Day 4, Session 3—Sexuality, Gender and Globalization

Sexuality, Gender and Globalization
Kate Doyle Griffiths and Lisa Maya Knauer

What do sexuality and gender have to do with the global economy? What role do sex and desire — some of the most intimate aspects of our lives — play in the emergence and evolution of capitalism, and how are they in turn shaped by capital? Why have women, particularly in the global South, often been at the forefront of resistance to neoliberal capitalism? How can Marxism(s) help us understand these issues, and formulate strategies for change? This workshop will explore these questions from multiple perspectives — spanning generations and different local, regional and national contexts.

Lisa Maya Knauer is a founding member of the MEP and its predecessor, the Brecht Forum. She has taught a variety of classes on feminism and Marxism, and gender and capitalism. She is currently working with indigenous resistance movements in Guatemala, and with immigrant women workers in the U.S. In her day job, she is the chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. (you don’t need to include the academic affiliation if you don’t want)

Kate Doyle Griffiths is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center, and teaches at Hunter College. She has conducted research in South Africa, on reproductive labor, health, gender and politics.