The global pandemic unleashed by COVID-19 exacerbated pre-existing social inequalities while simultaneously generating intersecting issues across socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, geopolitical lines worldwide. As feminist sociologists, we were able to identify the inequalities that were intensified and were also ready to join forces with the many social movements devoted to dismantling systems and practices of oppression. However, we were frustrated with the arbitrariness of local, national, regional and international policy-making, the widespread resistance to be informed by science and the persistence of disciplinary and partisan fragmentation and mutual distrust, all of which delayed or prevented the imperative need of bridging across differences to collectively address a global threat to humanity. Moreover, we were puzzled with the ontological and epistemological crisis that the coronavirus presented: assumptions about the form and nature of social reality as well as existing theories of knowledge and research methodologies were put into deep questioning. In our 2022 Winter Meeting, we will reflect on how this complex crisis challenges feminist sociologies.
How should we rethink the way we do social science as feminist sociologists? How can feminist sociologists be more effective in advancing equity across geographical, political, economic, and intersecting social and cultural borders? How can feminist sociologists work together and learn from/with social movements activists and public forces? How can we best understand and also contribute to collective solidarities? How can feminist sociologies do better to restore current and prevent future crises? In this new historical time – one that has been described as the real beginning of the XXI century and labeled as ‘The Era of Global Pandemics’ by thinkers like Boaventura de Sousa Santos – we must urgently dismantle the forces that shaped history: from colonialism and capitalism (with its intimate accomplices, classism, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism and more) to the anthropocene. How can we update our feminist sociologies so that, instead of reacting to the inconsistencies of a new era, we can imagine a different future by shaping it proactively and creatively in the present? How could we engage with critical interdisciplinary and humanistic traditions to further enhance our modes of thinking and theorizing? In short, how can we imagine liberatory feminist sociologies in our times?
Join us in this joint reflection so that we can ensure that the relevance of feminist thought and practice becomes key to turning the page, end the era of extreme inequalities, and build alternative futures.
We welcome submissions for:
-Individual Papers for Panel Consideration
-Panels
-Workshops
-Book Salons (preference of books published in 2020, 2021, or set to come out in 2022)
-Roundtables (in-person or virtual)
-Poster Sessions (in-person or virtual)
-Open format:
- Photo essays
- Poetry, theatre, scripts
- Art
- Film/documentaries
- Media and Literary Criticisms
- Other
We welcome expressions of interest to serve as a Moderator as well.