Call for Papers

Gender and Sexual Politics of Far-Right Populism in Asia

International Conference and Special Issue
July 2026, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea
March-June 2027, AJWS (Asian Journal of Women's Studies)

The Asian Center for Women’s Studies at Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea and the Asian Journal of Women's Studies(AJWS) call for papers that critically engage with the gender and sexual politics of Far-Right Populism in Asia.

In contemporary far right politics, gender and sexuality take central roles in both its ideological formation and mobilization strategy. As manifested in the recent rise of antifeminism and anti-LGBTQIA+ discourse and policies in both western and non-western nations, conservative backlash against gender equality and sexual citizenship has played an integral role in the massive growth of the far-right movement. Within far-right discourse and rhetorics, feminism and the LGBTQIA+ human rights movement are blamed for various national crises including, but not limited to, low fertility, gender conflicts, moral panics, the current decline of Christian populations, economic stagnation, national security risks, and anti-democracy. As antifeminist and anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric circulate widely, not just on social media and within religious fundamentalist groups, but also within mainstream political parties, misogyny, homophobia, and xenophobia among others are becoming more legitimized.

In this conference and the following special issue, we pay close attention to the entanglement between gender, sexuality, and far-right politics in Asia. It is our intention and goal to foreground transnational, post-colonial, and intersectional critiques to this historically specific junction between gender/sexuality and far-right politics in the Asian region and context. Considering both the historical progress and the contemporary backlash to the Asian LGBTQIA+ movement, we invite papers that attend to the following topics and questions, including but not limited to:

· How and why (anti)gender and (heteronormative)sexuality play a central role in
contemporary far rights politics
· How gender and sexuality is practiced in far rights groups and amongst its
participants
· What specific cases and characters of antifeminism and/or anti-LGBTQIA backlash
are found in Asian nations
· What roles social media and digital networks play in the populist and massive
growth of far-right backlash against gender equality and sexual citizenship
· Whether or how anti-feminism and/or anti-LGBTQIA either utilizes or converges with
racism, nationalism, eugenics, or Islamophobia
· What specific roles conservative ad fundamentalist religious institutions play in the
spread and legitimization of far-right movements
· How feminist and queer human rights movements counter far-right backlash

The two-day hybrid conference will be held by the Asian Center for Women’s Studies at Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea, in July 2026.

Conference organizers will consider publication of select papers in a special issue of AJWS
in the following year.

Co-organizers:
Bo-Myung Kim, Editor-in-Chief of AJWS, Ewha Womans University
Sunhye Kim, Director of Asian Center for Women’s Studies, Ewha Womans University

Timeline:

Proposal Submission: up to 300-word abstract and short CV by November 30, 2025 to Bo-Myung Kim, at bomyung@ewha.ac.kr.
Abstract review and decision by December 31, 2025
Paper (draft) due: May 30, 2026
Conference: First or Second week of July 2026
Special Issue paper submission by August 30, 2026
Special Issue publication: March 31, 2027 – June 30, 2027