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Gender in movements

Period of duration of course
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Course info
Number of course hours
20
Number of hours of lecturers of reference
20
CFU 3
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Modalità esame

PhDs: Oral presentations and participation

Master students: Final paper

Note modalità di esame

The course adopts a seminar format, with weekly discussions based on selected readings that engage with theoretical perspectives and empirical case studies on gendered dynamics in collective action. Each session will be introduced by the lecturer (or an invited guest), followed by a collective discussion of the assigned texts.

Participants are expected to engage actively with the material, offering critical reflections on the readings and contributing to group discussions. Links to participants’ own research projects are strongly encouraged. Students are also welcome to propose and present a topic of their interest, allowing the course to develop in a collaborative and dialogic way.

PhD students will be assessed on the basis of their active participation in class and at least one in-class presentation based on the assigned readings. Attendance is essential: please avoid missing classes unless you have a serious justification. Students are expected to READ the material in advance and contribute actively to the process of collective learning—we are all there to learn (myself included) and to exchange perspectives. Based on participation and engagement, the instructor will determine whether the student has passed or failed the course.

PhD students who wish to write a term paper must consult the instructor in advance and agree on a topic. Please make sure to respect the agreed deadlines. 

Master’s students will be assessed based on active class participation (50%) and a final paper of 2,000–3,000 words on one of the topics discussed in the course (50%). The instructor is available for consultation regarding the paper’s topic, structure, and content. The final grade will be expressed on a 30-point scale. The paper may be written in English or Italian and must be submitted by the end of January 2026. Due to scheduling constraints, late submissions will not be accepted this year.


Lecturer log

Access the lecture log

Prerequisiti

This course is optional and open to all PhD students in “Political Science and Sociology”. No specific prerequisites are required, and all interested students are warmly encouraged to attend.


  • Optional for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year PhD students in "Political Science and Sociology"
  • Optional for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year PhD students in "Transnational Governance"
  • Optional for the 4th and 5th year students in the MA level Programme in "Politics, Economics and Sustainability"

Programma

This course explores the role of gender in contemporary social movements, adopting a critical, intersectional, and transnational approach. Moving beyond a focus on feminist movements alone, we will examine how gender is constructed, contested, and mobilised across a wide range of collective struggles—including feminism, LGBTQI+ activism, labour mobilisation, struggles for liberation under oppressive regimes, environmental justice, and decolonial actions. Attention is given to both the theoretical frameworks and the situated practices through which gendered power relations are challenged within movements for social change. 

Rather than following a linear or genealogical reconstruction, the course is organised thematically, engaging with some of the most pressing issues in gender politics today. These include tensions among different feminist currents (radical, postmodern, and gender-critical), the rise of transfeminism and queer alliances, the emergence of gender-based violence as a master frame of contemporary feminist movements, and the instrumental use of gender rights in geopolitical conflicts—particularly as a weapon to justify the genocide of Palestinians. The course also examines the gendered impacts of environmental degradation and climate change, as well as women's central role in resisting these crises through both local struggles and mass climate mobilisations. We will also consider gendered dynamics within labour struggles, focusing on reproductive labour, precarisation, care work, and the feminist rethinking of class and exploitation. We will conclude with an analysis of anti-gender mobilisations and the transnational backlash against gender justice, as well as the forms of resistance they have provoked.

Through a combination of theoretical reflection and empirical inquiry, students will critically examine how gender operates as an instrument of both domination and resistance, but also of liberation, and how activist knowledge production contributes to broader debates in political sociology and social theory. Finally, students will learn how to adopt gender as an analytical category in social movement studies.

Obiettivi formativi

This course will enable students to: 

  • engage critically with key debates on gender in contemporary social movements, including feminist, queer, labour, environmental, and liberation struggles;
  • evaluate a range of gender-related theories and their relation to activist practices and political conflicts;
  • analyse how gender operates as an instrument of domination, resistance and liberation in different socio-political contexts;
  • examine how gendered labour relations—especially reproductive work, care, and precarisation—are politicised through collective action;
  • understand the reciprocal influences between theoretical frameworks and activist practices in the production of knowledge;
  • recognise the rhetorical and geopolitical uses—and misuses—of gender and LGBTQI+ rights in global conflicts;
  • apply gender as an analytical category in the study of collective action, political participation, and social movements;
  • consider how intersectionality, positionality, and situated knowledge shape both activism and research in social movement studies.

Riferimenti bibliografici

All readings will be provided by the instructor and made available in a dedicated folder accessible to all registered participants. The reading list is flexible and may be adjusted based on participants’ interests and suggestions—contributions and proposals are warmly encouraged.

Some sessions will feature guest lecturers. Their names will be communicated once their participation is confirmed.

Students are also welcome to suggest topics for in-depth seminars. Proposals will be discussed within the FIRE Working Group (Cosmos Laboratory), and—where possible—an additional event linked to the course will be organised outside the regular class schedule.

LIST OF TOPICS: 

1. Theorising Gender in Social Movements

  • Gender as an analytical category in the social sciences
  • Intersectionality: origins, applications, and methodological implications

2. Feminism and Gender

Visions and practices in:

  • Radical feminism
  • Postmodern feminism
  • Gender-critical positions: boundaries and contestations within feminism

3. LGBTQI+ Mobilisations

  • Transfeminism and intersectional alliances
  • Queer politics and the deconstruction of identities

4. Gender-Based Violence as a Central Focus in Feminist and Queer Movements

  • Latin American experiences: Ni Una Menos and beyond
  • Expanded definitions of violence: institutional, symbolic, and structural

5. Gender as a Geopolitical Weapon

  • Gender for revolution? The case of Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran
  • Gender for repression: instrumental uses of gender rights to justify racism, the genocide of Palestinians, and war

6. Gender and the Environment

  • Gendered consequences of pollution and environmental degradation
  • Unequal and gendered impacts of climate change
  • Women’s roles in local environmental struggles
  • Women's presence and leadership in mass climate movements

7. Anti-Gender Movements

  • Backlash politics in Europe and the United States
  • Transnational networks of anti-gender actors
  • Collective strategies of resistance
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