[Commlist] Call for Papers: Feminist Political Communication in the Global South

Call For Papers


Feminist Political Communication in the Global South


Special Issue of Communication, Culture & Critique (March 2024)

Abstract Deadline (500 words): February 1st, 2023

Complete Manuscript Deadline (6000-7000 words): June 1st, 2023


Co-editors: Ayleen Cabas-Mijares (Marquette University) and Sharon 
Adetutu Omotoso (University of Ibadan)


Feminist political communication underscores feminist intersections, 
forms, and strategies of power relations in the transmission, 
interpretation, and usage of political information (Omotoso & Faniyi, 
2020). Although these have been largely undertheorized and 
underexplored, the pursuit of the global sustainable development goal of 
gender equality has aided more critical considerations of the discords, 
crisscrosses, accomplishments and/or setbacks encountered by women 
across geopolitical spaces.

As scholars extensively investigate the obstinate underrepresentation of 
women in parliaments and governments as well as threats to women’s 
rights worldwide, critical communication studies have not paid much 
attention to the place of feminism as political proposition and 
collective movement that impacts the lives of millions of women in the 
Global South. Consequently, much of concerns about women’s involvement 
in politics for decades has been discussed within political studies.

With acknowledgement to the critical scholarship that provides 
comprehensive nuances of feminist political communication on a global 
scale, the epistemic invisibility (Omotoso, 2020) of feminist political 
communication within expanding Global South contexts (Shome, 2019) 
leaves a gap in communication studies as well as comparative politics. 
Feminisms in the Global South have long histories of calling for 
alternatives to neoliberalism, neocolonialism, ethnic and ecological 
annihilation. However, neoliberal and postfeminist sensibilities have 
attempted to depoliticize feminism, turning it into a quest for personal 
empowerment instead of a political movement driven by collective action 
(Dosekun, 2015, 2020; Dutta, 2021; Gill, 2016). Additionally, 
heteropatriarchal states and right-wing nationalist movements have 
invoked women’s rights to stigmatize and justify violence against Black 
and people of color, particularly Muslims, worldwide (Farris, 2017). 
These erasures and mischaracterizations underscore the urgency of 
critical communication studies about feminist mobilizing and how it 
continues to provide tools for anti-colonial resistance.

To this end, this special issue aims to theorize and showcase critical 
examinations of feminist political communication from the Global South, 
given its evolving peculiarities in terms of geopolitics, location, 
identity, ownership, and agency. With the goal of highlighting critical 
cultural communication approaches autochthonous to feminist 
methodologies and practices of the Global South, the special issue aims 
to present perspectives that have taken center stage in Southern 
contexts and have often contributed to stronger South-South 
relationships in feminist politics and activism. This special issue 
endeavors to center marginalized voices, epistemologies, axiologies, and 
ontologies while drawing attention to the importance of alternative 
theorizing and thinking, ultimately providing homegrown solutions to 
local challenges.

We seek contributions specifically using qualitative methods and 
critical/cultural theoretical approaches rooted in critical 
communication scholarship that present nuanced discourses and practices 
around feminist political communication.


Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Critical communication, feminist politics, epistemicide, and knowledge 
production.

Communicating feminist political epistemologies of the Global South.

Critical analyses of practices and phenomena that characterize feminist 
political communication strategies in the Global South.

Decolonization and feminist political communication.

Gender expansiveness and feminist politics in Global South contexts.

Media (mis)representations of women in politics in the Global South.

Development communication and politics for social change.

Intersectionality, theory and praxis in political communication.

South-South relationships and collaborations in transnational feminist 
politics.

Politics of ethnicity, race, gender, and sexuality in the postcolonial 
reality.

Feminist methodological and theoretical interventions in political 
communication.

Imperialism, white supremacy, and femonationalism.

Feminist media and mediated activism across the Global South.

Futures of feminist political communication in Global South.


Submission Instructions:

Please submit a 500-word abstract as well as a short (two-page) CV by 
February 1, 2023, to the guest editors of the special issue at 
(ayleen.cabasmijares /at/ marquette.edu), and (sa.omotoso /at/ ui.edu.ng). Please 
include all co-editors on your email submission.

Authors whose abstracts are selected will be notified by March 1st, 
2023, and asked to submit complete manuscripts (6000-7000 words, 
including notes and references, in Word format, following the 7th APA 
style) to the guest editors by June 1st, 2023.

There are no article processing charges required.

NOTE: Only accepted articles will be asked to submit to ScholarOne 
(https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cccr). Acceptance of an abstract does 
not guarantee publication of a full essay, which will be subject to 
anonymous peer review. If you have any further questions, please do not 
hesitate to contact the guest editors at the above email addresses.

Guest editors’ bios:

Ayleen Cabas-Mijares is an assistant professor of journalism and media 
studies at Marquette University. Using a critical/cultural lens, 
Cabas-Mijares examines the relationship between media, journalism, and 
social change, specifically the role of media in the constitution and 
political strategies of social movements. Cabas-Mijares’ work centers 
phenomena in the context of Latin America and the Latinx diaspora. Her 
research has been published in Journalism, Journalism Practice, 
Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, and Visual Communication 
Quarterly.

Sharon Adetutu Omotoso, a Senior Research Fellow in the Gender Studies 
Unit of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria 
is also Coordinator, Women’s Research and Documentation Centre (WORDOC). 
She has published significantly in her areas of research interest 
including Applied Ethics, Media & Gender studies, Political 
Communications, Philosophy of Education, Socio-Political Philosophy, and 
African Philosophy. Sharon co-edited Political Communication in 
Africa (2017) and edited the book ‘Women’s Political Communication in 
Africa (2020). She is currently working on broad gender contexts of 
theorizing African political communication.


References

Dosekun, S. (2015). For western girls only? Post-feminism as 
transnational culture. Feminist Media Studies, 15(6), 960-975.

Dosekun, S. (2020). Fashioning Postfeminism: Spectacular Femininity and 
Transnational Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Dutta, N. (2021). “‘I like It Clean’: Brazilian Waxing and Postfeminist 
Subjectivity among South Asian Beauticians in London.” Frontiers in 
Sociology, 6, 646344. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2021.646344

Farris, S. R. (2017). In the name of women's rights: The Rise of 
Femonationalism. Duke University Press.

Gill, R. (2016). “Post-postfeminism?: New Feminist Visibilities in 
Postfeminist Times.” Feminist Media Studies, 16(4), 610–630. doi: 
10.1080/14680777.2016.1193293

Omotoso, S.A (2020) ‘Hairiness and Hairlessness: An African Feminist 
View of Poverty’ In Dimensions of Poverty. eds.  Beck, Valentin, Hahn, 
Henning, Lepenies, Robert. Springer Publishers: Chams

Omotoso, S.A & Faniyi, O. M. (2020). Women‘s Recipe for the African 
Policom Stew. In Omotoso, S. (Ed.) Women‟s Political Communication in 
Africa (pp.1-8) Springer Publishers: Chams. 1-8pp.

Shome, R. (2019). Thinking culture and cultural studies—from/of the 
Global South. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 16(3), 196-218.

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