ÌÇÐÄTV

‘A Conversation on The Problem with Work’

Friday 30^thNov 2012, Modern Records Centre,

University of ÌÇÐÄTV

Sponsored by the Institute of Advanced Study

This workshop brings together some of us who are thinking about organising around labour, class and feminism. Papers will take the form of a ‘conversation’ with Kathi Week’s The Problem with Work, which will provide a point of commonality for participants across disciplinary perspectives. In particular discussion will seek to engage with Week’s key question of how 'labour' can be newly considered as a point of departure for social change. Presentations on themes ranging from the history of domestic service to twenty-first century lap dancing, from music as utopia to grassroots feminist organising, will all engage with a re-thinking of the concepts of work, gender and class as they are deployed in both theory and social movements. 

Panel 1 Feminism and Domestic Labour

10-11.45am. Chair Fae Dussart,

University of Sussex

Camille Barbagallo,

University of East London

'The Contradictions of Reproduction: A Necessary Problem for Feminism'

Laura Schwartz,

University of ÌÇÐÄTV

‘Feminism and the Servant Problem: Servants’ Trade Unions and Feminist Debates on Work, 1900-1914’

Panel 2. Sex as Work

12-1.45pm Chair Gabriella Alberti,

University of Leeds

Katie Cruz,

University of Nottingham

‘The Problem with (Sex) Work and Labour Law’

Kate Hardy,

University of Leeds

‘Sex worker organising: the emergence and limits of the labouring body’

Panel 3. Political Utopias

2.45-4.30pm Chair Alice Robson, Feminist Fightback

Manuel Cruz, Kings College

London

‘The Problem with Leisure: Music as Utopian Demand’

Emma Dowling,

University of Middlesex

'A Gendered Problem? Biopolitical Production, Social Reproduction and the Critique of Work.'

All are welcome at this workshop which is free free (lunch included) but you must register in advance with Laura Schwartz, Assistant Professor of Modern British History, University of ÌÇÐÄTV l.schwartz@warwick.ac.uk. It is worth reading Kathi Week’s The Problem with Work in beforehand!

Convened by IAS Early Career Fellow Serena Bassi