MŌ MĀTOU : GEA Conference 2026

The Gender and Education Association (GEA) 2026 Conference will be held in Aotearoa New Zealand, a land renowned for its deep Indigenous traditions, stunning natural landscapes, and spirit of innovation. Aotearoa is home to the Māori people, whose language, stories, and philosophies shape the cultural fabric of the nation, and who continue to inspire global conversations around education, justice, and equity.

Our host city, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, is a vibrant and diverse metropolis, nestled between two harbours and more than 50 volcanic cones. We GEA 2026 honour and pay homage to the custodians of the Tāmaki Makaurau CBD Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. Known as the City of Sails and its dynamism reflect the multicultural communities who call it home. Delegates will experience both the natural beauty of the region and the thriving arts, culture, and hospitality that make Auckland an ideal gathering place.

The conference will be hosted by Auckland University of Technology (AUT), a modern and innovative university grounded in the values of tika (integrity), pono (respect), and aroha (compassion). AUT’s commitment to equity and creativity makes it a fitting home for a global conversation on gender and education. To all our esteemed guests, we welcome you to our university and our wider community. Nau mai, Haere mai.

The GEA 2026 Conference Committee brings together a diverse group of scholars, educators, and practitioners who are deeply committed to fostering inclusive, critical, and transformative dialogue. Guided by the theme Ngā Manu o Te Wao: The Birds of the Realm, the committee hopes to create a space where Indigenous wisdoms, feminist philosophies, and gendered pedagogies can meet in conversation and flight. Like the gathering of birds in the forest canopy, the conference is envisioned as a place of connection, solidarity, and celebration of difference—where every voice has space to soar. We are committed to accommodating our attendees' accessibility needs.

We explicitly welcome takatāpui; māhū, vakasalewa, palopa, fa‘afafine, fa'atama, fakavai‘ne, fakaleiti (leiti), fakafifine, and other indigenous Pasifika genders; hijra, muxe, two-spirit, sipiniq, and other indigenous genders worldwide, cisgender, transgender, nonbinary, agender, and gender non-conforming, intersex; straight, gay, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, a-grey, demisexual and other genders and sexual orientations.

Through this gathering, we invite participants from across the world to join us in Aotearoa, to be inspired by the mana of this land and its people, and to imagine new ways of thinking, teaching, and being together in the field of gender and education.

Dr Eunice Gaerlan (she/her/siya)

Dr Eunice Gaerlan is a queer Filipina feminist scholar and Senior Lecturer in Education at Auckland University of Technology. Her research sits at the intersections of gender, sexuality, and decolonial education, drawing on precolonial Philippine feminist and queer epistemologies to reimagine belonging and pedagogy in Aotearoa. She is the convenor of the 2026 Gender and Education Association Conference and co-founder of the AUT Philippine Studies Hub.

“I found my academic family in GEA and I’m beyond excited for the family to come and hang with us here in Aotearoa. Wonderful things happen when queers and feminists and queer feminists get together so I’m very much looking forward to what might emerge at GEA2026. Mabuhay | Haere Mai | Welcome.”

Dr Yo Heta-Lensen (she/her/ia)

Dr Yo Heta-Lensen (ia/she/InI) has a background in critical theory, educational leadership and Kaupapa Māori theory, and praxis. She has a teaching background that spans from early childhood through to tertiary education and is an experienced teacher educator. Her teaching interests centre on transformative education, and include indigenous language revitalisation, sacred pedagogies and ecologies of care in education. Her research interests include culturally located women in educational leadership, socio-ecological justice, agency in early childhood, and kaupapa Māori methodologies. Yo is a senior lecturer in Te Kura Mātauranga School of Education in Te Kete Aronui Faculty of Culture and Society, at Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau Auckland University of Technology.

He uri o ngā wai, me ngā hau o Te Taitokerau, tihei wā mauri ora!

Descendant from of the waters and the winds of the North.

Behold the breath of life!

Dr Tangaroa Paul (he/she/they)

Tangaroa is a Māori scholar and media practitioner whose work sits at the intersections of Indigenous storytelling, takatāpui research, and Kaupapa Māori methodologies. Based at Te Ara Poutama – Faculty of Māori & Indigenous Studies at Auckland University of Technology, they teach and supervise across undergraduate and postgraduate levels, guiding the next generation of Māori media makers and researchers.

Their research and creative practice explore how Indigenous values, languages, and worldviews shape contemporary media, with a focus on representation, gender and identity. A proud raukura of Hoani Waititi Marae and alumni of Ngā Puna o Waiorea, Dr Paul embodies the puna reo and kura kaupapa generation, carrying forward a legacy of Māori education and cultural excellence.

Beyond academia, they contribute to Māori and Indigenous screen production, championing stories grounded in whakapapa and the uplifting of takatāpui and queer voices across Aotearoa.

Dr Toni Ingram (she/her)

Toni's research is situated at the intersection of Girlhood Studies and research examining gender, sexualities and schooling. Her work critically examines the role of educational spaces and practices in shaping young people's gender and sexualities. Toni’s current research projects delve into an array of spaces including physical education, sexuality education, Romantasy and YA literature, and initial teacher education.

“We are super excited to be hosting the first GEA conference held in Aotearoa. Looking forward to welcoming you to four fabulous days of lively discussion, inspiration and solidarity!”

Dr Yael Cameron (she/her)

In the School of Education, Yael is engaged in critical studies of public pedagogy. Through a queer and creative feminist lens, Yael traces social, religious and mythological representations in popular culture as meaningful sites of social learning and resistance. Genre fiction, cult film, games and series, music, theatre, poetry and art, all offer a discursive space where pervasive ideologies can be reshaped and intensified or resisted and reinscribed. To this end, Yael has written about influential film/fiction works like Dune, Mad Max, in literature Finnish Noir, and Russian Resistance Poetry but also on legendary figures who transcend cultural memory like Frankenstein, Medusa, and Eve. Most recently she co-edited a collection of essays on bestselling RPG, novel and series, The Witcher: Theology, Religion and The Witcher: Gods and Golden Dragons (Lexington/Fortress, 2025). She has two further co-edited collections upcoming with Bloomsbury, one on Romantasy-lit as Public Pedagogy and another on Mad Max.

Dr Jo Pascoe (she/her)

Joanna Pascoe is an arts-based researcher/writer/maker/philosopher and lecturer in the School of Education at Auckland University of Technology. Her research interests include posthuman pedagogy, affirmative ethics of joy, hopepunk speculative fiction and poetic inquiry. Her doctoral thesis, The Posthuman Learner: Mothers, Monsters and Machines explores how engagement with speculative fiction texts in light of posthuman theory may open lines of flight for an affirmative ethics of joy in education. Her background in creative writing, theatre and applied linguistics, positions her to positively influence the next generation of secondary teachers with a focus on curiosity, creativity, and a love for the world.

" I am looking forward to welcoming visitors to Aotearoa and learning more about Gender and Education through stories, Posthuman Feminism and the Anthropocene."

Dr Tof Eklund (they/them)

Dr Tof Eklund (they/them) is a Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at AUT. Their research interests lie at the intersection of the theoretical, the subcultural, the digital, and the creative, focusing on "un-popular media" such as marginal culture, queer subcultures, and digital games. Tof's work embraces uncertainty, intersectionality, care ethics, and anarchy of method, contributing to a diverse range of postgraduate projects.

Dr Karen Finn (she/her)

Karen Finn is a lecturer in Te Kura Mātauranga School of Education at AUT. Karen's research focuses on schools, teaching and teacher education. Recent projects include Te Pae Tawhiti: Equity in STEM for Māori, Pasifika and Female students and All things Māori have a place in our curriculum: Indigenising and decolonising secondary school geography in Aotearoa New Zealand. Prior to academia, she spent 15 years teaching and in leadership within secondary schools. Karen is leading communications for the 2026 Gender and Education Association Conference.

MŌ MĀTOU | ABOUT