Teaching Gender, Diversity and Urban Space An Intersectional Approach between Gender Studies and Spatial Disciplines

“Teaching Gender, Diversity and Urban Space: An Intersectional approach between Gender Studies and Spatial Disciplines” is a collective volume which originated under the umbrella of ATHENA 2 and 3. It comes from the activities of one particular working group 1B “Gender, diversity and urban space.” The aim of this book is to present the theoretical framework and the development of diverse educational tools that deal with the introduction of gender and sexuality in Spatial Disciplines and with the concepts of space and urbanity in Women’s and Gender Studies. The initiative to set up this separate discernible activity with regard to “gender, diversity and urban space” stemmed from the recognition that the concepts of space, place and urbanity have a rather minor presence within European Women’s and Gender Studies. Simultaneously, there has been a rather “poor” development, if any, of the concepts of gender and sexuality(ies) within the “spatial” disciplines and in university departments. This concerns mainly architecture and urban/city planning and to a lesser degree geography which has done better, thanks to the hard work and long-term efforts of feminist geographers.1 This “double” absence formulated the core questions of our activity and underlies the hypothesis behind our proposals for the development of educational and teaching tools to cope with it.