Workshop: 11./12. Juni 2026, Universität Bern
Finanzielle Unterstützung
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds SNF, IZFG
Kurzbeschrieb
Since its appropriation by feminist researchers in the early 1970ies, gender has been a contested category all along. Its meaning, uses and relevance has continuously shifted. From being an unknown term that was able to productively disrupt discussions in the 1970ies to being a key term of liberal and neoliberal feminist politics in the 1990ies to becoming a demonized sign in anti-gender discourses in current times, gender has a vibrant, ambiguous and complicated history. It is associated with colonial feminism as well as with intersectional approaches, with bodily binarisms as well as with queer and trans politics, with the critique of power as well as with hegemonic ideas, with transformatory practices as well as with light- weight reformism.
The aim of this workshop is to reflect the futures of gender through its multifaceted histories: How can we keep working with gender? Can we, do we still want to work with this term? Which genealogies of gender do we create, which histories of gender do we narrate and how do they inform the future of feminist thinking and feminist theory? And finally, how can gender and its complex history help us develop feminist responses to neo-authoritarian and fascist politics, colonial continuities and ecological crisis?
An anthology on the topic is planned and will be discussed in the concluding part of the workshop.
Organisation
- Prof. Dr. Patricia Purtschert
- Mariem Grira
