Intersectionality and Violence in Politics

The general findings that men and women are subject to different forms of violence and that there are significant differences among women political actors underline the urgency for intersectional research designs. This Workshop aims to attract submissions from scholars working on political violence, broadly defined, against political actors who do not belong to the cisgender, male, abled, heterosexual, highly educated political norm or so-called ‘space invaders’ (Puwar 2004). The Workshop will develop and expand upon existing research by addressing, intersectionally, experiences, coping strategies and consequences of violence. We understand actors as anyone who visibly or invisibly contributes to political processes, as elected or appointed official, aspirant, voter, activist, opposition leader, political advisor, support staff or journalist (cf. Krook 2020). The Workshop invites papers that address the following questions. Social positions  How do social positions like gender, ability, age, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class and/or religion shape experiences of political violence?  How do these experiences affect the broader professional, political and personal circles of targets?  How are forms of violence gendered and/or raced and so on?  In which kind of online and offline spaces do various forms of violence take place? Who are the perpetrators? Coping strategies  What coping strategies are adopted in response to violence and to what effect?  How do targets/survivors or bystanders do safety work?  How do political parties and political institutions contribute to safety work, care, protection and prevention?  How do coping options differ among targets depending on their political position (e.g. elected, opposition or activist)? Intersectionality  What are the intersectional, gendered and/or raced consequences of political violence on political participation and representation?  What are the consequences for the functioning of democracy and regimes more generally? Methodological challenges  What are the methodological challenges in studying violence with respect to the safety of research participants and researchers, the lack of data, measures, the sensitivity of the topic and the triggering effects this may have? To capture political violence in all its complexity, participants may study these questions in various subfields of the discipline, including political representation and participation, international relations, political theory, social movements and public policy. We invite theoretical, qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods studies drawing on large-N or small-N comparisons or in-depth case studies. Theoretically work might depart from a range of perspectives rooted in, for example, the politics of gender, race, disability, sexuality, migration or combinations thereof. The Workshop invites Papers from a growing body of junior and senior scholars working on political violence, researching different geographic regions. In conversation, the Workshop aims to develop an integrated intersectional framework for the study of political violence in contemporary politics.