This monthly-held seminar, bringing together the entire LEGS-Laboratory for Gender and Sexuality Studies, but open to the general public, puts the notion of translation –in the linguistic sense but also cultural and political– at the centre of a reflection on the potentialities but also the limits of gender studies as a field of research that is both transdisciplinary and transnational. Indeed, gender is a prime example of how to study the transfer of ideas across borders, as gender studies is becoming increasingly international. Moreover, today, the internationalisation of campaigns against the (supposed) "ideology (or theory) of gender" is helping to spread the word far beyond the academic world, which challenges us to think freshly about its social impact as well as its political significance. It is therefore appropriate to put forward reflections that mobilise the notion of cultural translation, understood as a theory and practice that reveals the limits of hegemonic and universalising discourses, thus helping to ’situate’ knowledge in specific contexts. Gender" is not a concept that can be used universally, independently of contexts, according to prefixed parameters; on the contrary, this notion is modified and enriched when it is used in diverse political and cultural contexts and in particular in different languages.

This seminar will address a series of questions. How do different social contexts influence the multiple ways of interpreting, handling and reading gender? What types of political and cultural translation accompany each crossing of geographical, linguistic or disciplinary boundaries? How does gender translate (or not) in different theoretical contexts, be it in the social sciences, literary studies, philosophy, so-called "hard" sciences, etc.?

From November 6, 2020 onwards, the seminar will be held every month on a Friday from 17:00 to 19:00. The seminar will give the floor to invited guests, translation practitioners or theorists in various fields (literature and philosophy, social sciences, arts, etc.).

The seminar is led by Anne-Emmanuelle Berger and Ilana Eloit and will be held in Condorcet, Aubervilliers.

You can check the dates and contexts of each session here.

Due to the health situation, please send an email to ilana.eloit@cnrs.fr to secure a place in the sessions. The number of places is limited to 25 people per session. You will also receive a link to follow the sessions online.