Workshop “Feminism in Research: MENA and Beyond”
Convenors: Bettina Dennerlein (UZH), Meriem El Haitami (Ibn TofaÏlUniversity), Sarah Farag (UZH), Dominik Folger (UZH), Sina Ritt (UZH)

NIMAR
3, Avenue Mohamed El Fassi 10010
Hassan Rabat, Morocco

20.-21. September 2024

The workshop “Feminism in Research: MENA and Beyond” is organized by scholars from theresearch project “Gender, Politics and Critique in the MENA: Towards a Critical History ofFeminism, 1970s until Today” funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
Presenting and discussing ongoing work in conversational settings, the workshop aims atrethinking epistemological, methodological, ethical and practical contours of researching
feminisms as feminist scholars working on and in the Arabic-speaking MENA region. Basedon the practical experience of two independently operating research networks between
Switzerland and the MENA, this workshop builds on current conceptual debates fordeveloping new perspectives on feminisms in the MENA region (Makdisi/Bayoumi/Sidawi
2014; Elsadda 2018). Specifically, it aims at exploring post-2011 formal and informal modesof non-dominant articulations of feminism across activism, art and research.
As widespread representations of feminism in the MENA remain based on a narrative of thecolonial origin of women`s rights set in contrast to local discourses and dynamics of(re-)appropriation, the workshop will centre newly emerging articulations of feminism beyond
preconceived definitions of feminism and/or political activism (El Said/Meari/Pratt 2015;Sadiqi 2016; Pratt 2020). Post-2011 articulations of feminist activism have deliberately
moved beyond established political and ideological frameworks and sought to build alliances
beyond social divides in searching for a holistic, intersectional and structural critique against
injustices, violence, war, dispossession and destruction. Based on ongoing research on andfrom the MENA region, the workshop intends to open up new perspectives on such shifting
forms of feminist critique and aims at grasping their specificality as variously configured sitesof entangled histories of critique across the region.
This workshop furthermore aims at (self-)critically engaging with institutional settings andmaterial conditions for collaborative research and academic knowledge production and at
exploring avenues for mutual learning cutting across established boundaries between
disciplines and institutions. Based on specific examples from collaborative debate andresearch, we are looking for perspectives and practices that draw on transformative
methodological models and allow for ethically grounded forms of engaged scholarship.

Workshop “Feminism in Research: MENA and Beyond”
Workshop Program
20. September 2024
9:15
Welcome & Introduction
9:30- 12:30
Paper Panel: Researching Feminisms in Motion
14:30-16:30
Roundtabel: CreSp Young Scholars Network
17:00-18:30
Key Note Lecture by Souad Eddouada “The Politics of Gender in Morocco: an
Ethnography of a Village in Sidi Kacem”

21. September 2024
9:15- 12:30
Paper Panel: Shifting Contours of Feminist Research
14:30-16:30
Panel Discussion: Research in Conversation
17:00-18:30
Paneldiscussion: (Schol)activism - Beyond Academia
19:00
Open Drinks and Snacks