lack of welfare support.

This is last GWCI workshop for the 2023/24 academic year. The programme, developed by the GWCI co-convenors Wing-Fai Leung and Christina Scharff included papers by CMCI colleague Nessa Keddo on The Mass Exodus of Senior Women of Colour in the Creative Industries, Eva Cheuk Yin Li from Lancaster University on Gendered Cultural Intermediaries of Migration: UK-Hongkongers on YouTube and a panel discussion including Kate McMillan, Tamsyn Dent, Natalie Wreyford from CMCI with Sara de Benedictis from the University of Brunel and art historian and broadcaster, Cleo Roberts-Komireddi on Care Leave Provision in the Creative and Cultural Industries.

The purpose of the GWCI research cluster at King’s College London is to bring together scholars, practitioners, activists interested in the relationship between gender and creative work linked to intersectional inequalities that impact access, experience, progression and retention. The cluster seeks to support collaborative research and innovation through engaging with research communities, as well as policymakers, public organisations and activist groups. In so doing, GWCI advocates for impactful research to bring about more equal labour conditions in the cultural and creative sector. Anyone interested in finding out more about the cluster or wanting to get involved please contact the current convenor, Natalie Wreyford on Natalie.2.wreyford@kcl.ac.uk

For more information on the CMCI department including staff profiles please click on this link: People | Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries | King’s College London (kcl.ac.uk)