Call for Papers: Workshop on "The Sexual Politics of Liberal Internationalism, 1990s to the Present"

CfP: The KFG is pleased to announce that it is planning a workshop in cooperation with the DAAD Hub for German Studies at the University of Cambridge on 8 and 9 May 2025. The workshop will focus on "The Sexual Politics of Liberal Internationalism, 1990s to the Present."

Liberal internationalism, with its emphasis on individual rights and freedoms, civil society, democracy and good governance, open markets and the rule of law, has been criticised for the complex sexual politics which underpin these universalist principles. This workshop aims to start a conversation between historians and scholars from other disciplines about the sexual politics of liberal internationalism since the 1990s in a longer historical perspective.

We invite proposals that explore the sexual politics of liberal internationalism since the 1990s in international, transnational or global perspective, as well as papers that place the post-1989 moment in a longer historical trajectory. We are interested in the ideas and institutions that inform liberal internationalism, as well as the practices, performance and reception of liberal internationalism by elites, experts, practitioners, or ordinary people. Topics for discussion might include, but are not limited to: the politics of abortion regulation; sexual violence in conflict and non-conflict situations; trafficking, slavery, prostitution; immigration and asylum; military intervention and peace-making; and the gendered effects of international programmes of economic reform, democratization and good governance.

We expect to be able to cover participants’ travel and accommodation costs.

Please send an abstract of 100 words and a brief CV to Celia Donert (chd31@cam.ac.uk) by 31 October 2024.

For some initial information about the workshop, please visit this link. More details, including the schedule and full list of the speakers, will be shared soon.