This panel brings into dialogue the work of Rita Segato on sexual violence, masculinity, and the modern-colonial transformation of patriarchy. Building on Segato’s influential theorization of sexual violence as a structured practice of power—articulated through the “mandate of masculinity” and its communicative and territorial logics—the discussion will explore how gendered violence operates as a mechanism for the reproduction of hierarchical social orders.
In conversation with the author, Lorena Sosa (Utrecht University), Ana Miranda Mora (Utrecht University), and Philipp Wolfesberger (Bielefeld University) will engage critically with these concepts, reflecting on the analytical and political implications of Segato’s framework for understanding contemporary configurations of violence, including feminicide, antifeminist backlash, and the intensification of patriarchal power under global conditions of inequality.
The exchange will also address the limits of juridical responses and consider alternative approaches to confronting violence through transformations of masculinity and social relations.

This panel is jointly organized by the In/Equality Platform, the Graduate Gender Programme GGeP and the NOG.

Biographies:

Rita Segato (born in Argentina in 1951) is Professor Emerita of Anthropology and Bioethics at the University of Brasília, Brazil, and one of the most renowned contemporary theorists of gendered violence, coloniality, and power.
Segato has been awarded multiple honorary doctorates across Latin America and Europe and has published extensively, with her work translated into numerous languages. Several of her key texts are available in English, including Black Oedipus (1968 Press, 2026), War Against Women (Polity 2025), and The Critique of Coloniality: Eight Essays (Routledge 2022), where she develops her influential analysis of feminicide as a form of expressive and pedagogical violence.
Alongside her academic work, Segato has been actively involved in human rights advocacy, feminist movements, and international tribunals addressing gender-based violence.
Her work continues to shape critical debates on sexual violence, the “mandate of masculinity,” and the transformation of patriarchal orders under conditions of colonial modernity.

Lorena Sosa is an Associate Professor of Human Rights Law at Utrecht University, member of the Utrecht Centre for European Research into Family Law (UCERF), a member of the core team of the UU IOS (In)Equality Platform , and coordinator of the EQUALS Platform at the Law School. Her research examines how human rights and equality norms are shaped, contested, and implemented across legal systems, with particular attention to structural inequality, gender-based violence, and feminist and intersectional methodologies. She has published extensively on gender-based violence, including femicide.

Ana Miranda Mora is an Assistant Professor of Gender and Postcolonial Studies in the Department of Media and Culture Studies and the Graduate Gender Programme at Utrecht University. Her research focuses on the intersection of political and legal philosophy, Critical Theory, and Contemporary Feminist Theory. She is a member of the Research Project Gen(der) AI Safety and the Research Network for Culture, Law and the Body. Since 2024, she has been an Associate Editor of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy.

Philipp Wolfesberger is a research associate and academic director at the Center for InterAmerican Studies at Bielefeld University, where he works on his second book on hegemony and violence. He is a PI of the Long-Term Group “Dimensions of Regulation” (2026–2028), funded by the Center for Interdisciplinary Research, as well as an associate postdoctoral researcher in the international project “Turning Land into Capital” (Volkswagen Foundation). His work focuses on political sociology, political theory, and international politics, with a transregional focus on Latin America. In particular, his research examines forms of political violence, masculinities, processes of regulation, and the temporal dimensions of solidarity.

Kathrin Thiele is Professor of Gender, Culture & Ecologies in the Department of Media and Culture Studies (MCW) at Utrecht University. Since 2023, she has directed the Graduate Gender Programme (GGeP) and is also the Academic Director of the Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies (NOG), which is hosted by Utrecht University. Her research focuses on critical inquiry in the humanities and social sciences, with a specific focus on questions of ethics and politics from queer feminist, decolonial, and critical posthumanist perspectives.

Panel on Violence, power and masculinity
Tuesday June 9, 2026
Time: 15:15–17:00
Location: Utrecht – Kromme Nieuwegracht 80, room 0.06
Chair panel: Kathrin Thiele
Participants: Rita Segato, Lorena Sosa, Ana Miranda Mora and Philipp Wolfesberger
Readings: Rita Segato, Chapter ‘Five Feminist Debates: Arguments for a Dissenting Reflection on Violence Against Women’ from her book War Against Women (translation, Polity Press, 2025)
Registration: registration is required! Send an email to nog@uu.nl with your name and affiliation.