|
|
|
|
Women Talking Politics 2026 - Resistance and Resilience
|
Submissions for Women Talking Politics 2026 are now open.
|
This year, we are thrilled to engage with the larger social science community, recognising the vital role of sociology in a time of urgency and contestation. This year's WTP will be launched at The 2026 Conference for the Social Sciences: He Kai Kei Aku Ringa. As the conference encourages us to consider our roles as the critic and conscience of society, we invite submissions focused on Resistance and Resilience.
|
Across Aotearoa New Zealand and globally, gendered communities are confronting intensifying backlash, democratic instability, racialised and economic inequality, the climate crisis, and renewed attacks on bodily autonomy. Misogyny is increasingly visible in political and digital spaces. Trans and non-binary communities face organised hostility. Indigenous sovereignty continues to be debated rather than upheld.
|
In this context, resistance is lived, not rhetorical. And resilience is not limitless — it is required, often from those who carry the most already. This issue asks contributors to sit with that tension.
|
- What forms does resistance take within political institutions, and beyond them?
- Who is expected to be resilient, and who benefits from that expectation?
- When does resilience enable transformation, and when does it risk normalizing injustice?
- In Aotearoa, what does it mean to be cis women, trans women, women of color, and non-binary people researching politics, participating in politics, and constructing political knowledge?
|
We invite cis-women, trans women, women of colour and non-binary contributors to reflect on how resistance and resilience are researched, practised, embodied, theorised, and imagined. We are particularly interested in work that critiques power — that interrogates institutions, challenges complacency, and traces the messy realities of change.
|
Within and beyond these themes, we welcome all work written by women, men, trans, and non-binary people applying a gender lens. We offer the following areas as inspiration - not as limitations:
|
- Politics in Aotearoa New Zealand and the upcoming election
- Te Tiriti relationships, te ao Māori, and mātauranga Māori perspectives
- Decolonizing Aotearoa New Zealand and institutional transformation
- Migrant, refugee, and diaspora perspectives
- The rise of misogyny against political leaders and activists
- Gender-based violence and collective responses
- Natural disasters, climate change, and feminist climate justice
- Gendered political issues within Aotearoa New Zealand
- Global gendered movements (e.g. Women, Life, Freedom)
- Youth movements and intergenerational organising
- Gender-led resilience and structural change
- Achieving gender equality and equity
- Gender and disability
- Women’s political and economic empowerment
- Feminist foreign policy
- Women’s human rights
- Gender and sexual diversity
- Women, social media, and technology
- Women and religion
- Men’s role in advancing women’s rights
- Human trafficking
- Women’s engagement in peace, security, and recovery
If your work falls outside these areas, we still encourage you to submit. Political realities rarely fit neatly into categories. We welcome:
|
- Original research papers: 2,000–5,000 words
- Commentary: 500–2,500 words
- Summary of published articles: 800 words
- Reports of dissertations: up to 2,000 words
- Research abstracts: 200–300 words
- Creative work (plays, poems, visual projects, stories): up to 5,000 words
|
If your piece falls outside these parameters, please get in touch. We welcome both academic and practitioner-based submissions and are especially keen to amplify the voices of marginalised communities, activists, early-career scholars, and students.
|
Please use APA citations, 12-point Times New Roman font.
|
Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis through 15 July 2026.
|
Please email your submission as a Word document attachment to womentalkingpolitics@nzpsa.co.nz
|
Women Talking Politics remains a space for rigorous scholarship, critical reflection, and creative political imagination grounded in gendered analysis. We invite you to contribute to a 2026 edition that does not look away from the struggle but engages with it directly.
|
This work is by us, for us — and we invite you to be part of it.
|
|
|
|