Old Dilemmas, New Voices: Feminist Ethics and #MeToo
A conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, May 26–28, 2025
Several years have passed since the #MeToo movement‘s worldwide impact. In the meantime, many serious issues have surfaced, with considerable global backlash in response to claims concerning gender equality. How did the #MeToo movement change the world, especially in terms of its responses to sexual violence? How does it relate to various other social movements? How has it affected feminist scholarship or state policies?
Keynote speakers:
- Iqra Shagufta Cheema, Graceland University
- Kate Manne, Cornell University
The conference is organized by the research project Ethics in Motion: Feminist Ethics and #MeToo (EMFEM), a multidisciplinary international working group of feminist scholars hosted by the Centre for Ethics at the University of Iceland. The project is funded by the Icelandic Research Fund from 2023 to 2026 and examines the impact of #MeToo and related movements on moral thought and moral values appearing in recent debates in and around the #MeToo movement.
Conference organizing team:
- Eyja M. J. Brynjarsdóttir, University of Iceland
- Nanna Hlín Halldórsdóttir, University of Iceland
- Anna Gotlib, CUNY, Brooklyn College
For inquiries and information, write to emfemconference@gmail.com.
Practical information
On May 26 and 27, all conference events will take place in Veröld – Hús Vigdísar. On May 28, conference events will be in a different building: Stapi. Lunch will be served that day in Litla-Torg in a building called Háskólatorg. Here is a map of the university campus.
Registration:
Every speaker and attendee needs to register before 15th of March.
We will have a sliding scale cost of registration:
- 15.000 ISK for graduate students/low income countries. Click here to pay.
- 20.000 ISK for early career researchers/adjuncts. Click here to pay.
- 25.000 for senior faculty. Click here to pay.
We ask people to try to use that option but if it does not work, please contact nannahlin@hi.is.
Staff at the University of Iceland using research accounts also need to contact nannahlin@hi.is.
The registration fee can be partly refunded (ca 80%) until the 10th of May.
Sessions:
We will have parallel session (3 at the same time) with 3 or 4 speakers in each sessions. Each paper is twenty minutes + 10 minutes for discussions.
Travel and accommodation
TRANSPORTATION: As you most likely know, you need to fly to Iceland, and there are limited airline options. Here are the airlines that fly to Iceland:
- Lufthansa
- SWISS
- easyJet
- Eurowings
- Icelandair
- Japan Airlines
- Norwegian
- United
- Vueling
- airBaltic
- Austrian Airlines
- Finnair
- KLM
- Play
- Wizz Air
You will land in Keflavik where the best option is to take a flybus to Reykjavik (approx 45 minutes). You should purchase Flybus tickets before you leave. Click here for Flybus.
Accommodations:
As you may have heard generally Iceland is not a cheap country but it seems like accommodation cost is similar to the capital cities in neighbouring countries.
Here are some discount codes at the following hotels and hostels:
- Loft Hostel. 10%off with a code – emfem2025 -if you book via hostel.is
- Iceland Hotels. 10 % off with the following code: CON4Y8Z10. To be used at their website.
- Kea Hotels. 10 % off with the code – emfem2025 – if you book via their website keahotels.is
Preliminary Program
Day 1, 26 May
9:00–11:00
Registration and coffee (Veröld – Hús Vigdísar, bottom floor)
11:00–12:00
Welcome address: MeToo, Cancelling, and Moral Panics – Eyja M. J. Brynjarsdóttir (VHV023, Auðarsalur) Chair: Anna Gotlib
12:00–13:00
Lunch – Háskólatorg (Litla-Torg)
Parallel Sections
13:00–14:30
Consent I
(VHV007)
Chair: Katrín Pálma Þorgerðardóttir
– Rae Fielding: The Spectrum of Consent
– Megan Gallagher: Consent, Power, and Non-Sovereign Agency
– Krisanna Scheiter and Jennifer Mitchell: Let’s Talk about Pleasure, Baby: How Orgasm Equity Can Dethrone Patriarchal Hook-Up Culture
Changing the World I (VHV008)
Chair: Sjöfn Asare
– Yao Lin: Transnational Social Movement, Party-State Authoritarianism and the (Inter)regimatic Politics of Feminist Solidarity
– Sigurrós Alice Svöfudóttir: Moral Responsibility and Refugees: From Feminist Action to Ethical Theory
– Sjöfn Asare: #MeToo in an intersectional context: Marginalised bodies in the Movement
Trust and Responsibility (HT101)
Chair: Elsa Haraldsdóttir
– Leonard Skinner: Toward an Ethics of Love: Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy and Care in Romantic Relationships
– Mary Peterson: Mary Astell on (Dis)trusting Men
– Mich Ciurria: #MeToo and Moral Responsibility: Against Weaponized Excuses
14:30–15:00
Break
15:00–16:30
Consent II
(VHV007)
Chair: Sjöfn Asare
– Monique Lanoix: Body/Wombs, Shame and the Politics of Refusal
– Veerle van Wijngarden: Bad Sex? Regret, Discomfort, and Displeasure in Sexual Subjectivity
– Jennifer Matey: Consent, Deception, and the Precautionary Principle
Changing the World II
(VHV008)
Chair: Elsa Haraldsdóttir
– Barbara Fultner: The Transformative Political Potential of #NiUnaMenos and #MeToo: A Transnational Feminist Perspective on Agency
– Maria João Faustino: #MeToo in the Portuguese media: going too far, not going far enough?
– Elsa Haraldsdóttir: How women and feminist thinking are ruining philosophy
16:30–17:00
Break
17:00–18:30
Keynote presentation (VHV023, Auðarsalur) Kate Manne: Ordinary Cruelty: Explaining Misogyny without Dehumanization
Chair: Eyja M. J. Brynjarsdóttir
18:30–20:00
Welcome Reception (Veröld – Hús Vigdísar, bottom floor)
Day 2, 27 May
Parallel Sections
10:00–12:00
Forgiveness and Responsibility I
(VHV007)
Chair: Eyja M. J. Brynjarsdóttir
– Alice MacLachlan: Still Sorrier Stories: Public Apologies After #MeToo
– Sophia Pavlos: Apologies, Forgiveness, and Accountability in #MeToo
– Rannveig Ágústa Guðjónsdóttir: Reimagining Responsibility
Pedagogy
(VHV008)
Chair: Sigríður Þorgeirsdóttir
– Heidi Knechtel: From Permission to Presence: A Phenomenological Approach to Consent Education
– Carol Hay and Julinna Oxley: Repackaging Feminist Ethics in the Age of #MeToo: Pedagogical Reflections
– Carla Schriever: #MeToo in Academia: Addressing Structural Vulnerabilities and Sexualized Violence at German Universities
– Sigríður Þorgeirsdóttir: Embodied Critical Thinking: From Deconstruction to Reflective Practice Grounded in Felt Sense
Where are we headed?
(HT101)
Chair: Sigurrós Alice Svöfudóttir
– Gabriela Arguedas Ramírez: Women’s bodies as Battlefield: Neoconservatism, Refeudalization and the Reproductive Reconquista
– Anna Gotlib: The Last Taboo: Regretting Motherhood as Thoughtcrime
– Zsuzsanna Chappell: #MeNotYet
– Emma Yapp: Feminist omissions: The exclusion of “madness” from understandings of sexual violence and trauma
12:00–13:00
Lunch – Háskólatorg (Litla-Torg)
13:00–14:30
Forgiveness II
(VHV007)
Chair: Emma Rivard Henriot
– Aimee Koeplin: Apology without Expectation
– Rachel Finlayson: Forgiveness: An Objectionable Obligation
– Claire Katz: Unrepentant Women: Radical Apology and the Limits of Forgiveness
The World Online
(VHV008)
Chair: Katrín Pálma Þorgerðardóttir
– Anat Schwartz: Anonymity, Feminist Ethics, and Digital Harm: South Korean Feminist Activism and Digital Sexual Violence Technologies Post-#MeToo
– Lucinda Nelson: Unbelieveable: An analysis of Twitter/X discourses about Depp v Heard
– Katrín Pálma Þorgerðardóttir: “It‘s nobody‘s fault but my own”: Sexual consent, boundaries and responsibilization with content creators on Onlyfans
Men and #MeToo
(HT101)
Chair: Gústav Adolf Bergmann Sigurbjörnsson
– Constantino Themelis: Radicalized Men in the Post #MeToo Era: A Lesson From a Zoomer
– Kate Yuan: Psychological Wage of Masculinity: An Existentialist Lens on Deepfake
– Gústav Adolf Bergmann Sigurbjörnsson: Male ignorance and the limits of lifeworlds
14:30–15:00
Coffee break
15:00–16:30
Medical Matters
(VHV007)
Chair: Emma Rivard Henriot
– Deniz Durmus Hric: Embodied Testimonial Injustice: Parallels between Sexual Violence and Medical Sexism
– Kirstin Borgerson: Resisting Medical Misogyny
– Sara Cohen Shabot: A #MeToo for the Labor Room: Consent and Misogyny in Obstetric Violence
#MeToo in Iceland
(VHV008)
Chair: Finnborg Salóme Steinþórsdóttir
– Gyða Margrét Pétursdóttir and Annadís Greta Rúdólfsdóttir: Feminist solidarity and hopeful imaginings in the MeToo movement in Iceland
– Anna Soffía Víkingsdóttir: The #metoo movement in sports: experience of female athletes in Iceland
– Finnborg Salóme Steinþórsdóttir and Gyða Margrét Pétursdóttir: Police officers moved by MeToo: Increased victim awareness while sexual harassment persists
Representations of #MeToo
(HT101)
Chair: Gústav Adolf Bergmann Sigurbjörnsson
– Hege Dypedokk Johnsen: Plato and MeToo
– Annelisa O’Neal: Moving Forward, Blaming Backwards: The Role of Fitting Blame in the #MeToo Moral Transformation
– Odelia Charbit: Intersubjectivity in the MeToo movement : towards a new ethics of listening
16:30–17:00
Break
17:00–18:30
Keynote presentation
(VHV023, Auðarsalur)
Iqra Shagufta Cheema: After/Lives of the #MeToo Movement
Chair: Nanna Hlín Halldórsdóttir
Day 3, 28 May
Parallel Sections
10:00–12:00
Epistemic Issues
(Stapi 210)
Chair: Ole Sandberg
– Nicole Dular: Building Moral Standpoints
– Haley Brigitte Gill: Evidentialism and #MeToo: Understanding the Slogan ‘Believe Women’
– Sara Marina Kok: The Epistemic Weaponization of #MeToo
– Ole Sandberg: Ecological Thinking and #MeToo: Uncertainty in toxic environments
Justice and Law
(Stapi 107)
Chair: Sigurrós Alice Svöfudóttir
– Ann J. Cahill: MacKinnon and Title IX: How Sexual Harassment Came to Be Recognized as Sex Discrimination in US Educational Institutions
– Sarah Brophy: Accountability and Justice
– Femi Omotoyinbo: #MeToo: a pathway for feminist jus post bellum
– Rodrigo Mendoza: Rejecting the ‘Primary Subject’ of Justice: Insights from the Femicide Crisis in Ciudad Juárez
Methods and Concepts
(Stapi 108)
Chair: Nanna Hlín Halldórsdóttir
– Ellen Davidsson: Objectification (as a lack of empathy), Power and Social Ontology
– Giulia Basile and Paolo Valore: Conceptual Analysis and Ontological Relativity at Work: The Case of ‘Rape’
– Nanna Hlín Halldórsdóttir: Butler’s conception of responsibility in light of #metoo in Iceland
12:00–13:00
Lunch – Háskólatorg (Litla-torg)
13:00–14:30
Misogyny and Backlash
(Stapi 210)
Chair: Ole Sandberg
– Margherita Grassi: Rethinking Misogyny: A Hybrid Approach to Understanding and Addressing Gender Violence
– Christine Wieseler: #MeToo Backlash, Heteropessimism, and Separatism
– Dianna Taylor: Anti-#MeToo backlash in the USA: The misogyny of the far-right
(Anti)patriarchal Tactics
(Stapi 107)
Chair: Anna Gotlib
– Carolyn McLeod: Institutional Betrayal and Belonging
– Micah Kalisch: Trauma Bones: Beyond Pathology as a Process of Semantic Obfuscation
– Katharina Berndt Rasmussen: Norm nudging and #MeToo
14:30–15:00
Break
15:00–16:30
EMFEM in current global context: Final discussion with participants in the EMFEM project. (Stapi 210)
