CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: COST Action Training School: “Increasing Resilience for young researchers of anti-gender politics and mobilizations in CCE and NME countries?”
October 29, 2025
Invitation to a Hybrid Event
November 12, 2025Call for Papers
Annual meeting of the COST Action CA23149 “After 1 Year: Current state and challenges of research on anti-gender movements”
29-30 January 2026, Amiens (France)
This annual meeting will serve as a forum to assess the progress of our collective comparative research agenda. The Action’s central aim is to analyse how anti-gender mobilizations unfold across Eastern and Central Europe (ECE) and the Near and Middle East (NME) — and to trace both region-specific dynamics and transregional linkages. We therefore particularly welcome contributions that draw explicit comparisons, identify cross-regional patterns, or explore conceptual and methodological approaches to comparison between ECE and NME contexts.
Members of the working groups involved in the project are invited to attend the event in person. Those whose presentations are selected via this call for papers will be able to claim travel reimbursement via the e-COST system. Travel costs will be reimbursed according to the CA’s rules (see annotated rules).
The two-day event will comprise panel sessions for each working group, during which scholars will be able to present their current research. On January 29, from 2-5 pm, there will be a session particularly for young scholars. We are calling for propositions to the streams of each working group. Each working group will hold a panel, and members of the action are invited to propose papers within groups' thematic scope:
WG1 “Revealing the historical, social-political and economic background conditions”
- Which kind of social-political and socio-economic factors condition, facilitate and reproduce anti-feminist and anti-gender mobilizations?
- What roles do the feelings and experiences of crises and the re-configuration of societies play in the rise of anti-gender mobilizations?
- To what historical legacies do the actors refer? Are there (hidden) continuities? Could they be interpreted as a counter-strategy to societal change?
- Which kinds of political regimes in EE and NME countries become increasingly hospitable to anti-feminist counter-movements?
- What kinds of impact have anti-gender mobilizations had on societies and political regimes?
WG2 “Deciphering the triangle of state, civil society and anti-gender actors”
- How do state institutions, political elites, and civil-society organizations interact in advancing or legitimizing anti-gender agendas?
- What roles do politicized religion, conservative NGOs, and faith-based movements play in shaping state discourses, policies, and governance practices on gender and sexuality?
- What constellations of the anti-gender complex can be identified across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Near and Middle East (NME), and how do they differ in the interaction between various actors?
- We prioritize contributions that are theoretical or conceptual in nature and that go beyond single empirical case studies.
WG3 “Rethinking activism and forms of oppositions with a focus on unexpected allies”
- How are feminist/queer (and non-feminist/queer) oppositions forming against anti-gender politics? What is their agenda/strategies/framings? How do proactive and reactive strategies come together?
- What kind of coalition partners emerge and what is the potential for widening these coalitions? What kind of power effects do these diverse opposition groups, strategies and coalitions have over wider political regimes?
- What role do economic actors (incl.corporations and businesses), local governments, and other non-governmental actors play in the formation of prodemocratic coalitions?
WG4 “Dissemination and outreach activities“
- What are the innovative, creative or participatory strategies of engagement with not-academic groups, media, stakeholders and/or policymakers? How can they be used to proactively (rather than reactively) counter and anticipate anti-gender messages and strategies of mobilization? What are the advantages but also problems of their implementation?
- Where are the opportunities for grassroots communication and mobilization of the general public in countering and resisting anti-gender campaigns? Who can be allies, who can be ‘converts’ or unlikely allies in these grassroots or from-below efforts? How can we increase the popular appeal of messages advocating gender and sexual equality?
- What can we learn from case studies and how can we adapt previous implementations of innovative, creative or participative strategies of engagement and mobilization (e.g. deliberative forums, digital storytelling…), including also appropriating the innovations of the anti-gender campaigns and movements?
Submission Deadline: 14 November 2025
Abstracts (250–300 words) should outline the main argument, methodology or conceptual framework, and indicate the Working Group (WG) to which the proposal is addressed. You can submit your abstract to only one WG’s stream. Please submit your abstracts via MS Office From available here: https://forms.office.com/e/z52wq7080A