The IICRR hosted a round table discussion in DCU on 25th November on Gender, Activism and Subjectivity in Contention and Conflict. Taking stock from the events of the 2010-11 Arab uprisings, scholars and activists explored the ways in which gender identities and subjectivities are transformed as a result of individual and collective engagement in contentious politics, activism and conflict.
Acknowledging that identities and activism cannot be observed outside of context but must be understood as responses to local power frameworks and dynamics, the roundtable brought together a pool of renowned international scholars working on Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Syria, UK and Northern Ireland, to share and compare experiences from a variety of local and regional perspectives. Together, they investigated how gender identities and subjectivities are shaped by their environments and involvement in contentious politics, revolutionary upheavals and conflicts, as well as by broader processes such as state modernization, state feminism, top-down liberal reforms, neoliberal policies, among others.
The round table was introduced by Prof John Doyle (Director, IICRR), and chaired by Dr Theresa O’Keefe (University College Cork). The panel members included:
- Dr Paola Rivetti, Dublin City University, Ireland
- Dr Shirin Saeidi, University of Arkansas, USA
- Zahra Abbasi, Shiraz University, Iran / Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany
- Dr Lucia Ardovini, Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Stockholm
- Dr Merve Kütük-Kuriş, Şehir University, Turkey
- Dr Aitemad Muhanna-Matar, London School of Economics, UK
The full programme and participants’ biographies are here
All photographs are by Harikrishnan Sasikumar (click on image for full size).
