EN:

Autoethnographic scholarship helps account for the conditions of harm, care, and resistance in academic spaces within the ‘neoliberal university’, yet interventions can be limited by normative care frameworks that reinscribe ableist logics. This paper focuses on this genre of scholarship in feminist geography, here referred to as feminist geographies of academic care, and the ways attempts at resolving the academic “care crisis” get diverted and (re)oriented toward institutional ends. I use “disability as methodology” to read if, and how the system of (dis)ability structures and enmeshes the university’s imperative of rationality with ambivalent feminist desires for belonging and something else. In turn, a clear rehabilitative narrative arc emerges in this literature that indexes better futures through social cohesion and the (implicit) absence of mental disability and neurodivergence. I argue that this narrative prioritizes attachment to the university over those most harmed by it, but which can be disrupted through trans/crip and neuroqueer dispositions.

EN:

Emerging from in-depth research on mobility and displacement in relation to gender and sexual diversity on the Mexico-Guatemala border, this paper reflects on the complexities of lived, queer mobility over space and time as told by Andrea, a 27-year-old Salvadoran trans woman. Her narrative – told to the reader through video – provides a rich account of her affective journeys and the forces behind them, which go beyond movement as migration. The work is part of an improvised mobile, longitudinal ethnography which evolved as a way of exploring the small and large-scale realities of mobility as lived over time. The discussion engages with Andrea’s mobility as non-linear, multi-scalar, spatially and sensorially significant, and emotionally ambiguous. It invites reflection about the powerfully productive and damaging edges of precarious queer mobility, and points to the radical potential of an affective engagement with queer narratives. The queerness of mobility and survival exists not only as an abstract or symbolic edginess, but rather in, and as, constant frictions produced by the struggle for a life worth living.

IT:

L’autogestione urbana è un’attività che può essere faticosa e non sempre sostenibile a lungo termine. Questo perché, oltre alle attività normalmente associate alla militanza, si aggiungono quelle relative alla gestione e manutenzione di uno spazio fisico. A partire da una ricerca condotta con lɜ attivistɜ di cinque spazi autogestiti di Roma, ho analizzato i meccanismi che spiegano perché alcune persone continuino a militare per anni, nonostante tutto, mentre altre facciano la scelta di andarsene. Ne è emerso che la scelta di andare o restare è il risultato di un delicato e complesso equilibrio fra forze centripete (che trattengono lɜ attivistɜ) e forze centrifughe (che lɜ spingono a lasciare). Per evitare che l’ago della bilancia tenda verso queste ultime, gli spazi autogestiti devono riuscire ad essere non soltanto spazi di lotta o di incontro, ma anche di ‘cura’, il che può contribuire a rendere queste esperienze non soltanto utili ma anche umanamente sostenibili.

EN:

Urban self-management is an activity that can be tiring and not always sustainable in the long term. This is because, in addition to the activities normally associated with militancy, there are also those related to the management and maintenance of a physical space. Starting from a research conducted with the activists of five self-managed spaces in Rome, I analysed the mechanisms that explain why some people continue to be militant for years, despite everything, while others make the choice to leave. It emerged that the choice to go or stay is the result of a delicate and complex balance between centripetal forces (which hold the activists back) and centrifugal forces (which push them to leave). In order to avoid the needle of the balance tending towards the latter, self-managed spaces must succeed in being not only spaces of struggle or encounter, but also spaces of ‘care’, which can contribute to making these experiences not only useful but also humanly sustainable.

EN:

This paper explores how pláticas can serve as a critical Chicanx/Latinx feminist methodology in geography, not only informing the research we do, but how we teach, mentor, organize and sustain ourselves in relation to our communities. Bridging Chicana/Latina feminist theory and feminist geographies literature, we provide a context for our plática, share our academic journeys, and delve into Lorena Muñoz’ path-breaking contributions spatializing queer Chicana/Latina feminisms, theorizing Latinx world-making, and advancing the subdiscipline of Latinx geographies. We consider how pláticas incite possibilities for fostering more caring, equitable relationships inside and outside the academy.

EN:

This is a dialogue and reflection about fieldwork, laughter, and decolonizing methodology. Is there a time to laugh? How and why should researchers laugh? By focusing on the Naga people in Northeast India, an Indigenous community with a deep history of militarization, this dialogue draws our attention to the meaning of laughter, fellowship, and emotional connections. An Indigenous Naga anthropologist in conversation with an ecologist, this dialogue dwells on the meaning of laughter as sharing an experience of fellowship together. Social science methodologies are often structured on examinations, investigations interviews, fieldnotes, and observations. This dialogue opens a space to reflect on fieldwork, research, and decolonization. Laughter, as this dialogue highlights, is about affection, solidarity, and collective vision. For any long-term relationship that one seeks to establish as a researcher, acknowledging and respecting the history of the land, adopting a community-approach, and mentoring Indigenous local scholars to lead the research among their respective communities are important steps towards decoloniality.

EN:

This piece of conversational co-thinking about waste and its impacts encompasses an array of themes that ranges from physical and conceptual multiplicity to emotional and temporal dimensions of objects/places via economic/political/social values. The format is intended to disturb a certain normativity in scholarship: ideas bubble up spontaneously and hang in the air without necessarily being brought back down to Earth. In point of fact, our ruminations came together through bottom-up conviviality in environments that might seem light-years away from research outputs, not least chatting on a bench in a bustling square during an hour’s lunch break—such shared breathing space is full of potential for slow scholarship.