Deadline: Friday, November 15, 2024.
Contact: Mohamed Louza, Assistant Professor, University of Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech
Email: m.louza@uca.ac.ma

1st International Women’s Studies Conference: Decolonizing
Women’s Voices Across Disciplines
Faculty of Humanities, Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech, Morocco
April 10-11, 2025

The new millennium has willy-nilly witnessed the proliferation of women’s
voices across disciplines the globe over. Women have penetrated all domains and
fields to write themselves beyond patriarchal norms and colonial legacies. In
recent years, women of the Global South have started to enrich the debate on
decoloniality, decolonial feminism as burgeoning approaches that challenge and
critique the colonial and Western modernist narratives shaping women’s
experiences. “Decoloniality, in this sense, is wrapped up with re-existence; both
claim a terrain that endeavors to delink from the theoretical tenets and conceptual
instruments of Western thought. If ‘another world is possible,’ it cannot be built
with the conceptual tools inherited from the Renaissance and the Enlightenment”
(Mignolo 2011, 20). Building upon Walter Mignolo and Catherine Walsh’s On
Decoloniality and Maria Lugones’s Decolonial Feminism, this international
conference aims to engage in the debate around decolonizing feminism via
critically examining and deconstructing its epistemologies and practices in
women’s multidisciplinary voices and via advocating ‘the theory of difference’.
Feminism, since its emergence, has always been entangled in and stemmed from
‘the global, capitalist, colonial, modern system of power’ or what Bell Hooks calls
‘White-Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy’. Hence, recently, there has been a growing recognition of the need to engage in critical conversations that challenge
existing structures of power and dominance. Central to this discourse is the
intersectionality of gender and colonialism, giving rise to the imperative for a
decolonial feminist perspective. This perspective seeks to dismantle the embedded
power dynamics rooted in colonial histories, advocating for an alternative
paradigm of thought that emanates from women’s different indigenous cultural
roots and spaces.

In light of these considerations, we are excited to announce the call for
contributions to an International Conference on Decolonial Feminism. This
conference aims to bring together scholars, activists, and practitioners from across
the globe to explore, discuss, and critically engage with issues related to
decolonization, feminism, and their intersections. This conference hopes to
scrutinise and redefine decoloniality, intersection, indigenous, and feminist
theories. By so doing, it challenges colonial Eurocentrism as a discourse that has
despised women while looking for alternative critical epistemologies.

Conference Objectives:
• Defining the Decolonization of women’s voices
• Promote Intersectional Understanding
• Examine Historical Legacies
• Highlight Indigenous Perspectives
• Challenge colonial and Eurocentric feminist biases

We invite scholars, activists, artists, policymakers, and researchers from any
discipline and field to engage with these questions. Possible topics include, but
are not limited to:
• Decolonial Feminist Theory
• Global Perspectives on Feminism
• Intersectionality and Identity Politics
• Post-Colonial Feminist Activism
• Indigenous Feminisms
• Reclaiming and Redefining Spaces
• Colonial Legacies in Contemporary Policies
• Challenges and Opportunities in Decolonial Feminist Praxis
• Decolonizing the land and feminism
• Decoloniality, androcentrism, and women’s writing
• Decolonial ecology, women’s writing, and the Anthropocene

Submission Guidelines
Format: The conference will be in-person only. There will be no virtual
sessions. The official language of the conference is English.
Interested scholars are kindly asked to submit abstracts for 15-minute
presentations (300-500 words) along with a brief bio (70-100 words) as a single
Microsoft Word file (no PDF please) to the conference email address
marrakech.decolonialityconf2025@gmail.com
Please include your full name, affiliation (including country information),
abstract title, and email address at the top of the abstract file. The receipt of
submissions will be acknowledged within 3 workdays.

Important Dates:
The deadline for abstract and short bio submission is Friday, November 15,
2024.
Peer-review accept/reject decision notification: Friday, December 20, 2024.
Full papers and presentation materials will be due on Thursday, January 23rd,
2025.
Draft program announcement: Wednesday, February 05, 2025.
Final program announcement: Thursday, February 13, 2025.

Publication Prospects:
A separate call for submissions will also be issued soon after the conference
to invite full-text articles to be selected through a double-blind peer review for an
edited collection of essays.

Fees:
It covers access to all conference sessions, conference materials, two
lunches, and coffee breaks for two days. Accommodation is your responsibility.
Early Registration (by Thursday, February 13, 2025)
Faculty Member (Moroccan University Affiliation): 400 DHS
Faculty Member (Foreign University Affiliation): 100 EUR
Doctoral Students: 150 DHS
Late Registration (by Friday, March 7, 2025)
Faculty Member (Moroccan University Affiliation): 600 DHS
Faculty Member (Foreign University Affiliation): 150 EUR
Doctoral Students: 200 DHS

Conference venue: Day 1: Amphitheatre 6. (Opening and keynote address) Day
2: Conference room
Conference Date: 10-11 April 2025
Coordinators: Dr. Hanane El Aissi – Dr. Mohamed Louza -Dr. Bouchra Belgaid
marrakech.decolonialityconf2025@gmail.com

Conference Location: The conference will take place at the Faculty of Letters
and Humanities Campus, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco.

Travel: The campus is conveniently accessed through Marrakech Menara
International Airport, within a 25-minute traveling distance (by taxi and shuttle
service). Train service is also available.

Accommodation: A list of recommended accommodation options will be
announced by Friday, January 31st, 2025.

Meals: Lunch will be served at the university canteen on April 10 and 11 and will
be included in the conference fee.

Ouarzazate Excursion (Optional): Subject to advance registration and extra
payment (deadline and cost to be announced), a two-day sightseeing excursion to
Ouarzazate will be organized as part of the conference social & entraining
program.

For information about Cadi Ayyad University, please visit the university’s
official website: https://flm.uca.ma

We look forward to welcoming you to our international conference
April 2025 Marrakech, Morocco.
Hanane El Aissi – Bouchra Belgaid – Mohamed Louza
On behalf of the Organizing Committee.

Posted on April 28, 2024