About Dr Bronwyn Winter
Dr Bronwyn Winter’s research interests include: transnational studies and transnational feminism (including women in the Muslim world and diaspora; post-9/11 militarisation and globalisation; transnational social movements); women and politics; French and Francophone societies, politics, and cultures; postcolonial studies; the Philippines; global lesbian and gay politics; comparative cultural and literary studies.
Dr Winter has been teaching at the University of Sydney since 1989, where she is currently director of the International and Comparative Literary Studies program, and Associate Dean, Undergraduate Matters, as well as teaching in French Studies, European Studies and International and Global Studies. She holds a double Licence (=BA) in General and Comparative Literature and English and a Maîtrise in Applied English Linguistics from the Université de Paris III (1983, 1984), and a PhD from the University of Sydney (1995). Dr Winter’s experience working in other fields, including the entertainment industry and the women’s and trade union movements, continues to inform her academic work, and she is strongly committed to maintaining links between the world of research and the world outside academe. She has been involved in social movements, including the feminist, gay and trade union movements, in Australia, France, the UK and transnationally, and continues to work closely with grassroots movements in her research. As for Dr Winter’s other passions: she is a former professional dancer and actor and her current big passion is argentine tango! She has also been part of the Perverse Poets group associated with the Sydney Mardi Gras. The key to good research and teaching? Curiosity, creativity and critical thinking!
Major project: Dr Winter is currently working on a sole-authored book following up on her very successful co-edited anthology September 11, 2001: Feminist Perspectives. The new book will look at how 9/11 has impacted on women internationally. Focusing on transnational feminist activism, it will consider how “9/11” has become a framing discourse and examine some of the new political and practical dilemmas with which feminists working transnationally are faced (including the logic of “security” and the pitfalls of “human rights tourism”). In particular, it will look at what happens when globalisation, militarisation, religious revivalism, sexual violence and women’s rights intersect—and interact.
Other projects:
- Two articles on militarism and sexual, economic and cultural violence against women in the Philippines.
- An article on race and gender in Fifth Republic France for a new anthology: Gender and Sexuality as Signs in French History.
- An article comparing the French and Turkish “hijab and secularism” debates.
- An article on “glocalised queer”.
Research interests:
- Women’s Studies
- Postcolonial Studies
- Political Science and International Relations
- Transnational Studies
- French and North African Studies
- The Philippines
- European Studies
- Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies
Selected publications
- [Book chapter] Forthcoming 2009a. “Scary Women and Masculinist Protection Rackets.” In Phobias: The Post-9/11 Syndrome, ed. Mark Roberts. New York: State University of New York Press.
- [Book] 2008. Hijab and the Republic: Uncovering the French Headscarves Debate. Sycracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
- [Book Chapter] 2006a. “The Social Foundations of the Sacred: Feminists and the Politics of Religion.” In Handbook of Gender and Women’s Studies, ed. K. Davis, M. Evans and J. Lorber, 92-108. London: Sage Publications.
- [Article] “Pre-emptive fridge magnets and other weapons of masculinist destruction: the rhetoric and reality of ‘Safeguarding Australia’.” Signs: A Journal of Women, Culture and Society 33(1): 25-52.
- [Book] 2002a (contributing ed., with Susan Hawthorne). September 11, 2001: Feminist Perspectives. Melbourne: Spinifex.
- [Book chapter] 2002b. “Pauline and Other Perils: Women in Australian Right-Wing Politics”. In (eds). Right-Wing Women: from Conservatives to Extremists Around the World, ed. P. Bacchetta and M. Power, 197-210. New York: Routledge