In an era of the radicalization of political ideologies in Europe, long-lasting societal remnants of the economic breakdown, and the neoliberalist consolidation of capitalist values, it is ethically relevant to critically reconceptualise the meaning and role of European feminisms and the challenges they have to confront today, both locally and transnationally. In the face of ubiquitous beliefs about feminism having exhausted itself, such a rethinking of the place and priorities of feminist politics within and outside academia is urgently needed. The popularization of the so-called faux-feminisms, assuming attained emancipation in the present-day neoliberal environment of advanced capitalism, calls for close examination and creative counter-strategies. Bearing in mind that the patterns of oppression still prevail, becoming even more and more insidious and complex, it is all the more necessary to identify, scrutinize, and contest the vicissitudes of the dominant apparatus of control and subjugation, and to demystify the purportedly gender-inclusive operations of the regime. As such, the book seeks to renew an academic and political interest in the epistemological tradition of context-created knowledge. Bringing together authors from diverse geopolitical locations, this volume constitutes a forum for fruitful encounters across generations and national and cultural differences, contributing to a better understanding of the complexities of patriarchal ideologies and to the creation of a more sustainable communal future. The book offers a collection of chapters introducing situated perspectives which adopt intersectional optics in order to analyze the transformations of the contemporary socio-political realm and reflect research priorities within present-day feminist scholarship.
About the Author: Elzbieta H. Oleksy is Professor of Humanities at the University of Lodz, and Chair of the Department of Transatlantic and Media Studies and the Founding Director of Women's Studies Centre, both at the same university. She has authored, co-authored and edited and co-edited 21 books and reports, as well as over 100 articles, book chapters, and interviews concerning gender and feminism. She has served as an expert for the European Commission and the European Court of Auditors since 2002, and acted as coordinator and contractor in a number of international projects. Aleksandra M. Rozalska is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the University of Lodz. Her research interests include television studies, critical media discourse analysis, and studies on immigration and minorities, particularly in the US context. She recently published Enemies, Tortures, and 'Frontiersman' Heroes: Narrating the War on Terror in American Film and Television Series (The Kingdom, Rendition, and 24) in American Experience-The Experience of America (2013). Marek M. Wojtaszek is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the University of Lodz. His main areas of research and expertise include aesthetics, digital cultures, men and masculinities studies, and techno-ecologies of public spaces. He recently published In Quest of (Posthuman) Togetherness: Digital Communication and Affective Disconnection in Digital Diversities: Social Media and Intercultural Experience (2014).