CFP: IVR World Congress: The Rule of Law, Justice and the Future of Democracy

SPECIAL WORKSHOP   Feminist Legal and Political Practices - The Contemporary Interplay of Gender, Intersectionality and Diversity  

Convenors Fabio Macioce (University of LUMSA, Rome) [email protected] Dragica Vujadinovic (University of Belgrade) [email protected] Damir Banović (University of Sarajevo) [email protected]  

Legal and political practices oriented towards achieving gender equality have been and continue to be a major driver of the development of contemporary legal, political and social systems. These emancipatory practices have an impact on the creation of laws, their interpretation and implementation, the overall structure of judicial systems, as well as the definition of public policies and cultural forms and representations. In particular, feminist and queer movements, together with multiple grassroots initiatives and specific emancipatory legislation and policies have systematically contributed to building better gender equality worldwide. However, all emancipatory practices have been in constant clashes with tendencies of reproducing the “old patriarchy” and new forms of patriarchy generated by neoliberalism. The common patriarchal axis of the oppression of women and non-binary people has different manifestations in different segments of the contemporary world. Among other regressive forces, there is a rising threat of right-wing populism within states and societies, and its use of the so-called “gender ideology” discourse against feminist movements and emancipatory legal and political solutions. Attacks, devaluation, and reduction of gender equality attempts onto an alleged “gender ideology” have to be seriously considered and deconstructed. Clashes between emancipatory and regressive tendencies have been expressed differently in different contexts of intersectionally conceived gender-based oppression within the Global North and Global South.

Contributions may cover, among the many, the following issues:   

• Historical aspects of women’s political activism and practices (What aspects have been particularly relevant in the construction of women's political action? What of the feminist movements of the past is relevant for contemporary political struggles?).
• Studies on contemporary legal manifestations of gender oppression, and on contemporary political, economic, cultural, social, and religious systems of oppression and privilege, as well as on emancipatory tendencies in contemporary law, politics, culture etc.
• Clashes between emancipatory tendencies and regressive ones related to the s.c. „gender ideology“ within states and societies of the Global North and Global South.
• Analyses of how women's voices are excluded, silenced and marginalized in the labour market, judicial system, state bureaucracy, nonprofit organizations, and national debates on citizenship.
• Analyses of how specific transformations in social, economic, and political systems affect women's social, economic and political ability to make their voices heard.
• Studies on political and legal activism related to reproduction, sexuality, bodily integrity and freedom (What actions create new spaces for women's agency? What actions influence the rules concerning the age of marriage, the legal use of oppressive dowry practices, or the full enjoyment of civil and political rights?).
• Analyses of reproductive justice as an example of critical feminism and intersectionality, as well as a place where activism and academia meet, and political claims arise.
• Discussions on the role played by ideals and political/legal concepts of independence, control, choice, autonomy, rationality, and freedom, within the articulation of feminist political practices.
• Analyses of the contemporary interplay between feminist movements and anti-capitalist, post-colonialist claims, within the critics of contemporary violence and dispossession of marginalised peoples. The interplay of critical race feminism, international law, global feminism and postcolonial feminist theory and practice.
• Theoretical analyses of women's political agency, from an intersectional perspective. Analyses of the interplay between women’s agency and LGBTQI+ movements and claims; analyses of contemporary women’s struggles to liberate sexuality from traditional forms, as well as from the restrictions related to gender, class, race, and consumerism.  

A later publication of accepted papers is intended in the book with the title Feminist Legal and Political Practices - The Contemporary Interplay of Gender, Intersectionality and Diversity (F. Macioce, D. Vujadinovic and Z. Saeidzadeh eds), within the Springer book series GENDER PERSPECTIVES IN LAW, edited by D. Vujadinovic and I. Krstic.  

All interested applicants are invited to send an abstract (max. 500 words) and a brief academic CV (under 200 words), written in English, and fill out the registration form provided in the IVR 2024 website according to the schedule provided by the Conference Organizing Committee. For non-early booking registrations, submissions will remain open from January 16th until April 10th, 2024.

Applications are to be sent to [email protected], [email protected]