Budapest, May 15, 2012 – Central European University (CEU) will host the 8th European Feminist Research Conference on May 17 – 20 on the University campus and at neighboring Golyavar Conference Center at Eotvos Lorand University. Over 500 scholars and researchers will gather for what will be the largest feminist conference held in Budapest in more than sixty years. The four-day event will feature leading names in feminist research and panel discussions ranging from from feminism and social inclusion to the plight of women post-Eurozone crisis to themes in Islamic feminism. It will also be the largest-ever gathering of students of gender studies in Europe with 150 gender studies graduate students discussing common topics of interest and 60 of them presenting papers.
“The 8th EFRC takes place at a difficult time for Europe – difficult because of the current global economic crisis, austerity measures, and high unemployment rates,” said Jasmina Lukic, CEU professor and head of the gender studies department. “Such difficult times demand a proper response, one based on critical awareness of and thinking about gender. In such a precarious situation, feminist theory offers socially relevant and morally responsible knowledge of the world we are living in; it also produces new visions and tools for creating another, more just world.”
Hana Havelkova, Department of Gender Studies, Charles University, Prague, will give the opening keynote speech “Parallel Feminisms and a Common Goal,” on Thursday, May 17 at 4 p.m. Other confirmed keynote speakers are Nadje Al-Ali, Centre for Gender Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Clare Hemmings, Gender Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science; Andrea Peto, Department of Gender Studies, Central European University, Budapest; and Fatima Sadiqi, International Institute for Languages and Cultures, Fez, Morocco.
The conference program also includes round-table discussions on relevant topics and more than 100 panels during which nearly 400 academic papers will be presented. The conference also features a parallel cultural program with films, theatrical performances, and an exhibition of posters from European feminist libraries.
“We are very proud to be hosting such an important conference,” said CEU President and Rector John Shattuck. “Our gender studies program is known as one of the leading academic departments in the field which makes CEU the perfect venue for students and scholars to meet to tackle some of the most pressing gender issues facing the world in 2012.”
The 8th European Feminist Research Conference – the largest such feminist gathering since the 1913 Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance and the 1948 Congress of the Women’s International Democratic Federation – is organized by the Central European University, Department of Gender Studies and AtGender, the European Association for Gender Research, Education, and Documentation and is sponsored by the Open Society Foundations and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. This series of conferences, that attract participants from Europe and beyond, have a track record of presenting innovative feminist scholarly work with critical perspectives on contemporary Europe and its histories.
For more information visit http://www.asszisztencia.hu/gender/index.php?menu=1
For media inquiries, please turn to Colleen Sharkey, CEU international media relations manager at +36 1 327 3000 x2321 or sharkeyc@ceu.hu




