Dear ICA Members
I hope this email finds you well, given all that is going on.
I have a CfP to share that may be of interest to some.
I am co-editing an interdisciplinary issue on Gender relations in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe and East Germany. I hope we will get submissions also from communication and media studies scholars. Please share widely.
Extended abstracts are due August 30, 2026.
Full call:
Kind Regards,
Stine Eckert
CfP: Gender Relations in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe and East Germany – Call for Papers: feministische studien Issue 02/2027
Submissions in English
Due date for Extended Abstracts: Aug. 30, 2026
The social and political developments of recent years have once again brought questions of gender, sexuality, and intersectional inequality in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe, as well as in East Germany, to the forefront of public and academic debates. This development has been accompanied by growing attention to the diversity of gender-related lived realities, to processes of social transformation, and to new theoretical and empirical approaches within gender studies.
Looking toward the East brings the interconnections between gender, nation, war, violence, and militarization back into sharper focus. Current geopolitical conflicts in Europe, particularly Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, are closely intertwined with gendered structures, both producing and potentially challenging them. Masculinity continues to be traditionally associated with defensiveness, self-sacrifice, and military strength, while women are addressed as mothers of the nation, as those in need of protection, or as bearers of cultural and familial continuity. It is intriguing that while these traditional gender roles shape political discourse, national cultures of remembrance, and state mobilization strategies, everyday practice is much more ambivalent. This is particularly clear in the context of the war in Ukraine, where women assume diverse roles as soldiers, volunteers, activists, journalists, and caregivers, thereby relativizing traditional notions of war as a masculine domain. Against this background, theories of a simple backlash or an intensified traditionalization are not entirely convincing from a gender-theoretical perspective.
In this issue of feministische studien, we aim to contribute to bringing the often marginalized expertise from Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe, as well as East Germany, more prominently into academic debates and to critically broaden dominant Western or Western European perspectives. This also raises the fundamental question of which gender-theoretical concepts are suitable for adequately analyzing the relationship between "East" and "West" and for thinking beyond simplistic oppositions. The approaches of interculturality that have been discussed since the 1980s have certainly provided important impulses for engaging with cultural difference. However, they were often themselves embedded in perspectives based on a logic of difference, describing "other cultures" from a predominantly hegemonic Western viewpoint. In such frameworks, the "East," imagined as a homogeneous entity, was frequently constructed as backward or lagging behind, while the "West" functioned as the unmarked norm. Against this backdrop, debates that seek to interpret Europe's post-socialist space through a postcolonial lens have gained increasing significance, particularly within Eastern European studies. These discussions have been driven to a considerable extent by scholars from Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe. Queer perspectives have also contributed to the critique of such East–West dichotomies by drawing attention to the homonationalist framing of these discourses and by highlighting that Queer Studies are often perceived in Eastern European contexts as carrying distinctly Western connotations. As a result, conflict-ridden tensions emerge between different scientific, political, and cultural regimes of belonging-tensions that Eastern European gender scholars must continually navigate.
Against the backdrop of these diverse developments and thematic priorities, the issue of feministische studien 2/2027 seeks to strengthen transnational exchange within gender studies, to make regional perspectives more visible, and to promote comparative as well as intersectional-transnational approaches. The issue will center both, the shared trajectories of development and the differences between post-socialist and post-Soviet contexts as well as East Germany. We are particularly interested in identifying the current transformations taking place in these regions and exploring the theoretical impulses they generate for gender studies at large.
We welcome not only scholarly analyses but also reports on local developments and insights into ongoing research projects that address the following questions-or related issues beyond them-from a feminist perspective:
- Which developments are currently emerging with regard to gender relations, gender studies, and feminist movements in the various regions of Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe, as well as in East Germany?
- What assumptions are embedded in the cultural-historical concepts of "gender" and "the East," and to what extent are these concepts discursively reproduced in academia, politics, and the media as a supposedly unquestioned and naturally given connection?
- Is it analytically meaningful to speak of gender relations in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe and East Germany as a whole? If so, what are their defining structural characteristics?
- In what ways do gender norms and practices differ across, and where do they resemble one another within, Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe and East Germany?
- What is the current state of gender studies in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe and East Germany, and what lessons can be learned from these contexts regarding the defense of academic freedom?
- What forms do feminist movements take in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe and East Germany, and what potentially specific challenges do they face? Where are alliances emerging with other movements (such as labor movements, movements defending academic freedom, democracy movements, migration-related initiatives, and queer movements), and where do forms of transnational solidarity develop?
- From an intersectional perspective, which forms of marginalization and discrimination, but also which forms of political mobilization, become visible in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe and East Germany?
- What new configurations of gender, work, and care can be observed in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe and in East Germany, and how can they be theorized within the tensions and interrelations of migration, welfare-state arrangements, and global structures of inequality?
Extended abstracts (1,000–1,500 words) should be submitted no later than August 30, 2026 to the following three email addresses:
Abstracts may be submitted for the following sections:
- Research Article: 6.000–8.000 words (max. 9.000)
- Discussion/Debate Article: 2.000–3.000 words
In addition, proposals are welcome for:
- Conference reports and reviews of monographs or edited volumes: up to 1.200 words
- Artistic works for the section Images and Signs (Bilder und Zeichen).
All word counts exclude footnotes and references.
Authors will be notified regarding their abstract submissions in early September 2026. Full manuscripts must be submitted by February 28, 2027.
Feedback following the double-blind peer-review process will be provided by mid-May 2027. If a manuscript is accepted, revisions need to be submitted by July 30, 2027.
Full call:
Stine Eckert, Ph.D. (she/her)
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
Affiliate Faculty, Center for Gender and Sexuality
Co-Editor, Journalism Research/Journalistik
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48201
We Can Do Better: Feminist Manifestos for Media and Communication (2025)
Edited by Linda Steiner and Stine Eckert, Rutgers University Press
Journalism Research/Journalistik - Zeitschrift für Journalismusforschung.
Current issue, open access, English & German: https://journalistik.online/en/current-edition/
Stine Eckert, Ph.D. (she/her)
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
Affiliate Faculty, Center for Gender and Sexuality
Co-Editor, Journalism Research/Journalistik
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48201
We Can Do Better: Feminist Manifestos for Media and Communication (2025)
Edited by Linda Steiner and Stine Eckert, Rutgers University Press
Journalism Research/Journalistik - Zeitschrift für Journalismusforschung.
Current issue, open access, English & German: https://journalistik.online/en/current-edition/