Gender Wars: East and South Final Conference

The last decade has seen a significant backlash against women’s and LGBTQ+ rights across the globe. In Central Eastern Europe and Latin America, conservative political and religious actors have sought to curb debate, research, and legislation aimed at mitigating gender inequality, reproductive injustice, sexual violence, and discrimination against LGBTQ+ communities. Despite the widespread nature of this "anti-genderism", however, research remains largely confined to national or regional contexts. The Gender Wars: East and South research network has been exploring its cross-regional cultural, historical, and political implications, uncovering their similarities and differences within and between Central Eastern Europe and Latin America. Examining the intersections of history, religion, sexuality, and gender have contributed to this backlash, our aim has been to provide a more nuanced understanding of the complexities surrounding 'anti-genderism' and its impact on marginalized communities in diverse global contexts.

We invite colleagues to the join members of the Gender Wars network and keynote speaker David Paternotte for a two day final conference ( conference leaflet). We call for comparative papers or case studies from both regions addressing themes such as:

• the role of religious actors and alliances between religious actors in the formulating culturally and politically conservative policies
• the presence and influence of anti-feminist, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-left-wing cultural and political discourses, practices, and policymaking
• the rise of masculinist and heteronormative national identities
• the intersection of anti-genderism with other forms of discrimination, including racism
• the intersection of activism and violence in protest against ‘anti-gender’ policies
• counteraction against anti-equality policies and local protest against ‘anti-gender’ policies, past and present.

Please email 300-words abstracts by 15 March to gender.wars.network@gmail.com

Project website: https://genderwars.web.ox.ac.uk/home