Body Politics, Abortion and LGBT Rights in Poland

27 October 2016
This evening discussion brings together academics, including philosopher and gender specialist Marzenna Jakubczak (Cracow), with activists and artists. It forms part of a wider research project on Gendering Democracy, and is hosted by Dr Urszula Chowaniec in cooperation with the qUCL network.

Lecture by Professor Marzenna Jakubczak, a philosopher and gender specialist from the Pedagogical University of Cracow.

It will be followed by a short talk by Marge Berer, the coordinator at the International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion, and interventions from feminist activists and artists Paulina Poli Palian (activist, Babski Londyn) and Margot Przymierska (artist), and the Polish lecturer Dr Katarzyna Zechenter (UCL SSEES).

The seminar will be chaired by Dr Urszula Chowaniec, and introduced by the director of qUCL, Dr Robert Mills.

Background:

Dr Urszula Chowaniec's project on Language, Literature and Gender - Democracy as Cultural Practices (Gendering Democracy) is devoted to analysing various intersections between cultural phenomena and the notion(s) of democracy from a broad gender perspective.

Ideas such as age, health, abortion, and rhetoric of social dismissal are part of the research. The project aims at presenting Polish culture within a broader research perspective on democracy as cultural practices.

A second seminar in Spring 2017 will focus on the phenomenon of ridiculing the language of gender studies and the language of hatred in Polish public debate, with a talk to be delivered by Dr Maciej Duda (Poznań University).