The NeuroGenderings Network is an international group of researchers in

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

and

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...

. Members of the network study how the complexities of

social norm Social norms are shared standards of acceptance, acceptable behavior by groups. Social norms can both be informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society, as well as be codified into wikt:rule, rules and laws. Social normat ...

s, varied life experiences, details of laboratory conditions and biology interact to affect the results of neuroscientific research. Working under the label of "neurofeminism", they aim to critically analyze how the field of neuroscience operates, and to build an understanding of brain and gender that goes beyond

gender essentialism Gender essentialism is a theory that is used to examine the attribution of distinct, fixed, intrinsic qualities to women and men. In this theory, based in essentialism, there are certain universal, innate, biologically or psychologically based feat ...

while still treating the brain as fundamentally material. Its founding was part of a period of increased interest and activity in

interdisciplinary research Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

connecting neuroscience and the social sciences.

History

The group, comprising scholars who specialized in feminism, queer theory and gender studies, formed to tackle "neurosexism" as defined by Cordelia Fine in her 2010 book '' Delusions of Gender'': "uncritical biases in euroscientificresearch and public perception, and their societal impacts on an individual, structural, and symbolic level." Research can suffer from neurosexism by failing to include the social factors and expectations that shape sex differences, which possibly leads to making inferences based on flawed data. By contrast, the network members advocate "neurofeminism", aiming to critically evaluate

heteronormative Heteronormativity is the concept that heterosexuality is the preferred or normal mode of sexual orientation. It assumes the gender binary (i.e., that there are only two distinct, opposite genders) and that sexual and marital relations are most f ...

assumptions of contemporary brain research and examine the impact and cultural significance of neuroscientific research on society's views about gender. This includes placing greater emphasis on neuroplasticity rather than biological determinism.

Conferences

In March 2010, the first conference – NeuroGenderings: Critical Studies of the Sexed Brain – was held in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

.Kraus, Cynthia (2016),
What is the feminist critique of neuroscience? A call for dissensus studies ''(notes to page 100)''
, in Organisers Anelis Kaiser and

Isabelle Dussauge Isabelle Dussauge is a science, technology and society (STS) researcher at the Department of History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University, Sweden and former assistant professor at the Department of Thematic Studies (technology and social chang ...

described its long terms goals "to elaborate a new conceptual approach of the relation between gender and the brain, one that could help to head gender theorists and neuroscientists to an innovative interdisciplinary place, far away from social and biological determinisms but still engaging with the materiality of the brain." The NeuroGenderings Network was established at this event, with the group's first results published in a special issue of the journal '' Neuroethics''. Further conferences have since been held on a biennial basis: NeuroCultures — NeuroGenderings II, September 2012 at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

's physics department; NeuroGenderings III – The First International Dissensus Conference on Brain and Gender, May 2014 in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

, Switzerland; and NeuroGenderings IV in March 2016, at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Members

The members of the NeuroGenderings Network are: * Robyn Bluhm * Tabea Cornel *

* Gillian Einstein * Cordelia Fine * Hannah Fitsch * Giordana Grossi * Christel Gumy * Nur Zeynep Gungor *

Daphna Joel Daphna Joel (Hebrew: דפנה יואל; born January 20, 1967) is an Israeli neuroscientist and advocate for "neurofeminism". She is best known for her research which claims that there is no such thing as a "male brain" or a "female brain". Joel's ...

* Rebecca Jordan-Young * Anelis Kaiser * Emily Ngubia Kessé * Cynthia Kraus *

Victoria Pitts-Taylor Victoria Pitts-Taylor ( née Pitts) is Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, and also Professor of Science in Society and Sociology there. She was formerly a professor of sociology at Queens Coll ...

Gina Rippon Gina Rippon (born 1950) is a British neurobiologist and feminist. She is a professor emeritus of cognitive neuroimaging at the Aston Brain Centre, Aston University, Birmingham. Rippon has also sat on the editorial board of the '' International ...

* Deboleena Roy * Raffaella Rumiati *

Sigrid Schmitz Sigrid Schmitz (born 1961, Aachen, Germany) is a visiting professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin, and was formerly the chair of gender studies and scientific head of the Gender Research Office eferat Genderforschungat the University of Vi ...

* Catherine Vidal * Katherine Bryant

Bibliography

;Books * * Also available to view by chapte
online
* * ;Book chapters * * * * Kraus, Cynthia (2016),
What is the feminist critique of neuroscience? A call for dissensus studies
, in ;Journal articles * *
Pdf.
* * ;Opposing publications Below is a list of works which cause the network concern due to their "neurodeterminist notions of a ‘sexed brain’ hichare being transported into public discourse .without reflecting the biases in empirical work." * * * * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:NeuroGenderings Network, The Gender studies Cognitive neuroscience Neural circuits Neuroplasticity Neuropsychology Science and culture