Royal Geographical Society-IBG Annual Conference 2023

Description

At the 2023 Annual Conference of the RGS-IBG, we organised and chairs two sessions on the 'Future Directions in Feminist Geopolitics'. The abstract was as follows:

Feminist geopolitics has developed significantly from its origins in the early 2000s as a branch of critical geopolitics to its place today as a thriving, multiple, and diverse sub-field in its own right. Rather than a category in which to simply corral work on gender, inequality, and exploitation, feminist geopolitics importantly addresses these concerns whilst more broadly representing a vibrant analytical, epistemological, and methodological approach to research and scholarship (Massaro and Williams, 2013; Fluri, 2015). Indeed, the last twenty years has seen a proliferation of work that challenges the traditional remit of geopolitics (Sharp, 2021). In doing so, feminist geopolitics, and feminist political geography as a whole, has reimagined who and what counts as a political subject, increasingly attending to elements and agents which have typically been silenced and hidden (Dixon, 2016; Smith, 2018; Squire, 2020)​.

Whilst there is an exciting breadth of research taking place, we believe that now represents an apt time to take pause and consider the directions feminist geopolitics is heading, particularly in light of ongoing global challenges. As new and diverse strands of research are emerging in the discipline, it is crucial to look across these different subject matters and chart the connections and areas of overlap, as well as those issues which have not yet been addressed. Therefore, these sessions seek to reflect on these thoughts and to provide a platform for scholars dealing with feminist geopolitical concerns to showcase their work and discuss the future of the sub-discipline. In the first of the two sessions, the contributions consider the theoretical and conceptual developments which are shaping feminist geopolitical thought, and draw upon diverse research contexts ranging from China's Arctic Village, to Palestine and Myanmar. Then in the second of the two sessions, the contributions focus upon the mobilities, technologies, and more-than-human encounters within feminist geopolitics. In doing so, the session engages with a range of research contexts, from border towns in Hong Kong and birth mothers in Sri Lanka, to smartphones, drones, and elephants.

The sessions were kindly sponsored by the Gender and Feminist Geographies Research Group and the Political Geography Research Group.

Period	1 Sept 2023
Event type	Conference
Location	London, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International