"Gender theory" has become central to several important public controversies in France, including the 2012 and 2013 demonstrations against gay marriage and attacks on new French school curricula that explore male/female equality. In this context, American-style gender theory has been criticized as incompatible with the French "Republican model." The panel will discuss the multiple tensions between Republican discourse and the category -- and theory-- of gender.
Laure Bereni is a sociologist and researcher with the CNRS at the Centre Maurice Halbwachs. She is a specialist of gender studies and her books include Le genre, théories et controverses (2014, with co-author Mathieu Trachman) and La bataille de la parité: Mobilisations pour la féminisation du pouvoir (Economica, 2015). Bruno Perreau is the Cynthia L. Reed Professor and Associate Professor of French Studies at MIT and the author of Queer Theory: The French Response (Stanford UP, 2016). Anne Verjus is a CNRS Research Professor at the CIRHUS (NYU) and the author of Le bon mari: Une histoire politique des hommes et des femmes à l’époque révolutionnaire (Fayard, 2010). Emmanuelle Saada is a Professor of French and History at Columbia University.
Event co-sponsored by the Columbia Maison Française and Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality.
