TITLE OF THE SESSION:

TRANSNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIES OF OPPOSITION TO

SEXUALITY STUDIES, GENDER, AND WOMEN’S AND LGBT
RIGHTS: HEGEMONY OR HORIZONTAL COLLABORATION
ON THE RIGHT?

Organizer(s): Language(s) of the session:

Kevin Moss (moss@middlebury.edu) English / Spanish

Monica Cornejo-Valle (mcornejo@ucm.es) Format of the session:

Ignacio Pichardo (jipichardo@ucm.es)

Panel discussion

Session abstract:

While it is true that Eurocentric epistemological hegemonies “continue to have a substantial impact
on the shape of (not only European) discourses and power relations within feminist, gender, sexuality
and queer studies,” even more dangerous are transnational power relations that produce and
disseminate discourses counter to feminist, gender, sexuality and queer studies within the academy,
but also in the real lives of women and LGBT people. On the one hand the anti-LGBT and anti-“gender”
international is itself a model of “horizontal and transnational” collaboration, but on the other they
also reproduce colonial hegemonies through the prominence of Eurocentric or Western authorities
and by using English as their working language. Beyond the English language networks, the
transnational collaboration against LGBT+ and women’s rights has a strong presence and impact in
Spanish and Portuguese language countries, including South Europe and Latin America.

This session will explore the transnational anti-“gender” networks taking into account the different
movements that are involved, with their local roots (national scenarios and actors, discourses,
strategies, symbols) and their connections with broader networks and the transnational movement,
paying attention to the map of strategic alliances and the indicators of the horizontal and
transnational collaboration, like common language and discourses or social media interaction. We
invite panelists to analyze how the anti-“gender” discourses circulate, from “center” to “periphery”
and back? How have right-wing anti-gender and anti-sexuality forces coopted the terminology of our
fields to undermine and delegitimize sexuality studies, gender, and women’s and LGBT rights? How
are local and transnational strategies and actors working together? What can be done to push back
against transnational attacks, when that very pushback plays into populist and nationalist narratives
about colonial dominance? In order to address these topics and questions, the session will consist of
short presentations of case studies followed by an open discussion. The session will be multilingual
and some of the presentations will be in Spanish.

Abstracts (max 300 words)