“Liberation, struggle and resistance” – Ngender 2016 Annual Conference

2015 has been a year of both liberations and struggles for feminists and LGBTQI activists. On the one hand, it has been hailed by the Huffington Post UK as the year “Transgender Rights came of age,” with both Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner becoming household names. The popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race brought drag culture to the mainstream; Playboy called an end to its inclusion of nude photos; and, the all-female Ghostbusters reboot began filming. Yet, movements of resistance gained traction, particularly against sexist advertising (i.e. “are you beach body ready?” advertisement for diet supplements) and transphobia (particularly in gendered spaces like public washrooms and prisons). If anything, 2015 shows the complex and often contradictory ways in which struggles and resistances are played out and observed.

This one day conference aims to unpick what "liberation", "struggle" and "resistance" might signify in contemporary society: What is the relationship between these concepts and has it changed over time? How might these notions be interpreted differently in global and local contexts? What and where are the sites of resistance and how might we evaluate them?