The Trouble with Gender: Feminist Frictons

Le 19 novembre prochain (de 17h à 19h), l'Atelier Genre(s) et Sexualité(s), a le plaisir de vous accueillir à une conférence d'Andrea Cornwall (King's College, London), dans le cadre du programme des Séminaires de l'AGS Automne 2025, intitulée "The Trouble with Gender : Feminist Frictions". Cet événement se tiendra à la Salle Henri Janne, Bâtiment S, 15e étage, Avenue Jeanne 44, 1050 Bruxelles. La participation est gratuite, mais l'inscription est obligatoire pour garantir votre place via cet adresse email : ags@ulb.be

Abstract

« Gender equality » gave feminists of all persuasions an umbrella concept that held together a loosely based collective project of social transformation. Anti-gender politics dissolves the fragile consensus that once connected feminist advocacy for ‘gender equality’, laying bare differences that were always already there, magnetising the polarities so that what was once a field of activists able to work together across difference has become a fractious terrain full of fissures and frictions. In this presentation, I return to some of the concepts and theorists that informed the promotion of ‘gender equality’ in international development, to ask: are do they still offer us useful frames and tools for thought in the current conjuncture and if not, can they be repurposed to tackle the trouble with gender in these troubled times ?


Biography

Andrea Cornwall is Professor of Global Development and Anthropology in the Department of International Development, School of Global Affairs, King’s College, London. She has published widely on gender, sexuality and democracy, including Masculinities under Neoliberalism (eds. Cornwall, Karioris and Lindisfarne, Zed Books 2018), Women, Sexuality and the Political Power of Pleasure (eds. Jolly, Cornwall and Hawkins, Zed Books, 2014) and Development with a Body: Gender, Sexuality and Human Rights (eds. Cornwall, Correa and Jolly, Zed Books, 2009). She is currently embarking on a new research project, funded by the European Research Council, called « The Trouble with Gender ».