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Book talk: Feminism Enchanted

24 February 2026, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm

Book Cover of 'Feminism Enchanted', which has an abstract swirling illustration, and a photo of author Yanbing Er

qUCL are pleased to welcome Yanbing Er, to share insights from her new book. How might feminist thought make sense of a fate that can no longer be indexed by a framework of progressive reason?

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Organiser

qUCL

Location

IAS Common Ground
G11, ground floor, South Wing
UCL, Gower St, London
WC1E 6BT

The idea of progress has been perceived as inextricable from the story of modern feminism. But we live in a time when history looks to be moving backward for feminism, when so much is lapsing into a more reactionary past. How might feminist thought make sense of such a fate that can no longer be indexed by a framework of progressive reason?

In this talk, Yanbing Er will share insights from her new book Feminism Enchanted (Columbia University Press, 2025), arguing that the key to this predicament lies in the capacity of the literary imagination. She will read Akwaeke Emezi's Freshwater (2018) to show how the novel invites the inhabitation of an immersive, and much more expansive, feminist imaginary, which—in both its constitution and its practice—pays testament to a feminism thoroughly invigorated by the affordances of enchantment.

This event has been organised by qUCL, a university-wide initiative that brings together UCL staff and students with research and teaching interests in LGBTQ studies, gender and sexuality studies, queer theory and related fields. Join the qUCL mailing list.

About the Speaker

Yanbing Er

Assistant Professor of Literature at Department of English, Linguistics, and Theatre Studies at the National University of Singapore

She holds a PhD in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh. Yanbing was also Visiting Scholar at the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University, in the Department of Gender Studies at the London School of Economics, and at the Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies Program at Duke University. Yanbing's research has appeared in Feminist Theory, Diacritics, and Environmental Humanities, among others. Her first book, Feminism Enchanted, was published by Columbia University Press in 2025.