Culture, Religion and Gender

4-5 décembre 2014

Prof. Janine Dahinden, Université de Neuchâtel
Dr Marion Schulze, Université de Neuchâtel

Prof. Heike Drotbohm, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at University of Freiburg (Germany)
Eleonore Kofman, Middlesex University, London
www.mdx.ac.uk/aboutus/staffdirectory/Eleonore_Kofman.aspx

Governments, right-wing politicians, and some feminists have recently alleged a clash between accomplished “European gender equality” and “backwardness or patriarchy” provoked by immigrants, or ethnic or religious minorities. Unequal gender relations among migrant or minority groups are identified as the core problem of diversified societies. This binary construction between “us” (Western advocates of freedom and equality) and “them” (ethnic or religious minority others as opponents to women’s rights) has put some feminists at the forefront of debates postulating an insurmountable tension between feminist values and multicultural ideas. Such representations are one fundamental element of current efforts in various European countries to abandon multiculturalism as a policy goal, and they serve to introduce neo-assimilationist policies demanding individual integration efforts and an embrace of “national values”, i.e. gender equality. In the face of the power developed by these dichotomous figures, a vivid debate has evolved within academia, and feminist scholars have voiced critical responses. These scholars have demonstrated that the debates are characterized by over-simplified and essentialized conceptions of culture and religion: Such conceptions disguise non-cultural/religious and structural factors of gendered violence and inequalities, mask internal heterogeneity and dynamics as well as women’s agency, and define migrant women or women from ethnic or religious minorities by a group-culture-based determinism.“ The proposed module will critically scrutinize these ideas and concepts and present theoretical alternatives to the discussion about culture, religion and gender.
The module will be in French and in English
Programme

Neuchâtel

25