Blank(et) Spaces

Weaving a Transfeminist Geography of Precarity in Academia

Auteurs-es

  • Francesca Acetino University of Padova
  • Annachiara Autiero CNR-IRCrES National Research Council
  • Noemi Bergesio Independent Researcher
  • Michela Bonato Ca' Foscari University Venice
  • Barbara Brollo University La Sapienza, Rome
  • Francesca Colla University of Trento
  • Laura Eccher Gran Sasso Science Institute
  • Giulia Ferrante Gran Sasso Science Institute
  • Erika Garozzo University of Catania
  • Martina Loi University of Cagliari
  • Roberta Mingo Independent Researcher
  • Mariasole Pepa University of Padua
  • Francesca Sabatini University of Piemonte Orientale
  • Alice Salimbeni Independent Researcher

DOI :

https://doi.org/10.14288/acme.zccci2-2524

Mots-clés :

solidarity, care, transfeminism, neoliberal academia, scholar activism, creative methods

Résumé

The paper presents a collective autoethnography of fourteen transfeminist scholars from diverse geographical backgrounds, exploring the experience of precarity within the Italian academic landscape. We have developed a supportive network, a virtual space where we could share our struggles in the competitive and isolating neoliberal academic system, away from its toxicity that often leaves us exhausted and burdened. Responding to the call from the transfeminist journal Lüvo for contributions on feminist and decolonial geographies, we engaged in a reflexive process that led us to imagine ourselves as islands within an archipelago, ultimately transforming into a patchwork blanket that is a metaphor for our solidarity and interconnectedness. We examine themes of loneliness, anxiety, and hypermobility, revealing how these experiences intersect with gender dynamics and academic hierarchies. Our work is about care and community, as we wove together our stories to challenge the neoliberal structures of academia. Through this collective work, we aim to illuminate the complexities of our experiences and foster alliances. We hope that others will join us in our struggle.

Références

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This image is comes from Acetino et al. (this issue). The authors write: it represents our effort to weave together our academic experiences. It is a patchwork of fourteen tiles that we created individually. Some are hand-drawn, some digitally designed, some are collages, and others are photographs capturing moments from fieldwork and life. The tiles are colourful, sized differently as if they were knitted with yarn of different textures, widths, and consistencies. They are all stitched together by a thread that forms a thin, yet solid line that joins the former blank spaces into a blanket. In the bottom left corner, the blanket is held together by the transfeminist symbol, filled with a raised fist holding a needle. This needle connects to the thread that binds the blanket - our experiences - together. The frame of the blanket is decorated with some sentences from the text: “Who has the privilege to be vulnerable?”; “Commendable when critical but only toward the “outside world.” “Eco-transfeminists, anticapitalists, antifascists, antimilitarists, anticolonialists”.

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Publié-e

2025-07-28

Comment citer

Acetino, F., Autiero, A., Bergesio, N., Bonato, M., Brollo, B., Colla, F., … Salimbeni, A. (2025). Blank(et) Spaces: Weaving a Transfeminist Geography of Precarity in Academia. ACME: E-Revue Internationale De géographies Critiques, 24(4), 488–498. https://doi.org/10.14288/acme.zccci2-2524

Numéro

Vol. 24 No. 4 (2025): Research Articles, Intervention, Roundtable, and Translation

Rubrique

Translations

Licence

© Francesca Acetino, Annachiara Autiero, Noemi Bergesio, Michela Bonato, Barbara Brollo, Francesca Colla, Laura Eccher, Giulia Ferrante, Erika Garozzo, Martina Loi; Roberta Mingo (Interviewer); Mariasole Pepa, Francesca Sabatini, Alice Salimbeni 2025

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