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Activism, Change and Feminist Futures: At the Intersection of the Personal and Political

The annual conference from the LEX Network, Violence Against Women and Girls Research Network (VAWGRN), Feminist Legal Research and Action Network (FRAN), and the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law (CSEL).

Conference details

Dates: 5 - 6 November 2026

Location: School of Law and Social Justice Building, University of Liverpool

Call for papers

The call for papers is now open for our fifth joint international annual conference, organised by: The LEX Network, Violence Against Women and Girls Research Network (VAWGRN), Feminist Legal Research and Action Network (FRAN), and the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law (CSEL).  This is a two-day in person conference.

The feminist slogan ‘the personal is the political’ was key to second wave feminism, as a rallying cry which emphasised the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between issues experienced as personal and those traditionally constructed as political.  While dating back to Carol Hanish’s 1970’s essay of the same name this sentiment has perhaps never been more relevant, not least due to the rise in populist politics. In continuing to interrogate the nexus between the personal and the political, we explore how we can resist the growing co-option and marketisation of feminism which has co-opted key feminist founding messages to the extent that they are often portrayed as banal/trite. This conference explores how we as feminists can take these foundational ideas forward in authentic ways to carve new ways forward against increasingly contested political backdrops.  Emphasising the value of responses grounded in lived experiences of intersectional oppressions and inequalities, this conference also provides a space to interrogate, as well as celebrate, feminist networks and the support they give in providing space to develop these grassroots concepts which are so central to feminist research and activism.

The conference will comprise papers, posters and exhibits that aim to showcase themes of the intersection of the personal and political. We invite submissions that draw from a diverse range of disciplines and methodologies with intersectionality running throughout within the following topics:

  • New theoretical frameworks for feminist research
  • Participatory and innovative feminist methods of resistance research
  • Domestic violence and coercive control
  • Sexual violence and harassment
  • Technology-facilitated gender-based violence
  • Migration and far-right politics of exclusion
  • Feminist activism
  • Anti-gender politics
  • Feminist legal studies
  • Systems and Institutions
  • Wellbeing

We will be accepting abstracts for:

  • Papers (15 minute presentation plus 10 minutes for questions)
  • Posters (will be displayed throughout the conference and there will be a dedicated poster session)
  • Exhibits such as artwork, interactive displays that can be displayed throughout the conference. Someone will need to be available to set up and take down the display, and to interact with conference delegates during breaks about the display.

When you submit your abstract for consideration, we ask that you please indicate whether you prefer that we consider it as a paper, poster, exhibit or you don’t mind. 

Submission procedure

Submit anabstract (of up to 150 words maximum) including all authors names for a paper, poster or exhibit by midnight on Sunday 31st May 2026, using the online submission portal.

Conference fees

  • PhD researcher, Master’s or Undergraduate student: £35.00
  • Part-time or fixed-term post (in or outside academia): £60.00
  • Full-time permanent posts (in or outside academia): £100.00

Conference Registration

Keynote speakers

We are thrilled to announce our keynote speakers, Dr Harriet Samuels, Reader in Law at the University of Westminster, and Dr Yemisi Sloane, Lecturer in Criminology and Policing at Anglia Ruskin University.

Dr Harriet Samuels

Acting Up, A Time and A Place: Feminist Legal Activism and Social Change

Feminist legal activism faces a moment when two major tools of legal feminism, human rights and equality law, have become targets within the contemporary “culture war”. In this context how can feminists pushback and tell a better story about the need for laws that not only recognise rights but empower those who might otherwise be marginalised? Revisiting Engle-Merry’s work on the constitutive and cultural meaning of law provides a framework for exploring how feminists have simultaneously harnessed, resisted and subverted legal authority (Engle Merry 1995) through techniques such as “cheeky witnessing” (Fletcher 2020) and the “feminist chorus” (Reynolds 2015). It also enables us to reconsider the creativity and significance of historical examples of feminist legal activism in the early twentieth century during comparable periods of social and political polarisation. In doing so, it seeks to illuminate and reflect on individual and collective strategies for feminist engagement with law that are responsive to the stage of legal change.

Harriet Samuels is Reader in Law at the University of Westminster. Her work sits at the intersection of public law, human rights and feminist legal studies. Her research examines the influence of feminist thought on legal doctrine and law reform, as well as the wider impact of feminist legal theory on the law. More recently her work has engaged with civil society and feminist legal history. She is currently writing a book on the impact of early twentieth century feminists in using strategic litigation to challenge the marriage bar an important step in developing women’s workplace rights.

Dr Yemisi Sloane

Beyond Settled Feminist Analytics: Towards New Directions in Feminist Research

Feminist research has produced powerful analytical frameworks that have transformed how power, inequality and gender justice are understood. Concepts such as intersectionality challenged universalised accounts of women’s experiences and highlighted the mutually constitutive nature of gender, race and other structural inequalities. Revisiting these frameworks remains vital. However, they were never intended to become settled academic languages or fixed intellectual inheritances. Conceived as disruptive analytics, they require continual rethinking as power evolves and new norms emerge. Critical questions therefore remain about whether we are sufficiently renewing the foundations of feminist research or unintentionally repeating familiar frameworks. In a period marked by anti-gender politics and deepening inequality, feminist futures require the theoretical and methodological expansion of what can be known about silence, agency and resistance. Drawing on empirical research on sexual violence across diverse contexts, emerging forms of agency and vulnerability are examined that stretch familiar frameworks and invite new directions in feminist knowledge production.

Yemisi Sloane is a Lecturer in Criminology and Policing at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Her research examines the structural conditions that produce gender-based violence and sustain impunity, with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan African communities and their diasporas in Britain. Her expertise spans multiple forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic and intimate partner violence, sexual violence and exploitation, female genital mutilation and femicide. Her work is grounded in decolonial feminist criminology, feminist jurisprudence and socio-legal scholarship, drawing on ethnographic, qualitative and participatory research to analyse the intersections of violence, identity and resistance in the lived experiences of women from minoritised communities. She collaborates with community organisations, local authorities and public sector partners on initiatives addressing violence prevention, victim support, social inequalities and gender justice. She has presented her work at international academic and policy forums across Europe, Africa and Asia, and is committed to ensuring that academic research informs policy, practice and wider debates on gender justice and women's rights.

Bursaries

Thanks to the success of previous conferences, and in recognition of the challenging funding climate in academia, we are delighted to announce that the networks have allocated monies for a small number of conference bursaries. We intend that these will offset the cost of conference attendance for colleagues who will participate in this event. Four bursaries are available. To support their attendance, successful candidates will also receive a fee waiver for the attendance fee. In addition, they will be able to claim back up to £250 towards travel and accommodation. We will be sharing the details of how to apply for bursaries in the summer. 

Conference organisers