Women’s (Im)Mobility in Times of Crisis

Led by Dr Catherine Barbour, this UGPN project is a multidisciplinary, bilateral collaboration between the University of Surrey and the University of São Paulo.

Start date

2021

End date

2022

Overview

This project takes a challenge-led, transnational and decolonial approach to examining gendered impact of global environmental, health, political and economic crises on women’s geographical and social (im)mobility.

Involving a team of twelve researchers from across the Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences that includes co-investigators Dr Amy Louise Morgan and Dr Lucy Bell from the School of Literature and Languages and Dr Emily Setty and Dr Vicki Harman from the Department of Sociology, this project investigates how the dramatic societal shifts caused by moments of crisis provoke, inform or prevent the local, national and transnational movement of women.

  • How do the dramatic societal shifts caused by moments of global crisis provoke, inform or prevent the local, national and transnational movement of women?
  • How are women’s experiences of (im)mobility during crises underscored by intersections such as race, class, nation, sexuality, language and health? 
  • How do these issues play out in distinct cultural, sociological, geopolitical, judicial and behavioural contexts?

The research draws on digital, legal and ethnographic case studies, cultural texts and quantitative data, with scholars from Law, Business, Psychology, Sociology, Computer Science and Literary and Cultural Studies comparing case studies from across the ‘Global South’ and the ‘Global North’. 

The project is embedded in the Centre for Mobilities and Literature and Culture and the interdisciplinary Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences' Centre for Sex, Gender and Sexualities.

Funder

Team

Outputs

The outputs for this project include an online public engagement seminar series, a multidisciplinary journal special issue, an international symposium, research-led podcasts and a short film related to the project theme.