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CALL FOR PAPERS Is food sovereignty a feminist practice and struggle? Interrogating the gender dimensions of food sovereignty Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers Denver, Colorado April 6-10, 2020 Deadline for abstracts: October 15, 2019 Organizers Annette Aurélie Desmarais, Canada Research Chair in Human Rights, Social Justice and Food Sovereignty, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Amy Trauger, Professor, Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA. [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Rita Calvário, Post-doctoral Researcher, Center of Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Priscilla Claeys, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, UK. [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Zoe Brent, PhD Candidate, Institute for Social Studies, The Hague, [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Abstract: This session builds on a panel we organized at the Royal Geographical Society Conference (August 2019, London). Gender equality/equity is a critical element of the theory, discourse and practice of food sovereignty. Yet, there is a considerable research gap on the gendered dimensions of food sovereignty (Agarwal 2014; Masson et al. 2017). This session will interrogate the role of food sovereignty in transforming social relations by analyzing if and how food sovereignty -- as an on-going process of food system transformation (Schiavoni 2017) and feminist practice (Masson et al. 2017) -- helps creates a “deep egalitarianism” (Menser 2008) that confronts unequal power relations, structures and processes, based on sex, race, patriarchy and class. We invite papers that address questions such as: How does food sovereignty address deeply entrenched social relations and structural barriers to women’s equality and gender equity in specific locales? How does women’s agency in those places shape food sovereignty approaches, strategies and actions? How are gendered struggles around food sovereignty more locally, national or internationally constructed, and why does this matter? Analyzing the gender dimensions of food sovereignty and food justice struggles is especially important given the on-going rise of right-wing populism that is afflicting the countryside in many countries. How are food sovereignty and food justice struggles curtailing this dangerous political trend, and what learnings do they provide for building an emancipatory rural politics? We also welcome theoretical and/or empirical submissions from queer, intersectional, indigenous and black feminist intellectual traditions that query the role of gender in asymmetrical power relations, the creation of food insecurity and building alternatives. References Agarwal, B. 2014. Food sovereignty, food security and democratic choice: Critical contradictions, difficult conciliations. Journal of Peasant Studies 41(6), pp 1247–68. Masson, D., A. Paulos and E.B. Bastien. 2017. Struggling for food sovereignty in the World March of Women. Journal of Peasant Studies, 44(1), pp 56-77. Menser, M. 2008. Transnational participatory democracy in action: The case of La Vía Campesina. Journal of Social Philosophy, 39, pp 20-41. DEADLINE for abstracts: Please send your abstract to all organizers (emails provided above) by October 15, 2019. ABSTRACT: Please provide the title and no more than 200 – 300 words of description. We also need the names, e-mails, position and affiliation of the presenter and co-authors (if any). Looking forward to hearing from you!