reconference
In 2011, more than 300 feminists, artists, activists, allies and policy makers came together at CREA's landmark Count Me In! conference to address violence against marginalized women. Over three days, Count Me In! surfaced the myriad of issues facing trans and lesbian women, women with disabilities, and sex workers in South Asia. Eight years later, against the backdrop of a rapidly-changing socio-political landscape, CREA is proud to announce our second global conference - reconference.
context
So much of our lives are under threat today. Our bodies. Our thoughts, ideas, speech, images, and expression. These threats emanate from the increasing power and combination of forces known and unknown: corporatization, militarization, ethnonationalism, fundamentalism. Restrictive political environments are posing serious threats to critical thinking, freedom of expression and human rights. States are censoring sexual images and expression and silencing dissent in the name of national security. In this moment of shifting power centers, feminists can no longer count on governance structures or human rights systems to protect or secure women's rights. While technology is bringing many new opportunities and freedoms, it also brings censorship, surveillance and new forms of violence. Media and digital technologies are being used by both progressive and reactionary forces, in increasingly sophisticated ways, to spread their messages, communicate information, and mobilise with unprecedented speed and reach. Technology, data and the Internet are generating new movement opportunities and possibilities.
Movements are gearing up in different ways to meet these unprecedented challenges. Artists are interrupting and disrupting physical and digital domains with their art. Creative thinkers are interjecting alternative discourses that destabilize normative ideas about bodies, gender and sexuality. Women rights movements are addressing issues of inclusion and exclusion. Powerful, self-led movements --disability rights, LGBT rights, sex worker rights -- amongst others continue to challenge stigma, violence, and discrimination. Feminists, activists, artists, allies and policy makers in their own distinct and diverse styles and artistic expressions continue to challenge, provoke, and reimagine another world.
It’s time to come together and rebuild our movements in creative ways.
Movements are gearing up in different ways to meet these unprecedented challenges. Artists are interrupting and disrupting physical and digital domains with their art. Creative thinkers are interjecting alternative discourses that destabilize normative ideas about bodies, gender and sexuality. Women rights movements are addressing issues of inclusion and exclusion. Powerful, self-led movements --disability rights, LGBT rights, sex worker rights -- amongst others continue to challenge stigma, violence, and discrimination. Feminists, activists, artists, allies and policy makers in their own distinct and diverse styles and artistic expressions continue to challenge, provoke, and reimagine another world.
It’s time to come together and rebuild our movements in creative ways.
themes
- Abortion
- Consent
- Disability
- Environmental Justice
- Pleasure & Danger
- Sex work
- Sexual and Gender Diversity
- Sports
- Technology
Exploring the complex and divisive issues that continue to drive the abortion debate, this track will delve into its growing intersection with disability rights. It will create a space for learning on laws, language and politics across contexts, as they are embedded within women’s lived experiences.
At reconference we will:
rethink cultural and popular narratives that guide the abortion discourse globally.
reimagine decrimininalisation not just as working to change laws or reduce harm by mitigating the effects of restrictive legislation, but as a powerful story of mobilisation.
reboot conversations on some of the most profound fault lines that have so far limited cross-movement alliance building on the issue of disability and abortion.
Read more...
At reconference we will:
rethink cultural and popular narratives that guide the abortion discourse globally.
reimagine decrimininalisation not just as working to change laws or reduce harm by mitigating the effects of restrictive legislation, but as a powerful story of mobilisation.
reboot conversations on some of the most profound fault lines that have so far limited cross-movement alliance building on the issue of disability and abortion.
Read more...
Many people are familiar with and accept the idea that consent is an important part of sexual interactions and relationships. This track will delve into how, and what consent looks like – something that has been difficult for people to define, both to themselves and externally.
reconference will be a space to:
rethink critical questions about consent, recognizing the need to ensure that encounters are based on mutual and enthusiastic desire and not just permission.
reimagine how consent plays out for different bodies, in different situations and in different people’s lives.
reboot how ideas of consent can be used to expand an intersectional feminist agenda.
Read more...
reconference will be a space to:
rethink critical questions about consent, recognizing the need to ensure that encounters are based on mutual and enthusiastic desire and not just permission.
reimagine how consent plays out for different bodies, in different situations and in different people’s lives.
reboot how ideas of consent can be used to expand an intersectional feminist agenda.
Read more...
Challenging norms around bodies, ability and sexuality, the disability track pushes many boundaries.
At reconference we will:
rethink issues of disability and sexuality by unpacking models that have served as defining approaches to disability.
reimagine, through art and performance, women with disabilities as artists and build a powerful counter-narrative to models that label disabled bodies as non-normative, asexual, clumsy.
reboot conversations on some of the most profound fault lines that have so far limited cross-movement alliance building on the issue of disability and abortion.
Read more...
At reconference we will:
rethink issues of disability and sexuality by unpacking models that have served as defining approaches to disability.
reimagine, through art and performance, women with disabilities as artists and build a powerful counter-narrative to models that label disabled bodies as non-normative, asexual, clumsy.
reboot conversations on some of the most profound fault lines that have so far limited cross-movement alliance building on the issue of disability and abortion.
Read more...
Recognizing the collective power of the women's rights and environmental movements, this track engages with radical, creative and intersectional approaches to climate change and environmental justice while being mindful of social and gender inequalities.
At reconference we will:
rethink issues of gender, sexuality, disability, health and human rights drawing upon the intersections that exist with the environment.
reimagine models of resistance and leadership inspired by the collective power of women in environmental activism.
reboot our activism, struggles and practices to understand and address the social and gender inequalities faced by people on the margins because of environmental trends.
Read more…
At reconference we will:
rethink issues of gender, sexuality, disability, health and human rights drawing upon the intersections that exist with the environment.
reimagine models of resistance and leadership inspired by the collective power of women in environmental activism.
reboot our activism, struggles and practices to understand and address the social and gender inequalities faced by people on the margins because of environmental trends.
Read more…
This track will explore the deeply contested concepts of pleasure and danger that are often imposed on individuals – to include some, exclude others and ultimately to take away individual agency.
At reconference we will:
rethink pleasure (seen through the lens of sexuality), danger (as a right to take risks to seek pleasure) and who is excluded when we talk about both.
reimagine social norms and popular culture that push for contradictory definitions of pleasure and danger, and place them in juxtaposition.
reboot the idea of pleasure and danger as being a binary, and redefine them through the lenses of agency and autonomy.
Read more...
At reconference we will:
rethink pleasure (seen through the lens of sexuality), danger (as a right to take risks to seek pleasure) and who is excluded when we talk about both.
reimagine social norms and popular culture that push for contradictory definitions of pleasure and danger, and place them in juxtaposition.
reboot the idea of pleasure and danger as being a binary, and redefine them through the lenses of agency and autonomy.
Read more...
Sex workers’ rights are a feminist issue. Challenging morality-based judgments about sex work, this track explores sex work as work – and centres sex workers’ voices, experiences and organizing, and their strategies and models of resistance.
At reconference we will:
rethink the binary between feminism and sex work, reconsidering how women’s rights movements relate to sex work and sex workers, and how sex workers relate to feminism.
reimagine as feminists (sex workers and non-sex workers) how we talk about sex work, and make the case for sex workers’ rights and for decriminalization.
reboot feminist organizations and movements to embrace sex workers’ rights and the full decriminalization of sex work – as a feminist issue.
Read more…
At reconference we will:
rethink the binary between feminism and sex work, reconsidering how women’s rights movements relate to sex work and sex workers, and how sex workers relate to feminism.
reimagine as feminists (sex workers and non-sex workers) how we talk about sex work, and make the case for sex workers’ rights and for decriminalization.
reboot feminist organizations and movements to embrace sex workers’ rights and the full decriminalization of sex work – as a feminist issue.
Read more…
This track will explore the binaries of heteronormativity and challenge fixed identities as the foundation of LGBTI movements, exploring how sexual and gender diversity intersect with themes such as agency and autonomy, sexuality and technology and arts as activism. It will focus on links across movements, especially those challenging punitive laws, policies and practices.
At reconference we will:
rethink why we are choosing the language of “sexual and gender diversity” against the limitations of the LGBTIQ and SOGIESC frameworks.
reimagine ideas about sexual liberation, freedom and autonomy and place these back into the sexuality and gender discourse.
reboot the possibilities of cross-movement alliance-building and advocacy through narratives, stories and documentation.
Read more…
At reconference we will:
rethink why we are choosing the language of “sexual and gender diversity” against the limitations of the LGBTIQ and SOGIESC frameworks.
reimagine ideas about sexual liberation, freedom and autonomy and place these back into the sexuality and gender discourse.
reboot the possibilities of cross-movement alliance-building and advocacy through narratives, stories and documentation.
Read more…
This track will address how culture, race, region, caste, science, medicine, law and power all operate together to judge, monitor and regulate different bodies in sports.
At reconference we will:
rethink how to tackle discriminatory practices that act against women in sports, specifically on grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, race, caste and ethnicity.
reimagine new perspectives and solidarities within and across movements.
reboot analysis around the policy and legal frameworks that restrict and control women in sports.
Read more…
At reconference we will:
rethink how to tackle discriminatory practices that act against women in sports, specifically on grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, race, caste and ethnicity.
reimagine new perspectives and solidarities within and across movements.
reboot analysis around the policy and legal frameworks that restrict and control women in sports.
Read more…
Millions of individuals and communities around the world today use digital technologies to explore, express, navigate and advocate for their gender, sexuality and rights. This track will provide a crucial opportunity for us to engage with the formulations and contestations that technology has reinforced and enabled.
At reconference we will:
rethink the role and significance of technology on our lives, and collapse binary understandings of the online and the on ground.
reimagine the digital as a powerful political space of opportunities and threats, which is used both to surveill, oppress and exclude, and also as a space of struggle, resistance, and organizing.
reboot our activism away from the false binary of physical only versus digital only, and think about how they are interwoven.
Read more…
At reconference we will:
rethink the role and significance of technology on our lives, and collapse binary understandings of the online and the on ground.
reimagine the digital as a powerful political space of opportunities and threats, which is used both to surveill, oppress and exclude, and also as a space of struggle, resistance, and organizing.
reboot our activism away from the false binary of physical only versus digital only, and think about how they are interwoven.
Read more…
partners
