On Feminist Recovery // Discussion

In response to the militaristic language that framed political speech and public imaginaries of care in times of the pandemic catastrophe, activists, policy makers, and researchers, made feminist recovery plans. Rooted in a care feminism, these recovery plans, written, among others, by policy makers and health workers in Hawai’i, by the NAWI Collective, a pan-African feminist initiative and by the National Women’s Council in Ireland, imagine a world beyond Covid-19 and insist that recovery from patriarchy is actually possible. Motivated by Elke Krasny’s book Living with an Infected Planet. Covid-19, Feminism, and the Global Frontline of Care (2023) the discussion connects ideas around feminist recovery to Athena Athanasiou’s proposition of counterpublic performativity, Elena Tzelepi’s engagement with bodies of resistance as well as Olga Shparaga’s understanding of sisterhood as solidarity.

Athena Athanasiou, Professor of Social Anthropology and Gender Theory at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens (GR)
Elke Krasny, Professor of Art and Education at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT)
Elena Tzelepis, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Thessaly, Volos (GR)
Olga Shparaga, Philosopher in Exile and the Educational Office for New Belarus, Berlin (DE)