Contribution short abstract

The proposed intervention reflects on the importance and impact of feminist, arts-based methodologies in carving out spaces for reflection, care and solidarity, in contexts marked by significant violence and insecurity.

Contribution long abstract

Mode of delivery: Reflective presentation

Contribution: Reflecting on ongoing research addressing racialised gender-based violence in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, our proposed intervention explores the importance and impact of feminist, arts-based methodologies in carving out spaces for reflection, care and solidarity, in contexts marked by significant violence and insecurity. We reflect on how a need to prioritise safety, collective wellbeing and respite for research participants involved convening creative workshops in places outside Esmeraldas province, and explore how this reconfigures the conditions of feminist knowledge production. This spatial and ethical intervention has enabled opportunities for calmness, connection and enjoyment, in turn centring the agency and creative capacities of the peer researchers and opening up possibilities for sensitively tackling the topic of gender-based violence. We explore the ways in which this reconfiguring of care, safety and autonomy requires a commitment to process over outcomes, and consider the implications of this for feminist knowledge co-production in and beyond the academy.

Contribution short abstract

This contribution explores feminist, practice-based and somatic methods within a University of Greenwich project on GBV and food systems in Nigeria and Colombia. It proposes listening to the body as a way of knowing, remembering our connection to land, and challenging extractive research practices.

Contribution long abstract

This engagement draws on a transdisciplinary research collaboration with the University of Greenwich exploring gender-based violence and food systems in Nigeria and Colombia. It examines how feminist, practice-based and somatic methodologies can reframe research practices on GBV in conflict-affected development contexts.

Positioning the body not as an object of analysis but as a site of knowledge, memory and agency, the contribution proposes embodied listening as a methodological intervention in itself. Listening to the body is understood as both a trauma- and conflict-sensitive research practice and a way of re-membering relational connections to land, earth and food systems, relationships often obscured by colonial epistemologies and extractive development frameworks.

Through a short participatory somatic and reflective exercise, participants are invited to experience how attention to sensation, rhythm and relational presence can inform understandings of power, safety and agency in ways that challenge dominant research paradigms. This practice-based approach foregrounds reflexivity and co-construction, disrupting extractive tendencies in knowledge production while acknowledging the situated and embodied nature of research encounters.

The engagement critically examines how such methodologies complicate conventional notions of development “outcomes,” shifting emphasis from linear, measurable indicators towards relational, ethical and ecological forms of change. It contributes to debates on how feminist and transdisciplinary approaches can foster greater autonomy, accountability and collective action in research on gendered violence within complex, conflict-affected systems.

Contribution short abstract

A film on the South African land struggle for social justice. https://vimeo.com/1004046679/679f89eeb2

Contribution long abstract

This is a true story of latter day land struggle in South Africa. The film lays bare the struggles of ordinary South Africans in obtaining land through the democratic land tenure reform process. Protagonists tell their stories of struggle and constant frustrations on white owned land. Antagonists unapologetically undermine the land reform process and stunt its progress. Beyond odds the future seems bright for the land claimants manifested in their well calculated struggle through the Land Claims Court of South Africa.

Contribution short abstract

Feminist Participatory Action Research aims to disrupt research hierarchies, but what happens when co-researchers reject its Western-centric foundations? This presentation shares reflections from research in Laos and presents co-generated approaches to reimagining participatory research.

Contribution long abstract

Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) is commonly promoted as a community-led approach to research. The methodology utilises collaborative cycles of co-research to disrupt traditional hierarchies by repositioning participants as co-researchers. When selecting a methodology for my PhD research, investigating gender-targeted development programming in Laos, FPAR seemed an obvious choice. Through three cycles of FPAR, I employed participatory methods, including photovoice and narrative inquiry interviews, to co-generate knowledge with Lao and international development actors, as well as the intended beneficiaries of development programs. During my research, I was confronted with an uncomfortable truth: the frameworks of feminism and participation that formed the foundation of my FPAR methodology did not align with those of the Lao co-researchers. Three key tensions emerged: (1) the incompatibility of Western feminism, (2) the unsuitability of Western models of participation, and (3) enduring power hierarchies in participatory research. Rather than abandoning FPAR, I worked closely with Lao co-researchers to fundamentally reimagine participatory research stripped of its Western-centric assumptions. We centred Lao perceptions of gender, focusing on relationality. Rather than pretending that researcher and co-researcher roles were equal, we recognised each actor's distinct contributions. Together, we developed culturally-appropriate approaches to researching sensitive topics such as gender equity, gender-based violence, gender roles, and development interventions. This presentation invites audiences to examine the enduring power dynamics in participatory research and consider how truly collaborative methodologies emerge when researchers relinquish control over foundational concepts and practices.