The overall topic of our FRI Conference 2025 in Neuchâtel is social justice and crises and how to achieve and overcome them. We are interested in queer-feminist theoretical thoughts on how law and other disciplines can and could contribute to these goals.

Gender equality and non-discrimination are fundamental human rights principles. Although progress has been made, recent years have also witnessed global solid and local push- backs. With increasingly complex conflicts and global humanitarian and environmental crises, heterosexist violence, as well as poverty and injustice towards women and queer people, continue to increase. The concentration of wealth in the hands of a few reinforces existing (gender-specific) inequalities.

While class politics often disregards other structures of inequality, such as gender and sexuality, so-called identity politics is accused of not taking capital and class relations into account. However, differences are overemphasized instead of foregrounding connection points for emancipatory queer-feminist and anti-capitalist politics.

The conference is divided into four blocks, each featuring a keynote presentation, followed by a panel of presentations (CALL) and a discussion around the keynote topic.

• Keynote by Prof. Dr. Ulrika Dahl (Professor of Gender Studies, Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University)

In this first panel, ›The future is queer-feminist,‹ we would like to invite you to develop prospective reflections on an emancipatory future and a strengthening of the feminist and queer struggle. In doing so, we want to explore whether law and justice can be relevant tools to achieve such a goal.

• Keynote by Prof. Dr. Bruno Perreau (Cynthia L. Reed Professor of French Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)/ Faculty Associate, Center for European Studies, Harvard University)

In the second panel, we are interested in minority theories that analyze who is excluded and what we can do against it, with inter- and intersectional perspectives. Can the law be an emancipatory tool? Does the law, as a social construction, take minorities into account? Or are they not instead forced either to assimilate or to be marginalized?

• Keynote by Dr. Friederike Beier (Postdoc Gender and Diversity, Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin)

The third panel deals with materialist queer feminism as a theoretical and political perspective but also as a tool. Shouldn›t materialist queer-feminist thinking be at the center of any emancipatory thinking? How can a society be deconstructed that was conceived and constructed by and for a hetero-centered and - in Europe, especially Switzerland - white majority?

• Keynote by Dr. Lisa Grans (Postdoctoral Researcher Institute for Human Rights Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland)The fourth panel is dedicated to social and climatic crises and their impact on gender inequalities regarding livelihoods, health and security. How can queer-feminist thinking be developed and unfolded in a global and internationalist perspective?

The FRI cordially invites you to submit a contribution (approx. 500 words) for a presentation on one of the 4 blocks and a short description. Please send everything to the email fri.conference(at)genderlaw.ch by October 31, 2024. The conference languages will be German, French and English, you can choose between the languages. If you have any questions, please don‹t hastate to contact us by e-mail.