Future events
Monday 9 December, 12:00-1:00pm - Re-framing the menstrual cycle and menopause: how to reclaim the power and joy of your female experience
The menstrual cycle, and the transition to menopause, can so often feel like the bane of the female experience. Yet while pain and other symptoms are very real, what could change if both were re-framed and celebrated as sources of power, connection and mana motuhake?
In this interactive workshop, Melanie Laird (both a certified Menstrual Cycle and Perimenopause coach and a Research Fellow in reproductive biology at the University of Otago) will share practical tools and resources to help you confidently navigate your current menstrual/menopausal challenges by living cyclically, no matter what phase of life you’re in, and reclaim the joy, mana and power of your cyclic experience.
- When: 12-1pm, Monday 9 December
- Where: Terrace Lounge, University Union Building (top floor). This event is being held in-person only - an online version will be scheduled for 2025.
- RSVP: By 5pm Friday 6 December to: staffwomenscaucus@otago.ac.nz
You are welcome to bring your lunch.
Ideas for future events
We welcome your ideas for future events/speakers. Please send your suggestions to:
Email staffwomenscaucus@otago.ac.nz
Payment
Internet banking:
- Bank
- Westpac
- Branch
- Dunedin North
- Account number
- 03 0883 0189838 00
- Particulars
- Your name
- Reference
- Event name or reason (e.g. SWC AGM, SWC Theatre or SWC Koha, etc.)
Please also send Karin (karin.warnaar@otago.ac.nz) a confirmation message so that she can match up the details.
Past events
Thursday 21 November, 5:15pm - Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Thank you to all those who came to our Annual General Meeting AGM (in-person and virtually). Once the formalities were over, Professor Emerita Helen Nicholson shared insights from her leadership journey.
Thursday 17 October, 12:15-12:45pm - A conversation with Professor Emerita Dawn Elder (UOW)
Dawn graduated from Otago Medical School in 1980 and undertook postgraduate training in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. In 1995 Dawn was appointed Senior Lecturer in Paediatrics at the then Wellington School of Medicine (a joint clinical academic appointment) following completion of advanced training in neonatal medicine in Perth, Western Australia. She worked as a neonatal medicine specialist at Wellington Hospital until 2004 transferring then to retrain in paediatric sleep medicine and also worked clinically in the area of child protection. Dawn was Professor and HoD of the Dept of Paediatrics & Child Health, UOW from 2013 until her retirement in 2022. She then provided locum cover for another year until July 2023. She currently chairs the Organising Committee for the Otago Medical School’s 150th celebration in 2025.
Watch the recording (32 minutes)
Tuesday 15 October, 12:30-1:30pm – Lunchtime Casual Catch-Up
An informal BYO lunch at the University Staff Club providing an opportunity to meet the committee and meet/catch up with other women staff from around the Dunedin campus.
Monday 16 September, 5:15pm: Suffrage Lecture 2024 – Mana Wāhine Mana Motuhake
This year's presenter s Metiria Stanton Turei – social activist, lawyer, and former co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Mana Wāhine Inquiry was initiated by the Waitangi Tribunal in 2018 , nearly 25 years after the first statement of claim was filed by the past presidents of Te Ropu Wahine Māori Toko i Te Ora, the Māori Women's Welfare League. The Tuapapa foundational hearings have been completed and we await a number of research reports and the resumption of hearings. The evidence follows four themes, Atua Whaea, Relationality and Balance, Wāhine Mana and Rangatiratanga and Domains of Wāhine Authority. Wāhine Māori have waited decades for this Tribunal opportunity to speak to the colonising experience of wāhine and to correct the patriarchal assumptions that have undermined mana wāhine for nearly two centuries. The Inquiry is at its early stages just as the Waitangi Tribunal faces its most voracious political threats.
Tuesday 6 August: A conversation with Professor Emerita Nicola Peart
Professor Emerita Nicola Peart joined the University of Otago Law Faculty in 1987 and has taught Property Law, Wills and Trusts and Advanced Family Property Law over her academic career. She was one of the expert advisors to the Law Commission on three of its recent projects - Trust Law, Relationship Property Law, and Succession Law. She has been an active supporter of Staff Women’s Caucus and women’s equity at the University.
Nicola retired in 2020, and continues to do some teaching in Property Law and remains active in research. In the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours, she was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the law.
Watch the recording (44 minutes)
11 July - A conversation with Associate Professor Diane Kenwright
Associate Professor Diane Kenwright (HoD Pathology and Molecular Medicine (UOW), and co-Chair of the Science, Research and Scholarship Curriculum Domain group) shared her life and career journey to date with insights into her leadership and interpersonal style - especially in times of change. Her open mind, positive attitude, enthusiasm and warmth are evident in this interview with Kathryn Tsikanovski (one of our two SWC Committee members based in Wellington).
Watch the recording (37 minutes)
22 May – Lunchtime Casual Catch-Up
An informal BYO lunch providing an opportunity to meet the committee and meet/catch up with other women staff from around the Dunedin campus.
14 May – The Underestimated Power of Doing Stuff for Free
Sze-En Watts (Manager, Social Impact Studio) shared her personal journey to a career in volunteering. Working across students, staff, community organisations, funders, and local government, Sze-En brings people and resources together to realise the power of doing stuff for free and the positive impact it has on the University, the Ōtepoti community, the environment and our individual and collective wellbeing!
Watch the recording (30 minutes)
24 April – Medieval Women: Surprisingly Human
Women in medieval literature might be assumed to be figures of silence, obedience, good breeding and manners. The women in Geoffrey Chaucer’s poetry, however, show a great deal more complexity and humanity than is popularly ascribed to medieval women including characteristics of: anger, humour, intelligence, slyness, rashness, prudence and physical strength, among other things.
Professor Simone Marshall (Head, School of Arts) examined a selection of Chaucer’s women to show the wide range of humanity exhibited in their personalities, and why Chaucer appears to show such an interest in women.
Watch the recording (41 minutes)
11 April – Celebrating Women in Tertiary Education
In conjunction with the Tertiary Education Union ( TEU ) we welcomed the TEU ’s Te Pou Whirinaki / National Women’s Officer, Bronwyn Larkins, to Ōtepoti Dunedin. Bronwyn introduced herself and shared aspects of the TEU Women’s Officer role, a few short-term goals, and updates on the Pay Equity campaign.
Bronwyn was supported by President Tāngata Māori of the TEU : Hūhana Wātene, and the Vice-President of the TEU ’s National Women’s Committee: Siân Halcrow (University of Otago) and Jodi Hawe (Otago Polytechnic|Te Pūkenga).
8 March – International Women's Day (IWD)
We again partnered with Graduate Women Otago to celebrate IWD with breakfast at Ombrellos Cafe and Bar and excellent guest speaker Trish Oakley, a member of University Council and an executive at Forsyth Barr.
Find out more about events we've organised for our members in previous years