Menaka Philips, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Tulane University 

Too often, feminist scholars center evaluations of liberalism in their analyses of gender and culture, which ensures that divisions between liberal/nonliberal, west/non-west will be established at the outset of their conversations. As Philips explains, this dynamic has problematic consequences for the ways in which scholars are able to respond not only to each other, but also to the appropriation of feminist discourses by the state and in public deliberations – from the recent ‘Travel Ban’ in the U.S., to the ‘Burkini Ban’ in France.  Needed, Philips argues, are new possibilities for cross-cultural collaboration that might well require a shift beyond feminist preoccupations with liberalism.