Abstract
Doing feminist work from within patriarchal institutions comes with unique challenges. We invited two activists and feminist studies professors, Rosi Braidotti and Nina Lykke, to reflect on feminists’ long march through patriarchal university institutions. Concretely, we asked them to reflect upon three themes. Firstly, we asked them to situate themselves and their work – and reflect upon what it takes to do feminist work which troubles mainstream epistemologies. Secondly, we asked them to explore how the conditions for feminist research have changed over time – and what the current neoliberal and right-wing backlash does to feminist research. And finally, we asked how coming of age might have influenced them, and how they looked upon intergenerational exchanges in the feminist movement. The aim of the dialogue was to look back at how the feminist studies movement in academia emerged, while at the same time looking forward to explore which new political and ideological conditions have arisen and how these might affect future possibilities for conducting feminist research within academia.
Highlights
Doing feminist work from within patriarchal institutions comes with unique challenges
Lykke featured with an interview about how her academic career had been entangled with her activist intentions of rethinking knowledge production and epistemology (Skewes and Adrian, 2018)
We invited yet another inspirational activist and feminist researcher, Braidotti to join in the reflections about her experiences with the long march through the patriarchal institutions
Summary
The dialogue between Rosi Braidotti and Nina Lykke took place at Aarhus University in Denmark in September 2018. They have been among the driving forces in a multitude of key feminist research and teaching networks in Europe, such as the European feminist curriculum development organisation Athena, which grew into the European Association for Feminist Research and Teaching At Gender (https://atgender.eu/), as well as the Noise Summer School (https://graduategenderstudies.nl/education/noisesummer-school/), gathering feminist students for summer schools annually since 1994 They have collaborated within the framework of a Marie Curie network for feminist PhD education GENDERGRADUATES. Their academic careers have in different ways been dedicated to the struggle to expand the fragile spaces of academia’s interdisciplinary feminist borderlands and included transgression of national borders. Even though Lykke started out with a degree in literary studies, she considers herself a transdisciplinary scholar, and a key part of her work has been committed to breaking down disciplinary borders in order to achieve new types of trans- and postdisciplinary knowledges which, resonate better with feminist epistemologies
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
