Doctoral school : Political anthropology of gender relations
École doctorale : Anthropologie politique des rapports de genre
Published on Thursday, September 28, 2023
Abstract
The Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Prospective (UCLouvain) organizes an international symposium entitled “Political anthropology of gender relations”. Based on a variety of ethnographic works, the conference aims to highlight contemporary research dealing with gender-related issues, particularly within the perspective of feminist theories and epistemologies. It will be organized around three thematic axes: Feminist and decolonial anthropology of capitalism, Feminist anthropology of and by bodies and anthropology of feminist, queer and anti-gender struggles.
Announcement
On February 8th and 9th, 2024, the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Prospective (UCLouvain) is organizing an international symposium entitled “Political anthropology of gender relations” , which will take place in Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.
For each of these thematical axes, the discussions will take place in two parts : an in-depth exchange between three keynotes followed by a 'doctoral school' session. Organized in the form of a workshop, this session will give PhD candidates an opportunity to share their research and to discuss it with the keynote speakers and other participating researchers.
Argument
Gender relations are one of the key themes in anthropology, particularly because of the sometimes-strong differentiation between men and women in studied societies, and through the issues of alliance and filiation. However, in the majority of classical ethnographies, the specific conditions of women have been largely invisibilized. Analyzed notably by Nicole-Claude Mathieu (2013), this imbalance in the discipline’s history is made up of 'theoretical vacillations' concerning women's experiences and their involvement in the socio-political field. What's more, in a double-movement of minimizing both these experiences and the work of female anthropologists, anthropology's historically androcentric (Mathieu, 2013) and Eurocentric (McClaurin, 2001) approach has created real blind spots.
From the 1970s onwards, feminist researchers and theorists (Nicole-Claude Mathieu, Paola Tabet, Françoise Héritier, Christine Delphy, Colette Guillaumin, etc.) revolutionized the analysis of gender relations. More than just an incorporation of women's experiences into the anthropological discipline, this represented a genuine epistemological, practical and theoretical shift. Bringing forward issues that had been relegated to the private sphere and questioning the 'naturalist' vision (Guillaumin, 1978), this work led to the emergence of new ways of teaching and conducting research. Subsequently, postcolonial and subaltern studies (Spivak, 1988; Abu-Lughod, 1996) and black feminist and intersectional studies (Davis, 2013; Bell Hooks, 2015; Hill Collins, 2021; Crenshaw, 1989; Hill Collins and Bilge, 2020) gave impetus to a radical decentering of the social sciences, making it possible to rethink colonial situations and contemporary power relations from the standpoint of marginalized individuals. Gender and queer studies also contribute to this decentering by challenging heteronormativity, gender binarity and sexual hierarchies (Rubin, 2011 [1984]; Fausto-Sterling, 1992; Rich, 1981; Wittig, 2001; Butler, 2006 [1990]).
In the wake of these reflections and based on a variety of ethnographic works, the international conference 'Political Anthropology of Gender Relations' aims to highlight contemporary research dealing with gender-related issues, particularly those that align with feminist theories and epistemologies. It will be organized around three thematic axes:
- Feminist and decolonial anthropology of capitalism
- Feminist anthropology of and by bodies
- Anthropology of feminist, queer and “anti-gender” struggles
Axis 1: Feminist and decolonial anthropology of capitalism
This section will focus on developing a practical and theoretical approach to power relations in their empirical depth, drawing on feminist and decolonial epistemologies.
The first part will focus on ethnographies of capitalism from a gender perspective. Following in the footsteps of Sherry Ortner and what she calls "dark anthropology", a major part of our discipline today consists of observing and describing the impacts of neoliberalism - as a moment of capitalism - on our research fields (2016). In line with the work carried out by Simon and Piccoli (2018), we will look at the multiplicity and diversity of both techniques and discourse in which neoliberalism is embodied in an attempt to grasp its own "political rationality" (Hilgers, 2011; Mazzocchetti & de Lame, 2012). While it does not create patriarchy per se, the capitalist system produces a new expression of it, which enables the exploitation and invisibilization of women's work (Delphy, 2013 [1970]; Wallerstein, 1980; Laqueur, 1992). What impact does capitalism have on local and global gender relations? How can we simultaneously show the resistance, cunning tactics and inventiveness of gendered people grappling with this system? How can we account for the gendered processes that underpin capitalism as a set of practices situated in time and space? We encourage papers on themes such as economic elites, the ethnography of gift systems, exchange and circulation of goods in a capitalist context, the world of employment in its various forms and its gendered dimensions (service sector, domestic workers...) or any other anthropological work on the effects and expressions of capitalism in the contemporary world.
In a second part, this axis will focus on feminist anthropological research from a decolonial perspective. Capitalism is racial from the outset, producing hierarchies and thus documented mechanisms of exploitation, expropriation and appropriation of the global South (Wallerstein, 1980; Quijano, 2001). Postcolonial and decolonial approaches recall how gender as a power relation is (re)produced in imbrication with processes of domination deriving from coloniality (Lugones, 2008; Oyéwumi, 1997; Gonzalez, 1988). This "coloniality of gender" (Ibid.) calls into question the universalism and Eurocentrism of current analyses of gender systems, and this axis will also be open to work on gender systems in the Global South (from a decolonial perspective attentive to power relations), on the various expressions of racialization processes in the North and South, on the ethnographies of decolonial and postcolonial movements and their gendered dimension, on the place of racialized people in feminist movements, etc.
Thirdly, the epistemological questioning of this axis is twofold: how do we study the dominant, and how do we study the dominated? How can we work on capitalist elites? How should we position ourselves? What discourses should be produced to avoid reinforcing existing power dynamics? What's more, research has shown the pervasiveness of racist and sexist logics of discrimination within the anthropological discipline itself and the academic system more generally - notably via the invisibilization of black female anthropologists in the United States and elsewhere (Bolles 2013; McClaurin 2001). What is the current state of intersectional studies in anthropology today? How do class, race and gender relations combine in the field and in the academy? What formulations for a decolonial critique of gender studies and feminist anthropology?
Axis 2: Feminist anthropology of and by bodies
The discipline of anthropology has historically been crisscrossed by a multitude of thoughts and currents surrounding the body: trance and ritualized bodies, techniques of the body (Mauss, 1936), the body in the contemporary world (Le Breton, 1990), as well as the biopolitical body (Foucault, 1979) and the performativity of the body (Butler, 2006). This axis will focus primarily on feminine experiences, understood here as relationships to the world that necessarily involve the body (Froidevaux-Metterie, 2021) and on the experiences of gendered people (queer, trans, non-binary, intersex, etc.). The aim is to think corporal issues from both a political and an intimate angle. We are thinking in particular of the anthropologies of sexuality, aesthetics, sports, care and medicine; questions relating to body autonomy and access to public spaces; and reproductive work (the pregnant body, the injunction of maternity and appropriation of reproductive potential, childcare, domesticity...).
Secondly, this axis will address anthropological reflections on the material existence of bodies that are victims of violence (domestic and conjugal violence, feminicide, sexual violence, gender-based harassment, incest, medical and gynecological violence...). As gender-based violence is part of a continuum (Kelly, 2019) of experiences present at all stages of life, it is the gendered body as a historical, multiple, and intimate subject that we wish to interrogate within systemic gender-based violence itself. What does this violence do to bodies? What do the lives of violated bodies have to say? How are different ways of being in the world constructed within, both material and corporal, patriarchal violence?
Thirdly, there is the often-overlooked epistemological question of the place of the researcher's body: what are its implications on our fieldwork, our writing and our methodology? What are we to make of gender violence in the researcher's own field? While a few key articles such as those by Eva Moreno (1995), Luisa T Shneider (2020) or Isabelle Clair (2016) have paved the way, the discipline still lacks any real openness to this debate. We encourage any methodological and epistemological papers that address these issues.
Axis 3: Anthropology of feminist, queer and “anti-gender” struggles
The 3rd axis of this symposium will focus on the growing politicization of gender and sexuality issues in a global context marked by reaction, national-populism and even authoritarianism. It is divided into two themes centered on activism:
The first theme is in line with queer schools of thought in social sciences, which have long emphasized the plasticity of gender and sexuality. Both on social networks and in the streets, feminist and LGBTQIA+ struggles are taking on new forms and reinventing themselves, gaining visibility and legislative progress. At the same time, they are sometimes co-opted by politics and instrumentalized for racist purposes. This phenomenon takes the form of homonationalism (Puar, 2012 [2007]) or femonationalism (Farris, 2021 [2017]). Faced with these complex contemporary issues, the aim here is to explore the various praxis of queer struggles and subjectivities, in their situated contexts: how are current feminist and LGBTQIA+ struggles organized and structured? How do they reorganize in increasingly-hostile contexts, particularly on issues of trans-identity? What renewals arise, and what do they highlight in terms of power relations, tensions and contradictions present within queer communities themselves? How can emancipatory struggles be used to invisibilize or discriminate against others?
The second theme is "anti-gender" activism. Linked to critiques of neoliberalism, opposition to "gender" has become a key element in the rise of (ultra)conservative, nationalist and religious movements (Graff & Korolczuk, 2022). The rise or return to power of radical right-wing movements in many countries has intensified this dynamic, legitimizing hate campaigns and demonization of activists, as well as restricting the rights of women and other sexual minorities. Relying on a naturalistic conception of identities, "anti-genderism" targets what it considers to be an "ideology" seen as corrupting morals, destroying foundational values, and promoting equality policies that would undermine national independence (Lamoureux & Dupuis-Déri 2015; Kuhar &Paternotte, 2018). How does this activism present and organize itself, both when supported by the authorities and when marginalized? What roles and considerations do women and men have within organizations that fight against "gender"? How are these categories mobilized to discredit, divert or even annihilate feminist and LGBTQIA+ causes (masculinism, "familialism", pro-life activism etc.)? Particular attention will be given to the transnational nature of "anti-gender" struggles, to the way they influence each other, to the potential conflicts that run through them, as well as to alliances among various political and religious actors. Contributions exploring comparative perspectives are welcome.
The questions in this axis are permeated by a series of issues relating to queer and feminist positionalities in ethnographies conducted in "hostile" contexts: what do these positionalities do to our research (methodology, epistemology, ethics...)? What do they reveal in terms of power relations in the field and within academia? How do we conduct research in an environment hostile to the affirmation, or even the very existence, of our gender identity and/or sexual orientation?
Argument
Submission guidelines
PhD candidates in humanities and social sciences who use the ethnographic method and whose research is rooted in one of these thematic areas are invited to send in a proposal (maximum 500 words), together with a short biographical note (affiliation, research subject, work in progress, etc.). Papers may be presented in French or English. Please note that participation in the doctoral school will be at the PhD student's own expense.
Proposals must be sent by 15 November 2023 to the following e-mail addresses according to the thematic axis of their choice :
Axis 1 : yailin.laffita@uclouvain.be
Axis 2 : elise.huysmans@uclouvain.be
Axis 3 : julia.laureau@uclouvain.be
The acceptance or refusal of the proposal will be communicated by the week of November 27th, 2023.
Organizing committee
- Jacinthe Mazzocchetti (UCLouvain)
- David Paternotte (ULB)
- Yailin Laffita van den Hove d’Ertsenryck (UCLouvain)
- Julia Laureau (UCLouvain)
- Éléonore Haddioui (UCLouvain)
- Héloïse Gonnissen (UCLouvain)
- Elise Huysmans (UCLouvain)
- Bénédicte Fontaine (UCLouvain)
Scientific committee
- Jacinthe Mazzocchetti (UCLouvain)
- David Paternotte (ULB)
- Yailin Laffita van den Hove d’Ertsenryck (UCLouvain)
- Julia Laureau (UCLouvain)
- Éléonore Haddioui (UCLouvain)
- Héloïse Gonnissen (UCLouvain)
- Elise Huysmans (UCLouvain)
- Bénédicte Fontaine (UCLouvain)
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Subjects
Places
- Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (1348)
Event attendance modalities
Full on-site event
Date(s)
- Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Keywords
- anthropologie, études de genre, féminisme, épistémologie, études queer, anthropologie féministe, anthropologie des études de genre, anthropologie politique,
Information source
- Elise Huysmans
courriel : elise [dot] huysmans [at] uclouvain [dot] be
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Doctoral school : Political anthropology of gender relations », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Thursday, September 28, 2023, https://doi.org/10.58079/1bw2
