Suzanne Clisby

I am the Professor of Gender Studies within the Centre for Global Learning, Education and Attainment (GLEA) at Coventry University and I am the lead for the research theme: Gender, Equality and Diversity. 

Prior to joining Coventry University in 2020 I worked in the Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London from where I was the co-director, with Professor Mark Johnson, of the GCRF-funded Global Gender and Cultures of Equality (GlobalGRACE) Project and I continued to co-direct GlobalGRACE until project end in 2022 while based within GLEA. In 2022 we launched the GlobalGRACE open access online course Experiments in Cultures of Equality and virtual exhibition Re/Locating Cultures of Equality as two of the collaborative final out puts of GlobalGRACE.

I am currently C.I. and lead in Coventry University of the Horizon Europe MSCA EUTERPE Project (2022-26).  The European Literatures and Gender in Transnational Perspective Project offers an innovative approach to rethinking European cultural production in the light of complex social and political negotiations that are shaping European spaces and identities at present. Through an international partnership of 15 HEIs and partner organisations across six European countries, and providing fully funded training for 11 Early Stage Doctoral Researchers through our cross-European Doctoral Network, EUTERPE brings together gender and transnational perspectives within an interdisciplinary approach to literary and cultural studies. 

While Director of Gender Studies and Director of Postgraduate Studies at the University of Hull, I developed and coordinated a range of BA, MA and PhD programmes within the fields of Social Sciences, Gender Studies and Gender and Development, including as UK Coordinator (2006 -19) of the Erasmus+ dual award MA Women's and Gender Studies (GEMMA) Programme, working within a Consortium of seven European Universities. The GEMMA programme is recognised by the European Commission as a European Masters of Excellence, and through GEMMA I have supervised over 100 extended (30,000 word) research dissertations and worked closely with hundreds of scholars and community-based practitioners from across the world. This has enabled the development of a wonderful and powerful global network of feminist scholars and activists.  I continue to act as Chair of the Expert Advisory Board for the GEMMA Consortium and I have been a visiting professor in various institutions, including at the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) in the Dominican Republic, at the University of Oviedo, Spain, and at Rutgers University in the US.

For over a decade I was Co-Editor of the Journal of Gender Studies until stepping back in 2022 to become Honorary Editor. I have delivered Gender Analysis Training for a range of organisations, including most recently for the University of Iceland’s UNESCO-supported Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme (GEST) and De Montford University in the UK. 

Over the past couple of decades I have conducted 15 research projects with a total funding of over £8m. These projects range from the large-scale Horizon EUROPE European Literatures and Gender in Transnational Perspective, the Horizon 2020 Gender and Cultures of Equality in Europe (GRACE) project, the UKRI GCRF funded Global Gender and Cultures of Equality (GlobalGRACE) project, and the European Social Fund Breakthrough: women’s experiences of education, training and employment project, to UK-based NGO consultancies and policy commissions including The State of Girl's Rights project with Plan International UK and Living on the Edge: sexual behaviour and young parenthood in seaside and rural areas funded through the Department of Health.

In terms of postgraduate supervision, please see our Gender, Equality and Diversity page for areas of research supervision. I am currently supervising 6 (4 within Coventry and 2 external to Coventry) research students and have successfully supervised 23 doctoral theses and several post-doctoral researchers. I have been External Examiner for a range of doctoral vivas and postgraduate programmes and am an Expert Advisor for several research projects, including the None in Three Project (Ni3). Previously, through the Horizon 2020 Marie S. Curie Gender and Cultures of Equality in Europe project (GRACE Project) that I led as P.I. between 2015-19, we employed 15 Early Stage Doctoral Researchers to work across 6 institutions through Europe and I coordinated their research training, mentoring, and employability. I supported 6 Early Stage Researchers at Postdoctoral level who we employed to work within the GlobalGRACE research teams across six countries. 

I completed my PhD in Sociology and Anthropology while working as an academic at the University of Hull, so I understand the challenges of juggling paid and unpaid labour alongside education. My approach to supervision builds on a feminist ethic of care and I value people's knowledge and lived experiences as 'situated knowers'. Most of all I think it is important to respect one another and be kind. I am also very practical and well understand the need for structured goals towards creating a research thesis we can be proud of. 

Although I initially trained as a Secondary/FE teacher and have taught across primary, secondary and tertiary levels, I began working within Higher Education in the mid-1990s and have almost three decades of experience within academia. I also have many years of experience working on a voluntary basis for women's services, support to combat gender-based violence, and in community-based education. For several years I was Chair of Hull Women's Network, a representative on the Hull Domestic Abust Partnership and Secretary of the Managemant Collective of Hull Women's Centre.