Life After Death: Feminist and Queer Perspectives on the Global Now

About the Workshop

The present feels haunted by the exhaustion of old promises: the collapse of liberal hopes, the hollowing of democracy, the erosion of care, the re-emergence of fascism, the persistence of colonial logics, and the expansion of global precarity. At the same time, new feminist and queer vocabularies of living, imagining, and organizing are taking shape—often fragile, experimental, and defiantly alive.

Life After Death: Feminist and Queer Perspectives on the Global Now brings together scholars who diagnose our moment of crisis and probe the possibilities of renewal. Drawing on feminist, queer, anti-racist, decolonial, and ecological thought, the workshop aims to think about collapse and what comes after collapse, exploring how life, care, and politics might be reconstituted from exhaustion.

Panels will address five key conjunctures shaping our global present, convened by members of the Politics and Gender Research Group, of the Institute for Political Science (IPW), at the University of Vienna.

Panels and Organizers:

1. Illiberal Biopolitics? Family, Gender, Social Reproduction, and the New Radical Right
   Convened by: Katharina Hajek
2. The Demise of Feminist Promises? Queer/Feminist Entanglements with neoliberalism and nationalism
   Convened by: Lucie Naudé
3. Life After Liberalism? Feminism, Neoliberalism, and the Politics of Abandonment
   Convened by: Dorit Geva
4. From Caring to Careless Democracy? Approaching Care through the Lens of Democracy—and Democracy through the Lens of Care
   Convened by: Ayse Dursun
5. Feminist Futurities and Futures of Feminisms
   Convened by: Firoozeh Farvardin

How to Apply

Please send your proposal to our email address: lifeafterdeath2026.ipw univie.ac at

Your submission should include:

• Abstract (max. 250 words) describing your proposed paper
• Indicate which panel you believe is a best fit for your proposed contribution
• Short bio (max. 150 words) with institutional affiliation and contact details
• Please provide a budget overview for your participation, including:
  - Estimated travel costs
  - Available financial support, if any — please indicate the amount.
  - Requested financial support, if applicable — specify the amount needed and provide details on travel costs, considering environmentally friendly options (e.g. train travel where possible).

For queries, please contact: lifeafterdeath2026.ipw@univie.ac.at