Feminist Political Theory

As the global Covid-19 pandemic began to subside, the world has continued to experience a succession of multiple overlapping crises, from Russian expansionism in Ukraine, care, food and energy crises, rocketing inflation, the persistence of authoritarianism, and the climate emergency. These crises have undeniable gendered effects, for instance, the financial pressure on households from increased food and energy prices, demanding feminist theory and analysis in the ruins of neoliberalism and imperialism, while the destruction of nature renders the contributions of feminist environmental and posthuman theory more relevant than ever. At the same time, the feminist movement has continued to battle against far-right forces that attack feminist ideas and policies, hinder LGBTQ+ rights, and unravel feminist achievements such as abortion rights, propelling us to re-examine, update or revolutionise existing feminist debates on capitalism, democracy, rights, identity, subjectivity, and embodiment. Put together, these challenges raise significant and interconnected questions in a number of areas of feminist theory, socially, politically, and economically. This panel, therefore, aims to compile a range of papers in feminist political theory, broadly conceived, that aim to refine, develop, expand, create, and assess the theoretical tools necessary for feminist critique in our present. In addition to feminist interventions into various issues, we also welcome papers that engage with debates within feminism across epistemological orientations and ideological positions, including but not limited to liberal, socialist, radical, phenomenological, psychoanalytic, black, intersectional, poststructuralist, queer, trans, and sexual difference feminism, as well as debates around key theoretical frameworks and concepts such as subjectivity, agency, solidarity, recognition, race and intersectionality, diversity, sex/gender/sexuality, coloniality, equality, justice and democracy. Papers that engage with methodology and empirical questions with a theoretical focus are also welcomed.