Workshop-Panel: The Contestation of Global Gender Norms – Analyzing and Situating Gender Equality in Foreign Policy
On 2 and 3 July 2026, the ICAS:MP workshop “The Challenge of Gender” will take place in Würzburg, bringing together scholars from India, Germany, and several other countries. Dr. Philipp Gieg (IPS) and Prof. Ummu Salma Bava (JNU New Delhi) are organizing the workshop panel “The Contestation of Global Gender Norms – Analyzing and Situating Gender Equality in Foreign Policy”. The Institute of Political Science and Sociology at the University of Würzburg has been a part of the International Centre of Advanced Studies Metamorphoses of the Political (ICAS:MP) for several years.
In the framework of the 2026 ICAS:MP workshop “The Challenge of Gender”, this panel examines the contestation of global gender equality norms, with particular attention to how these norms are articulated, interpreted, and challenged across foreign policies, including those of emerging powers from the Global South. While gender equality has become embedded in international agendas, its meanings and categories remain deeply contested across foreign policy discourses and practices. Drawing on International Relations norms research, feminist scholarship, and foreign policy analysis, the panel investigates the explicit and implicit gender norms that inform policymaking and practices in global governance and examines how these norms are contested across different political and institutional contexts. By situating gender equality at the intersection of foreign policy and global gov-ernance, the panel sheds light on struggles over gender norms in a fragmented global order.
Panel Program
- Introduction: Contestation of Global Gender Norms in and through Foreign Policy
Ummu Salma Bava (Chair) and Philipp Gieg
- Global Contestations of Gender Rights
Julia Roth
- Gender Justice in EU External Relations after the EU’s Geopolitical Turn
Hanna Muehlenhoff
- India’s Contestation of Global Gender Norms
Philipp Gieg
- Another BRICS in the Wall: Gender, Power, and the Limits of a Multipolar Promise
Shubha Chacko
- Concluding Discussion
Conveners & Speakers
Prof. Dr. Ummu Salma Bava · Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (India)
Ummu Salma Bava is Chairperson and Jean Monnet Professor at the Centre for European Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi. She is a member of the Ac-ademic Advisory Board, German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, and was member of the Research Advisory Council of Germany’s leading think tank Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik.
Shubha Chacko · Solidarity Foundation, Bengaluru (India)
Shubha Chacko is Executive Director at Solidarity Foundation. She has over 25 years of experience on a range of social concerns from gender and sexuality to macro-economics and NGO management. Shubha has published papers in peer-reviewed journals, chapters in books as well as NGO reports and has spoken at a range of conferences at the international and national level.
Dr. Philipp Gieg · Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (Germany)
Philipp Gieg is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chair of International Relations and European Stud-ies, Institute of Political Science and Sociology, University of Würzburg, Germany. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Würzburg. His research and teaching focus on contes-tation in global governance by actors of the Global South, Africa’s and India’s international relations as well as EU foreign policy.
Dr. Hanna Muehlenhoff · University of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Hanna Muehlenhoff is a Senior Lecturer of European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Her research examines EU security, militarism, civil society activism and feminist, queer and postcoloni-al perspectives, including work on the UN Women, Peace and Security Agenda and feminist foreign policy.
Dr. habil. Julia Roth · Bielefeld University and Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Germany)
Julia Roth is Senior Lecturer in American Studies at Bielefeld University and works at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures), Berlin. Her research focuses on gender studies, inter-sectionality, postcolonial theory, and right-wing populism. She works on global inequalities, feminist struggles, and citizenship, and is co-editor of the volume “Global Contestations of Gender Rights”, which examines worldwide conflicts over gender equality norms.
Participation
The workshop will take place at Burkardus-Haus in Würzburg, Germany. Those interested in attending are kindly asked to contact Dr. Philipp Gieg, as this is a closed-door workshop with limited capacity.
Contact
For more information, please contact Dr. Philipp Gieg
philipp.gieg@uni-wuerzburg.de
