Call for Papers - Resisting the Backlash: Defending Intersectional, Decolonial, and Postcolonial Feminisms

Call for Papers - Resisting the Backlash: Defending Intersectional, Decolonial, and Postcolonial Feminisms

Event Dates: 01-02 October 2025 at TU Dresden, Germany

We invite submissions for an International Conference that will explore the growing backlash against gender, queer, intersectional, decolonial, and postcolonial studies. This event aims to critically examine the forces undermining these fields and to discuss strategies for countering these challenges in academic, activist, policy, journalistic, and public spheres. We are particularly interested in reflecting on ongoing resistance to anti-gender movements and engaging with strategies for reimagining democracy through the lenses of intersectional, decolonial, and postcolonial feminisms.

We welcome papers that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• The nature and scope of the backlash against gender, queer, intersectional, decolonial, and postcolonial scholarship
• The impact of this backlash on academic institutions, teaching, and public discourse
• Intersectional responses to these challenges from marginalized communities and scholars
• Concrete strategies for resistance and solidarity in the face of institutional and political pressures
• The role of extractivism in the gender backlash scenario
• Digital and non-digital forms of backlash
• The role of international solidarity networks in reimagining democracy through gender lenses

Please submit an abstract (maximum 300 words) by 31 March 2025 to project.pushbacklash@tu-dresden.de. Successful applicants will be notified by 30 April 2025, and full papers will be due by 31 July 2025.

We look forward to your contributions to this important discussion.

Hosted by: The Chair in Political Theory and History of Ideas at the Technical University of Dresden, in the context of the EU-funded project Push*Back*Lash: Anti-Gender Backlash and Democratic Pushback (https://pushbacklash.eu/)

In cooperation with: The Equal Opportunities Office of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/der-bereich/chancengleichheit?set_language=en)