Dear friends who participated in the ATHENA4-TI application,  

This newsletter reaches you on behalf of the Athena-Steering committee that was established in the application for ATHENA4. The ATHENA-steering committee consists of four so called ‘stream coordinators’:

o         Sandra Ponzanesi (for working groups working on the theme ‘Beyond Europe’),
o         Aina-Maija Hiltunen (for working groups on the theme ‘Beyond Humanities and Social Sciences’),
o         Andrea Petö (for working groups on the theme ‘Connecting Universities and Civil Society’)
o         Sveva Magaraggia (for working groups on the theme ‘Connecting Generations’ and
o         Berteke Waaldijk, chair of the steering committee. 

Despite the sad news we received from Brussels that our application had not been awarded the ATHENA heart is still beating and the steering committee with advice from the EU Liaison Office in Utrecht has formulated plans for continuing future activities, making good use of some leftover money from ATHENA budget.On September 22 the Steering Committee of Athena4-TI arranged a digital meeting to discuss the continuation and transition of all activities within Athena into the independent Association for Gender Studies ATGENDER.

In order to continue the ATHENA activities and prolong and strengthening the European Gender Studies Network that Athena created, we try to provide real advantages for former ATHENA members that want to continue with their ATHENA4 project group activities within ATGENDER. The possible support is possible in four different ways: advice on grant applications, travel grants, publication of work in Book series Teaching with Gender and finally grants for participation fee of 8th European Feminist Research Conference. By providing the financial possibility for former Athena members to continue their activities in ATGENDER we think that ATGENDER will be in a position to take over the role of facilitating European gender studies in a way that ATHENA did in the past: connecting Gender Equality agents, gender information specialists, feminist researchers, women’s activists, teachers, students and graduates. This letter is an invitation to make this work.  

I. Brussels November 25/26 2010 Launch of the Tuning Gender Studies Brochure and meeting of former Athena taskforce
November 25/26 there will be a seminar in Brussels. At this meeting the Tuning Gender Studies Brochure will officially be festively launched. Zita Gourmai from the Tuning Validation Committee will speak on the importance of gender studies for gender equality. ATHENA representatives will participate in a panel. We have taken this opportunity to organize a meeting of coordinators of ATHENA4 working groups (formerly the ‘ATHENA Taskforce’). We have invited the project/working group leaders to be present at this event by offering them travel grants. If working group coordinators cannot attend, they may suggest another representative from their working group to attend. Besides celebrating the launch of the Tuning brochure (on Thursday afternoon) the Friday morning will be used to discuss continuation of ATHENA activities within context within ATGENDER. There will also be an opportunity to ask advice and be advised on EU funding from 2 representatives of the EU Liaison office of Utrecht University. Please find attached the flyer for this seminar.  
à If you are interested in keeping your proposed ATHENA project group alive, contact your coordinator. If you can not find your name in the list contact the project groups coordinator(s) of the group that you find interesting directly.
Click here to see where your working/project group is located.
Click here for the seminar flyer.   

II. ATGENDER Spring Conference Utrecht, April 8/9 2011: ATHENA/ATGENDER transition
Former ATHENA-partners who are active ATGENDER-members can apply for a modest travel grant to attend the ATGENDER spring conference in Utrecht (April 8/9, 2011) to discuss there the transition from ATHENA into ATGENDER. Besides discussing the transition ATHENA-ATGENDER, this meeting will also provide an important opportunity for you to prepare papers for the 8th EFRC meeting in Budapest in 2012. Furthermore it will also give you the possibility to publish your work in the 4 volumes of the Teaching With-series that we are planning to present at this meeting. This Utrecht meeting will be very decisive for the continuation and success of our strong network of Women’s Studies in Europe, so it would be good to let us hear your voice in this.
à If you are interested in attending this conference, make sure you become an individual member of ATGENDER, and contact your former ATHENA-working group partners about activities you want to organize at this conference (prepare papers, prepare publications, prepare application, prepare applications).  

III. Budapest: 8th EFRC
The 8th EFRC will be held in Budapest in May 2012. In order to guarantee the success of this major research conference it would be very important if many enthusiastic and active participants could decide to attend this meeting and present work! The Steering committee therefore decided to make available grants for the conference fee for former active ATHENA-partners who have become individual members of ATGENDER. 
à If you are interested in attending and receiving a grant for the fee of this conference, make sure you become an individual member of ATGENDER, and contact your former ATHENA-working group partners about possible panel and paper proposals. 

Publication in Book Series Teaching with Gender
The ATHENA book series Teaching with Gender has been taken over by ATGENDER, the same editorial board will accept proposals and review manuscripts. The publication of four new volumes between now and the 2012 (8th European Feminist Research Conference) will be possible. An excellent opportunity to publish on continued Athena activities in teaching and education.

à If you are interested in attending this conference, make sure you become an individual member of ATGENDER, and contact your former ATHENA-working group partners about a proposal for a book on an aspect of European Gender Studies. The first deadline is November 1, but after this date there will be new opportunities to propose. 

If you have questions about these proposals, please contact us: send an email to the stream coordinator (Sandra Ponzanesi, Aina-Maija Hiltunen, Andra Petö, Sveva Magaraggia) to which your ATHENA-project group belongs (click here for the overview or see attachment) or write to the Utrecht coordination at Athena@uu.nl.  

With many kind regards on behalf of the ATHENA steering committee, 

Berteke Waaldijk