Feminist Theory: Between Hope and Disappointment

Section Chairs

University of Leeds

University of Graz

University of Leeds

Abstract

In the current conjuncture, feminist resistance is both desperately needed and increasingly difficult to sustain. Across many parts of the globe, feminist activists and movements confront rampant gendered violence, including feminicide and sexual assault, attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, structural impunity and a rollback of rights once thought secure, such as abortion access. These conditions signal more than a political crisis; they constitute an affective impasse in which the very possibility of resistance is brought into question. How do we revive feminist struggles under these circumstances? How do we confront and productively engage with failure, disappointment, loss, helplessness, ambivalence and despair as inevitable parts of feminist activism? How do we (re)learn to hope? What does endurance look like when the future has repeatedly failed to deliver on its promises? What mechanisms of (self-)care, support and resilience can we rely on to sustain action in impossible conditions? How can we build effective transversal solidarities and international coalitions? These questions are not only urgent for feminist theory and practice but also raise broader concerns for political theory and the study of democratic resilience.

This section invites papers that address these questions from a variety of epistemological orientations and ideological positions—including but not limited to socialist, radical, phenomenological, psychoanalytic, black, intersectional, poststructuralist, queer, and trans feminism—and with reference to a range of historical contexts and forms of feminist resistance, from prominent feminist movements of the past to recent forms of struggle, contestation and refusal. We are especially interested in papers that adopt interdisciplinary and intersectional lenses as pathways for developing new possibilities for feminist action, mobilization and solidarity. We welcome submissions from different fields, including political and social theory, political philosophy, anthropology, history, and sociology.