This participatory workshop will start with a discussion of “The Possibilities of International Feminist Solidarity” led by zethu Matebeni. It will then feature a short presentation on how radical imagination tools have been used by queer feminist activists in Central Asia and beyond as tools for hope and solidarity. Almost a decade ago a leftist art collective in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (School of Theory and Activism Bishkek - STAB) published a collection of queer feminist science fiction stories specially written for the book by activists from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Mohira Suyarkilova was one of those authors who previously never wrote fiction before and she will share some of the tools used to overcome the paralysis of imagination and collectively envision a different world. During the workshop we will practice using one such tool to spark our collective creativity.

About the workshop leaders

Mohira Suyarkulova - Professor, American University of Central Asia, activist and artist, living and working in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. With background in International Relations and Security Studies in the Middle East and Central Asia, Mohira is a self-confessed undisciplined scholar working on the intersections of academia, art and activism. She teaches courses and conducts research on gender and sexuality in Central Asia, writes short stories, draws and recently wrote, produced and performed in a cabaret-lecture on sexual ignorance and censorship titled “The department of scientific propaganda” (Отдел научной пропаганды).

zethu Matebeni - Since leaving formal academia, where zethu held South Africa's first Research Chair in Sexualities, Genders and Queer Studies, zethu's practice moves between South Africa, Brazil, and Germany, tracing Black liberation ideas that traveled across the Atlantic. This work develops frameworks like "grounded sensing" that bring together Black queer feminist thought, decolonial methodologies, spirituality, and diasporic connections. A writer, scholar, activist, and thinker on Black queer world-making, zethu is currently completing a book on courage and liberation while mentoring MA and PhD students. Engagement with academic spaces happens selectively, through visiting positions, fellowships, and collaborative projects that center non-extractive relationships, bringing deep expertise, transnational networks, and a practice guided by joy, intention, and realness. The work asks: how do we create knowledge that sustains rather than depletes, that honors connection over transaction?