Bulding feminist communities

A two-day event is organized in Grenoble Alpes University - supported by the CERAG, Sciences Po Grenoble, UGA-INP and the journal Feminism and Organization - for business and management doctoral students and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) whose research relates to gender and intersectional feminist management and organisation studies to participate in academic community-building through creative, collective, feminist workshops, presentations, and sophrology sessions to explore and experiment with the political power of the body and its senses that can facilitate the research process in an increasingly demanding and competitive academic world.  

Summary : 

The workshop will explore the resources feminist researchers can draw upon when pursuing inherently political research both literally and metaphorically. Movement, breath, and voice will be introduced as powerful tools for meeting and challenging the demands of academic rigor. The workshop will encourage PhD students and early-career researchers to participate in a transformative, embodied process that emphasizes collective empowerment and community-building. Each session will integrate body and mind, encouraging collaborative engagement with critical topics through shared discussion and debate. During this two-day event, we will explore corporeal aspects of politics in organisations and management studies. 

The workshop will be facilitated by a doctoral student who attended the previous edition (Estelle Bois Farinaud) and experienced scholars from international and local backgrounds. Confirmed speakers are Alison Pullen (Macquarie  University,  Australia), Alexia Panayiotou (University of Cyprus), Sara Zaeemdar (University of Newcastle, UK), Emmanouela Mandalaki (NEOMA Business School, France), Hélène Picard and Claire Le Breton (Grenoble Ecole de Management, France).

Pre-registration

Estimated detailed programme

Day 1 - 9th December 2026 (starting at 9:00 am): Walking, moving, breathing  

Morning :  

• Registration and morning tea, welcome and introductions
• 3-hour workshop – Corporeality, Place, and Ecofeminism (Hiking or walking shoes and warm clothing are required).
  We begin with a collective walk (or cable-car access for those who prefer/require it) up to La Bastille, a mountain overlooking Grenoble. Walking as a method invites participants to reflect on corporeality in research—how our bodies, rhythms, and movements shape knowledge production. Interwoven with the journey, facilitators will open conversations around how our embodied presence in academia shapes our ways of knowing and relating (Pullen & Rhodes, 2025) and how feminist thought helps reimagine the entanglement of human and more-than-human worlds (Gherardi, 2025, Valtonen & Pullen, 2021). The climb is an opportunity to slow down, embody research differently, and connect movement with epistemological reflection. 
• Lunch 

Afternoon :  

• 1.5-hour sophrology session – The Art of Breathing in Demanding Academia
  At the summit, participants will be guided through a sophrology session (facilitated by a trained sophrologist), focusing on conscious breathing and presence. Breathing here is not only a stress-relief practice, but also a political act: resisting academia’s culture of acceleration and hyper-productivity. We will consider breathing as a political model of organising, both metaphorically and practically, and how cultivating awareness of breath can open new ways of relating to ourselves, and our community of feminist scholars (Pérezts et al., 2025). 
• Break 
• 1-hour debriefing session – Feminist Methodologies and the Challenge to Disembodied Academia
  This session invites participants to collectively explore how feminist methodologies unsettle the disembodied norms that have long structured academic knowledge production.  Through facilitated discussion and short interventions from experienced scholars, this session will reconsider what it means to “know” and “research” from an embodied standpoint. Participants will be invited to reflect on their own contexts and to consider innovative and corporeal methodologies.  
  Return to city center by cable car 

Evening : 

• Dinner
  The dinner in a local restaurant will support the overall workshop and provide an important networking opportunity for the PhD students and ECRs.  

Day 2 - 10 December 2026 (starting at 9:00 am) - Listening, reading, speaking  

Morning:  

• Tea/coffee 
• 1.5-hour workshop – Activism and feminist research: Why is doing research inherently political? How to position oneself in academia?
  During this session, participants will gain practical insights and advice on how to navigate academia as engaged scholars, including strategies for articulating their positionality, addressing institutional constraints, and leveraging activism to shape their research agendas. 
• Break 
• 1.5-hour workshop – Who to Read? How to Read?
  This session will focus on reading classic and contemporary texts. Practically, it will cover how to keep informed about the latest publications, and how to focus on reading circles, book clubs, study groups, solitary reading, reflection and interpretation, and other techniques for reading feminist management texts.
• Lunch

Afternoon: 

• 1.5-hour workshop - Speaking out loud: researchers’ voices
  Based on a creative process, this session invites participants to experiment their voices both literally and figuratively. Thanks to podcast equipment, a creative work focused on feminist research will be the culmination of this session, as well as the two days of workshops. Each participant will be able to leave with a recording and valuable advice. 
• Break 
• 1-hour workshop – Keeping a feminist community alive
  This session closes the workshop with activities around keeping in touch and the special issue we will launch at the event. We will reflect on the workshop and develop a model in which our community can grow together.   
• Break and close (finishing around 5.30 pm) 

Please note that participants should make their own arrangements for accommodation and transport to/from Grenoble. The Workshop is open only to Business and Management PhD students and ECRs (including junior academics). Independent researchers (not employed by an institutionl) are also welcome to attend if their research is of relevance to the themes explored at the workshop.

The registration fee is €65 per participant for the two-day workshop. Workshop dinner on day 1 and lunches and refreshments on both days will be included. A limited number of bursaries are offered to help supporting transport and accommodation costs of the participants. Bursary recipients will not be required to pay the registration fee. The bursaries are aimed to facilitate inclusivity and to partly support the travel costs of those who cannot secure the necessary funds from their own institutions. Applicants should outline their reasons for requesting a bursary on the pre-registration form.

For expressions of interest, please complete this brief form and return to us no later than 1st November 2026. If you are interested to apply for the bursaries, please clearly indicate this on the form and provide a brief explanation.

Any queries to be referred to estelle.bois-farinauduniv-grenoble-alpes.fr (estelle[dot]bois-farinaud[at]univ-grenoble-alpes[dot]fr)

An event supported by CERAG laboratory, Sciences Po Grenoble, UGA-INP and the journal Feminism and Organization in collaboration with Neoma Business School (France), Newcastle University Business School (UK), Macquarie Business School (Australia) and the Department of Business and Public Administration, University of Cyprus (Cyprus).

Pre-registration