Friday, 13 February 2026
Renate von Metzler-Saal (Cas. 1.801), Goethe-University Frankfurt
Speaker: Melinda Cooper (Australian National University), Penelope Deutscher (Northwestern University), Clara Mattei (University of Tulsa), Vanessa Wills (George Washington University)
The workshop will discuss contemporary materialist-feminist analyses and what we can learn from them about current fascist developments in the US, Europe, and worldwide. In particular, we will focus on how gender relations and capitalist production and reproduction intertwine with authoritarian and fascist tendencies today. The speakers will discuss the extent to which liberal, conservative, and right-wing political agendas coincide in promoting policies that simultaneously reproduce gender inequality, racialized logics, and class relations. The three panels will examine historical developments in which liberal and fascist forces allied to weaken the workers‘ movement, while also questioning Marxist and Black feminist approaches to what they can contribute to an analysis of fascism and how we should organize from a feminist perspective to fight current authoritarian tendencies.
Schedule
13:00 – 13:30
Introduction
13:30 – 15:00
Panel I: Historical and contemporary analyses of the interrelations between liberalism and fascism
Clara Mattei and Melinda Cooper
15:00 – 15:30
Coffee break
15:30 – 17:00
Panel II: Black feminist studies on fascist formations of capitalism
Penelope Deutscher and Vanessa Wills
17:00 – 17:30
Coffee break
17:30 – 19:30
Podium: What is to be done?
Clara Mattei, Vanessa Wills and [tba]
19:30 – 21:00
Reception and dinner