In her book, “Living a Feminist Life”, Sara Ahmed describes the idea of a ‘feminist toolkit’ as a collection of ideas, writings and theories that we can return to. Although, feminist theory provides the language and lens to express and concisely articulate women’s experiences, the gap between activism and developing of feminist theory persists. Amina Mama writes that feminist writing is key to advancing the social, economic and political equality of women. She believes that the strides taken by the feminist movement in organizing for women’s liberation need to be enhanced with coherent feminist consciousness informed by sound theories of gender oppression and change, lest we easily become subject to an identity politics that will keep us divided.
And yet the absence of platforms for emerging feminists to contribute to the movement through intellectual activism, combined with the lack of professional support to improve the quality of writing to enable their work to be featured in leading and largely exclusive publications endure. In response to this, Akina Mama wa Afrika with support from UN Women Uganda, under the auspices of the Young Women in Leadership and Mentorship Programme is seeking to build the capacity of young feminist leaders to influence on a range of women’s rights issues though the LEADERS’ Journal, a premier platform for feminist thought leadership. The Journal looks to build a community of diverse contributors and readers that value intellectual rigour and activism and that understand feminist analysis as both an intellectual and movement building pursuit.
The programme is therefore seeking referenced work on women’s rights in Uganda, to be published in the LEADERS’ journal. Ugandan Feminists are encouraged to submit abstracts on a topic of their choice on issues of women’s rights using feminist tools of analysis. Shortlisted abstracts will be given editorial support while developing papers.
Submission Guidelines
- A select team shall review abstracts that are in English, are 400-500 words in length, without footnotes or endnotes, and in MS Word format. Abstracts must include in a single document: Title of abstract, author’s name and email address. Abstracts must be sent by email to [email protected] with [email protected] in copy by 6th November 2019.
- The decision on selected abstracts will be communicated on November 15th 2019
- The full paper should be completed by December 1st 2019 and must be an original submission not presented or published before.
- Both abstracts and full papers should be submitted as a MS Word file
- Full Papers should be no more than 2,500 words, single spaced in Times New Roman 12 point
Shortlisted contributors will be given a modest honorarium.
