Call for papers: Résistances et utopies passées, présentes et à venir

The deadline for submitting proposals has been extended to May 18, 2026.

In an international context marked by the rise of the far right and growing threats to critical thinking, research, academic freedom, and feminist achievements, the second edition of the Congrès de philosophie féministe francophone, to be held on November 9 and 10, 2026, at Campus Condorcet in Paris, aims to highlight feminist resistance and utopias—past, present, and future.

While these threats particularly affect feminist and gender studies, as well as the humanities and social sciences more broadly, feminist philosophy is experiencing a significant resurgence in French-speaking communities. This is evident in the sustained interest it generates among students—as shown by the growing number of seminars and study days—as well as in a growing publishing boom.

It was in this context, and as a follow-up to the first Congrès de philosophie féministe francophone, held in Paris on November 23 and 24, 2023, that the Société francophone de philosophie féministe (SFPF) was founded in April 2025. It pursues a threefold objective: to enhance the visibility of research in feminist philosophy in order to affirm its importance, diversity, and richness; to foster and deepen theoretical reflection through international exchanges; and to promote mutual understanding and cooperation, with the aim of contributing to the structuring of the field, both locally and from a transnational perspective.

The congress:

In the face of mounting political, social, and environmental crises, and amid the intensification of masculinist, racist, sexist, and lesbo-trans-homophobic attacks, numerous resistance initiatives are emerging, particularly within the field of feminist thought. The second edition of the Francophone Feminist Philosophy Congress thus aims to highlight feminist resistance and utopias—past, present, and future—drawing on a plurality of perspectives and philosophical traditions.

What conceptual and theoretical tools do feminist philosophies offer for challenging, confronting, and combating the many forms of domination—capitalist, racist, heteropatriarchal, ableist, and colonial? And, in turn, what political, ethical, and aesthetic visions of emancipation do they help to bring forth and nurture?

The epistemological framework:

The theoretical innovations that accompany feminist struggles help to keep philosophy alive. At the same time, critiques of traditional Western philosophy invite us to rethink feminist philosophy from a transnational and decolonial perspective, while examining the spaces and practices through which knowledge is produced. In the face of the current multifaceted crisis, it seems more necessary than ever to be able to draw on the critical and creative resources of feminist philosophy.

It speaks a multitude of languages that translate into one another, enabling exchange across diverse and varied borders and barriers. Feminist internationalism is a long-standing tradition that the SFPF wishes to embrace and seeks to continue. For us, meeting in French is not an initiative that involves establishing a hierarchy of linguistic spaces or perpetuating the colonial history of the Francophonie, particularly in the academic world. On the contrary, the Francophone space we are creating through this society and this conference understands French as a language inhabited and traversed by many other languages, an heir to histories of violence and resistance that we hope will be addressed during our activities.

Proposed papers may address the following topics:

1. FEMINIST EPISTEMOLOGIES AND CRITIQUES OF KNOWLEDGE
   • Resistance to dominant epistemologies (objectivism, abstract universalism)
   • Reflections on epistemic injustices, silencing, and epistemic recognition
   • Decolonial feminist perspectives: situated knowledge, epistemic refusal, cognitive coalition
   • Transmissions: feminism and pedagogy
   • Feminist developments in philosophy
   • History of women philosophers in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Era
   • Gender in the history of philosophy
2. POLITICAL RESISTANCE, STRUCTURES OF DOMINATION, AND EMANCIPATION
   • Feminist critiques of capitalism, liberalism, nationalism, and structural racism
   • Feminism and ecology, the struggle against extractivism, imperialism, and state violence
   • Solidarity, intersectionality, and feminist coalitions
   • Contemporary forms and expressions of resistance: assemblies, strikes, demonstrations, and direct action
   • Feminist experiments, concrete utopias, prefigurative politics
   • Feminist refuges, counter-spaces, and spatial resistance
   • Technological resistance, feminist technologies and AI, digital (de)colonialism
   • Analyses of reproduction
3. BODIES, VIOLENCE, VULNERABILITIES, AND RESISTANCE
   • Approaching VSS from a philosophical perspective
   • Female/queer/trans/BIPOC/disabled/working-class bodies as sites of control and subversion
   • The politicization of health, care, and disability
   • The politicization of reproduction
   • Movements of bodily resistance: performance art, artivism, feminist aesthetics
   • Resistance in higher education and research: precariousness and solidarity
4. SURPRISES. WHAT REMAINS TO BE SEEN
   • Innovations and inventions, feminist discoveries
   • This section is intentionally kept very brief to give you a chance to surprise us…

We warmly encourage submissions of papers, regardless of the status or background of those submitting them—tenured professors, doctoral students, undergraduates, independent researchers, or activists. The conference aims to provide an open and welcoming space for exchange, attentive to the diversity of voices and experiences.

Submission guidelines:

Proposals for individual presentations or panel discussions (maximum of 4 participants plus a moderator) must not exceed 3,000 characters in total (or 4 x 3,000 characters plus a summary text of no more than 3,000 characters), along with one or more short biographies (specifying your status and affiliation), as well as the proposed topic(s), and must be submitted at the latest by May 10 via the following link.

For more information, click here.