#MeToo: Thinking Ahead - Online Symposium
An online symposium, “#MeToo: Thinking Ahead”, was held on the 3rd of December, 2020, to mark the launch of The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of the #MeToo Movement. The Symposium was recorded live, and the recording may be viewed here below.
This interdisciplinary handbook identifies thematic and theoretical areas that require attention and interrogation, inviting the reader to make connections between the ways in which the #MeToo movement has panned out in different parts of the world, seeing it in the context of the many feminist and gendered struggles already in place, as well as the solidarities with similar movements across countries and cultures. With contributions from gender experts spanning a wide range of disciplines including political science, history, sociology, law, literature, and philosophy, this groundbreaking book has contemporary relevance for scholars, feminists, gender researchers, and policy-makers across the globe.
Contributors to the Handbook were invited to speak on the course of the movement in their own spheres and the implications and impact for the future. The editors, Irma Erlingsdóttir, Director of GEST and Giti Chandra, Research Specialist at GEST, welcomed the audience and introduced the Handbook, speaking briefly about the process and ideas that went into the making of such a challenging project. Then the floor was thrown open to the speakers; speaking at the symposium were Angela Y Davis, Purna Sen, Freyja Haraldsdóttir, Marai Larasi, Magdalena Grabowska, and Jeff Hearn. While Angela Y Davis spoke of the importance of the Handbook itself, each speaker who followed anchored the issues of the movement in their own areas of research and activism.
There as a lively discussion prompted by questions and observations from the audience to which the panel responded, and the final words came from Cynthia Enloe, who closed the symposium with the analogy of the Handbook as a living thing with roots in feminist and other histories and with the prospect of branching into the future with new thoughts and new actions.