Confronting "Anti-Gender" Mobilizations across Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and Russia: Challenges and Queer-Feminist Resistances
Mar 3, 2025
Location
Date: Monday, March 3, 2025; 9:30–16:30 CET (Warsaw time); Online & In-person: Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Staszic Palace (Pałac Staszica), Nowy Świat 72, 00-330 Warsaw, Poland
Registration link (for both on
Description
We invite researchers, students, activists, and the public to participate in our one-day workshop (hybrid-online and in-person sessions). During the event, the RESIST Project Team and our guest speakers will lead discussions on queer-feminist resistances to “anti-gender” mobilizations in and across Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and Russia – four distinct national case studies that intersect at a transnational level through migration patterns, recently amplified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the 2020 and 2025 presidential elections in Belarus ( Filep, 2024).
While studies show that “anti-gender” and anti-immigration mobilizations are often closely intertwined ( RESIST Project Team, 2024), issues related to gender identity and sexuality may be deprioritized by women and queer persons amid immediate survival challenges, such as migrant status, housing, employment, and health. Even in contexts not immediately threatened by war or political repression, multiply marginalized persons might be forced to choose between the ideals of gender and sexual diversity and pragmatic solutions related to other identity positions, e.g. living with a physical disability or experiencing homelessness ( Kulpa and Kania, 2024). Still, addressing and resisting “anti-gender” violence remains vital to queer-feminist movements both within and across Eastern European nations, with migration opening the possibility of cross-national collaboration. The dynamics of de- and reprioritization invite critical reflection, along with the internal tensions stemming from individual intersectional identities and the patterns of solidarity and animosity that develop across borders, migratory routes, and communities. Together, these factors create a complex landscape of displacement and belonging, shaping the experiences of individuals navigating “anti-gender” politics in the region.
Starting with a presentation of findings from the RESIST Project’s Polish and Belarusian cases, we would like to open the floor for a broader discussion on resistances to “anti-gender” mobilizations in Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Russia and transnationally along migratory routes. By combining panel presentations with free-flowing ideation workshop and experience-sharing sessions, we hope to create a space of creative and respectful discussion.
This event is co-organised by the RESIST Project, the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, and Edinburgh Napier University.
Gender and Sexuality Research at Edinburgh Napier University
Mar 6, 2024
Location
Merchiston Campus, room: MER_H11
Description
Let’s get together and listen to colleagues working on gender and sexuality! And then let’s talk about their fascinating ideas, and how they relate to our own work and topics! This event is envisaged as informal and friendly gathering, following the success of similar gathering in 2023. We want to continue on this good tradition, and build new connections, learn about inspiring research we are doing across the university, feel inspired and nurtured.
Please send any queries to: Dr Roberto Kulpa (r.kulpa@napier.ac.uk)
SCHEDULE
14:00-14:10
Welcome (Roberto Kulpa)
14:10-15:00 TRANS LIVES
GUEST: Gina Gwenffrewi (University of Edinburgh) will start with an input about trans* people's cultural production online (i.e. YouTube, Twitter/X), framing the moral panic, and its impact on the trans* communities.
Rob Clucas (Law) will speak to the latest ‘gender critical’ challenge to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 in the appeal to the Supreme Court in the For Women Scotland case. He suggests that a solution to the current poisonous polemic around trans* rights can usefully be sought in the dialogic theory of Martin Buber (Buber 1958).
Toni Kania (Social Sciences) will introduce their PhD project about conceptualising bodily autonomy and sovereignty of trans* people – and from trans* peoples’ perspective – in Poland.
15:00-15:10 Coffee and pastries break
15:10-16:00 GENDERED VIOLENCE
Amy Beddows (Counselling) will speak about the potential of horror texts as tools for survivors processing the experiences of gendered violence.
Anne Schwan (English) will reflect on femicide, perpetrator narratives and the challenge of restorative justice, drawing from her analysis of Em Strang's novel “Quinn” (2023).
Fiona McQueen (Social Sciences) will conclude this section pondering on her project on Scottish young men’s attitudes towards prevention messages on violence against women, incl. queer & trans men’s accounts and insights.
16:00-16:10 Coffee and pastries break
16:10-17:00 REPRESENTATIONS
Yen Nee Wong (Social Sciences) will introduce us to queer cultures of ballroom dancing and the role of Strictly Come Dancing’s representations and mainstreaming.
David Bishop (Creative Writing) will speak about his creative writing PhD, instigation into the scarcity of queer sleuths in historical mystery fiction set before the Victorian era, and the politics of outing and authorship.
Phiona Stanley (Tourism) will talk about labels – ‘spinsters’, ‘crazy cat ladies’, ‘witches’. It is also, in theoretical terms, about queering queerness by negotiating the queer and deeply gendered queerness of spinsterhood.
17:00-17:10 Coffee and pastries break
17:10-17:45 POP!
Ashley Stein (Music) will introduce their PhD project on how hyperpop and other electronic music practices can be used to destabilise gender binaries.
Frederik Byrn Køhlert (English, Visual Cultures) will close this input section with a reflection on the representation of gender and sexuality in comics & graphic novels, incl. examples from work as editor of a Routledge series on Gender, Sexuality, and Comics.
17:45-onwards: Post-Event Drinks & Food at nearby The Golf Tavern
30-31 Wright's Houses, Bruntsfield, EH10 4HR
Event Organisation:
Dr Roberto Kulpa
School of Applied Sciences: Deputy Research Degrees Lead
Co-Director: MSc Applied Social Research
Co-Investigator: (2022-2026) ‘RESIST. Fostering Queer Feminist Intersectional Resistances against Transnational Anti-Gender Politics’ (EU Horizon Europe grant no. 101060749).
