November 14th-15th , 2024

(Anastasia Barone, Giada Bonu Rosenkranz and Donatella della Porta)

Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore

Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, Piazza Strozzi  5th floor

(free participation subject to availability)

Over the past decade, feminist epistemology and the feminist perspective on methodologies has been the focus of renewed interest, also due to the new wave of mobilizations at the global level against gender-based violence and inequality. The international conference “Feminism as a Method” aims to explore the contribution of feminist theories and approaches to epistemology, methodology and methods in the social sciences. It brings together scholars from different disciplines and areas of research: sociology, anthropology, history, political science, geography, political ecology, cultural studies, science and technology, philosophy, and art.

PROGRAM

Thursday 14th November

10.00 – 11.00 Aula Altana

Opening and welcoming

11.00 – 13.00 Aula Altana

What’s the Matter with Emotion? Affect and the Question of Composition 

Keynote Lecture by Deborah B. Gould, Professor and Chair of Sociology at the UC Santa Cruz

13.00 – 14.00

Lunch Break

14.00 – 15.30 Aula Altana 

Panel 1: Feminist, Political and Auto-ethnography

Chair: Daniela Chironi (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Discussant: Desiré Gaudioso (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Serena Fiorletta (Sapienza Università di Roma): Inside out ethnography

Rosario Freire Saray (Scuola Normale Superiore): Weaving feminisms, unweaving myself. A self-reflection on the experience of multi-sited ethnographic research

Michela Fusaschi (Università di Roma Tre): Feminist and queer ethnography under attack. Why gender remains a necessary analytic category in anthropology

Mel Kalfanti (University of Thessaly): Learning the language of violence: autoethnographic reflections from a body in transition

Mariella Popolla (Università di Cagliari) e Luisa Stagi (Università di Genova): Inhabiting the Crossroads: A Comparison of Two Ethnographic Practices

14.00 – 15.30 Aula Simone Pollaiolo

Panel 2: Feminist Approaches to Social Reproduction and Political Economy

Chair: Virgina Fusco (Università di Bologna)

Discussant: Aurora Perego (Università di Trento)

Lucia Amorosi (Scuola Normale Superiore), Annalisa Dordoni (Università di Trento), and Luisa De Vita (Sapienza Università di Rome) Intersectionality and labour studies: bridging theory and methodology

Greta Rossi (Scuola Normale Superiore) Striking social reproduction: contested genealogies of the feminist strike in Italy

Gemma Gasseau (Scuola Normale Superiore) and Madeleine Moore (Bielefeld University): The Global Water Crisis: whose crisis? A feminist approach

15.30 – 16.00 Break

16.00 – 17.30 Aula Altana

Panel 3: Action and Participatory Research

Chair: Maria Nicola Stragapede (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Discussant: Irina Aguiari (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Mayo Fuster Morell (Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society in the Harvard University): Triangulating methodological innovations trends: Feminist perspective, Action participation research, and Digital commons open knowledge. The case of Matchimpulsa a feminist transversal program to support and study the digitalization of social economy in Barcelona 

Giulia Garofalo Geymonat (Ca’ Foscari Università di Venezia) and Giulia Selmi (Università di Parma): Dangerous relationships: feminism, academic research and sex work

Isabel Gutierrez Sanchez (Spanish National Research Council): Compositional Methodologies: Experimental Ethnographic Engagements in Feminist Activist Research

Serena Federica Scorzoni (Scuola Superiore Meridionale), Daniela Pianezzi (Università di Verona), Luigi Maria Sicca (Università Federico II di Napoli and Scuola Superiore Meridionale): Affective Practices and Resistance: Advancing the Emancipation and Health of Gender Minorities in Organizational Settings

Lucrezia Alice Moschetta (Università di Padova): Doing research with ageing migrant caregivers in Italy

16.00 – 17.30 Aula Simone Pollaiolo

Chair: Greta Rossi (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Discussant: Stella Christou (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Valentina Bortolami (Università di Padova): Oppression-Related Emotions and Feminist Knowledge

Danielle Pullan (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, IMPRS-SPCE, University of Cologne), Payton Gannon (Georgetown University), and Anna Crawford (University of Colorado): How to do interviews related to abortion

Nicoletta Guglielmelli (Università di Milano) and Chiara Perin (Università di Genova): Sincerely, your awkward surplus. Dealing with methodological, positionality, and emotionally embodied challenges in situated digital ethnography.

Ophelia Nicole Berva (University of Geneva): Feeling the border: towards an emotional sensitivity in concept analysis

Beatriz Ribeiro (Nova University of Lisbon): Am I Ok? An Autoethnography on the Emotional Work Behind Researching Rape

17.30 – 19.00 Aula Simone Pollaiolo

Panel 5: Digital Feminist Research 

Chair: Alessia Pensabene (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Discussant: Guendalina Simoncini & Federica Guardigli (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Anita Fuentes and Elisa Garcia-Mingo (Complutense University of Madrid): Feminist epistemology and ethics of care to social digital research: studying TikTok misogyny in Spain

Christina Kaili (University of Cyprus): Feminist Blogging as a Method of Resistance and Knowledge Production: A Case Study of Arab Women Activists

Adriani Tsili (University of Cyprus):  Stories of morality and emotionality, On Repeat

Rachele Reschiglian (Università di Padova): Embracing Research Brave Space through Zine-Making: Transformative Methodology in the Study of Digital Sexual Intimacies and Queer Subjectivities

17.30 – 19.00 Aula Altana

Panel 6: Feminism and Academia: Conflicts and Potentials

Chair: Elisa Bellé (Science Po)

Discussant: Marta Panighel (Università di Torino)

Sofia Fiore (Università di Salerno) and Laura Verrienti (Università di Bari): Between academia and activisms – situated approach at differences and difficulties

Daniela Chironi (Scuola Normale Superiore) and Giulia Vicentini (Università di Napoli Parthenope): Political science and feminist epistemology: An assessment of gender differences in methodological approaches in Europe

Elisa Garcia-Mingo and Silvia Diaz Fernandez (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Feminist sociologists under attack: the manosphere strikes back 

Friday 15th November

9.30 – 11.00 Aula Altana

Panel 7: Doing Ethnography with the Far Right 

Chair: Anna Lavizzari (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

Discussant: Francesca Scrinzi (University of Glasgow) & Noemi Ciarniello (LUISS University)

Elisa Bellè (Sciences Po) and Olivia Burchietti (Scuola Normale Superiore), Proximity and distance in ethnographic research: The prism of emotions as a feminist approach to knowledge

Miranda Christou (University of Cyprus), Entering abominable spaces: the ethics of feminist ethnography with extreme right-wing groups

Maddalena Gretel Cammelli, Chiara Calzana, Marta Panighel (Università di Torino), Investigating fascist practices through the lens of feminist ethnography

Aletta Diefenbach (Freie Universitat Berlin), Feminist epistemologies and its methodological potentials for interaction-based research on the (far) right 

9.30 – 11.00 Aula Simone Pollaiolo 

Panel 8: Decolonial and Postcolonial Approaches in Feminist Research 

Chair and discussant: Federica Stagni and Francesca Fortarezza (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Maria Nicola Stragapede and Guendalina Simoncini (Scuola Normale Superiore), The legitimacy to speak. Sisterhood and Feminist Solidarity beyond Borders 

Franca Marquardt (Scuola Normale Superiore), Disobedient Knowledge: Practicing Decolonial and Feminist Methodologies in Anthropology

Maria Nobre (Sapienza Università di Roma), Women’s resistance to the border: a look into solidarity and community as subversion to the current migration regime

Desiré Gaudioso (Scuola Normale Superiore), Intersectionality Meets Feminist New Materialism: Developing an Intersectional Diffractive Methodology to Analyze Migrant Women’s Experiences of Violence and Resistance

Sophia Wathne (Scuola Normale Superiore), Social movements as colleagues not objects

Bahar Oghalai (University of Koblenz), Transformative Journeys of Iranian Feminist Activists in Germany: Reframing Feminisms through Migration

11.30 – 13.00 Aula Altana

The Racialised Atmospherics of Activist Spaces
Keynote Lecture by Akwugo Emejulu, Professor of Sociology at the University of Sheffield

13.00 – 14.00

Lunch Break

14.00 – 15.30 Aula Altana

Panel 9: Positionality and Self-Reflexivity in Social Research 

Chair: Stella Christou (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Discussant: Rosario Freire Saray (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Gaia Giuliani (Centro de Estudos Sociais, University of Coimbra), For a radical feminist political project: “partire da sé” and challenge power relations

Alina Jung (Kiel University, CAU), The Personal is Political but is it Academic? Researching unintended Pregnancies through and with an intended Pregnancy. An affective Autoethnography.

Ecem Nazlı Üçok (Charles University, Prague), Transformative activism and feminist solidarity: A qualitative study on the personal narratives of Polish activist women

Chiara Paglialonga (Università di Milano Bicocca) – Critical, feminist and crip. Theoretical, methodological, ethical and political considerations from a research experience on the intimate and sexual life of persons with disabilities.

Melina Bonerz, Maria del Carmine Mayer and Alice Farneti (Belefield University), Navigating and making sense of field work on activism through a feminist lens

14.00 – 15.30 Aula Simone Pollaiolo 

Panel 10: Epistemology and Feminist Theory

Chair: Isabel Hernandez Pepe (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Discussant: Federica Merenda (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)

Nivea Canalli Bona (Boston University)  and Màira de Souza Nunes (Universidade Federal do Paraná), Women erased from knowledge production in Latin America: how to include gender discussion in Media literacy methods

Sandra Burchi (IRES Toscana), Linda Bertelli (IMT Lucca)  and Cecilia Canziani (Accademia delle Belle Arti, L’Aquila), Relationship as a method

Antonia De Vita and Arianna Sechi (Università di Verona), Interdependent bodies. The connections among human beings, animal species, and inorganic matter

Ilaria Santoemma (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna), From bodies to matter. Thinking agency and biology from a feminist perspective

Vittorio Tavagnutti, (Independent Researcher), Intersectional feminist aspirations and practices and the reality of ‘doing research’: critical moments, dilemmas and emotional encounters when researching Roma and Sinti activism in Italy.

15.30 – 16.00 Break

16.00 – 17.30 Aula Altana

Panel 11: Social Movements and Feminist Methods 

Chair: Federica Frazzetta (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Discussant: Alice Ferro (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Sabrina Marchetti (Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia), Daniela Cherubini (Università di Parma), The challenges of intersectionality in doing research with and about social movements

Martina Gabrielli (Università degli studi di Milano), Feminist Movements in Historical Perspective: the Wages for Housework Network through Transnational and Intersectional Lenses

Maria Santiago Prieto (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Methods, power, and the possibilities of discomfort. A roadmap towards the feminist questioning of engaged social movement research

Alessandra Brigo and Giulia Zanini (Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia), Abortion accompaniment collectives: Complexities and challenges of an engaged research

16.00 – 17.30 Aula Simone Pollaiolo 

Panel 12: Unveiling Bias and Taboos in Data Gathering, Methods and Research

Chair: Alessandra Lo Piccolo (Università di Bologna)

Discussant: Daniela Chironi (Scuola Normale Superiore)

Maria Silvia D’avolio (ZHAW – Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur), Employing feminist posi/onality to rethink architecture prac/ce and ques/on theory

Emiliana De Blasio (LUISS University)  and Donatella Selva (Università di Firenze), Data that do not comprehend: feminist data activism and gender-based violence

Elisa Garcia Mingo, Maria Santiago Prieto and Héctor Puente Bienvenido, Feminist learnings and feminist challenges in the research of sexual digital violence

Cristiana Ottaviano and Maria Sangaletti (Università di Bergamo), Assessment of the potentiality of feminist approaches in the higher education sector of Italy

Barbara Biglia (Universitat Rovira i Virgili), Jordi Bonet Martì (University of Barcelona) and Marta Luxan Serrano (UPV/EHU), Feminist activist counting

17.30 – 18.00 Aula Altana

Closing Moment