ABSTRACT
What is contemporary feminism? When we first set out to contemplate this question in early 2016, feminism as a core principle faced an uncertain future: academically dismantled, intellectually deconstructed, politically dwarfed, and culturally suspect, it seemed destined to be surrounded by qualifiers, hyphens, and “posts.” How is feminism still relevant for activists and academics? we wanted to ask; what does it mean now? Can we still invoke the term as a unified concept? How, we wondered, is feminism useful, not only as a perspective but also as a methodology, a tradition, a subject, and a bridge to connect academic, political, social, and cultural perspectives and shore up their work in fortifying ways? In much academic work, we observed, feminism has made its way from title, to subtitle, to body text, to footnotes; it had been absorbed and in the process had lost its position as subject. In conversations with potential contributors, we learned that many felt ambivalent about using the term, not for its connotations of struggle or its political demands but rather for its sense of rigidity, perceived lack of inclusivity, air of privilege, ill fit of universal claims, and a sense that other, more urgent politics have pressed for alternative allegiances.
