CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS for the Conference: Gender, Law, Backlash

CALL FOR PAPERS

GENDER, LAW, BACKLASH

Conference | University of Haifa | 7-8 June 2026
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 16 February 2026
Responses: 19 March 2026

In recent years, liberal democracies across the globe are facing intensifying waves of authoritarian, conservative or anti-democratic mobilizations, often challenging fundamental legal protections and democratic norms. Within this context, anti-feminist and anti-gender movements have gained significant momentum, threatening hard-won advances in women's rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, and gender equality through legislative rollbacks, policy restrictions, and social backlash.

In this conference we seek to understand how law functions as both a tool and a target in contemporary gender struggles—how it is weaponized to restrict rights, mobilized to defend them, and contested in courts, legislatures, and public spheres.

We invite scholars, activists, legal practitioners, and community organizers to engage critically with these developments through interdisciplinary and intersectional perspectives. We welcome contributions examining the legal frameworks, regulatory mechanisms, policy instruments, and judicial processes shaping gender and sexuality rights, as well as the grassroots and strategies developed in response to anti-gender mobilization.

We seek proposals from all disciplines, including but not limited to law, political science, sociology, gender studies, anthropology, philosophy, history, psychology, economics, religious studies, education, cultural representations (arts, literature, film, media etc.). Early-career researchers and non-academic practitioners are warmly encouraged to apply. All papers should engage with legal dimensions.

Possible themes and areas of contribution include (but are not limited to):

• Legislative battles – Restrictive laws targeting reproductive rights, gender recognition, family structures, or LGBTQIA+ protections; constitutional challenges; judicial interpretations
• International human rights frameworks – Challenges to conventions and treaties (e.g., Istanbul Convention); state compliance and resistance; transnational legal advocacy
• Reproductive justice and bodily autonomy – Legal strategies for reproductive rights, anti-abortion legislation, family planning, pro-family policies
  Education law and policy – Sex and gender education, school curriculum, parents and NGOs’ activism, free speech and academic freedom
• Rights protection and violence prevention – Legal responses to hate crimes, harassment, and violence against feminists, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and activists; protective legislation and enforcement gaps
• Religion, secularism, and law – Religious exemptions, faith-based policy advocacy, legal pluralism, and anti-gender discourse in religious contexts
• Media, culture, and regulation – Legal frameworks governing representations, platform regulation, hate speech laws, and anti-gender discourse in culture and media
• Movement strategies and legal mobilization – Coalition building, strategic litigation, legislative advocacy, tensions within feminist and LGBTQIA+ movements regarding legal strategies

Submission requirements:

• Presentations: 20-30 minutes
• Abstract: Up to 300 words (clearly indicating how your work engages with legal dimensions)
• Short bio

Submit via [this form] by February 16, 2026

Responses expected by March 19, 2026

Questions: genderlawcenter@gmail.com