News
The latest from the Department of Gender Studies
Dr Leticia Sabsay published in Contemporary Political Theory
Dr Sabsay's article The political aesthetics of cruelty: contemporary authoritarian politics and the struggle between sovereignty and relationality is available to read here.
Dr SM Rodriguez published in Feminist Legal Studies
Dr Rodriguez article Enforcing the “Unnatural Offence”: Sodomy Legislation and Anti-Queer Panoptic Policing in Uganda is available to read here.
Dr Irina Zherebkina published on the blog of the German journal Feministische Studien
Visiting Fellow Irina Zherebkina's article The War in Ukraine and the Collapse of the Liberal World Order, or What Kind of „We“ Will Ukrainians Be After the War? is available to read here.
Dr Sharmila Parmanand published in International Journal of Human Rights
Dr Parmanand's article titled Anti-trafficking or anti-migrant: rethinking the Philippine state’s role in global bordering architecture is available to read here.
Professors Sumi Madhok and Clare Hemmings edit special themed edition of 'Signs'
This collection of pieces intervenes to challenge the rise of anti-gender politics from feminist, trans*, decolonial and queer perspectives. Find out more here.
Dr Zeynep Kilicoglu published in International Feminist Journal of Politics
Dr Kilicoglu's article titled Coming back to life from “social death”: creating and regulating women-only/feminist spaces with/for women refugees in the UK is available to read here.
Sumi Madhok elected as Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Sumi Madhok was elected to the Academy for her work on International and Feminist Political Theory. Find our more here.
LSE Gender student named a TIME Woman of the Year
LSE Gender student Mahnoor Omer has been named a TIME Woman of the Year among a cohort of 16 women who are working to make the world a more equitable and just place.
Find out more here.
Dr Hakan-Sandal Wilson co-edits Creative Critical Interventions for Social Justice
Dr Hakan-Sandal Wilson and co-editors have published Creative Critical Interventions for Social Justice , an edited volume grounded in a commitment to politically engaged research that moves beyond traditional scholarly forms. Find out more here.
Dr Zuzana Dančíková and Magda Muter published in Frontiers in Sociology
The article Subtle discrimination of fathers in relation to leave-taking: a comparative study of Slovakia and Poland is available to read here.
Dr Zuzana Dančíková published in Social Inclusion
Dr Dančíková's article Involved Fatherhood in Slovakia? A Multi‐Dimensional Picture Painted Using Multiple Methods is available to read here.
Dr Rohit Dasgupta receives Freedom of the City of London
Dr Rohit Dasgupta has received the Freedom of the City of London. The Freedom of the City of London dates back to the 13th century, and recognised outstanding contributions to civic society.
Department of Gender Studies is part of the LSE Excellence Scholarship
We're delighted to announce that the Department of Gender Studies is part of the LSE Excellence Scholarship. This means that applicants to our MSc programmes are eligible for consideration.
LSE Excellence Scholarships are prestigious awards for exceptional Postgraduate Taught students joining LSE in 2026. These scholarships recognise applicants who demonstrate outstanding academic ability and strong potential to thrive in their chosen programme.
You can find our more about the LSE Excellence Scholarship here.
Dr R. Sanchez-Rivera published in Oxford Intersections: Racism by Context
Dr Sanchez-Rivera's article Building the “Fitter” Future: Eugenics, Tech-Capitalism is available to read here.
Dr Aiko Holvikivi published in Critical Military Studies
Dr Holvikivi's article An ‘ironic compromise’: feminist research in military institutions is available to read here.
Prof Clare Hemmings interviewed for Affective Societies blog
The interview titled After Affects, Future Feelings – Clare Hemmings in Conversation can be found here.
Dr Asiya Islam published in Critical Sociology journal
Dr Islam's article A ‘working lives’ approach to platform work: Accounting for informality, social reproduction, and gender norms is available to read here.
Dr SM Rodriguez published in The International Journal of Human Rights
Dr Rodriguez's article Respatialising the global imaginary of gay rights: resisting Africana epistemicide and forging Solidaristic Imaginaries is avaible to read here.
Prof Clare Hemmings featured in the Backlash Unfiltered: Pushing Forward for Equality in Times of Change podcast series by UNRISD
Through in-depth conversations with leading scholars, activists, and policymakers, this series explores the rise of anti-gender movements, their impact on social development, and the historical and geopolitical forces that sustain them. Hear from Clare in the episode 'Mapping the Backlash: Global Attacks on Gender and LGBTQIA+ Rights'. Listen to the epsiode here.
Dr Rohit K Dasgupta publishes Oxford Bibliography
Oxford Bibliographies are ritten and reviewed by academic experts, and are authoritative guides to the current scholarship, containing original commentary and annotations. Dr Dasgupta's contribution is on Queer Digital Cultures in the Global South and can be found here.
Prof Wendy Sigle appointed to National Statistician's Inclusive Data Advisory Committee
Prof Sigle joins a diverse group of senior academics and civil society leaders who collectively have wide ranging equalities expertise. The committee provide independent advice to the National Statistician. You can find out more here.
Dr SM Rodriguez published in The International Journal of Human Rights
Dr Rodriguez's article Respatialising the global imaginary of gay rights: resisting Africana epistemicide and forging Solidaristic Imaginaries is avaible to read here.
Professor Nicola Lacey wins Law Teacher of the Year
Congratulations to LSE Gender Advisory Board member Prof Nicola Lacey who has won Law Teacher of the Year. Professor Lacey was given the presitigious award by Oxford University Press, after being shortlisted earlier this year. Find out more here.
LSE Gender staff awarded the 2025 LSE Excellence in Eduaction Award
LSE Gender faculty and PSS staff have been awarded with the 2025 Excellence in Education Award.
Congratulations to our prize winners: Prof Clare Hemmings, Dr Asiya Islam, Dr. Zeynep Kilicoglu, Rob Kirkland, Dr Sharmila Parmanand, Catherine Perry, Dr Ania Plomien, Annie Robinson, Dr Hakan Sandal-Wilson and Dr Sadie Wearing
Dr Gloria Novović published on LSE British Politics and Policy blog
The Labour Government has confirmed that it will be going against its campaign promise by cutting foreign aid. Gloria Novović argues that the Government’s new framing of foreign aid as charity is a gross misrepresentation of the UK’s domestic and international commitments. You can read the full piece here.
Prof Clare Hemmings reviews Transfemme Futures for LSE Blog
Trans Femme Futures: Abolitionist Ethics for Transfeminist Worlds by Nat Raha and Mijke van der Drift explores how transfeminist methods and practices can build futures that are more equal, free and inclusive for all. Clare Hemmings writes that the authors’ brilliant, nuanced embrace of community, care and modes of resistance offers radical ways of realising more liveable futures. Read the full review here.
Dr Rohit K Dasgupta elected Newham First Citizen
Dr Rohit K Dasgupta was elected at Newham Council’s annual general meeting.
It makes him “the first individual of Indian-Bengali origin and queer identified” to be elected chair and first citizen, a Newham Council spokesperson said.
Dr Alanah Mortlock awarded Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship
Visiting fellow and LSE Gender alumna Dr Alanah Mortlock has been awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. Based at King's College London, Dr Mortlock will be working on a project entitled 'Black British feminist theoretical futures: a dialogue with US Black studies’ with Dr Yasmin Gunaratnam.
Dr Zeynep Kilicoglu publishes 'Deconstructing Refugee Women's Empowerment'
Dr Zeynep Kilicoglu, LSE Fellow in Gender and International Politics, has published her first book Deconstructing Refugee Women's Empowerment: A Comparative Approach to British and French Aid Structures.
In it, she explores how self-identified feminist or women’s asylum organisations in the United Kingdom and France address refugee women’s empowerment in their operations and how these perpetuate or disrupt global hierarchies.
Prof Mary Evans and Prof Sumi Madhok edit special issue of European Journal of Women's Studies
The special issue is titled Conceptual Diversity and Anti Imperial Epistemic Justice. It is available here.
This special issue emerged from a 2021 workshop held at LSE Gender and co-created by Prof Mary Evans and Prof Sumi Madhok. It also foregrounds the work of early career scholars.
Dr Aiko Holvikivi and co-authors Dr Billy Holzberg and Dr Tomás Ojeda on Feminism, Fascism & the Future podcast
You can find the episode on their book Transnational Anti-Gender Politics: Feminism Solidarity in Times of Global Attacks here.
Dr Alanah Mortlock published in Feminist Theory
Dr Mortlock's article Trauma, escape and claims to black metaphysical space: Black feminist engagements with ‘transracialism’ is available here.
Dr Rohit Dasgupta's 'Desi Queers' featured in Research for the World magazine
You can read the article on Dr Rohit Dasgupta's recently published book 'Desi Queers' here.
Dr Gloria Novović published in LSE Public Policy Review
Dr Novović's article Swimming Upstream: System-wide Constraints of Policy Relevant and Politically Engaged Feminist Research is availalbe to read here.
Students launch podcast 'Spilling The Equali-TEA'
Listen to the first episode titled 'Feminism 101' now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podcast Index or Amazon Music.
You can follow the podcast on @equalitea.pod and find all episodes here.
Each podcast episode gives the views of the individual speaker(s), and not the position of the Department of Gender Studies, nor of LSE.
Prof Nicola Lacey shortlisted for Law Teacher of the Year 2025 Award
LSE Gender Advisory Committee member Prof Nicola Lacey is shortlisted for Oxford University Press' prestigious Law Teacher of the Year 2025 Award. You can find out more here and read an interview with Prof Lacey about the nomination here.
PhD alum and Visiting Fellow Dr Alia Amirali published in the Journal of Gender Studies
Alia's article, 'The ‘researcher’ versus the ‘political worker’: overlapping identities and their tensions in the field', is availalble to read here.
Dr Rohit K Dasgupta publishes 'Desi Queers'
'Desi Queers' is a landmark book on South Asian queer communities in Britain and how they have helped to shape LGBTQ+ movements since the 1970, written by Prof Churnjeet Mahn, Dr Rohit K Dasgupta and DJ Ritu.
The book reveals how diasporic South Asians have shaped LGBTQ+ movements and communities in Britain, from the 1970s to the present day. Weaving the history of 1980s anti-racism with the emergence of Black LGBTQ+ and feminist coalitions, this book highlights landmark moments in British queer life and culture through South Asian lives, and illuminates British histories of colour through qu
Prof Irina Zherebkina published on The Philosophical Salon
On the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Researcher at Risk Fellow Prof Irina Zhrebebkina reflects on affectve solidarity and Ukrainian feminism in times of war. You can read the full piece here. This piece has also been translated into Korean, and is availbe to read here.
Q&A with Dr Imaobong Umoren and Prof Sumi Madhok on transdisciplinary and transnational research
Imaobong Umoren (LSE International History) and Sumi Madhok (LSE Gender Studies) are two of the editors of the International Studies Book Series published by Cambridge University Press in association with LSE. In this interview with Anna D’Alton, they discuss the aim of the series, why transdisciplinary and transnational research matters and books to look out for in 2025.
Dr Rohit K Dasgupta shares ten queer South Asian reads
In this reading list for LGBTQ+ History Month 2025, Rohit shares a selection of 10 recent books exploring LGBTQ+ culture, politics and history in South Asia that have motivated and inspired his research. Dive into queer South Asian life and writing here.
Dr Rohit K Dasgupta quoted on BBC news sites
The BBC has reached out to Dr Dasgupta for comment on US President Trump's executive order regarding a new federal definition definition of the sexes. The definition only recognises two sexes, male and female. Dr Dasgupta comments:
“I spoke with many queer and trans rights advocates in India, where I work. They shared their concerns that such policies rarely remain confined within U.S. borders. This rollback could disproportionately affect the most vulnerable groups, such as trans people of colour.”
Read an excerpt from Dr. Asiya Islam's new book A Woman's Job: Making Middle Lives in New India
LSE Review of Books has published an exclusive excerpt from A Woman's Job: Making Middle Lives in India, written by Dr Asiya Islam. In it, Dr Islam examines the lives of educated young women working in precarious jobs in Delhi’s service sector. The book’s rich ethnography explores how these women navigate work, home life, gender norms and class dynamics amidst socio-economic transformation and globalisation.
You can now read the excerpt here.
Dr Asiya Islam in conversation with Françoise Vergès
Dr Asiya Islam discusses the relationship between class, race, gender and waste with Françoise Vergès in the newest issue of The Sociological Review. You can find the conversation here.
Dr Islam has also edited this issue, and you can find her introduction to the topic 'Waste' here.
Dr Rohit K Dasgupta (as PI) awarded UKRI grant worth up to £300,000 for a period of thirty-six months
The research project is called Crafting Sustainability and Equitability
The partners are Dr Nazli Alimenat Birmingham City Uni,Dr Diviani Chaudhuriat Shiv Nadar University in Delhi and Vishnupriya Narayananat National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad.
This research concentrates on an essential part of India’s creative economy: the traditional handicrafts sector. It will examine sustainability and sustainable practices related to environment and labour in traditional handicrafts and textiles with an aim to address inequalities from an intersectional perspective and to evaluate how and to what extent traditional practices can be embedded into the creative economy to ensure long-term environmentally and culturally sustainable and socially equitable development.
The project will use an ethnographically led mixed methods approach, employing interviews, surveys, and observations. It will involve a non-extractive, ethical and reciprocal process among diverse groups, thus addressing the current and future state of the creative economy from diverse viewpoints.
This work also builds on Dr Dasgupta’s previous work gender, cultural production and South Asian Diasporic identity.
Dr Asiya Islam's 'A Woman's Job: Making Middle Lives in New India' coming in 2025
This new bookexplores the place and politics of women’s workforce participation in discourses of development, modernisation, and globalisation through the everyday lives of young women workers in urban India.
We are hosting the celebratory launch of 'A Woman's Job' on 29 January 2025. Book your free ticket here.
Dr Hakan Sandal-Wilson published in South Atlantic Quarterly
Read Dr Sandal-Wilson's article On the (Im)possibility of the Kurdish Queerhere.
Adopting the doubly illegitimized subject position of the "Kurdish queer" as its point of departure, this article highlights the importance of taking the situated knowledge and political analyses of Kurdish queers seriously to uncover histories of violence as well as the multiple layers of queer, postcolonial, and decolonial imagination. An investment in Kurdish queer studies is needed to complicate our understanding of the history and politics of the region, as well as how sexuality and conflict are entangled.
Read the Department's latest public newsletter!
Welcome to the LSE Department of Gender Studies' termly public newsletter! In it, you can find the latest selection of recent and upcoming events, research, and news all around LSE Gender.
Click hereto read the Autumn Term 2024-25 public newsletter.
Dr Ania Plomien published with Professor Naila Kabeer on 'Placing gender justice at the heart of the wellbeing economy'in LSE Inequalities.
The neoliberal model takes GDP growth as the key indicator for societal prosperity. Against this narrow measure, several more equitable and more sustainable alternatives have been suggested. But why place gender justice at the heart of a new paradigm for human and planetary wellbeing?
Professor Sumi Madhok to deliver lecture on 'Anti-Imperial Epistemic Justice' as part of the British Academy's flagship lecture programme.
Delivered by the most outstanding academics in the UK and beyond, the British Academy’s flagship Lecture programme showcases the very best scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.
This lecture will introduce the concept of 'anti-imperial epistemic justice', an essential framework for understanding the politics of rights and human rights in the majority of societies worldwide.
LSE Impact blog published from department's
Reflecting on the challenges facing gender activists and researchers in Hungary, Dorottya Rédai outlines how interactions between researchers and activists could be more productive and why taking a transnational perspective is increasingly important.
Visiting Fellow Irina Zherebkinapublished in the new special issue of Studia Philosophica Estonica 'Reflections on the Russia-Ukraine War'.
Irina's article 'The Antinomies of the Russia-Ukraine War and Its Challenges to Feminist Theory' analyzes responses to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine by philosophers on the left, like Balibar and Zizek, and feminist philosophers, such as Butler and Hark. Read the article here.
Professor Clare Hemmings awarded Chaire Internationale 2024 du GIS Institute du Genre for the project 'Reciting Radical and Materialist Feminist Histories'
The project is part of her new work on Feminist Knowledge Struggles: Telling Stories Differently. As Chaire genre, Professor Hemmings will be resident at Paris 8 and Paris Nanterre this autumn. Find out more .
Dr Rohit K Dasgupta, Dr Asiya Islam and Dr Hakan Sandal-Wilson join the Department of Gender Studies
We are excited to welcome our new members of faculty to the department. Dr Rohit K Dasgupta joins as Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality, Dr Asiya Islam as Assistant Professor in Gender, Development and Globilisation, and Dr Hakan Sandal-Wilson as Assistant Professor in Gender, Peace and Security.
Transnational 'Anti-Gender' Movements and Resistance conference discussed on Feminism, Fascism and the Future podcast
A new episode of the Feminism, Fascism and the Future podcast recaps and the experience of engaging with thinkers, activists, academics, and feminists fighting the anti-gender movement across the globe.
Dr Holvikivi publishes new book Fixing Gender: The Paradoxical Politics of Training Peacekeepers
LSE Gender Assistant Professor and PhD alum Dr Aiko Holvikivi has published a new book with Oxford University Press.
Drawing on queer and postcolonial feminist thought,Fixing Gender examines the contradictory politics of gender training, arguing that we need to develop the analytical tools to grapple with paradoxical practices that are simultaneously good and bad feminist politics.
Doctoral researcher, Senel Wanniarachchi, published in the
Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Sri LankaSenel co-authored the chapter 'Politicizing ‘the Virtual’: Examining the Internet on the Intersections of Gender and Sexuality in Sri Lanka'. The chapter is open access and can be read here.
Professor Madhok published in The Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Citizenship
Professor Sumi Madhok contributed an afterword to the handbook entitled 'Some Notes on Anti-imperial Epistemic Justice'. The full publication can be accessed here.
Dr Karakuş published in American Ethnologist
Dr Emrah Karakuş' article 'Queer debt: The affective politics of security and intimacy in the sex work economy of Kurdish Turkey' has been published in American Ethnologist and is available open access here.
Dr Holvikivi, Dr Holzberg, & Dr Ojeda published new edited collection Transnational Anti-Gender Politics: Feminist Solidarity in Times of Global Attacks
The book, which is a part of the Thinking Gender in Transnational Times series from Palgrave Macmillan, is now available here. It covers a wide range of fields, including reproductive health and rights, VAWG, and sexual and higher education; makes a strong argument for adopting a transnational feminist perspective to understanding anti-gender; and includes contributions from over 14 different countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Dr Plomien and Professor Zherebkina cited in Central Eastern European & Diasporic (CEED) Feminisms Bibliography
"The CEED Feminisms Bibliography distils conversations and references offered by the CEED Feminisms research network, comprising over 40 practitioners based in and beyond the UK, who participated in a British Art Network supported programme after joining the project through an open call in May 2023...Aiming to share and pass on the CEED Feminisms research network's conversations, the impetus for the bibliography responds to an asymmetry in the translation and circulation of feminist writing coming from Central Eastern Europe, or by writers in the diaspora, with many more feminist texts travelling West to East historically. Copies will be distributed to a number of libraries across the UK and in Central Eastern Europe." Read more about the project here.
Professor Irina Zherebkina contributes to Forum on Gender and War in Ukraine
The contents of the forum were published in volume 42, issue 1 of the journal feministische studien and can be accessed here.
PhD alum, Dr Tomás Ojeda, published in Studies in Gender and Sexuality
His article, The Anxiety to Know: Producing Trans as a "Sensitive" Issue in LGBTIQ+ Diversity Training, was published in volume 25, issue 1 of the journal and can be accessed here.
Dr Novović published in WIREs Climate Change
Gloria's co-written article Greener through gender: What climate mainstreaming can learn from gender mainstreaming has been published open access in WIREs Climate Change and draws on an analysis of 57 policy, strategy, and guidance documents of United Nations agencies.
Professors Clare Hemmings and Sumi Madhok published in special issue of Women's Studies Quarterly
Their piece How are gender studies scholars resisting anti-gender politics in the United Kingdom? has been published in the WSQ special issue titled 'Pandemonium' which includes numerous other interviews and articles that will be of interest to feminist organisers, activists and academics.
Professor Hemmings published in Signs' 'Short Takes' on Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler
Clare Hemmings' piece 'Fantasy and Fear: Reading Who’s Afraid of Gender? in Our Perilous Times' was published in Short Takes: Provocations on Public Feminism, an open-access feature of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, offers brief comments from prominent feminists about a book that has shaped popular conversations about feminist issues.
Professor Jackson awarded Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship
Congratulations to our Advisory Board member, Professor Emily Jackson, who has been awarded the prestigious Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for their project 'Law and the Making of Life'.
Professor Zherebkina published by syg.ma
Visiting scholar and LSE researcher-at-risk, Irina Zherebkina, has had her article about the war in Ukraine, What Kind of Victory Do We Need?, published in the social and political section of the online blog site, syg.ma.
Professor Madhok published in the 'International Journal of Human Rights'
Sumi Madhok's article Anti-imperial epistemic justice and re-making rights and justice ‘after rights’ has been published open access and is available to all to read.
Dr Parmanand published in 'TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia'
Sharmila's article Shape-shifting and Strategic In/visibility: Comparing Sex Work Activism in Singapore and the Philippines is available now via institutional access.
Professor Madhok and Professor Hemmings interviewed by the 'Finnish Journal of Foreign Affairs'
The translated title of the article is 'Gender issues became an obsession for authoritarians - anti-gender movements are networking in all directions' and includes information about their AHRC and LSE KEI-funded research network, '' alongside the work of other global scholars and activists working on 'anti-gender' issues.
Congratulations to the winners of the LSE Excellence in Education awards!
Please join us in congratulating the following Department of Gender Studies colleagues on their 2023 Excellence in Education awards:
Rob Kirkland
Milo Miller
Catherine Perry
Dr Holvikivi Published in 'Territory, Politics, Governance'
Aiko Holvikivi's article Migrant and refugee activists as security agents: openings in the Women, Peace and Security agenda was published in the journal's special issue entitled, 'Transnational assemblages and the production of security knowledge'. You can find the full article here.
Dr Miller's book Speak Out! is now available
Published with Verso Books, Speak Out!: The Brixton Black Women's Group brings together the writings of Brixton Black Women's Group for the first time, in a landmark collection. Read the recent Guardian article about it here.
Order the book through Verso and stay tuned for a discussion event in February 2024!
Dr Rodriguez Published in 'Social Justice'
SM Rodriguez' article Forging Black Safety in the Carceral Diaspora: Perverse Criminalization, Sexual Corrections, and Connection-Making in a Death World was published in a special edition of the journal, Social Justice. For digital access you can go through the journal link above, or via an institutional login here.
PhD Researcher, Senel Wanniarachchi, published in 'Cultural Politics'
Senel's article Imagining the Nation as a "Web" of Animals: Affective Entanglements between Animality and (Nation)alism has been published in Volume 19, Issue 2 of the journal 'Cultural Politics' which you can read here.
Prof Emeritus Mary Evans Published Blog for Royal Irish Academy
The blog, which is entitled 'The Politics of Cultural Loss', has been published as a part of the academy's Analysis and Research: Ireland North and South (ARINS) series. Centring on nostalgia and identity from British and Irish perspectives, the blog draws attention to the "dangerous and mythical narrative of cultural loss". Read it here.
Dr Plomien Published in 'New Political Economy'
Ania Plomien and Gregory Schwartz' article Market-reach into social reproduction and transnational labour mobility in Europe has been published open-access in 'New Political Economy' and can be found here.
PhD Researcher Alanah Mortlock published in European Journal of Women's Studies
Mortlock's review of Marquis Bey's book Black Trans Feminism (2022) was published in Volume 29, Issue 4 of the European Journal of Women's Studies. Read it in full here.
Dr Hamilton published in the Green European Journal
Carrie Hamilton's article Sex Work in Europe Between Decriminalisation and Prohibition was published in their digital section on Welfare and Social Issues. You can read the full article here.
Dr Miller published in City: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action
Milo Miller's article '"We kind of created our own scene": a geography of the Brixton Rebel Dykes' was published as part of the journal's Special Feature: Critical geographies of occupation, trespass and squatting - Volume 27, Issue 1-2, 2023
Dr Pandit named winner of the BISA Michael Nicholson Thesis Prize
The Michael Nicholson Thesis Prize is awarded annually for the best doctoral thesis in International Studies. For a full description of Niharika's research please see here.
Recording of Dr Parmanand's presentation 'Ethical and Methodological Issues in Sex Work Research' now available
LSE Gender Fellow, Dr Sharmila Parmanand, gave a 20-minute presentation on Tuesday 9 May as a part of the LSE Research Showcase 2023. You can watch the full recording here.
Dr Rodriguez Published in 'QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking'
SM Rodriguez, H Rakes, Kennedy Healy & Liat Ben-Moshe have co-produced an essay entitled Depathologization as Healing Justice which has been published in Volume 9, Number 3 of 'QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking' and can be found here.
Dr Pandit interviewed in LSE Research Series
"I hope that my research is able to shine light upon how violent state projects are not simply confined to large-scale politics but deeply alter the minutiae of everyday life in violent ways."
Check out the whole interview here: Examining coloniality, occupation and anticolonial feminist possibilities: a Q&A with Niharika Pandit
AHRC-funded project Jill Craigie: Film Pioneer winning awards and gaining recognition
The four-year project has produced an award-winning film and LSE Gender's Dr Sadie Wearing has co-authored a forthcoming book containing the findings and reflections from the research.
For more details, please see the dedicated project website here.
Dr Nazanin Shahrokni has been promoted to Associate Professor!
A big congratulations to Nazanin for this deserved recognition of her hard work and many talents. Learn more about Dr Shahrokni and her research interests here.
LSE Gender is now hiring for two positions:
Department Manager: Full-time - Applications due 28 May
Research Manager: Full-time - Applications due 4 June
Congratulations to all of the winners of this year's LSESU Teaching Awards!
We are so thankful to our amazing students for nominating our teachers year after year. If only we could nominate the gender cohort for being the best students!
This year we offer our specific congratulations to the LSE Gender winners of the Class Teacher award:
Dr Niharika Pandit
Dr Milo Miller
Dr Hasret Cetinkaya
Dr Maria Rashid
Dr Pandit Published in 'Catalyst'
Niharika Pandit's article ‘Window: Spatializing Occupation’ was published as part of the journal's Special Section on Domestication of War: Volume 9, Number 1 (2023).
From tattoos to food: rethinking the archive in teaching and research
In this new LSE Higher Education blog post, Prof Clare Hemmings (LSE Gender) and Dr Sara Salem (LSE Sociology) discuss the joys and challenges of teaching archives. In it, they reflect on the different forms archives can take, emotions they evoke, and the difficulty of assessing student engagement with them.
Dr Holvikivi Published in 'Signs'
Aiko Holvikivi's article 'Contending with Paradox: Feminist Investments in Gender Training' has been published in Volume 48, Number 3 of the Spring 2023 publication of Signs
Prof Hemmings Published in 'Memory Studies'
Clare Hemmings' open access article 'We thought she was a witch’: Gender, class and whiteness in the familial ‘memory archive’ has been published in Volume 16, Issue 2 of Memory Studies and is availablehere.
LSE Gender Youtube Channel Now Public
We are so pleased to announce that our YouTube channel is now available to the public! Please enjoy a variety of event and workshop recordings, alumni insights, and book launches from the last couple of years.
As we hold events, more recordings will be uploaded so make sure to follow and subscribe here.
Dr Shahrokni and Prof Hemmings Published in 50th Anniversary Edition of Feminist Studies
Hemmings starts off the celebratory issue with her article "But I thought we’d already won that argument!": "Anti-gender" Mobilizations, Affect, and Temporality and Shahrokni finishes the issue with In Her Name: (Re)Imagining Feminist Solidarities in the Aftermath of the Iran Protests (News and Views).
These articles are available on Project MUSE.
'Vernacular Rights Cultures' Receives Awards and Recognition
Prof Sumi Madhok's book is attracting attention for its innovative contributions to human rights discourse and politics of subalternity. For more details see here.
It is with profound sadness that we remember the life and work of our friend and colleague, Hazel Johnstone, who died on 14th March. Read Mary Evans' tribute .
Dr Hasret Cetinkaya Published in Feminist Legal Studies
Cetinkaya's open access article 'The Coloniality of Contemporary Human Rights Discourses on ‘Honour’ in and Around the United Nations' has been published in Feminist Legal Studies and is available here.
Dr Sadie Wearing Published in Critical Dementia Studies
Wearing's chapter 'Frames of Dementia, grieving otherwise in The Father, Relic and Supernova: Representing dementia in recent film' will be published in the 1st edition of the book Critical Dementia Studies: An Introduction on 15 March, 2023. Access it here.
NEW Programme: MSc Gender, Rights & Human Rights
Here by popular demand, the newest degree track in the Department of Gender Studies is now accepting applications for September 2023.
Learn more about the programme here.
The Department of Gender Studies and the Scholar at Risk Programme at LSE are delighted to announce that Professor Irina Zherebkina has been awarded a British Academy Researcher at Risk Fellowship from March 2023.
Read more about her and the work she will be doing .
ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship - Apply Now
We are now accepting ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship applications - deadline of 1pm on Friday February 24, 2023. You will need to make contact with your prospective mentor first.
For any Department queries see here and email Dr Kate Steward at k.steward@lse.ac.uk but see here for more queries about the Scheme.
Dr Pandit wins Feminist Theory Essay Prize
We are pleased to congratulate LSE Fellow and Gender Studies graduate Dr. Niharika Pandit on winning the 2022 Feminist Theory Essay Prize for her article "Re-membering: Tracing Epistemic Implications of Feminist and Gendered Politics Under Military Occupation". Her work, which will be published in Feminist Theory in 2023, focuses on contrasting approaches to feminist organizing in Kashmir and the relationship between feminist theory, governmentality, and decolonial praxis.
Methodologies for Imagining an Alternative Politics of (Human) Rights
The Call for Papers for this workshop is now available and submissions are due on 1 February 2023. This event will take place on 12 June 2023 at LSE and will include a keynote lecture by Professor Nikita Dhawan (TU Dresden)
Statement on Recent Media Reports
Professor Wendy Sigle's statement on recent media coverage concerning the Department of Gender Studies can be found .
We are delighted to announce that the Arts & Humanities Research Council funded Transnational 'Anti-Gender' Movements and Resistance: Narratives and Interventions project,led by Professor Clare Hemmings and Professor Sumi Madhok, has launched today. For further details of the project, please click.
We're thrilled to share details of prizes, awards and nominations for LSE Gender faculty and PhD researchers this year, including the LSESU Award for Departmental Excellence.
We're delighted to announce that two of our Professors, Clare Hemmings and Sumi Madhok, have been awarded an Arts & Humanities Research Council network grant for Transnational 'Anti-Gender' Movements and Resistance: Narratives and Interventions
The Call for Papers for this hybrid symposium is now available. This event will take place online and in-person at LSE on 27th May 2022, and is part of The Sociological Review Seminar Series.Registration to attend online is now open
The Call for Papers for this year's LSE Gender Annual Conference, Death World(ing)s, is now available. The CfP is available here and more details on the conference .
This year's student-led workshop, in association with LSE Gender and the PhD Academy, is about navigating, disrupting, and exploring liminal spaces between researcher and researched.
The CfP is available here
This workshop will be held on Zoom in Autumn 2022 - details to follow
We, the undersigned, stand in support of and in solidarity with our Ukrainian students and colleagues and express our concern for all Ukrainians. Read more .
March 2022
It is with great sadness we collectively remember and pay tribute to the life and work of Dr. Amal Kabesh, who died this week aged 67. Read more .
January 2022
In recent weeks, a vicious disinformation campaign has been launched in online spaces against the Organisers of the Aurat March in Pakistan, after they organized peaceful rallies and events in different parts of the country on the occasion of 8 March, International Women’s Day this year.
We are extremely concerned, and we call on feminist scholars, activists and allies to raise their voices in solidarity with Aurat March in Pakistan.
March 2021
A World In Revolution
10 June 2021
Online Conference - Call for ProposalsSubmissions are due on March 7, 2021. We will aim to notify all applicants by April 16, 2021. Please email your queries and abstracts to: aworldinrevolutionconference@gmail.com
Deadline for submissions has now passed. For information on the workshop please email gender@lse.ac.uk.
We at the Department of Gender Studies unequivocally state our collective support for trans and non-binary people. We reaffirm our commitment to trans and non-binary rights and will continue to strongly support efforts to resist such clear violations of human dignity.
June 2020
Our response to the racist killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor in the US, and the continued and systemic brutality of the police deployed to quash anti-racist protests.
June 2020
Our faculty and PhD students are writing about the politics of COVID-19.
June 2020
The Department of Gender Studies stands in solidarity with colleagues participating in the UCU industrial action over pay, workload, equality, casualisation.February 2020
Haunting Feminism: Encounters with Lesbian Ghosts
A special issue of Feminist Theory edited by Ilana Eloit and Clare HemmingsFebruary 2020
January 2020
See also an Engenderings blog post on the history of similar attacks in Brazil from last year
Please read by The Department of Gender Studies, LSE - 18th October 2018.
For more information and to give your views on the consultation, click here
The Times Higher this week reported on the Hungarian Government pushing forward with its plans to ban Gender Studies Masters programmes at both ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences and the Central European University (CEU). This is a clear attack on academic freedom that the Department of Gender Studies condemns. Gender Studies is an internationally recognised area of interdisciplinary study and its targeting is clearly ideological.
There have been a range of such attacks on Gender Studies programmes, faculty teaching in the field, and individuals who are gender non-conformist across Europe, in the US and in Latin America in recent years. These attacks are aligned with right-wing populist agendas that naturalise power relations between men and women and see women only as home-makers and carers. Such attacks link anti-migrant, racist, homophobic and sexist ideologies in the promotion of undemocratic, nationalist agendas and should be strongly resisted.
See an Engenderings blog post on the history of such attacks in Brazil from last year
And please sign this university teachers' petition:
Clare Hemmings writes:
"The Department of Gender Studies was delighted to be able to offer a week-long intensive course for PhD students across the LSE, from SOAS, UCL and Goldsmiths on ‘Intersectional Politics’ in May.
This experimental course featured the work of our Centennial Professor, Kimberlé Crenshaw, who developed the concept of ‘intersectionality’ in a Critical Legal Studies context in the late 1980s. The course allowed students to follow the development of both Prof. Crenshaw's work and the many 'lives of intersectionality' since its inception. Students were delighted to engage in seminar discussions of texts, listen to lectures, and develop group and individual projects based on their own research.
There were several things that stuck out for me as memorable. First was Prof. Crenshaw's generosity in talking to and engaging student projects over the week as a whole. Second was the importance of bringing together research students from across the LSE (from Gender, Media, Social Policy, Sociology and Geography) with students in Sociology and Media from Goldsmiths, Architecture from UCL, and Gender Studies from SOAS: this really made for a fruitful engagement and was a testimony to the value of reaching beyond institutional boundaries. Third was the hospitality of the PhD Academy, who offered their lovely space for the week long course, provided a reception and lunches, and were on hand to deal with any problems.
Many thanks to all involved with the course at design, research and delivery levels, particularly Hazel Johnstone (Gender) and Loraine Evans (PhD Academy). "
LSE Students' Union Teaching Excellence Awards 2018
These awards allow students to nominate and celebrate the staff who have made a difference and enhanced their experiences during their time at LSE.
The awards this year led to over 900 individual nominations, with over 400 members of staff being nominated in 7 categories of awards. After careful consideration the panel has recognised 1 winner, 2-5 runners-up and 4-10 highly commended staff members in each category.
We are proud to announce and congratulate the following members of Faculty that have been recognised from our Department:
Runner up in the Award for Sharing Subject Knowledge - Aisling Swaine
Highly Commended in the Award for Excellent Feedback and Communication - Ania Plomien
Runner up in the Award for Research Guidance and Support - Jacob Breslow
Highly Commended in the Award for Inspirational Teaching - Clare Hemmings and Jacob Breslow
In the picture to the left, you can see the Winners of the Best Teacher Award for their teaching of the GI424 Gender Theory Course.
(Top L to R) Emma Spruce, Julia Hartviksen, Jacob Breslow, Jacqui Gibbs
(Bottom L to R) Aiko Holvikivi, Aura Lehtonen
Considering Emma Goldman - New Book by Clare Hemmings
In Considering Emma Goldman Clare Hemmings examines the significance of the anarchist activist and thinker for contemporary feminist politics. see more
Clare will be discussing and launching her new book on 5:30 - 7:00pm, LSE
Read a review of the of the publication here
Read an interview with the Author here
Conflict-Related Violence against Women - New Book by Aisling Swaine
By comparatively assessing three conflict-affected jurisdictions (Liberia, Northern Ireland and Timor-Leste), Conflict-Related Violence against Women empirically and theoretically expands current understanding of the form and nature of conflict-time harms impacting women. see more
Aisling will be launching her book as part of a panel discussion on l 6:30 - 8:00pm , LSE
Under-represented, underpaid, and over-exploited: economic policy remains sexist - New Blog Article by Diane Perrons
Gender inequality exists in the UK, despite half a century’s worth of efforts to the contrary, argues Diane Perrons, co-director of the LSE’s Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power. She writes that the gender pay gap has declined, but men continue to be over-represented among full-time workers and in high-paid jobs, while women are at a greater risk of poverty. She argues that gender-sensitive macroeconomic policies and gender-responsive budgeting are some of the changes that will help avoid another century slipping by without us achieving gender equality.
UCU Strike: Solidarity in Times of Crisis
The Department of Gender Studies stands in solidarity with colleagues participating in the UCU industrial action over pensions
We support our striking colleagues because:
We do not accept the proposed reductions in the value and security of pensions. This is an unnecessary attack on a shared good which will leave everyone who pays into the USS worse off, especially those at the beginning of their careers.
We understand the issue of pensions (as well as pay) to be a gendered and intersectional matter affecting women and minorities more than other workers. Erosion of pension security disproportionately affects early career and precarious workers.
We value the right to collective voice of university workers whose intellectual, pastoral, and administrative labour makes the very existence of the higher education sector possible.
We back our colleagues and UCU in the call for employers to return to meaningful negotiations and lament the lack of political participation represented by LSE union members' failure to return their ballots.
As part of this solidarity, we will not hold public lectures or research seminars on strike days.
Signed: Jacob Breslow, Helen Groves, Clare Hemmings, Marsha Henry, Hazel Johnstone, Naila Kabeer, Ece Kocabicak, Sumi Madhok, Anouk Patel-Campillo, Diane Perrons, Ania Plomien, Leticia Sabsay, Wendy Sigle, Emma Spruce, Kate Steward, Aisling Swaine and Sadie Wearing.
New Advisory Committee Member
We are delighted to say that Imaobong Umoren is a new member of our Advisory Committee.
Imaobong is Assistant Professor of International History of Gender at the London School of Economics. She received her undergraduate and master’s degrees at King’s College London before moving to the University of Oxford where she gained her DPhil and spent a year serving as a Fulbright scholar at Harvard University. She subsequently took up a Career Development Fellowship jointly held with Pembroke College and the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities research programme Women in the Humanities.
Imaobong Umoren’s research focuses on the history of race, gender, and migration in the Caribbean and wider African diaspora in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She has published chapters in edited volumes and articles in Journal of Women’s History, Callaloo: A journal of African diaspora arts and letters, History Compass and History of Women in the Americas. Her first book about the international travels of a group of African American and Caribbean women intellectuals titled, Race Women Internationalists: Activist-Intellectuals and Global Freedom Struggles is due to be published in 2018 by the University of California Press.
Aisling Swaine participated in a research conference on "Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and the Worlds of Their Making" held at The George Washington University, Washington DC on January 19th and 20th.
The conference brought together a collection of academic authors for an edited book project which specifically explores the relationship between the fields of human rights and humanitarianism through philosophical, historical, political science, legal and social science lenses. Aisling presented a paper, and forthcoming chapter, that maps the trajectory that the issue of violence against women (VAW) has taken through the development of these fields, identifying the productive tensions that arise in the areas of divergence and convergence in responses to VAW that are evoked in the space of a humanitarian crisis now commonly shared by human rights and humanitarian actors. Her paper examines who gets to decide whether a humanitarian or human rights response is priority in a particular scenario, the humanitarians, the human rights workers or women themselves?
We are delighted to announce various members of the faculty’s recently published work:
On Vernacular Rights Cultures and the Political Imaginaries of Haq - Sumi Madhok
The Political Imaginary of Sexual Freedom - Leticia Sabsay
Cedaw and the security council: enhancing women's rights in conflict - Aisling Swaine
Considering Emma Goldman - Clare Hemmings
The Department of Gender Studies staff and PhDs won a number of awards in the 2017 LSESU Student-led Teaching Excellence Awards. We want to say a huge thank you to the students that nominated us!
Click for more info.
The Persistence of Gender Inequality - New Book by Mary Evans
In this engaging new book, Mary Evans argues that optimistic narratives of progress and emancipation have served to obscure long-term structural inequalities between women and men, structural inequalities which are not only about gender but also about general social inequality.
Click above to read the statement by Clare Hemmings, Director of the Department of Gender Studies, and LSE Library's bold women project.
LSE’s Excellence in Education Awards are made to staff who have demonstrated outstanding teaching contribution and educational leadership in their departments. In this series, we talk to some of this year's award winners to find out more about their excellent teaching and the different approaches they take to working with students.
Professor Diane Perrons, LSE Gender
Professor Wendy Sigle, LSE Gender
Dr Sadie Wearing, LSE Gender
Dr Ania Plomien, LSE Gender
Academics abroad: Dr Sumi Madhok gave one of the keynote lectures The Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET) conference in Lund on "Modern Matters: Negotiating the Future of Everyday Life in South Asia" on Wednesday 21 September entitled "Is a Non-Hegemonic Human Rights Talk Possible?"
The EU and gender equality: better off in or out?
Dr Ania Plomien comments on the UK Referendum, exploring questions of inequality, gender and im/migration
Gender Institute wins LSESU Departmental Excellence Award
At the student-led teaching awards at LSE, the Gender Institute and our staff won a number of awards.
Thank you to all the students who nominated us!
What does the EU Referendum mean for women?
On 8 March Policy Network hosted an event focused on women and the upcoming EU referendum. Panelists Ania Plomien from the GI along with Emma Reynolds MP, Cordelia Hay, Sam Smethers, Catherine Mayer, and chair Ayesha Hazarika considered what EU membership means for women in Britain and looked at the ways in which progressive politics can engage with women in the run up to 23 June referendum. Organised by GI alumna Emma Kinloch. Audio recording is available from
https://soundcloud.com/policy-network/what-does-the-eu-referendum-mean-for-women
Investing in the Care Economy - report launched
A gender analysis of employment stimulus in seven OECD countries, with contributions from Diane Perrons, Director of the GI, and Zofka Łapniewska, a former GI Visiting Fellow.
The findings from the LSE's Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power will be launched at an event on Tuesday 13th October at LSE. The event is free and open to all - no tickets required. The Commission is examining issues within politics, law, the economy, and media and culture, and it is co-directed by Professors Diane Perrons and Nicola Lacey (pictured).
British Council publication on working with women and girls
The British Council has published Naila Kabeer's study on 'Women and Girls: the British Council approach' and this is now available online. In this study Naila explores how women and girls can be empowered to promote gender equality through public life, sport and peacekeeping.
Women's claims-making project: Naila Kabeer's contribution now available online
Naila Kabeer's thematic study: 'Women Workers and the Politics of Claims-Making in a Globalizing Economy' is now available online. This study was prepared for the UNRISD project on 'When and Why do States Respond to Women's Claims? Understanding Gender-Egalitarian Policy Change in Asia'.
'Cohesion is key to fostering gender inequality' by Professor Diane Perrons
Professor Diane Perrons (Director of the Gender Institute) has written an article for the European Progressive Observatory. The article, 'Cohesion is key to fostering gender inequality', discusses how women have been adversely affected by changes in the labour market wrought by neo-liberalism, while their social position means they have often been hardest hit by post-crisis austerity policies.
Professor Diane Perrons has contribited to the European Commission's report on 'Visions for Gender Equality'
The European Commission has published a report on the 'Visions for Gender Equality', in which Professor Diane Perrons, Director of the Gender Institute and Professor of Economic Geography and Gender Studies, has written a chapter. Her chapter is 'Gender equality in times of inequality, crisis and austerity: towards gender-sensitive macroeconomic policies'. The report can be accessed online here.
The Gender Institute welcomes the opening of the new International Inequalities Institute
Diane Perrons (Director of the Gender Institute) and Naila Kabeer (Professor of Gender and Development at the Gender Institute) joined Thomas Piketty (Pictured and Centennial Professor at LSE’s new International Inequalities Institute), Lisa McKenzie (Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at LSE) and Stephanie Seguino (Professor of Economics at the University of Vermont, USA) on a panel discussion on ‘Gender and Everyday Life’. This panel was part of the conference on ‘Inequality in the 21st Century: a Day Long Engagement with Thomas Piketty’, which took place just before the opening of the new International Inequalities Institute. The new International Inequalities Institute website is now available to access online.
The Gender Institute hosts the LSE Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power. The Commission is designed to draw on LSE research and external experts to provide theoretical and empirical knowledge to inform public and policy debates in the UK concerned with understanding and addressing the complex and multidimensional character of inequality and power imbalances between women and men. The Commission is examining issues within politics, law, the economy, and media and culture, and it is co-directed by Professors Diane Perrons and Nicola Lacey (pictured).
Professor Diane Perrons led a public lecture on 'Gender, Inequality and Power' to introduce the Commission. Please click here to access the podcast of this lecture.