Summary
Feminist Judgments in Refugee Studies: From Feminist Perspectives to Feminist Approaches
Closing Date: July 4, 2025
What role for feminist judgments in refugee studies?
Taking up the call for a transdisciplinary research agenda on law within refugee studies scholarship (Gammeltoft-Hansen and Ghezelbash, 2024), we invite abstracts that reflect on this question and that move from feminist perspectives to feminist approaches in refugee studies.
As an approach, feminist judging means developing ‘a legal doctrine in a way that is informed by a feminist analysis’ and engaging in ‘a process of judicial re-imagining’ (Hunter, 2010; McCandless, Enright, O’Donoghue, 2017). It includes identifying the gendered implications of supposedly neutral rules and practices; challenging explicit gender bias in doctrine, precedent, and reasoning; re-evaluating what counts as evidence and expertise by drawing on lived experience; situating the judgment within the wider social, political, cultural, and historical context; promoting substantive equality; and drawing on feminist scholarship to inform reasoning.
We invite academics, practitioners, activists, and those with lived experience to submit abstracts for contributions that will form part of a Special Issue proposal for the Journal of Refugee Studies. Contributors are welcome to choose any key case or legal/policy text (e.g. Refugee Convention; Global Compact on Refugees; international, regional, or national guidelines) from any jurisdiction that they think is conducive to feminist critique and rewriting. We encourage collaborative submissions, understand feminist critique to be trans inclusive and decolonial, and are particularly interested in contributions that address intersecting systems of oppression (e.g., race, class, dis/ability, etc.).
Topics of interest for feminist re-imagining in refugee studies include, but are not limited to:
- Recognition of Gender as a Protected Ground: There is an ongoing debate about whether gender should be added as a specific ground of protection (“sixth ground”). What can feminist judgments contribute to this debate?
- The Scope of Membership in a Particular Social Group (PSG): PSG is defined by three key elements: (1) common, immutable characteristic, (2) social distinctness within the relevant society, and (3) particularity. How can feminist judgements (re-)define these elements?
- Challenges in Refugee Status Determination: Individuals seeking asylum based on gender-related claims can face challenges in establishing grounds of persecution. How can feminist judgments resolve these challenges?
- The Meaning of Persecution: The notion of persecution remains undefined in refugee law. How can feminist judgments clarify the meaning of persecution?
- Gender at Intersections: Gender intersects with other grounds of persecution, such as religion, nationality, or political opinion. How can feminist judgments account for this intersectionality?
- The Law as a Subject of Inquiry: The law can be a rich source of inquiry for refugee studies scholarship. What role for feminist judgements in refugee studies?
- Re-imagining the Law otherwise: Law has been criticised for being exclusionary and hierarchical. What would legal institutions, texts, and reasoning look like if we took feminism(s) as our starting point?
- Inter/Trans/Antidisciplinary Approaches: Law is often presented as neutral and authoritative, but like any discipline it is the product of historical, social, and cultural processes. How would the law look, feel, and be experienced if we foregrounded art, creative writing, anthropology, filmmaking, music, psychology…? How can we bring these disciplines and their methods together?
Submission Guidelines:
- Abstract (400 words max.) should outline the proposed articles’s argument/s, legal-institutional framework/s, and 5 key words.
- Author Bio (200 words max) should include affiliation and relevant research, practice, and/or lived experience.
- Abstract and bio should be submitted through this form.
Timeline:
- July 4: Abstract Submission
- July 18: Abstract Notification
- August 15: Special Issue Proposal Submission
- Upon acceptance of the proposal, accepted contributors will be invited to submit full articles (timeline TBD)
Please note that acceptance of the abstract for inclusion in the Special Issue proposal does not guarantee publication. This is subject to the consideration of the Journal of Refugee Studies.
Sources
- Anderson and Foster (2021). A Feminist Appraisal of International Refugee Law
- Dustin and Querton (2022). Women in Refugee Law, Policy and Practice
- Espinosa Miñoso, Pión (2022). Decolonial Feminism in Latin America: An Essential Anthology
- Fynn Bruey, Veronica, Jessica Hambly, Eve Lester, Kate Ogg, Matthew Zagor (2024) Rewriting Refugee Law: Centring Refugee Knowledges and Experiences.
- Gammeltoft-Hansen and Ghezelbash (2024). What role for law in refugee studies?
- Ogg (2023). Feminism as Method: How do we do Gender in International Refugee Law?
- Yacoub, Wessels, da Costa (2023). Rekindling feminist approaches to legal displacement research
If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi ([email protected]) and Dr. Rebecca Smyth ([email protected]) directly.
