Imagining Futures: Queer-Trans-Feministische Bewegungen in Ostindien Movements in Easern India

Banamallika is a feminist social activist, writer-editor and development professional from Assam, working with marginalised groups including young women, LBQTI+ women, tea garden workers, women with disabilities and women from the char areas, with a focus on building feminist leadership for collective action. She serves as the Managing Trustee of the Women’s Leadership Training Centre and founded NEthing, a Guwahati-based collective for art, culture and social justice. She also edited Riverside Stories, an anthology of feminist writings from Assam published by Zubaan in 2024. She is currently on a thinking break, exploring new perspectives and the creative possibilities of ceramics.

Sayan Bhattacharya (they/them) is an assistant professor in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland, whose research uses archival and ethnographic methods to study how koti communities in West Bengal innovate and improvise to navigate violence. Their work has appeared in journals such as GLQ, Cultural Studies, Radical History Review, Global Public Health, SAMAJ, and Anthropology and Humanism. Since 2010, Sayan has been volunteering with trans and queer community-led organizations in West Bengal, and this sustained activist engagement continues to shape their scholarship and teaching.

Koyel Ghosh is a gender non-conforming, non-binary queer feminist activist and the Managing Trustee of Sappho for Equality, as well as a trained educator working with young people for over five years. Committed to building a gender-just society free from discrimination based on identity or orientation, they center collective healing and radical kindness in their activism. A theatre enthusiast and feline lover, Koyel sees animals as their alter ego. They are also the co-editor of Gender Chemistry.

Kumam Davidson, a queer activist and Founder of the Matai Society in Manipur, has over a decade of impactful work in community organizing, research, writing, and consultancy.  He is known for his work in digital storytelling, community building, and research across the region. His collaborations span institutions such as the University of Sussex, University of California, Mariwala Health Initiative, and Reframe Arts, with publications on HIV, mental health, and LGBTQIA+ lives in Routledge and Zubaan. Editor of Mental Health Journey: Untold Stories of People from the Northeast of India — shortlisted for the Rainbow Book Prize 2024–25 — he now co-leads LGBTQIA+ advocacy, indigenous livelihood initiatives, and trauma-informed interventions in conflict-affected Manipur, while advising emerging collectives across Northeast India.