[Commlist] RINGS conference "On our own terms? On the contestations of feminist knowledges and minoritarian politics in current times"

This email is to let you know that the deadline of the 2025 RINGS 
conference "On our own terms? On the contestations of feminist 
knowledges and minoritarian politics in current times" is May 15.

You are most welcome to apply. Here  you can read the full call for 
papers: https://rings.sites.uu.nl/call-for-papers-and-submission/
In this conference, we aim at exploring processes of (re-)appropriation, 
resignification, thwarting, cooptation, and hijacking of critical 
knowledges and minority claims. Our concerns are not with mere 
semantics, but with discursive practices and politics. In doing this, we 
seek to better understand the current historical conjuncture, also in 
order to be able to conceive of political alternatives and strategies 
for resistance and change. We also highlight the importance of and 
invite reflections on transnational collaborations in countering 
oppressive narratives. Aside from 20-minute paper presentations, we 
encourage a variety of other presentation formats in the conference, 
including roundtable discussions, conversations, interviews, visuals, 
multi-media and performance.

We invite contributors to reflect on questions related to the conference 
topic, including:

• How do we understand and define these processes of 
‘(re-)appropriation, resignification, thwarting, cooptation and 
hijacking’ by (far-)right populists, religious conservatives, 
authoritarian populists, (neo-)fascists, liberals, conspiracists, and 
other political and institutional actors?

• Is there something in ‘our’ (feminist, queer, antiracist, 
anticolonial) discourses that makes signifiers such as ‘gender’, 
‘colonialism’, ‘safety’, and others vulnerable to such processes?

• What are the genealogies and (longer) histories of these processes, 
and how do we trace and narrate them in connection to the current 
political moment across the globe?

• What are the strategies implemented by critical scholars and feminist, 
queer, antiracist, and anticolonial political actors to ‘speak back’ to 
their detractors and conceive of political alternatives?

• What practices of solidarity are possible, especially in light of the 
current mediascape that invisibilizes and erases those conflicts that 
are happening in such locations as Sudan, Congo, or India?

• All too often we focus on how the attacks on critical knowledges and 
minority politics unfold in Northern American and European settings, but 
what about similar discourses and practices that play out beyond the 
Global North and the European West?

• How do digital and social media platforms transmit both the spread and 
suppression of (appropriated) feminist and minoritarian discourses?

• How does environmental justice inform (the appropriation of) feminist 
and minoritarian discourses?

• How do institutional policies affect academic freedom, and how might 
these be challenged?


Abstracts (400 words max.) must be sent to ringsutrecht[at]uu.nl. At the 
end of the abstract, in the same document, please add a short bio (100 
words max.).

The conference is planned to be held on location at the city centre 
campus of Utrecht University on October 30 and 31, 2025.

As organizers, we however also hope to be able to offer also online 
participation where it is needed. On November 1, the RINGS General 
Assembly will take place on the same premises.

Additional information can be found on the website  
https://rings.sites.uu.nl

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