Feminist Scholarly Writing under Authoritarianism, a Conversation with Debjani Chakravarty, Patti Duncan, and Jennifer C. Nash

This episode of Ask a Feminist looks at how the Trump administration’s attacks on women’s and gender studies, and universities more broadly, are affecting the production of feminist scholarship. The editors of four interdisciplinary feminist journals (Frontiers, Feminist Formations, Feminist Studies, and Signs) talk about the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that the Trump administration’s crusade against gender ideology is affecting how feminist knowledge is produced. They talk about how these new attacks on women’s studies, in combination with the longer-term crises facing the university, might reshape journals’ relationship with the field. Our guests are Debjani Chakravarty, Patti Duncan, and Jennifer C. Nash. Chakravarty is the coeditor (with Sarita Gaytán and Wanda Pillow) of Frontiers and associate professor of gender studies at the University of Utah. Duncan is the editor of Feminist Formations and professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Oregon. And Nash is the editorial director of Feminist Studies and is Jean Fox O'Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. Suzanna Walters of Signs facilitates the conversation.