Event overview
A one-day symposium at Goldsmiths about bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, gender, and the cultural politics of the global far-Right.
Across the globe, far-Right political actors and agitators have been buoyed to seats of legislative power by a sustained cultural incursion around issues of gender, sexuality, and the ‘traditional’ family. From Italy to the United States to India to Argentina to the United Kingdom, far-Right political agendas are galvanized by regressive attacks on reproductive choice and bodily autonomy. Animating and emerging from these attacks are a renewed set of cultural villains: pregnant people who seek abortions, but also feminists, bad wives and bad mothers, women who refuse motherhood (“childless cat ladies”), women who refuse heterosexual marriage (including queer women), and queer and transgender people of all genders.
Feminism and the Far-Right is a one-day symposium that will draw connections between these developments to try and situate recent political and legislative assaults on reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy within their broader cultural and political conditions of possibility. It will bring together feminist scholars of media and culture whose work coalesces around: a) shared concern for the misogynistic and anti-feminist cultural logics of far-Rightmovements; and b) shared commitment to finding strategies to safeguard the rights and freedoms of women, queer and transgender people in this moment, including in/through media culture as a site of resistance.
The symposium will take place at Goldsmiths, University of London on 6th June 2025 and is free to attend. The day will comprise three panels: on abortion and reproductive choice; on wives, mothers and (anti-)feminisms; and on bodily autonomy, queerness and transgender rights. Speaker presentations will be relatively short, with the majority of each panel session reserved for discussion among panelists and attendees.
Symposium Speakers:
Sarah Banet-Weiser (University of Pennsylvania)
Jilly Kay (Loughborough University)
Akanksha Mehta (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Sama Khosravi Ooryad (University of Gothenburg)
Billy Holzberg (Kings College London)
Abel Guerra (London School od Economics and Political Science)
Limichi Okamoto (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Chloe Turner (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Azsaneé Truss (University of Pennsylvania)
Siân Norris (Journalist, Author of Bodies Under Seige: How the Far-Right Attack on Reproductive Rights Went Global)
Camille Kumar (Managing Director, Abortion Support Network)
Symposium Respondents:
Catherine Rottenberg (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Jo Littler (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Nirmal Puwar (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Lunch will be provided for all attendees and a drinks reception will follow the final panel.
This event is being hosted by Goldsmiths MCCS in collaboration with the Centre for Feminist Research. It is supported by funding from Goldsmiths' Early-Career Research Fund (ECRF).
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 6 Jun 2025 | 10:00am - 4:00pm |
Accessibility
If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.
