Chair: Dr Amanda Chisholm, Senior Lecturer in Security Studies / Researcher in Gender and Security at King's College London

Speaker: Natali Cinelli Moreira is a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations with King’s College London and University of São Paulo (Joint PhD)

Discussant: Alanna O’Malley is Associate Professor at the Leiden University Institute for History. Alanna is a historian focusing on the United Nations, decolonization, Congo and the Cold War. Her current research focuses on recovering the invisible histories of the UN, investigating the role of the Global South challenging the liberal world order from 1945-1981.

Building upon feminist critiques from the 1990s, international institutions have given a more attentive look at women's rights and a myriad of gender law reforms ensued. Nonetheless, the outcome of this gender revolution has a remarkable trace: it accentuates liberal feminism. Alternative feminisms that challenge the structures of the liberal world are placed at the margins of international law - where they remain still.

Through the experience of the Chilean Marta Vergara, a pioneer of feminismo americano, Natali Cinelli Moreira will discuss how Global South actors have historically brought plural feminisms to the negotiations of women's rights, how their ideas were downplayed and what it means to the construction of international law. Delving into institutional archives and her memoirs, the talk will explore Vergara's experience at the 1930 Conference for the Codification of International Law and the League of Nations, looking for her contributions to the debates about equal nationality rights in multilateral fora and stressing how she already understood at that time that women's equality should not be restricted to civil and political rights.

About the speaker