Flexibility & precarity
in academia.
A gendered & grassroots perspective
Organized by COSMOS, European University Institute
and the Traveling Seminars on Ricerca Precaria
25 May 2015
Sala del Capitolo, European University Institute
Badia Fiesolana, Via dei Roccettini 9, San Domenico di Fiesole
In the past years, many scholars across Italy and Europe began to work
on labour insecurity in academia, with different approaches and various
viewpoints, like mobility, gender, career, and political mobilization, to
name a few. The Travelling Seminars on Precarious Research aims at
comparing the results of such body of work, through a series of seminars that will take place all over Italy with the aim of creating a space
of critical discussion and analytical reflection on the many aspects that
characterize precarity in academia.
In such a framework, the seminar organized at the European University
Institute will deal with the following aspects linked to flexibility and precarity in the European academia. After an introductory session that offers an historical perspective on flexibility and precarity in the academic
environment, the morning session will deal with gender and precarity in
different European contexts, with the presentation of empirical findings
from three comparative research projects. The afternoon roundtable
will consider the regulation of flexibility and the opposition to precarity
in different European countries, with the aim of contrasting the experiences of precarious academics across Europe.
Introductory session
10:00–11:00
Introduction to the seminar flexibility and precarity in academia
Alice Mattoni, European University Institute
The multiple meanings of flexibility and precarity
within and outside academia. An historical perspective
Eloisa Betti, University of Bologna
Coffee Break: 11:00–11:30
Session 1 – A gendered perspective on inequalities, instability
and precarity in the European academia
11:30-13:00
Chair: Sabrina Marchetti, European University Institute
Structural Transformation to Achieve Gender Equality in Science
Daniela Falcinelli & Camilla Gaiaschi, University of Milan
Gendering the academy and research:
combating career instability and asymmetries
Annalisa Murgia, Rosella Bozzon, Caterina Peroni & Elisa Rapetti, University of Trento
Old divisions, new inequalities: working, learning,
and caring in the neoliberal university
Mariya Ivancheva, School of Social Justice, University College Dublin
Lunch Break:13:00–14:30
Session 2 – Regulating flexibility and opposing precarity in the
European academia
14:30–17:00
Chair: Alice Mattoni, European University Institute
Roundtable Participants:
Struggles against precarity in England: the case of the fractional staff
Lorenzo Cini, European University Institute
Flexibility and precarity in the Austrian academia
Trudy Schuetz, European University Institute
Systemic dead-end: The Greek University in times of austerity
Markos Vogiatzoglou, European University Institute
Struggles of precarious researchers in Italy
Barbara Saracino & Francesco Fidolini, University of Florence