Introduction: Neoliberal definitions of a new sexual world and the revitalisation of gender studies

Feminism and gender studies are re-emerging as significant if fragmented forces in contemporary academic scholarship and bottom-up activism. Following the crises of definition and politics that marked the 1990s and early 2000s, questions of gender justice and equality are now gaining urgency in response to the ever more complex neoliberal capitalist and political appropriations of feminism and gay rights. Indeed, Angela McRobbie sees a triumphant neoliberal popular culture as organising and defining a new sexual world. The founding of Sibéal in 2006 as a network for postgraduate students working in the field of gender studies across disciplines is evidence of the revitalisation of gender studies scholarship and politics. Six years since its foundation, Sibéal continues to create networking opportunities for postgraduate students, run annual conferences, maintain an informative website and keep feminist and gender politics on the agenda.