A sunny Thursday afternoon in mid-March saw Anna Taylor and Jasmine Lambert accompany their Year 12 and 13 Gender Studies classes to the University of Canterbury.

This trip had been planned as an opportunity for students to further enrich their understanding of the gender concepts that we have investigated in class. The group travelled to the Ilam campus to hear Gender Studies lecturer, Karen Saunders, speak on ‘The Making of Sex and Intersex Embodiment’. This presentation covered how sex and gender have been viewed at different times in history, and illustrated how we’ve moved on from earlier beliefs that men and women were of ‘one sex’.

Karen opened her talk with a quote from the iconic Grace Jones, that “the future is no sex”, which set the tone for an eye opening, and challenging, two hours. The group were encouraged to engage with the material and they enthusiastically took up this invitation. It was fantastic to hear their thoughtful comments, and the questions they posed showed a genuine curiosity and thirst for knowledge. Karen commented that she was impressed by their level of enthusiasm and that, “they’re all ready for university study!”

When the lecture ended, the classes spilled back out into the bustling campus, still chatting amongst themselves about the complexities of gender in society. With a taste of how thought-provoking tertiary study can be, they jumped back on the Purple Line and made for home.

Some student views of the afternoon:

“I found the uni trip extremely insightful. Karen has a really coherent way of speaking and explaining certain aspects of gender and sexuality. I enjoyed the fact that she treated us as adults and taught us useful and interesting information.” – Georgiana

“I think the lecture was really interesting, it brought up some things I wasn’t even aware of such as intersex and there were so many different viewpoints!” – Zoey

“It was really cool to have the opportunity to go to a lecture at UC. It was interesting to see what it might be like at university and it gave us some helpful information to take away with us for future work this year.” - Mollie

We’d like to extend our thanks to Karen Saunders, and the University of Canterbury, for hosting us for the afternoon.