Negotiating & Creating Solidarities in Feminism Then and Now
A symposium with discussions, films, performance and conversations on feminism, its challenges, and the possibility of solidarity in times of rising right-wing populism.
The one-day symposium,
Feminist Battlegrounds, will provide a forum for examining past and current feminist movements worldwide, their histories and tensions, as well as possibilities for negotiating differences and building solidarities within feminism in the face of rising authoritarian populism and anti-feminist backlash. Featuring academics, curators and cultural practitioners, and comprising two panel discussions, a film programme, a performance and a collective reading session the event will offer a variety of formats to engage with the subject. There will be plenty of opportunities for exchange and conversations throughout the day.
See the programme and more information about the participants below.
We thank our panel chairs, Jane Freeland from Queen Mary, University of London, and Maggie Matić from Auto Italia, for their vital input, as well as Reece McMahon and Frances Morgan from Chisenhale Dance Space for their enthusiastic collaboration. We also would like to thank all participants for their contributions to the event.
The event is open and inclusive to all, including LGBTQIA+, trans, and racially diverse communities.
Feminist Battlegrounds is a collaboration between the German Historical Institute London and the Goethe-Institut London. The performance Sisterhood by Timna Krenn and Valerie Ebuwa is organised in partnership with Chisenhale Dance Space. With kind support by the German Embassy London.
Programme Schedule
The programme is designed as a one-day event. If you cannot attend all the sessions, please arrive at the indicated start time for each part of the programme.
The event is open and inclusive to all, including LGBTQIA+, trans, and racially diverse communities.
10:00 – 10:30 Check-in, Tea & Coffee
10:30 – 12:30 Panel: ‘Feminist Practices, Politics and Solidarities across Time and Space’ + Q&A
Taking a historical perspective, experts in gender, sexuality, law, media, queer theory and health will discuss how different feminist generations, waves and movements across the globe have grappled with feminist practices, politics and building solidarity across differences.
Chair: Jane Freeland, Lecturer in History, Queen Mary, University of London
| Panelists: Sam McBean, Reader in Gender, Sexuality, and Contemporary Culture, Department of English, Queen, Mary University of London
| Kanika Sharma, Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Law, Gender and Media, SOAS, University of London
| Carolina Topini, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Gender History, University of Glasgow
12:30 – 13:20 Lunch Break
13:30 – 14:40 Film Programme
Jyoti Mistry,
Cause of Death, South Africa, Austria 2020, 20 mins.
Sara Gómez,
Mi aporte (
My Contribution), Cuba 1972, 33 mins, English subtitles.
Jyoti Mistryi will be present.
14:45 – 16:15 Panel: ‘Negotiating Diversity: Feminists Voices in Curatorial and Artistic Practices’ + Q&A
Featuring a range of voices, perspectives and practices, this panel will consider the diversity and difference of lived experience and opinion within historic and contemporary feminisms, and how we can negotiate and constructively embrace these within curatorial and artistic practices.
Chair: Maggie Matić, Director, Auto Italia
| Panelists: Jade Foster, Curator, Artist, & Art Historian
| Juliet Jacques, Writer & Filmmaker |
Linsey Young, Independent Curator & Researcher
16:15 – 16:45 Coffee & Tea Break
16:45 – 17:15 Performance: ‘Sisterhood’ by Valerie Ebuwa and Timna Krenn
Sisterhood is a dynamic live performance exploring intersectionality within feminist movements. Addressing the historical blindness of early feminist movements, it uses rhythmic words and visceral contemporary dance to explore contrasting realities that coexist within the same space and to ask what a truly inclusive feminist movement would look like. Organised in partnership with Chisenhale Dance Space.
17:30 – 18:45 Collective Reading Session: 'Reading Conflict, Reading Solidarity'
How have divisions and forms of solidarity within feminism been expressed in writing? For this session the
Feminist Duration Reading Group has selected cross-generational texts that address conflict within feminist groups and communities, as well as offering tools for working together and building solidarity across differences. Together we will read from texts by Jo Freeman (1972), Black Woman Talk Collective (1984), Feminist Review Collective (1984), and Alex Martinis Roe (2025), and poems by Diane di Prima (1968) and Ellen van Neerven and Layli Lond Soldier (2021). Discussions will emerge, questions will be asked, perhaps a chorus will ensue.
18:45 – 22:00 Drinks, Food, Gathering
Biographies
Morning Panel ‘Feminist Practices, Politics and Solidarities across Time and Space’
Jane Freeland is a Lecturer in History at Queen Mary, University of London. She is an historian of gender and feminism in modern Germany, with a focus on violence against women, reproductive rights and the relationship between feminism and the media.
Sam McBean is Reader in Gender, Sexuality, and Contemporary Culture in the Department of English at Queen Mary, University of London, as well as co-chair of the Sexual Cultures Research Group. She is the author of Feminism's Queer Temporalities (Routledge, 2016) and has published on feminist theory, queer theory, and contemporary literature and visual culture in journals including Feminist Review, Feminist Theory, Contemporary Literature, and Feminist Media Studies.
Kanika Sharma is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the School of Law, Gender and Media at SOAS, University of London. She is a legal historian of colonial India, and her research focuses on the development of women's rights in India in the late nineteenth century. Kanika is also interested in the ways in which the law uses images and architecture as mediums of communication.
Carolina Topini is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Gender History, University of Glasgow. Her current research looks at the history of the global women's health movement between the 1970s and the 2000s, with a particular focus on debates around reproductive politics, rights and justice. She has led public history projects with major cultural and archival institutions in Geneva and regularly collaborates with grassroots organisations.
Afternoon Panel: ‘Negotiating Diversity: Feminists Voices in Curatorial and Artistic Practices’
Jade Foster is a Curator at DASH; a Public Programme Curator at Primary, and a Trustee / Board Member of Nottingham Contemporary (since 2020) in Nottingham. At DASH they curate their system change work, The DASH Library, and Future Curators Programme (FCP)—a consortium and residency programme for Disabled curators within 7 visual arts institutions across the UK. At Primary, they lead the development of exhibitions and digital commissions, focusing on brokering international collaborations—notably curating
Imagining Otherwise in 2024 featuring artists Ashley Holmes, Turner Prize 2024 winner Jasleen Kaur, and Jala Wahid. As an avid public speaker, in recent years, they were a panellist for 'Time Will Tell: Future Museum and Contested Objects' at Tate Britain and Governance Now, a flagship conference by Clore Leadership and the Cultural Governance Alliance (CGA). Jade Foster has an art studio at BACKLIT (Nottingham) and is a member of AWITA, the British Art Network and the Black Curators Collective. They completed an MA in History of Art at UCL and is currently studying for a Cultural and Creative Leader MBA at Teesside University.
Juliet Jacques is a writer and filmmaker based in London. She has published six books, including
Trans: A Memoir (2015),
Variations (2021) and
The Woman in the Portrait (2024). Her fiction, journalism and essays have appeared in numerous publications, and her short films have screened across the world. She teaches at the Royal College of Art and elsewhere.
julietjacques.com
Maggie Matić (they/them) is a curator and researcher with a specialism in contemporary feminist, crip and queer theory and visual culture. They have a background in supporting artist research, development, and residency programmes and are currently Director of Auto Italia, London. Matić has also previously held managerial and curatorial positions at Studio Voltaire, Somerset House, Tate, The University of Liverpool and The Royal Standard. autoitaliasoutheast.org
Linsey Young is a curator and researcher. She was the both Curator of British Contemporary Art at Tate From (2016 to 2024), delivering major exhibitions and commissions with artists like Pablo Bronstein, Rachel Whiteread, and Anthea Hamilton and lead curator of the Turner Prize in 2016, 2018, and 2024. During a 2019 sabbatical, she curated Charlie Prodger’s solo exhibition
SaF05 at the 58th Venice Biennale. In 2023, she curated the exhibition and publication project
Women In Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970–1990 at Tate. Young began a LAHP-funded PhD at the Royal College of Art in September 2024, focusing on British feminist art practice, and is a member of New Curators external faculty for 2024/25. linseyyoung.com
Performance ‘Sisterhood’
Valerie Uchechukwu Ebuwa is a choreographer, dance artist, activist, writer, model and mediator. She started her training at Lewisham College before obtaining a BA (Hons) degree from London Contemporary Dance School. Amongst others, she’s recently worked with Clod Ensemble, Jamie xx, Marina Abramović, The Opera Story, and she performed for the opening of the London
Festival of Architecture at Brixton Market Row. As a maker, she has choreographed and created
ValUE, a multimedia project exploring the history of the Black female body. Ebuwa writes for the printed and online publication
I am Hip-Hop magazine. Her work has been featured in
Crack Magazine,
i-D,
Glass Magazine,
The Earth Issue, and
Stylist. valerieebuwa.com
Timna Krenn is a European performer, writer, and creative facilitator originally from Austria. She studied at the University of the Arts London, where she completed a Master’s in Performance: Theatre Making. Her creative practice embraces a multidisciplinary approach, emphasizing movement, text, and working with objects. She examines power structures through the lens of intersectional feminism, challenges dominant narratives, and fosters conversations about social justice, solidarity, and care. Krenn has performed internationally, including at the Hayward Gallery (London, UK), the Austrian Cultural Forum (London, UK), the National Gallery in Prague (CZ), TAG (Vienna, AT), re:publica (Berlin, DE), and 3537 (Paris, FR). timnakrenn.com/
Collective Reading Session
The
Feminist Duration Reading Group (FDRG) focuses on under-represented feminist texts, movements and struggles from outside the Anglo-American canon. The group has developed a practice of reading out loud, together, one paragraph or sentence at a time, with the aim of creating connection and intimacy during meetings. Feminists of all genders and generations are welcome to explore the legacy and resonance of art, thinking and collective practice from earlier periods of feminism, in dialogue with contemporary feminisms. Established by Helena Reckitt at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2015, the FDRG is led by Reckitt together with Beth Bramich, Lina Dzuverovic, Sabrina Fuller, Taey Iohe, Marina Lemos, Katrin Lock, and Dot Zhihan. FDRG sessions have been organized at established institutions as well as grassroots spaces in London, across the UK, and internationally.feministduration.com
Back
