Associate Professor Louise Chappell, University of Sydney and Professor Georgina Waylen, University of Sheffield are new co-directors of FIIN. They join FIIN founders and co-directors Dr. Fiona Mackay, University of Edinburgh and Dr. Mona Lena Krook, Washington University in St Louis, and network co-ordinator Meryl Kenny, University of Edinburgh in the network team.

FIIN Members Georgina Waylen (University of Sheffield), Meryl Kenny and Fiona Mackay (both University of Edinburgh) presented papers at a panel entitled Feminist Institutionalism: The Way Forward? as part of the UK Political Studies Association Annual Conference at the University of Manchester, April 7-9 2009. The session was chaired by Vivien Lowndes (De Montfort University).

FIIN Members Mona Lena Krook and Amanda Driscoll (both Washington University in St Louis), and Meryl Kenny and Fiona Mackay (both University of Edinburgh) presented papers at a panel on Feminism, Gender and Institutions at the Midwestern Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 2-5 2009.

FIIN Members Louise Chappell (University of Sydney), Meryl Kenny and Fiona Mackay (both University of Edinburgh) and Jill Vickers (Carleton University) presented papers at a panel on Gender and "Nested Newness": theorizing the limits of institutional innovation within existing systems at the First European Conference on Politics and Gender, Queens University Belfast, 21-23 January 2009. FIIN Member Georgina Waylen (Sheffield) chaired the session.

Congratulations to FIIN member Marjolein Paantjens (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) who was awarded a PhD after successfully defending her doctoral thesis in January 2009. Marjolein's thesis was entitled 'Political Institutions and Gender Mainstreaming: A comparative study of Belgium and the Netherlands' ('Politieke Instituties en gender mainstreaming. Een vergelijkende studie van België en Nederland')

FIIN Directors Fiona Mackay and Mona Lena Krook held a successful workshop as part of the ECPR Joint Sessions in Rennes, France from 11-15 April 2008. The workshop was entitled Gender, Politics, and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism?.