Report on the Annual Conference of CA23149, January 28-30, 2026, Amiens (France)

Report: After 1 Year: Current state and challenges of research on anti-gender movements

By: Maryna Shevtsova, KU Leuven

In late January 2026, the Annual Meeting of the COST Action CA23149 “Democratisation at Stake: Comparing Anti Gender Politics” took place Amiens, France. The meeting marked the first full year of the Action and offered the participants a rare collective pause to reflect on the current state of research on anti gender movements across CEE and SWANA regions, their evolving forms, and the challenges scholars face when studying them.

The conference was hosted by the Université de Picardie Jules Verne and expertly organised by Marie Ruiz, whose opening remarks set the tone for the meeting. Together with the Chair of the Network, Heidi Hein-Kircher, Marie Ruiz emphasised the importance of long-term comparative collaboration at a moment when gender and sexuality have become central battlegrounds in struggles over democracy, knowledge production, and academic freedom. The sense that this field is both intellectually urgent and politically exposed was present throughout all the days.

The conference opened with an insightful keynote by Éric Fassin, who reflected on the shifting political grammar of anti gender mobilisations across Europe. Drawing on his long-standing work on sexuality, nationalism, and moral politics, he argued that anti gender movements should not be understood as marginal or reactive phenomena, but as deeply embedded projects that actively reshape democratic norms, state power, and public discourse. His lecture provided a shared conceptual vocabulary that many later panels productively returned to.

Subsequent sessions explored the historical, political, and economic conditions under which anti gender politics emerge and travel. Funda Hülagü examined the ideological labour performed by religion and crisis narratives in semi peripheral capitalist contexts. Sandro Tabatadze traced how Russian and Hungarian policy templates are selectively adapted within Georgia’s hybrid regime, highlighting the geopolitical dimensions of anti gender policy transfer. A historical perspective was offered by Marcin Wilk, who showed how interwar Polish expert discourses continue to shape contemporary moral figures in anti gender mobilisation.

Questions of archives, memory, and erasure were powerfully addressed by Matt Whiffen, whose presentation on queer religious experiences and LGBTQ oral history archives in Croatia sparked discussion about the politics of absence and silencing in both religious and academic institutions.

I participated as a discussant in the Working Group 3 panel, focusing on the triangle of state, civil society, and anti gender actors. Papers by Shaban Darakchi, Draga Gajić, Ceren Lordoglu, and Magdalena Grabowska addressed themes of neoliberal governance, activist fatigue, care, and feminist and queer responses to backlash across the region from Bulgaria to Türkiye. What made this panel particularly compelling was its refusal of simple binaries. Anti gender politics appeared here not only as repression but also as a force reshaping activism, solidarities, and everyday survival strategies.

Other panels expanded the lens further. Timo Koch conceptualised transnational right wing popular fronts, while comparative papers examined anti gender politics in Türkiye, Algeria, Bulgaria, and across Central and Eastern Europe and the SWANA region. Methodological reflection was equally present, with contributions on digital storytelling, participatory communication, and the mental health impacts of hostile media discourses targeting transgender people.

The final day foregrounded early career scholars and questions of dissemination and sustainability. Presentations on Serbia, Moldova, Romania, Georgia, and the Czech Republic demonstrated both the vitality of the field and the uneven risks scholars face depending on their institutional and political contexts. A concluding panel on funding and long-term collaboration where senior colleagues generously shared their experience and proposed mentorship schemes made clear that building durable research infrastructures is itself a form of democratic work.

Leaving Amiens, it was impossible not to be struck by a shared awareness running through the conference. Anti gender movements thrive on simplification, but researching them requires slow comparison, historical depth, and collective care. This meeting showed that such work is already being done across Europe and beyond, often under pressure, and that spaces like this COST Action remain essential for sustaining both critical scholarship and scholarly solidarity.