CONTEMPORARY FEMINIST LIBERATION STRUGGLES: BODIES, BORDERS, AND INTERSECTIONS. 

12th EUROPEAN FEMINIST RESEARCH CONFERENCE 

– ATGENDER 2025 – 

9-12 JULY – BARCELONA (CATALONIA, SPAIN) 

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS 

*CfP Deadline Extended to 9th January 2025*

 Introduction:  

In an era marked by heightened oppressions, including ongoing genocides, (neo-)colonialism and imperialism, violent conflicts, and intersecting injustice and socio-political turbulence, the 12th European Feminist Research Conference invites scholars, activists, and practitioners to engage in critical dialogues around the theme “Contemporary Feminist Liberation Struggles: bodies, borders, and intersections”. Building upon the rich tradition of feminist inquiry and activism, this conference seeks to explore how feminist thought and praxis continue to disrupt and challenge prevailing power structures in the face of persistent injustices, aggressions, and authoritarian power grabs.  

The conference theme is rooted in the pressing need to address the multifaceted dimensions of contemporary oppressions and struggles for liberation, fostering interdisciplinary conversations and collaborations across a broad range of research topics. By foregrounding bodies, borders, and intersections, as well as the voices and experiences of those most affected by repression, the conference aims to delve into the intricate ways in which individuals and communities navigate, resist and chart pathways to confront systems of harm, violence and injustice. Exploring the transformative potential of feminist liberation that centers intersectional, queer, non-adultocentric and anti/decolonial feminisms, participants will interrogate the interlocking systems of power that shape experiences of violence, displacement, and resistance. 

The conference has 10 thematic strands, each shedding light on critical aspects of contemporary struggles for liberation. 

Conference thematic tracks or strands*: 

STRAND 1. Gender, Climate Change and Environment 

STRAND 2. Desiring sub/versions: sexualities, gender identities and belongings 

STRAND 3. “Mundo zurdo”: decolonial struggles, subversive affects and feminist disorders 

STRAND 4. Epistemologies and methodologies (of) in between.  

STRAND 5. Institutional violence, transformation, and justice: contemporary harms and intersectional struggles for justice within and beyond institutions 

STRAND 6. Intergenerational Feminists Perspectives  

STRAND 7. (Un)mattering of worlds: feminist and other critical perspectives on science and technology 

STRAND 8. Feminist Subversions for Peace: Rights, Cultures, and Communities 

STRAND 9. Geopolitical, Socio-Cultural, and Personal Borders 

STRAND 10.  Rebuilding Communities: Transformative justice in conflict- and violence-affected contexts 

 *Strands descriptions at the bottom of this document. 

 Conference Format: 

The 12th European Feminist Research Conference will be an on-site event only, looking forward to welcoming you in Barcelona. 

 Proposed types of submission:  

OPTION 1. Independent paper (1 or up to 3 presenters per paper) 

OPTION 2. Panel discussion (between 3 and 4 papers) 

OPTION 3. Workshop (1 or up to 3 facilitators). 

Note about workshops: We encourage and support alternative session formats such as interactive workshops to foster creative dialogue and practical skills among participants. 

Submission guidelines: 

• All proposal must be submitted through the online submission form (see the link below), no later than December 20th 2024:  

• Submitted abstracts will be peer reviewed by strand coordinators. Notification of acceptance will be sent to the corresponding presenters by the beginning of February. 

• Proposals can be submitted to one strand only.  

• Participants can only submit one paper (independent or in panel) OR submit one workshop proposal. However, they can also appear as co-presenters on other submissions.  

• Submissions must adhere to established research ethics standards, ensuring integrity and transparency of data collection, and respect and privacy for participants. 

• ATGENDER is committed to confronting structures of power. It acknowledges past and present institutionalized forms of inequities. It recognizes and stands in solidarity with group struggles against intersecting forms of structural oppression. It acknowledges the importance of advocating peaceful measures stipulated by the UN Charter to put pressure on states committing gross violations, to comply with international and humanitarian law.  

Guidelines for each type of submission: 

OPTION 1. Independent paper 

Name, affiliation and email address of corresponding presenter; Name, affiliation and email address of co-presenters; short biographies of the presenter(s) (50 words each); information about visa requirement; title; keywords (up to 3); abstract (max 250 words) 

 OPTION 2. Panel 

Panel title and key words (up to 3), title and abstract of each paper (minimum 3, and up to 4), name, affiliation, email and short bio (max 50 words) of corresponding panellist and other panellists; information about visa requirement. 

 OPTION 3. Workshop: interactive sessions 

Name, affiliation and email address of corresponding facilitator; Name, affiliation and email address of co-facilitator; short biographies of the facilitator(s) (50 words each); information about visa requirement; title; keywords (up to 3); abstract (max 250 words)  

 Form for submitting the proposals: 

All submissions should be made using the following form: 

https://forms.office.com/e/ihgpzNnkgk 

Notice for Participants Subjected to Visa Barriers 

ATGENDER is committed to facilitating the participation of scholars who require a visa to attend ATGENDER conferences. We understand that securing a visa can be a time-sensitive and sometimes challenging process, particularly for participants from the global South(s) and non-European regions. Visa processing times can vary significantly and may take up to 3 months or more.  

Therefore, we intend to review the abstracts of applicants that indicate that they would need a visa to attend the conference as promptly as possible so that those accepted can start their visa procedures. We encourage all applicants requiring a visa to get in touch with us as early as possible to discuss what additional documentation you may require (e.g. an invitation letter). 

Strand descriptions:  

STRAND 1. Gender, Climate Change and Environment:   

KEY WORD: ANTHROPOCENE 

“Climate change encompasses and exacerbates every other problem threatening human progress in the twenty-first century” (United Nations 2014). This is particularly concerning in light of gender disparities and their intersection with other axes of inequality. In this context of the global environmental crisis, this strand focuses on the conflicts and challenges at the intersection of gender, climate change, wellbeing, and the environment. How can feminist and intersectional approaches contribute to understanding climate vulnerabilities and community-based response to climate change induced ecological transformation change? What are the daily, embodied, and imminent threats to collective wellbeing that gender normative policies ignore and members of the global south and peripheries navigate on the daily. Scholars are invited to think through non-linear social ecosystems and share, engage with, and hold discourse around a view of the world that pays due to holistic connections and the merits of intuition and collaboration. How is everyday life affected by climate change? Further, how can inter-species and intersectional feminist action work beyond the false separation between androcentric development ideology and ecology? How can feminist activism and research include environmental challenges to suggest policy and social changes to facilitate adaptation and mitigation? And how, when the state refuses to listen, can feminists stall, prevent, and deny trespasses against our ecologies? 

List of invited topics 

• Gendered interactions with water and landscapes 

• Gendered interactions with water and landscapes.  

• Gendered Impacts of Climate Change: Addressing Pollution, Waste, and Food Security in the Face of Scarcity 

• Feminisms, ecofeminism and feminist environmentalism: resonances, divergences and collaboration. 

• Climate change, dwelling, green inequalities and gentrification in urban environments.  

• Feminist Intersectionalities in Climate Policy: Building Inclusive Strategies and Expanding Policy Analysis.  

• Strategies, successes and on-going feminist struggles against state sanctioned ‘development’. Gender and development in times of climate change. 

• Feminist and intersectional perspectives on climate migration. 

• Feminist and intersectional methodologies for the study of climate change and  

environment. 

• Climate change and environmental conflicts beyond human perspectives. 

• Sustainable actions and policies on climate change and environmental conflicts.  

• Feminist Resourcefulness and Environmental Activism in Times of Climate Crisis and Conflict 

• Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Livelihood Strategies, Feminist Action, and Climate Resilience 

STRAND 2. Desiring sub/versions: sexualities, gender identities and belongings  

KEY WORD: SEXUALITIES, DESIRES, IDENTITIES 

This strand delves into desire, identity, and belonging within from an intersectional, queer and feminist perspectives. We welcome proposals featuring empirical and theoretical research on how gender identity, expression, sexual orientation and characteristics intersect with various forms of discrimination and privilege, shaping experiences of exclusion and violence, including in situations of imperialist occupation and liberation and other armed struggles. We are also welcoming proposals addressing coping mechanisms and strategies used by LGBTQI+ individuals and communities in countries where their identities and lives are made illegal as well as in refugee/asylum settings.  We seek to initiate discussions on how individuals navigate both physical and symbolic boundaries, especially within spaces, bodies and communities influenced by different norms, including cisheteronormativity and homonormativity. Moreover, we are keen on analysis focusing on the formation of communities of belonging and shedding light on their alliances and internal conflicts. Overall, our goal is to foster critical dialogue surrounding desire, identity, and belonging, offering insights from diverse sites of knowledge.  

List of invited topics: 

• Intersectional impact of racism, classism, sexism, ableism, ageism and other axes of inequality in LGBTIQ lived experiences  

• The impact of living under occupation, liberation struggles and humanitarian emergencies on LGBTIQ+ lived experiences and the development of coping mechanisms and strategies 

• The navigation of non-binary identities and gender dissidence beyond the binary 

• The role of sexual and gender dissidence and desire in the construction of identities and communities of belonging 

• Sexual and reproductive and LGBTIQ+ rights and activism 

• Queering families, kinship structures and communities 

• Intersectional experiences of structural, community and interpersonal violence and responses  

• Religion, spirituality, and sexual and gender dissidence  

• Questions of visibility/invisibility, discrimination and representation 

• Issues of medicalisation, sexual and reproductive and mental health 

• Coping strategies for and by LGBTQI+ individuals and communities when dealing with ‘illegality‘ as well as discriminatory policies in refugee and asylum-seeking settings and systems.  

STRAND 3: “Mundo zurdo”: decolonial struggles, subversive affects and feminist disorders. 

KEY WORDS: decoloniality, relationality, subversion, affects 

Gloria Anzaldúa’s El mundo zurdo (the left-handed world) envisions the interconnectedness in the margins, as entanglements of subjects, cultures and societies that produce a politics of the eccentric, displacement and dispossession. By reversing the hegemony of the imperial power relations, el mundo zurdo is grounded in heterogeneity, multiplicity and turbulence and provides space for uncertainty and contestation. In this strand, we invite participants to draw from Anzaldúa’s work and build “”un mundo zurdo entre nosotr@s” with contributions that explore the decolonial struggles, subversive affects and feminist disorders across the Northern and Southern hemispheres, across disciplines and standpoints.  

List of invited topics: 

• Feminist borderlands and deterritorialization 

• Contemporary visions of the coloniality of gender  

• Anticolonial/decolonial feminist research and praxis 

• Embracing divergence and inhabiting the conflicts of intersectionality and decoloniality  

• Feminist encounters and epistemic justice  

• Decolonial writing machines: autoethnography, polyphony and schizophrenia  

• Precarious subjectivities: uprooted, shamans and rebels 

• Protests in the subversive disorders of a porous society 

• Embodying and resisting disease, desire, and deviation 

• Affects, emotions and moods in feminist and queer relations 

• Antiracist and anticolonial artivisms 

STRAND 4: Epistemologies and methodologies (of) in between  

KEY WORDS: EPISTEMOLOGIES AND METHODOLOGIES 

This strand seeks to critically examine and explore diverse methodologies and epistemologies employed in gender studies and feminist research. It delves into how we design, apply and evaluate methodologies rooted in feminist principles, emphasizing the importance of reflexivity, positionality, situated knowledge,  (post)representation and de/anticoloniality. It can encompass a range of approaches, including standpoint theory, feminist participatory action research, art-based research and autoethnography, among others. We invite discussions on how feminist methodologies contribute to challenging dominant narratives, amplifying marginalized voices, and fostering inclusive, non-extractivist, socially responsible and just research practices. We also interrogate dominant epistemological frameworks and explore critical perspectives that challenge traditional ways of knowing, such as critical race theory, queer theory, de/anticolonial and non-adultocentric approaches. Moreover, we aim at exploring methodologies, beyond move beyond West-Eurocentrism and help to deepen our understanding of a variety of complex lived experiences and address the intersecting systems of oppression and privilege. Acknowledging the plurality of research methods utilized in gender studies and feminist research, we also want to examine the strengths and limitations of various methodological traditions and invite discussions on integrating qualitative (post qualitative), quantitative and art-based methods to produce nuanced insights into gendered phenomena. 

List of invited topics: 

• Reflexivity and researcher positionality in feminist research. 

• Decolonizing methodologies and knowledge production. 

• Productive strategies toward exploring and bridging divides and tensions in various traditions and ‘canons’ of de- and anticolonial thought and praxis 

• Methodological innovations for studying gendered violence, conflict, and resistance. 

• Ethical considerations in gender studies research, including non-extractivist methodologies 

• Quantitative approaches to intersectional analysis and gender disparities. 

• The role of digital methodologies and new technologies in feminist research. 

• Feminist posthumanism and new materialism, challenging anthropocentric research. 

• Art-based and visual research  

• Non-adultocentric methods.  

STRAND 5. Institutional violence, transformation, and justice: contemporary harms and intersectional struggles for justice within and beyond institutions. 

KEY WORDS: violence, justice, harm, institutions, abolition, transformative justice, responses to violence  

This strand examines different manifestations of violence, harm, and vulnerability across institutional contexts. It is concerned with how institutions perpetuate and (re)produce punitive logics, policing regimes, surveillance, and embodied and emotional harms that diminish the capacity for intersectional forms of justice, equality, and liberation to flourish. We welcome scholarship concerned with these questions across different institutional contexts: from punitive welfare systems and social services; to educational settings; criminal justice systems; political institutions and beyond. We welcome contributions that seek to understand how violence, punishment, and harm manifest across different registers (emotional, discursive, embodied, cognitive, social, physical etc) within institutional settings. Institutional harms do not affect people equally, and we therefore centre accounts that critically examine how harm and vulnerability are shaped according to existing intersecting inequalities and injustices.   

As well as analyses of how, where and when contemporary violence and harm occurs, we seek contributions from scholars, educators and activists who work to imagine new ways of being with one another, alternative forms of justice, liberation, and world building. We therefore encourage papers that examine imaginative, intersectional, anti-colonial and non-neoliberal responses to contemporary institutional harms, violence, and vulnerabilities across settings; responses that seek to avoid the (re)production of new forms of surveillance, policing, and violence. We are particularly interested in contributions that explore responses to institutional violence that go beyond reformist agendas. This may include work that examines the capacity for institutional transformation, abolitionist thinking, transformative justice approaches, and non-reformist reforms.  

Lis of invited topics: 

We encourage papers that interrogate institutional violence across contexts and which critically examine different responses to institutional violence.   

• Analyses of how subjugation, surveillance, control, and punishment are (re)produced in different institutional contexts (e.g. educational, welfare systems and social services, and legal/justice systems); 

• Punitive logics and institutional surveillance within and beyond the criminal justice system; 

• People’s agency to resist and deal with everyday institutional violence;  

• Abolishing institutions – the possibilities and problematics;  

• Producing material change: non-reformist reforms and transformative justice;  

• Other alternative justice and care practices;  

• Critical examination of institutional processes like equality action plans, complaint systems and other forms of accountability. 

• Given recent accounts of violence and harassment within different institutional contexts (e.g. in politics and universities) we welcome papers that examine institutional feminist – restorative responses to harassment and abuse.  

• Increasingly, institutional harms cannot be understood in isolation from transnational movements and discourses. This is particularly the case with how transnational anti-gender movements are, for example, shaping national and local educational settings (through banning books, content and teaching about inclusive relationships and families) and regressive rolling back of reproductive rights. We therefore also welcome analyses of institutional violence and harm that connect with, and trouble the relationship between, transnational and local dynamics. 

• Welfare systems, including social services, have developed practices of violence for years against colonised bodies rooted in poverty and vulnerability under capitalist, racist, xenophobic, and sexist systems, even when well-being is a right. We welcome critical scholarship on how welfare systems, including social services, interact with communities and individuals they supposedly support. We particularly seek contributions that engage in intersectional analyses of how welfare systems (re)produce structural disadvantage and vulnerability, paying attention to factors such as poverty, migration, racialization, aging, adultocentrism, capabilities, cis-heterosexism, and/or gender-based violence.   

STRAND 6. Intergenerational Feminists Perspectives  

 KEY WORDS: INTERGENERATIONALITY (RECOGNIZING CHILDREN / ELDERLY CONTRIBUTIONS) 

This strand aims to centralize and promote the diverse experiences and contributions of individuals across different generations, employing an intergenerational perspective to delve into feminist knowledge and politics, including subversions, activisms, narratives and dilemmas. By acknowledging the unique agencies, vulnerabilities, challenges, and opportunities that arise from each stage of life – from childhood and youth to adulthood and old age, the theme endeavours to foster intergenerational dialogue, reciprocity and collaboration to explore the  political, social, cultural, and affective potential and possibilities as well as challenges that emerges from the intersections of age, identity, and activism. 

Feminist research and activism evolve and intersects across generations. Mapping these (inter)generational engagements offers insights into the contexts, conflicts and conditions which animate feminist politics in and across different times and places. Additionally, it highlights the ways in which age-based power dynamics, ageism, and adultocentrism shape feminist discourse and praxis; and uncovers the transformative potential, as well as tensions and challenges, that emerges from the intersections and interactions across age and generation. Drawing upon the wisdom, challenges, and lessons of generations across time and age while actively engaging with the tensions, hopes and aspirations of the present, we invite contributions which explore a range of topics, including: 

List of invited topics: 

• Continuities, challenges, and changes within feminist activism, scholarship, and politics over life-course.  

• Possibilities and tensions of feminist friendships and relationships in building intergenerational interdependency, reciprocity, politics, and solidarity. 

• The contributions, agencies and roles of children and youth in feminist resistance, politics and discourse. 

• The ways in which feminist politics, knowledge and subjectivities change, shape and become over time. 

• Continuum of past, present, and future feminist struggles. 

• The intersectional life course of inequalities, including ageism, sexism, racism, abelism, and LGBTIQ+phobia. 

• Childhood, youth and older age engagements in producing and enacting gender. 

• The role of the digital in how children encounter, negotiate, interpret and/or resist gender, from the popularity of feminist and queer content on social media platforms, to the rise of the far right and ‘manfluencers’ as parts of children’s everyday digital lives. 

STRAND 7 (Un)mattering of worlds: feminist and other critical perspectives on science and technology.  

KEY WORD: Science, Technology, Gender, Race, Disability, and Transness  

Stream 7 is dedicated to feminist and other critical perspectives on science and technology. We are interested in how science and technology are interwoven with power, bodies, knowledge, and the (un)mattering of worlds. We particularly encourage contributions that address (the intersections of) race, transness, and disability and how these relate to feminist perspectives on science and technology. Stream 7 strives to discuss not only how marginalized bodies are constrained through science and technology but also how science and technology can function as technologies of the self and the body. What interventions in science and technology are necessary for (feminist) struggles for liberation, and to what extent can science and technology themselves become means for (feminist) struggles for liberation? 

List of invited topics: 

• Gender, race, trans, disability as/and technologies. When and how have gender, race, disability, and transness been used as biopolitical technologies to uphold asymmetrical power relations? And what technologies have been used to maintain the appearance/materialization of stable biopolitical identity categories? 

• Making of bodies and selves through technologies. To what extent can bodies and technologies be separated in the first place? How can (scientific) technologies, such as different forms of body modification or the like, be understood as potentials for re-articulating and re-mattering marginalized bodies? 

• Critical histories of (hard) science. How the ´hard´ sciences have relied upon and/or reproduced differentiations within and amongst national and colonial subjects that upheld cis-normative and hetero-patriarchal regimes of extraction and subordination both in the ´centre(s)´ and ´peripheri(es).´ 

• Gender mainstreaming. What bottom-up user initiatives have proved effective in obtaining accountability from the biomedical and experimental sciences / technology developers with regard to the various experiences and need of differently gendered subjects? 

• Techno-feminisms. What kind of technologies have been or should be developed from a feminist-informed standpoint and what uses can or should they serve? Do these technologies disrupt hegemonic power relations in the hi-tech and communication fields? Do they facilitate concurrent struggles for liberation? 

• Minor knowledge(s). What has been the role of marginalized subjects in redefining legitimate knowledge about science and technology? Are digital platforms democratizing public debates on science and technology? 

• Epistemological avenues for the experimental sciences. 

• Cultures of the experimental sciences. Structural issues, celebrated identities and (im)possible trajectories. 

STRAND 8. Feminist Subversions for Peace: Rights, Cultures, and Communities  

KEY WORDS: Resistance, Struggles, Activisms, Subversions  

This strand explores the transformative power of feminist subversions in promoting resistance, activism and peace focusing on the intersections of rights, cultures, and communities. In an era marked by conflict and the erosion of rights, feminist perspectives challenge and reimagine conventional approaches to peacebuilding by emphasizing inclusivity, intersectionality, and social justice. The strand encompasses various forms of resistance and subversion that disrupt patriarchal, colonial, and capitalist structures perpetuating violence and inequality. By analyzing the roles of feminist activism, community dynamics, and cultural identities, we seek to uncover how feminist strategies can confront and dismantle systems of oppression. 

Feminist human rights advocacy, peacebuilding and activism involve critical engagement with formal and informal practices, policy frameworks, and grassroots movements. It aims to cultivate an understanding of human rights, promote critical thinking, and encourage non-violent conflict resolution, addressing the unique challenges faced by women and communities in the margins. This strand will highlight how feminist theories and practices can reshape approaches to peace, resistance and justice, fostering inclusive, respectful, and dialogical spaces that value diverse cultural perspectives. 

List of invited topics: 

• Intersectional feminist approaches to peacebuilding, resistance and activism 

• Critical reflections on human rights and feminist peacebuilding  

• Community-based feminist initiatives for conflict resolution and resistance 

• Feminist theories applied to struggles against oppression 

• Cultural narratives and their role in feminist activism for rights 

• Activism and feminist perspectives on human rights violations 

• Gender and feminist dimensions of resistance, subversion and human rights advocacy 

• The role of feminist art and expression in advocating for social change 

• Feminist silence and silencing in the peace building process 

STRAND 9. Geopolitical, Socio-Cultural, and Personal Borders  

KEY WORDS: borders, boundaries, transitions, migration, war, climate justice 

The current climate change-induced cascades of humanitarian crises across borders in Europe and beyond illuminate and further reinstate the historical, geopolitical, socio-cultural, techno-digital, and personal dimensions of bordering and the governance of human movement. This strand aims to create a platform for exploring the various realities, violations, and paradoxes inherent within borders. For instance, while globalisation has weakened national borders, the rise in transnational mobility has intensified the digital and discursive fortifications. These processes are further exacerbated by the digitalisation of migration control and management policies developed by the Global North (Leurs and Smets, 2018; Chouliaraki and Georgiou, 2022; Korkmaz, 2023; Chaar López, 2024). 

Understanding the border as a geographical-territorial, symbolic, and social limit that complicates the lives of migrants, it is essential to examine the scale of the progressive racialisations, feminisations, and other types of hierarchisations of migration, which position vulnerable and discriminated groups as the forefront of the criminalisation and various forms of violence of the states. This phenomenon can, for example, be seen as part of a global trend, such as the internalisation of care services. These dynamics foster the creation of interracial, polylinguistic, and multi-contextual hybrid identities, which are (re)constructed within diasporas and at the border (Anzaldúa, 1987; Haraway, 1992). Therefore, this strand invites contributions that investigate how contemporary geopolitical and socio-cultural borders intertwine different systems of domination (gender, race, class, etc.), while also considering how border spaces can become sites of resistance and transformation, where new realities and corporealities are forged. 

List of invited topics: 

The topics covered may include, but are not limited to: 

• Feminist analyses of migration processes 

• Transgender and transnational movements 

• Development of digital technologies for border control 

• Sexual and gender-based violence against migrant and refugee women 

• Feminist frontiers and strategies for collective action 

• Negotiating and constructing migrant identity: forced racialisation and resistance 

• Geopolitical analysis of borders, racism, sexism, and social, labour, political, and legal segregation 

• Political and epistemological insights from border feminism 

STRAND 10.  Rebuilding Communities: Transformative justice in conflict- and violence-affected contexts 

KEY WORDS: community rebuilding, abolitionist frameworks, transformative justice, decolonial reparations, community accountability, grassroots organizing, mutual aid, post-conflict resolution, power asymmetry 

This strand explores the multifaceted processes of rebuilding and transforming communities disrupted by various forms of harm, violence and injustice, including conflict. By incorporating abolitionist thinking and transformative justice frameworks, it moves beyond traditional reformist approaches to examine reparative strategies such as community accountability, mutual aid, grassroots organizing, and solidarity networks. The strand also critically engages with Western ontological distinctions and challenges the binary framing of the global North/global South in institutional and developmental narratives. By highlighting power asymmetries linked to contemporary imperialism, (neo)colonialism, structural inequalities, and the rise of anti-immigration and anti-gender agendas, this strand calls for a deeper understanding of justice that transcends conflict resolution and encompasses diverse times, locations, and institutions. It focuses on the need to address not only conflict, but also institutional, infrastructural, and state-sanctioned harm, as well as the systemic violence experienced by marginalized communities. Recognizing the limitations of reformist approaches that leave discriminatory structures intact, the strand advocates for radical, inclusive, participatory, and equitable strategies of reconstruction. Reconstruction in the wake of conflict and systemic harm necessitates reinstalling difference and prioritizing sidelined knowledge systems and identities—rejecting a return to a pre-conflict “normal.” Effective community rebuilding requires not only physical restoration but also efforts to rebuild social and cultural capital. The strand emphasizes participatory, non-hierarchical, and abolitionist feminist approaches, recognizing the importance of community agency in achieving sustainable and meaningful recovery. This strand encourages a rethinking of healing processes through activist strategies and knowledge rooted in grassroots practices, community organizing, and hands-on interventions. It advocates for approaches that not only rebuild but transform communities, making them more resilient to future challenges. We welcome contributions addressing topics such as, but not limited to: 

List of invited topics:  

• Abolitionist approaches for community rebuilding and justice-making 

• Decolonizing development narratives in post-conflict and post-harm reconstruction 

• Gendered impacts of conflict and systemic violence in and beyond institutions 

• Anti-gender and anti-immigration discourses in institutional and community recovery efforts 

• Intersectionality and participatory methods in shaping recovery strategies 

• Restitution and global justice frameworks across different governmental and institutional contexts 

• Decolonial feminist perspectives on transformative justice, reparation and reconciliation processes 

• The role of transformative and reparative justice in tackling institutional harm, including staff/student abuse in academia 

• Justice beyond reform: Toward structural and systemic transformation 

• Accountability in personal, community and state level 

• Activist and community-driven strategies to address harm 

• Practices of solidarity networks, coalition building and mutual aid for collective healing and building life-affirming institutions