At the invitation of Simone Wisotzki, Susanne Zwingel, Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Florida International University, presented the anthology “Feminist Responses to Crises and Dehumanization: Transnational Scholar-Activist Perspectives” at PRIF. In the book, which she edited together with Brianna N. Hernandez and Luisa Turbino Torres, she brings together contributions by feminist and queer scholars and activists from various world regions who address contemporary crises, offer new interpretations of these crises, and develop strategies of resistance.
A key focus of the lunch talk was the relationship between research and activism. In particular, the discussion centered on how feminists navigate the multiple roles they find themselves in as researchers, activists, and political practitioners. Zwingel emphasized that the perceptions of this “scholar-activism” depend heavily on the regional and social context: While the combination of these roles is often viewed as a source of conflict within Western-influenced academic culture, she stressed that – especially among feminists in countries of the Global South – they serve as “bridges” between different spheres of society.
The following discussion also addressed the questions of why the close link between scholarship and activism is so widespread in feminist research, how existing hierarchies between academic and non-academic knowledge production should be addressed, how feminist activists can be protected in times of an antifeminist backlash, and what strategies can be used to ensure that feminist knowledge is heard even in non-feminist spaces.
Speaking from her public university in Florida, Zwingel described how the current antifeminist backlash is affecting public universities and research in the US —and why she sees hope as a central feminist principle especially now.
About Susanne Zwingel
Prof. Dr. Susanne Zwingel is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Florida International University, USA. Her research focuses on international frameworks on women’s rights and their implementation; public gender equality policies and advocacy for gender equality worldwide; global governance and gender; feminist, constructivist, and postcolonial theories of international relations; gender and armed conflict; and interpretivist methodology.
About the Cross-Cutting Research Area Gender, Diversity, and Conflict
The Cross-cutting Research Area “Gender, Diversity, and Conflict” is one of five research areas which serve to integrate research across PRIF’s individual Research Departments and to further collaboration with academic partners at the local, regional, national, and international leve. Led by Simone Wisotzki, Reserachers from all Research Departments contribute their perspectives on the role of intersectionality, gender-based violence, and human rights in the context of peace and conflict research – for example, as part of the PRIF Blog Series on “Feminist Peace Research“.