CYGNA: Creating hope for alternative futures!
Reports on our 71st CYGNA meeting: an on-site event organised and facilitated by Christa Sathish at Fyvie Hall at the University of Westminister's Regent Street Campus. We analysed our current academic environment and co-created hope manifestos for alternative futures
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, most of our CYGNA meetings are online, but our yearly CYGNA North meeting in January and our last CYGNA meeting of the academic year are usually on-site meetings. This year we were lucky enough to meet in the amazing Fyvie Hall, part of the University of Westminster's Regent Campus. As one of our junior members - Nila Sathish - commented, the inside of the building looks more like Buckingham Pallace than a university. So we all felt very special!
The organiser and facilitator Christa Sathish (University of Westminster) did an absolutely stellar job. She had crafted a full-day event that was so immersive it felt much shorter, even though - just like last year's plenary event at Oxford Brookes University (see: Getting creative with qualitative research methods) - we had another scorcing hot day with temperatures over 30 degrees after a week of hot weather. New records were set for the hottest May day earlier that week.
A perfect mix of backgrounds and academic roles
From the start of our CYGNA network, we have had regular discussions about whether to stay female-only; the answer has always been yes. However, we are now opening our on-site events to academics of all genders and those outside the network. This allows interested female academics to gain insight into what we are doing before joining the network.
Moreover, as CYGNA, we are women who also serve and support the wider academic community. CYGNA is open to supporting our academic cultures, while also providing focused, CYGNA-only safe spaces during our online meetings. In our opinion, this is a very good mix and greatly improves the sustainability of the network. Our sustainability is further enhanced by inviting female children over 10 to join as CYGNETS in our on-site meetings.
This year our Spring on-site event was attended by 29 participants from a wide variety of backgrounds. Of course there were plenty CYGNA members, who are generally academics or PhD students. But we also attracted local University of Westminster PhD students, as well as participants in academic support roles: research development manager, coach, consultant, and project administrator. With two thirds CYGNA members and one third "externals", we had a perfect mix of familiarity and new impulses.
Our participants also represented many universities: ESCP Business School, George Washington University, Hult Business School, Institute of Domestic Violence, Religion & Migration, London School of Economics, Middlesex University, Oxford Brookes University, Royal Holloway, University of Sunderland, University of Surrey, Toulouse Business School, and of course academics from many different departments at the University of Westminster.
Opening the meeting
After half an hour of walk-in and chat, we had a brief opening before starting with a fabulous lunch, ensuring we wouldn't have rumbling tummies disturb our activities. The opening was a double act between Christa Sathish [bottom left] and her daughter Nila Sathish [bottom right]. Nila had not only helped with preparing the meeting - she created the most lovely name cards - but had also decided she wanted to present her own hope manifesto.
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Group work
Soon after lunch everyone was engrossed in conversations. It is not often that as academics we spend a full day talking to each, and are engaged in crafting without the use of electronic devices. The room was filled with lively conversations and lots of laughter. Below you can find pictures of the group work, including our two CYGNETS - Nila Sathish and Soso Zhao - who, as Flaviana Manta said in her lovely LinkedIn post, worked harder than anyone else.
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In another wonderful LinkedIn post Shilan Fuad expressed the intent of the day perfectly.
It is easy to look at academia today and believe things must always be this way. But these structures are not fate. They are merely constructs, built by human hands, and they can be dismantled by collective will.
Ice-creams and more
In between all the crafting work, there was plenty of time for side conversations and even going out for a lovely ice-cream. That's a big advantage of being in a buzzing shopping street.
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The diehards
We received lots of lovely comments on the day about how much participants had enjoyed the opportunity to have a full day of high-quality in-person interaction. Here is one that came to Christa by LinkedIn message the next day.
I enjoyed the event so much and it was so well organised. Such a special opportunity for us to share our experiences. It was really what I needed. Lately, I feel a bit isolated and it was nice to have meaningful discussions.
Unfortunately, we completely forgot to take a group picture early in the event when everyone was still there, but here is a pictures of the diehards who kept going until 5.30pm, making it a full 7-hour event for those who joined us early at 10.30am. Hats off to you all for your commitment.
In sum
The abundance of time for free conversations allowed us all to put not just a face, but a full body to a name. This really makes a difference to the cohesion of the network. We still can't believe we have grown from an average of 8-10 participants in 2014-2015, 2015-2016, 2016-2017 and 2018-2019 to on campus meetings atracting 20-30 participants and online meetings often reaching double that.
Copyright © 2026 Anne-Wil Harzing. All rights reserved. Page last modified on Sat 6 Jun 2026 07:34
Anne-Wil Harzing is Emerita Professor of International Management at Middlesex University, London. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, a select group of distinguished AIB members who are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business. In addition to her academic duties, she also maintains the Journal Quality List and is the driving force behind the popular Publish or Perish software program.
