Feminist Utopias at Work
Utopies féministes au travail
Reorganise, Redefine, Abolish
Réorganiser, redéfinir, abolir
Published on Friday, October 24, 2025
Abstract
Although feminist utopias have been the object of an important body of work especially in the literary field, the specific paradigm of labour within these experiments and imaginaries has received only limited attention. The purpose of this conference is to explore to what extent and in what ways labour (both as a site of oppression and emancipation) serves as a paradigm in feminist utopia-building. We will use the concept of utopia both as a reflexive tool for critique and as a heuristic tool for transformation.
Announcement
Programme
Thursday 6 November
8h30 Weldom coffee
- 9h00 Introduction, Ada Reichhart, Professeure junior de sociologie, Université de Strasbourg
Panel 1 Social Reproduction : Previous Debates and New Horizons
Chaire by:Ada Reichhart, Professeure junior de sociologie Université de Strasbourg
- 9h20 The Domestic Labour Debate: Challenging what constituted as labour within socialist-feminism and the British Women’s Liberation Movement, c.1968-1980, Amy Longmuir, PhD candidate in history, University of Reading
- 10h00 Feminist Utopias and Revolutionary Strategies: Reconfiguring the Division of (Re)Productive Labour to Abolish Labour in its Capitalist, Patriarchal and Colonial Forms, Hélène Widmann, Doctorante en sociologie, Université de Lausanne & Berner Fachhochschule
10h40 Pause
- 10h55 Three political alternatives concerning the place of paid (and unpaid) domestic work in Western societies, Ana-Maria Szilagyi, PhD student in political theory, Sciences Po Paris
- 11h35 “Abolir”: programme ou méthode?, Lucile Marion, Doctorante en philosophie, Université Paris Nanterre
12h15 Lunch (1h30)
Panel 2 Deviating, Reinventing, or Reproducing? Building Alternative Labour Narratives in Capitalist Contexts
Chaire by:David Paternotte, Professeur en sociologie Université Libre de Bruxelles
- 13h45 “We Have Never Been Safe”: Affective Resistance, Feminist Fantasy, and the Reimagination of Academic Labour in Post-Socialist Neoliberal Universities, Magdaléna Michlová, PhD student in sociology, Charles University
- 14h25 Behind the Rethoric of Emancipation: The Hidden Side of Multi-Level Marketing, Claudel Lamoureux-Duquette, Doctorante en sociologie, Université de Montréal
15h05 Break (15mn)
- 15h20 The End of Sex Worker Legibility in State Structures: Rejection of Work and the Possibilities of Care, Viviana Valle Gomez, PhD candidate in feminist studies, UC Santa Barbara
- 16h00 Les Mutin.es Mutant.es’ at the Broken Vixcen Club: Redefining Artistic Work Through Queer Practices of Care and Disorganisation, Crystal Aslanian, Artiste-chercheuse, Université Gustave Eiffel
16h40 Pause (20mn)
17h-18h Keynote
- Building Co-op Utopias: Black American Women Cooperators’ Journeys, Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development, CUNY
19h30 Dinner - Manufacture des Tabacs 7 rue de la Krutenau - Strasbourg
Friday 7 November
8h30 Welcome coffee
Panel 3 Community Care : Utopian Spaces for Addressing Marginalised Vulnerabilities?
Chaired by: Hanane Karimi, Maîtresse de conférences en sociologie, Université de Strasbourg
- 9h05 Freedom from Stigma, Emancipation through the Body ? Community Care Struggles and the Ordinary Experiences of Disabled Women, Aurélie Damamme, Maîtresse de conférences en sociologie, Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, CRESPPA/CNRS, Magalie Saussey, Chercheuse en socio-anthropologie, CNAM, LISE/CNRS
- 9h45 Reorganizing Care from the Margins: Minoritized Queer Utopias and Trans-Migrant Experiences in Brussels, Ansao Totolehibe, Doctorant, architecte, musicien & militant, UCLouvain
- 10h25 Home Care Work: How Utopian Narratives at the Domestic Scale Redefine Care Work?, Emma Peltier, Postdoctorante en urbanisme et aménagement, faculté d’architecture LOCI/LAB, UCLouvain, Chloé Salembier, Professeure en sciences humaines, faculté d’architecture LOCI/LAB, UCLouvain
Panel 4 Against Domestic Dystopia : Strategies to Reorganise Paid Domestic Work
Chaired by: Maud Simonet, Directrice de recherche au CNRS, IDHES-Nanterre
- 11h20 On Labour & Decay: Thinking with the Kenyan Migrant Domestic Workers Reorganising Possibility, Stephanie Wanga, Postdoctoral fellow at Wellesley College
- 12h00 “Liberating” Domestic Work: Empowerment of Female Employees and the Subversion of Gender Norms at Work, Cécile Talbot, Postdoctorante en sociologie, Lumière Lyon 2
12h40 Lunch (1h30) - Salle Europe – Misha 5 allée du Général Rouvillois 67000 Strasbourg
Panel 5 Labour Reimagined: Social Experiments for the Future ?
Chaired by : Sylvaine Bulle, Professeure de Sociologie, EHESS
- 14h10 Intentional Labour. A Feminist and Collective Approach, Séverin Muller, Maître de conférences en sociologie, Université de Lille
- 14h50 Lands of Resistance: Feminist Utopias and Agricultural Struggles in the French Caribbean, Fabienne Jannas, Professeure agrégée en histoire-géographie, Laboratoire AIHP GEODE, Université des Antilles
- 15h30 The Back Roads of Utopia: Forming Intergenerational Solidarities in an Indigenous Women’s Textile Cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico, Rachel Barber, Postdoctoral researcher, CIMSUR-UNAM
16h10 Break (35mn)
16h45-18h00 Round table
- Current Issues in Feminist Critiques of Labour, Katia Genel, Professeure de philosophie, Université Paris Nanterre Maud Simonet, Directrice de recherche en sociologie au CNRS, Laboratoire IDHE-S Nanterre
Moderation: Ada Reichhart, Professeure junior en sociologie, Université de Strasbourg
Practical information
Free admission and open to all
In English and French, with simultaneous subtitles
- Live Streaming: https://www.youtube.com/@canalc2live186
Scientific committee
Sylvaine Bulle, Professeure de Sociologie, EHESS
- Pascale Devette, Professeure de Science Politique, Université de Montréal
- Maria Ines Fernandez Alvarez, Adjoint Professor in Social Anthropology, Universidad de Buenos Aires
- Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development, CUNY
- Bernard E. Harcourt, Professor of Law and Political Science, Columbia University
- Pascale Molinier, Professeure de Psychologie Sociale, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord
- David Paternotte, Professeur de Sociologie, Université Libre de Bruxelles
- Ada Reichhart, Professeure Junior de Sociologie, Université de Strasbourg
- Maud Simonet, Directrice de Recherche en Sociologie, CNRS, IDHE-S
Organising committee
- Fanny Gouel, Assistante de recherche au sein de WE-COOP, diplômée de l’EHESS
- Ada Reichhart, Professeure Junior de Sociologie, Université de Strasbourg
Subjects
- Sociology (Main category)
- Society > Ethnology, anthropology > Social anthropology
- Society > Sociology > Sociology of work
- Society > Sociology > Gender studies
- Society > History > Women's history
- Society > History > Labour history
- Society > History > Social history
- Society > Political studies
Places
- Salle In Quarto, bâtiment Le Studium - Université de Strasbourg 2 rue Blaise Pascal — Strasbourg, France
Strasbourg, France (67)
Event attendance modalities
Hybrid event (on site and online)
Date(s)
- Thursday, November 06, 2025
- Friday, November 07, 2025
Attached files
Keywords
- utopia, labour, feminism, work, cooperation, gender, democracy, social movement, utopie, travail, féminisme, coopération, rapport social de genre, démocratie, mouvement social
Contact(s)
- Fanny Gouel
courriel : fgouel [at] unistra [dot] fr
Reference Urls
Information source
- Ada Reichhart
courriel : wecooperc [at] gmail [dot] com
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Feminist Utopias at Work », Conference, symposium, Calenda, Published on Friday, October 24, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/1512c
