Tuesday, 8 December 2020 at 09:30
This public event was organised in collaboration with the Department of French in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Dr Nathalie Ségeral, Lecturer in French at the University of Sydney presented her work on feminist activism and media coverage of GBV during the 2020 pandemic in France.
Abstract:
The few months leading up to the pandemic have witnessed an unprecedented emergence of feminist manifestos and calls for action throughout the Francophone world. They culminated in the 23rd November 2019 historic march against feminicide held in Paris, following the call issued by the feminist group #NousToutes, in which 49,000 people participated – the largest feminist march ever recorded in French history, whose federating power swiped across the Francophone world. This march came in the wake of four major manifestos published in Le Monde and Médiapart. These calls to action have gained increased relevance following the record high number of feminicides in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown. This talk will examine the emergence of a transnational francophone feminism from #MeToo to #NousToutes while interrogating the problematic media coverage of gender-based violence. Through a discussion of four case studies, I will highlight ethical and intersectional issues surrounding the lack of media representation of GBV and the paradoxical choice of what kind of GBV gets to make the headlines.
Nathalie Ségeral is a Lecturer in French at the University of Sydney. Prior to moving to Australia, she held a tenured appointment at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa (USA) and received a Ph.D. in Francophone Studies from UCLA. Her research, publications and teaching are centered on the articulation of feminist and gender studies with trauma and cultural memory in narratives of the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide and the French-speaking South Pacific. She is currently co-editing two volumes on Trauma and Motherhood: New Challenges in the 21st Century (forthcoming with Palgrave-McMillan) and Reframing Academic Motherhood. Her French translation of David Chappell’s Le Réveil kanak: la montée du nationalisme en Nouvelle-Calédonie was recently published by the New Caledonia University Press and her latest articles have appeared in Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, Crossways Journal, Jewish Culture and History, Journal of Holocaust Research and Women in French Studies.