Call for Papers

Call for short papers (pdf)

The academy has long been imagined as a bastion of intellectual freedom, a space for the exchange of ideas and pursuit of knowledge, governed by meritocracy (Scully, 2002). However, for many scholars, particularly those whose identities and research challenge dominant norms, it is a hostile terrain. Neoliberal imperatives, masculinist cultures, racial hierarchies, and top-down structures often shape academic life, privileging competition over care, productivity over reflection, and conformity over critique. Cynicism sets in when what counts as knowledge and whose voices are heard in publications and career promotion (Hyland, 2015; Makula, 2022) are defined by academic games (Jarvinen & Mik-Meyer, 2025), increasingly aided by software developments. Counteracting these, feminism offers more than a theoretical lens; it provides language and praxis for survival. This language does not merely describe the world; it transforms it by naming injustices, fostering solidarity, and imagining alternative futures (Vijay et al., 2025). Feminism is therefore about changing, resisting, and/or playing with the rules of an inherently patriarchal/masculine game.

Naming and Critiquing Power Structures

Survival begins with recognition. Feminism equips scholars with concepts that expose the systemic nature of exclusion and marginalization in academia. Terms such as patriarchy, intersectionality, and epistemic injustice allow us to articulate why certain bodies, voices, and knowledges are devalued (Kozlowski et al., 2022). Without this vocabulary, experiences of isolation or precarity risk being internalized as personal failure rather than understood as structural violence. For example, the recent corporate takeover of critical journals in the field of Management and Organization Studies by corporate publishers exemplifies how neoliberal logics infiltrate academic publishing, prioritizing profit over intellectual integrity and community values (Benschop et al., forthcoming). Feminist critique visibilizes these dynamics (Ahmed, 2012; Jones, 1992), framing them not as isolated incidents but as part of a global pattern of masculinist neoliberalism that erodes spaces for critical scholarship (Fotaki & Prasad, 2015). The resignation of editorial boards and editors opposing the commodification of publishing and the stifling of scholarship has increased dramatically in recent years, with eight resignations in 2023, according to watchdog Retraction Watch (https://retractionwatch.com/the-retraction-watch-mass-resignations-list/), and even more since then with right-wing politics disciplining academic institutions.

Creating Spaces of Solidarity and Care

Feminism does not stop at critique; it insists on collective action (Fotaki & Pullen, 2024). In a culture that often rewards individual achievement and fosters competitive isolation, feminist language foregrounds relationality, care, and solidarity (Fotaki, 2023). Concepts such as collective resistance and ethics of care enable scholars to imagine academic life as a shared endeavor rather than a solitary struggle. The mass resignation of Gender, Work and Organization editors in response to Wiley’s unilateral decisions was not only an act of protest but also a manifestation of feminist solidarity, a refusal to comply with structures that undermine community and justice. Such acts remind us that survival is not an individual project but a collective one, sustained through networks of mutual support. By creating alternative spaces for knowledge re/production, it opposes the anticipatory compliance that many academic institutions displayed in the face of illiberal threats from their governments internationally, stifling academic dissent against injustice and becoming complicit in violations of international law.

Valuing Situated and Embodied Knowledge

Another way feminism sustains scholars is by challenging the myth of neutrality that pervades academic norms (Sümer & Eslen-Ziya, 2023; van den Brink & Benschop, 2012). Traditional epistemologies often demand detachment, privileging abstract rationality over lived experience. Feminism disrupts this by affirming that knowledge is situated and embodied. It legitimizes the presence of emotion, vulnerability, and personal narrative in scholarly work, allowing academics to bring their whole selves into the intellectual space. This is not merely a methodological stance; it is a survival strategy. When scholars can acknowledge the entanglement of their identities with their research, they resist the erasure of difference and reclaim the right to speak from their own positionalities.

Offering Hope and Imagination

Survival also requires hope—the capacity not only to envision but also to rediscover alternatives to the status quo that are already there (Kostera, 2024; Rhodes & Pullen, 2023; Vijay et al., 2025). Feminist language is both generative and critical. It offers concepts such as transformative justice, radical care, and prefigurative thinking about institutional and social orders breaking with the exclusions of the past that invite us to imagine academic futures beyond neoliberal austerity and patriarchal norms. Educators, artists, activists, and many others who are refuting powerful narratives that justify the status quo, together will craft new stories that reflect our interconnection, and offer creative approaches to seemingly intractable problems (Benjamin, 2024). These imaginaries are not naïve; they are grounded in historical traditions of feminist resistance within and beyond the academy. They remind us that change is possible, that the university can be reconstituted as a space of plurality, justice, and care. In this sense, feminism is not only a language for survival but also for flourishing. Coming from both inner and outer reality, it can also enable rediscovering playfulness as a source of learning and genuine creativity (Winnicott, 1971) through relationality, which is foundational to social organization, rather than focusing on how to game the system to survive.

From Survival to Transformation

To survive the academy is not simply to endure its violences but to resist and transform them. Feminism provides the tools for this work: a vocabulary that names oppression, a praxis that builds solidarity, and an imagination that sustains hope. In moments of crisis, such as the corporate gutting of feminist and critical journals, this language becomes a lifeline, enabling scholars to act collectively and ethically. Its significance extends beyond episodic resistance; it shapes everyday practices of care, critique, and creativity that make academic life livable (Kostera, 2024). For those committed to justice, feminism is not an optional discourse but an essential one, a language through which survival becomes the ground for transformation.

This sub-theme will create a safe space for researchers studying issues connected to intersectional differences, gender-based violence, and processes of patriarchal marginalization and discrimination against vulnerable bodies and bodies not abiding by heteronormative norms, in society at large and organizations more specifically. However, feminism can achieve much more than this by speaking and acting against injustice in all forms and violations against all lives and other forms of life, in and outside of academia. This sub-theme is led by editors from the Feminism and Organization journal, which has been established to break free from the stranglehold of masculinist neoliberal business practices and right-wing politics internationally that have infiltrated academic work, including scholarly publishing.

We invite submissions that engage with the theme of “Feminism as Survival.” This stream welcomes contributions that critically and creatively explore feminist theory and praxis in organizational contexts, including but not limited to:

• Feminist critiques of neoliberalism and masculinist cultures in academia and organizations.

• Ethics of care, solidarity, and collective resistance as strategies for survival and transformation.

• Situated and embodied knowledge as a challenge to dominant epistemologies.

• Feminist imaginaries of justice, care, and alternative futures for academic and organizational life.

• The impact of feminist activism on the world, such as addressing domestic and family violence, queer rights, climate change, and sexual harassment.

• Feminism as transnational solidarity against war crimes and genocide.

• Methodological innovations informed by feminist principles.

We encourage empirical, theoretical, and methodological papers, as well as nontraditional formats (e.g., visual essays, performative pieces) that align with feminist commitments to plurality and creativity.

• ​Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Duke University Press.
• Benschop, Y., Brewis, J., Fotaki, M., Hearn, J., Mandalaki, E., Plotnikof, M., Priola, C., Pullen, A., Smolović-Jones, N., Thanem, T., Tyler, M., & Wickstrom, A. (2025). Feminist resistance and the politics of academic publishing. Organization. Advance online publication.
• Benjamin, R. (2024). Imagination: A Manifesto. W. W. Norton & Company.
• Fotaki, M. (2023). Why do we desire and fear care: Toward developing a holistic political approach. Organization Theory, 4(1), 1–23.
• Fotaki, M., & Prasad, A. (2015). Questioning neoliberal capitalism and economic inequality in business schools. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 14(4), 556–575.
• Fotaki, M., & Pullen, A. (2024). Feminist theories and activist practices in organization studies. Organization Studies, 45(4), 593–616.
• Hyland, K. (2015). Academic publishing: Issues and challenges in the construction of knowledge. Oxford University Press.
• Järvinen, M., & Mik-Meyer, N. (2025). Gaming and performance metrics in higher education: The consequences of journal lists. Sociology, 59(4), 725–742.
• Jones, J. (1992). Publishing feminist criticism: Academic book publishing and the construction and circulation of feminist knowledges. Critical Survey, 4(2), 174–182.
• Kostera, M. (2024). The university of hope. Oxford University Press.
• Kozlowski, D., Larivière, V., Sugimoto, C. R., et al. (2022). Intersectional inequalities in science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(2), Article e2113067119.
• Makula, A. (2022). Power, profit and privilege: Problematizing scholarly publishing. Press Books.
• Rhodes, C., & Pullen, A. (2023). The good business school. Organization, 30(6), 1273–1280.
• Scully, M. (2002). Confronting errors in the meritocracy. Organization, 9(3), 396–401.
• Sümer, S., & Eslen-Ziya, H. (2023). Academic women’s voices on gendered divisions of work and care: “Working till I drop . . . then dropping.” European Journal of Women’s Studies, 30(1), 49–65.
• van den Brink, M., & Benschop, Y. (2012). Gender practices in the construction of academic excellence: Sheep with five legs. Organization, 19(4), 507–524.
• Vijay, D., Berkowitz, H., Huybrechts, B., Audebrand, L., Barros, M., & Fotaki, M. (2025). Another world is possible, it’s already here: A review and research agenda of alternative organizing. Academy of Management Annals. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2024.0102
• Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Playing and reality. Karnac.