Asian Center for Women’s Studies Successfully Holding the IFJP “Remapping the Feminist Global"
- Date2022.07.28
- 4367
Feminist discussion around the world that produces alternative knowledge from an Asian perspective
Co-hosted with the International Feminist Journal of Politics (IFJP)
Asian Center for Women’s Studies (ACWS, Director: Prof. Ji-Young Jung) jointly held an international academic conference “Remapping the Feminist Global: A Multi-vocal, Multi-located Conversation” with the International Feminist Journal of Politics (IFJP) from July 21st (Thu) to 23rd (Sat). IFJP is a feminist journal focusing on international relations and political science. Women's studies researchers from 42 countries around the world participated in the conference, and 229 papers were published in a total of 57 panels. Papers will be published as the special project in IFJP and the Asian Journal of Women's Studies (AJWS), which is a journal published by ACWS, after the submission and screening process.
This conference began with the consensus between East and West to criticize Western centrality and break the deadlock in which the production and distribution of knowledge are still centered in the West. "Thinking about feminism from an Asian perspective is to open a new horizon for feminism beyond the ethnic-nation system linked to Western centrality and imperialism,” said professor Ji-Young Jung.
In a keynote speech on July 21 (Thu), the first day of the competition, Lisa Yoneyama, a professor at the University of Toronto, raised several urgent questions about feminism related to critical race theory and colonialist discussion under the theme of intersectionality and humanity. The discussion was developed by presenting various examples of how the critical race theory and intersectional discussion raised in the context of the United States can be particularly used in the context of East Asia.
Her conclusion, "coalitional solidarity" was a key word that was mentioned throughout various sessions during the conference. Olivia Umurerwa Rutazibwa, a professor at London School of Economics and Political Science, and Karen Thornber, a professor at Harvard University, called for a more sophisticated discussion on the meaning of “solidarity” and “deifnition of gender,” especially focusing on postcolonial nations’ suppression and violence. Subsequently, discussions were held at the two round tables organized by the ACWS “Race and Gender” research team to explore a new historical methodology from an Asian perspective, and to decentralize the issue of race and gender from Korean perspective.
On the 22nd (Fri) and 23rd (Sat), the paper was presented and discussed in a fusion method of hybrid (38 sessions, online and face-to-face) and online (19 sessions) format. As hybrid sessions were held at ECC and transmitted online in real time, researchers from all over the world were able to participate regardless of boundaries of time and space.
Multinational graduate students from Ewha Womans University's Women’s Studies and Asian Women’s Studies (AWS) also participated in presentations and discussions.
Elisabeth Prugl, a professor at The Geneva Graduate Institute and an editor of IFJP, said, "Students’ presentations at the event were particularly impressive. Using the latest theory, they analyzed reality in their original way while critically reviewing it.”
Participants in the academic conference said, "While interacting with researchers in different situations and discussing from various angles, we learned more specific meaning of feminism based on postcolonialism," adding, "We learned the need to think about complex relationships that are intertwined and show solidarity.”
Founded in 1995, ACWS is opening a space for feminist knowledge based on historicity and locality by studying dynamics of overlapping gender, race, class, and sexuality from the perspective of Asian women's studies.