Interrogating Gender-Based Violence: Global Dialogues on Gender Power Relations, Men, and Masculinities

28-30 October 2026
University of South Africa (UNISA),
Kgorong Building, Muckleneuk Campus, Pretoria, South Africa, 2026
(Hybrid Event: In-person and Virtual Participation)

The Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of South Africa (UNISA), invites researchers, practitioners, policymakers, activists, and community leaders to submit abstracts for this international conference. This gathering seeks to address the complex relationship between masculinities, identities, and gender-based violence (GBV). We aim to explore how constructions of masculinities contribute to the prevalence of GBV worldwide and to foster transformative dialogues for positive change.

1. Conference Context and Objectives

We are at a time when critical knowledge and intersectional politics are contested by various actors, ranging from social movements to political parties and institutions. Many of the political signifiers that critical scholars deploy, such as ‘gender’, colonialism’, or ‘safety’, have been co-opted into exclusionary and oppressive discourses for ideological purposes.

The conference aims to explore the complex representations, constructions and performances of masculinities in our historical juncture, when "being a man" is linked both to gender-based oppression and to supremacist posturing. Implicit in this concern is the link between masculinity and gender-based violence, which will also be unpacked and complicated at the conference.  We believe it is important to stress that "masculinity” is not monolithic but is always inflected by other aspects of subjective positioning, such as geopolitical location, race, ethnicity, class, religion, age, disability, and so on. It is also increasingly acknowledged that men and masculinities are implicated in current global crises, including escalating military conflicts, right-wing swings, and environmental challenges such as climate crisis.

The conference will trace these discursive developments globally, while considering the specificity and complexity of this type of politics across geopolitical contexts. This conference seeks to analyse processes of (re-)appropriation, resignification, and hijacking of critical knowledge to better understand the current historical juncture and to conceive political strategies for resistance and change.

2. Possible Themes

Contributors are invited to reflect on questions related to the conference topic, including but not limited to:

• What is Violence? What is Gender-Based Violence? How do the categories of violence and gender-based violence interact with other concepts of violence, such as Rob Nixon's 'slow violence' and Johann Galtung's 'structural violence'.
• The resurgence of Hypermasculinities: Analysing the rise of extreme masculine archetypes in current political and social landscapes and how such dynamics overlap with and intersect with right-wing turns and populism.
• Homophobic and Transphobic Violence: Exploring the relationship between constructions of masculinity and violence targeting LGBTQIA+ individuals and indigenous minorities, particularly as these groups are increasingly cast as "threats" in nationalist and anti-gender discourses.
• The intersections of Men,  Masculinities and Gender-Based Violence: Exploring how multiple axes of power and identity influence the manifestation and representation of violence.
• Hegemonic, Pluralised, Resistant and Alternative Masculinities: Investigating dominant forms of manhood and the emergence of "hybrid" identities that may incorporate or obscure traditional power dynamics.
• Patriarchal Structures: Analysis of the socialisation processes shaping masculine identities and the "crisis" of masculinity in changing gender roles and relations.
• Intimate Partner Violence in LGBTQIA+ Contexts: Intersectionality, Power, and the Performance of Identity. Interrogating how queer partners navigate violence within relationships where identity, power, and performance intersect. It considers how social structures (race, class, gender identity) and culturally mediated masculinities shape both the manifestation of abuse and the willingness or ability to seek support.
• Digital and Creative Cultures: Masculinities in digital/social media platforms, including the violences of online spaces such as the Manosphere and digital activism and artistic resistance, as well as creative restorative practices for survivor-centred justice.
• Engagement and Policy: Innovations in male engagement against GBV and strategies for involving men and boys in prevention.
• Academic Freedom and Institutions: How institutional policies affect the status of critical gender research and academic freedom, and how this affects ways in which gender-based violence in academia is addressed.
• Environmental Violence, Violence to other species/more-than-humans, and to the Planet, “slow” violence: How do these kinds of violence intersect with masculinity and masculinities?
• Epistemic and Colonialist Violence

• War, Armed Conflict, Militarism, and Peace

• Violence in sports: When violence is framed as justified, “part of the game”; violence as a fandom practice, and links to nationalism

• Women’s Relations to Violence

• Connections between Forms of Violence, for example, between war and armed conflict, interpersonal violence, and sexual violence  

• Permutations of Relations of Violence, including men-women, men-men, women-women

• Digital and Online Violence

• Children, Young People and Violence

• Violence, Representation, Visuality, Text and the Arts

3. Presentation Formats

Aside from 20-minute paper presentations, we encourage various other formats to promote transnational collaboration: such as roundtable discussions, conversations, and interviews.

4. Visuals, multimedia, and performance.

Posters and lecture-demonstrations.

5. About RINGS

RINGS, the International Research Association of Institutions of Advanced Gender Studies (ringsgender.org), is a global association of centers for advanced gender studies spanning Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. Since its establishment in 2014, the following locations have hosted annual meetings:

Prague (2015), Cape Town (2016, 2020), Reykjavik (2017), Lisbon (2018), Tallinn (2019), Budapest (2021), Durban (2022), Paderborn (2023), Delhi (2024), Utrecht (2025).

The conference will also house the 13^th RINGS General Assembly business meeting.

6. Practicalities

Submission Guidelines

Abstracts: Maximum of 350 words.

Details: Include title, author(s) name(s), affiliation(s), and contact details.

Format: Indicate at the end of the abstract whether you plan to attend in person or virtually.

Submission: Submit by 29 May 2026 via email to Prof I.D. Mothoagae (mothodi@unisa.ac.za), copying Ms. Mapula Mogashoa (mogasmn@unisa.ac.za). Use the subject line: "RINGS abstract".

Important Dates

Notification of Acceptance: 30 June 2026.

Registration Opens: 17 August 2026.

Registration and Solidarity Fund

Registration Fee:

200,00 EUR for individuals who are fully funded by a university, organisation, or project;

100,00 EUR for individuals who are able to pay a fee but cannot afford the full amount;

25,00 EUR for individuals who are not funded;

No motivation letter is required

Solidarity Fund: The registration fee supports the RINGS Solidarity Fund. Funding assistance may be available for participants from lower-income countries or the Global South; contact Prof. Mothoagae for details.

Local Organising Conference Committee

• Prof. I.D. Mothoagae (UNISA)
• Prof. Deirdre Byrne
• Ms Mapula Mogashoa
• Mrs Leandra Joubert
• Mr Kgothatso Mokgele
• Ms Keabetswe Khutsoane
• Ms Ipeleng Brodie
• Ms Nelsiwe Shabangu
• Ms Zamatolo Mtolo

International Advisory Committee:

Includes representation from the RINGS community:

• Prof. Deevia Bhana (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
• Prof. Kathrin Thiele (Utrecht University)
• Prof. Irma Erlingsdöttir (University of Iceland)
• Prof. Jeff Hearn (Hanken School of Economics)
• Prof. Tamara Shefer (University of Western Cape)

We welcome scholars, activists and gender practitioners committed to transformative gender justice to join our global dialogue

For inquiries, please contact:

Prof I.D. Mothoagae
Email: mothodi@unisa.ac.za