After the enormous changes of 2020 things seemed figured out in the early days and weeks of 2021. At least the transition to digital was smooth by now. The new year found us full at work with (then) our latest call for papers for the working paper series.
So it seemed like a nice continuation for the work we had put in the previous year, as we had the cogs for editing, reviewing and publishing the pieces that the authors had entrusted us with well oiled. However, we started to feel like there was more that we could accomplish, that there was more to do if we wanted to connect research and their researchers with their intended audience. But more importantly, we thought that there were better ways to connect people with each other, to put a face to the names in the author column. To be able to see each other, at least digitally. One of the great perks of going digital was the ability to travel the world, and we wanted to take advantage of that. With all that in mind, we embarked in the quest of organizing and putting together our first conference.
The difficulty of when was almost as easy as the where. About half way through the year and online, obviously. Our greatest foe: time zones! Or better say: doing the math of time zones. As we wanted to make sure that everybody got a chance to share their ideas to an audience, and, at the same time, did not have to change their schedule in great manners or be awake in the middle of the night. Maybe staying up a little here, and waking up a little earlier there. So there it went: new call for contributions, sorting out the different panels, both on topics and TIME ZONES. I don’t want to dwell much on the process and experiences of the organizing and living the conference, as it will come up on the Edited Volume we are preparing with some of our contributors. So for all of that you, dear reader, will have to wait a little more.
Out of the meetings and exchanges for the conference, emerged the idea that we could still get more done. To create something else that could be fruitful for the contributors. There came the idea of the Edited Volume- which is in the building process right now. We are getting things ready as I type these lines.
Apart from the Volume, we thought that something more could also be done to connect people, to connect researchers. This is the way The Network was born, while only an idea at first, soon we started to work on how we could transform it into a reality. We put the word out and the feedback came back positive. So we immediately started on that as well. Said Network (name which was given initially as sort of a gag, ended up sticking) is still functioning in our website, in one of the tabs you can see at the top of this site you are reading right now. If you are just finding out about it, and are intrigued, take a look. Maybe even consider joining in, we are more than happy to add all the information you would like to share to get you in contact with other people, other researchers. You can update that information as many times as you need (this also goes to those of you reading that are members of The Network and may have something more to add to it). Contact us, we are more than happy to make the necessary changes.
Once the Conference passed with, if we may say so ourselves, great joy and success, we started the work on all these plans. While we did need to focus on our other projects for a little while (you know that stuff that goes with academia and degrees), we thought of a way to also get all those involved who wanted and might not have heard of all this. That was the start of our newsletter (if you haven’t yet, consider joining in!).
The hiatus was, as always is, interrupted by the work required to keep our working paper series going. The continuous effort of our editing team, and our awesome reviewers and commentators, has allowed us to publish Volume 3 of the En-Gender! Working Paper Series, not long ago!. A big thank you to our authors as well for trusting us with their work and for the always easygoing attitude to whatever changes and commentaries that came up.
As this not-quite-so-strange-as-2020, but still weird year is coming to an end, we continue our usual plans. We have a new CfP out which we encourage you to read and participate in. Even if what you have is “just” an idea or a draft, we would love to help you get it published. Or even if you know somebody who might find the call interesting, send them our way!
As I said before, we are working hard on getting everything ready the launch the Edited Volume in the coming year. We want to thank our authors for their continued spirit to get this done! So that is also in the making for the coming year.
Last but definitely not least, we have a new project coming up soon!
As these lines are being written we are finishing the details to launch our very own podcast: En-Gender! Conversations (check out the logo here). We are very excited about this project and hope it is of your liking as we have many ideas to put in practice with it!
As our final words, we would like to thank everybody who has gotten in touch, worked, participated in the Conference, or simply liked and shared our social media posts! It gives us great strength to keep going and continue coming up with ideas.
For now, we want to wish you and yours a very happy holiday season, a great start of the new year, and that you can reach your goals and plans for 2022.
Who knows, maybe we will see you at our next Conference…
En-Gender 
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