Header image: © Unsplash 2021 / 2H Media
On Thursday, June 13, our author Dr. Annette Henninger (University of Marburg) will give the Doing Gender Lecture entitled Anti/Feminism: From blurring boundaries to strategies against the anti-gender ‘Zeitgeist’.
Since the turn of the century, attacks against ‘gender’ are globally on the rise. Many authors point out that mobilizations against issues such as gender studies, same-sex marriage, trans* rights or divorce regulations are part of a broader struggle for political hegemony driven by actors from the political and religious right who strive for an illiberal, regressive vision of (gender) politics. But in these mobilizations, we can also observe alliances with conservative or liberal segments of society and overlaps between the feminist and anti-feminist camp, as in discourses on femo- or homo-nationalism or concerning transphobia. My talk will explore the broader political conjunctures in which this blurring of boundaries takes place. I critically assess three explanations for this phenomenon by asking how social problems are framed in these concepts and which political strategies result from these frames: 1. The rise of populism, 2. the rise of neoliberal (post-)feminism, and 3. the de-thematization of social conflict and power structures for the sake of identity politics and ‘culture wars’. Reformulating a famous quote by Spivak, I propose a new ‘strategic universalism’ that envisions an inclusive version of democracy and social justice as a future-oriented counter-strategy against the current anti-gender ‘Zeitgeist’ and the illiberal tendencies that come with it.
Book presentation
The Doing Gender Lecture will be followed by a short presentation of the book Blurring Boundaries – ‘Anti-Gender’ Ideology Meets Feminist and LGBTIQ+ Discourses, co-edited by Dorothee Beck, Adriano José Habed, and Annette Henninger (Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2023).
Chair: Dr. Adriano Habed
About the DOING GENDER Lecture Series
The Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies organises the DOING GENDER Lecture Series in cooperation with their partners. These lectures stress the importance of doing gender work combined with an active involvement in the practice of gender theory and research. The concept of DOING GENDER supports a hands-on approach to gender issues in the sense of social and political engagement with the new forms of gender inequalities that are taking shape in the world today. The lecture series wants to give space to the new generations of gender theorists and practitioners and to perspectives that innovate the field and do gender in new ways. Key is the notion of doing gender: what is the state of the art definition of gender? How do contemporary scholars and activists utilise this definition?
Book discount
We are offering a 30 % discount on the book Blurring Boundaries – ‘Anti-Gender’ Ideology Meets Feminist and LGBTIQ+ Discourses (print and eBook) from 10 to 24 June! Don’t miss!
One of the two anniversary conferences of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) will take place in Lisbon from 11-13 September 2024.
We are excited to announce that our publisher Barbara Budrich will be attending the conference. If you are interested in discussing potential collaborations or have any questions, please feel free to reach out to her in advance.
You will soon find out more about our conference offers and how you can meet us here and via our newsletter and blog.
Header image: pexels.com / Fox
“The Making of the World: How International Organizations Shape Our Future” Book Launch
with Yves Schemeil. Emeritus Professor, University of Grenoble and Institut Universitaire de France
About the book
International Organizations (IOs) were designed to provide global public goods, among which security for all, trade for the richest, and development for the poorest. Their very existence is now a promise of success for the cooperative turn in international relations. Although the IO network was once created by established powers, rising states can hardly resist the massive production of norms that their governments can be reluctant to respect without being able to discard them. IOs are omnipresent, and exert great influence on the world as we know it. However, rulers and ruled are hardly aware of such compelling and snowballing processes. Yves Schemeil uses his in-depth knowledge of IOs to analyze their current impact on international relations, on world politics, and their potential of shaping the global future.
Speaker
Yves Schemeil, Emeritus Professor of Global and Comparative Politics (University of Grenoble and Institut Universitaire de France) has taught in several BA, MA, and PhD programs in France, Switzerland, Japan, the US, and Lebanon. His current research addresses the management of international organizations, between performance and resilience, as well as world reordering, between anarchy and governance. To assess the causes of IOs expansion and networking he lists the drivers of adaptive and collaborative behavior. To identify the explanatory variables shaping the world he compares the various organizational and constitutional designs that may lead to a more institutionalized planet in the long run. His counterintuitive, comparative, and experimental work draws on philosophy, sociology, psychology, and economics.
Discussant
Thomas Gidney, Research Associate, Geneva Graduate Institute
Moderator
Lucile Maertens, Associate Professor in International Relations/Political Science and Co-Director of the Global Governance Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute
The event is free. Please address all questions to events@graduateinstitute.ch.
Learn more about the book here. An interview with Yves Schemeil can be found here.