How to survive illiberal polypore science policy and laugh – Andrea Pető 

The talk discusses the lessons learned from deleting an accredited MA program in gender studies from the study list and CEU becoming an university in exile in Vienna. It offers an overview of the events and suggests new forms of resistance.

From Rising Star to Fallen Angel: A Complex Reconstruction of the Role of “Gender” in Becoming a Political Target in Hungary – Anikó Gregor

The presentation will provide a complex and provocative analysis of how and why became „gender“ a political target in Hungary. The aim is to go beyond the existing explanations (let them be either the culturalist and Western-centric „backlash“ explanation or others that emphasize the symbolic meanings of „gender“ in a neoliberal context), and shift the focus more to those historical processes in which the term has arrived and started its carrier in the academia, (feminist, and then later LGBT) activism and policy-making.

Gender Studies and Queer Theory in Russia –  Alexander Kondakov

It has been almost a decade by now as Russian government has been after gender and queer studies in universities. Although this field of research had never been very well established in post-Soviet Russia, it amassed many research centres and individual scholars by the beginning of 2010s. Yet, with a direct attack on the field, especially after the introduction of ‘gay propaganda’ law in 2013, its fate remains shaky. In this presentation, the speaker will sketch their own experience of gender and queer studies research and teaching in Russia.

Movement/countermovement interaction and instrumental framing in a multi-level world: rooting Polish lesbian and gay activism – Phillip Ayoub (co-author: Agnès Chetaille)

Drawing on fieldwork with Polish civil society actors, Phillip Ayoub and Agnès Chetaille use content analysis to trace the trajectory of the lesbian and gay (LG) movement’s frames, showing that they are shaped by ongoing movement/countermovement interactions, as well as the multi-level discursive context in which they operate.

Polarization of Society: The Example of the Expansion of EU Directives on Ensuring Human Rights of Sexual Minorities – Halyna Leontiy

This project studies the effects of EU Directives on ensuring human rights of sexual minorities (LGBTIQ) and their expansion in the context of the liberalization of sexual cultures and identities – due to the ongoing weakening of gender binaries – in five European countries, Germany, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, and Ukraine. Social and political events prove that the establishment of human rights of sexual minorities is not without conflict, especially when considered together with contemporary transformations in Europe such as migration, social change, and the 2004 enlargement of the EU.

Where do we go from here? Brief History of Gender Studies in Turkey and in Exile: (Im)Possibilities, difficulties, and opportunities – Olga Hünler

This talk will summarize the history of gender studies in Turkey with a specific focus on interferences and oppressions from the AKP government and the university administrations and GONGOs. Finally, possibilities and the challenges of „exilic gender studies“ will be discussed via the researchers‘ exilic experiences.