ALLWOOD Gill & GUERRINA Roberta - Inclusion in EU External Action: Gender and Intersectionality at a Time of Geopolitics (25h)
Is the EU a ‘feminist power’ when gender and LGBTQI rights are subject to internal contestation and backsliding? Does inclusion still matter in the era of geopolitics? This optional course examines the way in which equality and inclusion are integrated into EU external action and, in so doing, it encourages the students to evaluate the EU’s claims that it is a trailblazer in the area of gender equality. The ‘geopolitical turn’ cannot be fully understood without unpacking the way gender and LGBTQI rights have been weaponised by Europe’s adversaries in light of rising populism, authoritarianism and strongman politics. The Trump administration's rejection of EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) posits a new challenge of gender equality actors in international affairs, positioning the EU on a different normative trajectory from the US. Drawing on feminist institutionalism and intersectionality, the course thus provides an important critical lens through which Europe’s role in global politics can be assessed in various policy fields.
This optional course will explore how and to what extent EU external action has engaged with issues of gender, sexuality and intersectionality. It will examine the way contestation on gender and LGBTQI rights has diffused from the internal to the external domain. Starting with an examination of how the principle of equality between women and men came to be included in the process of European integration, and how it was subsequently expanded, we will evaluate why it matters that the EU has positioned itself as a gender equality actor.
In the context of global backsliding against gender and the equality agenda, this course will introduce the students to impact of gender blindness in policy making and decision-making processes. The emergence of anti-gender actors in mainstream politics highlights the precarity of gender equality as a foundational norm of European integration. The course thus encourages students to consider the efficacy of mainstreaming approaches in institutionalising gender equality, intersectionality and LGBTQI rights in the context of European integration and external action specifically.
Drawing on a number of gender-sensitive approaches and feminist methodologies, it will explore key debates, from the pivot towards a ‘feminist foreign policy’ to gender mainstreaming climate and social justice. The course will touch on important and topical issues such as gender-based violence, populism, reproductive rights, feminist foreign policy and the role of gender in hybrid warfare. Students will explore a range of gender approaches to research and policy analysis in order to identify the way in which social, political and economic hierarchies intervene in global politics and shape the EU’s diplomacy and its alleged role as a normative or feminist power.
The course takes an enquiry-based learning approach. Students will develop a range of practical and transferable skills. The sessions will include a practical component that will allow the students to practice key skills, e.g. policy analysis and impact assessment, in a content-rich environment.
Professors: Gill ALLWOOD & Roberta GUERRINA