Rethinking global challenges through feminist media and communication approaches
This research seminar series is organized by the Department of Communication* (IKO), Lund University, in cooperation with researchers from the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London.
In the context of rapidly escalating global challenges, there is the need to expose and rethink normative and masculine understandings of key contemporary issues such as war, militarisation, care, peace, violence, resilience and sustainability, to name but a few.
This seminar series engages with feminist theory in media and communication studies to rediscover older and forgotten ways of knowing and thinking about these issues, and to imagine alternative ways of communicating in an era marked by global crises and armed conflicts.
Each seminar will focus on a particular issue and will be led by an invited prominent researcher from one of the world leading centers for excellent research, the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. All seminars are moderated by researchers at IKO.
The seminars are delivered in a hybrid format, which means that they take place in a physical location, but are simultaneously broadcasted online.
*Until January 1, 2025, IKO is partitioned into the Department of Strategic Communication (ISK) and the Department of Communication and Media (KOM).
Dates, times and locations
November 8, 13:00-15:00 (UTC+1)
The Faculty Club (SOL B131), Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund, and online via Zoom
Catherine Rottenberg
Professor, Department of Media, Communication and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London
"Theorizing Interdependence, Envisioning a Politics of Care"
In this talk I chart some of the key themes that have preoccupied me over the past decade – from neoliberal feminism to interdependence. I discuss how my interrogation of neoliberal feminism was, in many ways, an attempt to understand and theorize forms of governance and domination. I then outline my more recent work on the politics of care, focusing on the notion of interdependence. Offering a more robust theory of interdependence, I suggest, is key to reorienting our political vocabulary and practice in order to develop an emancipatory lexicon that cuts across identity claims and can more effectively challenge the hegemony of liberal imaginaries. I conclude by sketching some possible alternatives to our violent present by drawing on The Care Manifesto’s feminist, queer, anti-racist and eco-socialist vision.
Moderator: Monica Porzionato, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Strategic Communication (ISK)
November 15, 13:00–15:00 (UTC+1)
L303a, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund, and online via Zoom
Kathryn Higgins
Lecturer, Department of Media, Communication and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London
"Victimhood, victimcould, and the mediated politics of vulnerability"
Moderator: Fredrika Thelandersson, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Communication and Media (KOM)
December 9, 13:00-15:00 (UTC+1)
A158, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund, and online via Zoom
Angela McRobbie
Emeritus Professor, Department of Media, Communication and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London
"Feminism and the Politics of Resilience: Gender After Neoliberalism"
This lecture will extend the conjunctural Hall-influenced analysis of feminism and neoliberalism (McRobbie 2008, McRobbie 2020) by considering the feminist shifts that have ruptured the management of gender in media and popular culture that prevailed through two decades of neoliberal governance. In a context of rising violence and antagonism, including gender violence the limits of the politics of resilience are laid bare. How can feminist pedagogy counter hatred and hostility?
Moderator: Cecilia Cassinger, Associate professor, Department of Strategic Communication (ISK)