Lova Annual Report 2019

For printing

Board
In 2019 the board consisted of Marina de Regt (chair), Ina Keuper (treasurer ), Filipa Oitaven (secre-tary), Jasmijn Rana (LOVA Journal), Roxane Kroon (student representative) and Bernardo Soares (PR) and Tine Davids. The board met three times: on March 28, September 17, and December 10. The General Members’ Meeting was held at the annual LOVA Day on May 10 in Leiden. During the General Members’ meeting it was decided that Marina de Regt would step down as chair by July 2020. Jasmijn Rana volunteered to replace her. 

LOVA Journal
LOVA Journal #40 was published in December. A call for submissions was sent around in the spring. Kitti Baracsi, Roos Dorsman, Ina Keuper, Charlotte Knoors, and Nikki Mulder were involved as editors while Jasmijn Rana acted as editor-in-chief. In addition to research articles, essays and reports of LOVA events in 2019 the interview section was written by board member Filipa Oitavén with reflections of three longtime LOVA members to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of LOVA as a network. Also an overview of forty years of LOVA Journal and its predecessors was presented. The cover was designed by Silvia Herrero Simancas and Ina Keuper did the lay out. The journal was sent to all members well before the Christmas holidays. 

LOVA Study Day
On Friday May 10 the annual LOVA Study Day was held in Leiden, organized by Jasmijn Rana. The theme of the day was Gender Moves and brought together scholars, students and others who were interested in gender, sports, and dance. There were two keynote speakers: Alex Channon from the University of Brighton and Kathy Davis from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Six presentations were done in two panel-sessions; one of the presentations was done by a live stream through Skype from Barcelona as the presenter could not travel to Leiden. The study day was a huge success with around more than 70 people attending throughout the day. The meeting was closed by a ceremony in which the LOVA Marjan Rens Master’s Thesis Award 2019 was handed out by honorary LOVA member Prof. Dr. Willy Jansen. 

LOVA International Summer School
The seventh edition of the LOVA International Summer School took place from 1 till 5 July, for the second time organized by Irene Arends and Emmy de Wit. A call for applications was sent around in the spring. Like last year the theme of the summer school was Unschooling the Anthropologist: Gender, Love and Sexuality.  Nine participants from seven different countries participated. The meetings took place at three different locations in Amsterdam:  CEDLA, boat restaurant Odessa, and The White House penthouse at Vondelpark.  The event was evaluated very positively by the participants and the organizers enjoyed it very much as well. 

LOVA PhD Speed Date
On March 7 LOVA organized a PhD Speed Date in collaboration with Djembe, the Study Association of students in Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University. The Speed Date was an initiative of Roxane Kroon, with the aim of facilitating exchange between MA students and PhD students interested in gender studies in anthropology. Five LOVA members who were PhD candidates or recently obtained their PhDs shared their experiences: Jasmijn Rana, Julienne Weegels, Kathrine van den Bogert, Menal Ahmad, and Merel van Mansom. Thirteen MA students participated. 

EASA/LOVA Seminar
On 19 and 20 September LOVA co-organized a two day seminar with the EASA Network for the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality (NAGS) entitled: Is Gender Dangerous? The seminar focused on the backlash against gender equality and gender policies, mainly in Europe. The seminar took place at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Prof. Joanna Mishtal (University of Central Florida) gave a keynote, which was attended by forty people. There were panels with presentations of scholars from various countries and lively discussions. 

LOVA Marjan Rens Master’s Thesis Award 2019
Thirteen submissions were received in February 2019. A jury consisting of Lenie Brouwer, Ina Keuper, Marina de Regt, and Maja van de Velden read all the theses of which four were selected for nomination. Willy Jansen ordered these and handed out the prizes to 1. Loes Oudenhuijsen: You have to know how to play, otherwise they will catch you: Young women and the navigation of same-sex intimacies in contemporary urban Senegal; 2. Melody Jap-Sam: Women against feminism: A qualitative research into the understanding of modern Western anti-feminism in the context of an online community; 3. Nika Looman: Everyday gender queerness: Negotiating dominant notions of Dutch citizenship through everyday practices in a binary gendered society; 4. Isadora Cardoso Vasconcelos: Gender and climate change in pathways of development: Encounters of national policies with gender justice and climate justice. 

LOVA Mail Service
In 2019 a total of 66 LOVA Mail Service messages have been distributed among LOVA members. The sending of messages was done quite regularly and the list of addressees has been kept updated.  

Website and Facebook
Bernardo Soares took charge of the PR responsibilities.  The number of page followers from January

2019 to December 2019 increased by 112 new followers, summing up a total of 1294 followers on

December 31. The majority of followers are from the Netherlands (643) and the United Kingdom (81), and 78% of them are women. We used two paid advertisements on Facebook to promote the LOVA International Summer School 2019 with a total spent of 24.99€. Most of LOVA’s website views come from Facebook instead of Google search or directly onto the website. 

Finances
This year’s positive result is due to the successful collection of the delayed 2018 membership fees of a large group of members as well as those of 107 paying members in 2019. Journal costs lowered this year but we had more expenditure on events organized; the International Summer School could be closed with a small profit. PR costs consisted only of the regular costs of website hosting and nearly all organization costs were spent on the bank accounts. The Marjan Rens Foundation fund was used for the award winners of the 2019 edition of the LOVA Marjan Rens Master’s Thesis Award.