Gender, Violence, and the Geopolitics of Feminism

On February 2nd, Professors Lila Abu-Lughod (Columbia University, NYC) and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (Queen Mary School of Law, London), spoke to the WGSS community on "Gender, Violence, and the Geopolitics of Feminism." This event was a joint celebration of the 50^th anniversary of WGSS and the journal Feminist Studies. Our speakers described a forthcoming publication in the 50^th anniversary special issue of Feminist Studies that addresses how campaigns against gender-based violence have been institutionalized in ways that can serve the carceral state and disturbing foreign policy goals. They described how what they call institutionalized GBVAW work can be differentiated from “lower case” gender and violence activism. They discussed how GBVAW work displaces other women's issues, sustains dominant power relations, and they offered strategies for rethinking the relationship of violence activism to the state. They noted that there are different ways of measuring and classifying "violence.” The professors specifically spoke about how the political framing of violence against women now claims them as elements of normative agenda. Both speakers encouraged us to carefully listen to victim’s voices first, focusing on their research on the Middle East and South Asia.