Relationality, Not Universality: A Dialogue on Solidarity Across Movements, Borders and Species

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1344/jnmr.v10i.49358

Keywords:

Solidarity, Relationality, Internationalism, Antispeciesism, Decolonial thought

Abstract

This paper is an unfolding dialogue filled with questions and half-answers between three activists and engaged researchers from Eastern Europe, looking into the connections between different social movements, building internationalist solidarity and the possibility of (total) liberation. We think through issues such as the hegemony of what counts as politically relevant in a globalized world, the overrepresentation of Man following Sylvia Wynter, pain and grief in the face of current (social and ecological) crises and joining the fights for human and animal liberation. Drawing from feminist, queer, antispeciesist and Indigenous theories, as well as from our personal experiences, this exchange sinuously follows the question: What is to be done to always already facilitate the process of blooming into queer, decolonial and antispeciesist worlds?

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Author Biographies

Nóra Ugron, Gender Studies, University of Turku, Finland

Nóra Ugron (she/they) is a poet, queer-feminist anarchist, anti-speciesist activist and a member of several radical left collectives in Romania and transnationally. They are a member of the queer–feminist literary circle Cenaclul X. She is the network coordinator at ELMO – Eastern European Left Media Outlet and a contributing editor at LeftEast. She has been involved in radical housing justice organising in the Social Housing NOW! movement in Cluj-Napoca. Their debut poetry collection in Romanian, Orlando Postuman, was published at Fractalia in 2022. Orlando Postuman was shortlisted for two debut poetry prizes and has recently been published as an audiobook at Magga Books. Nóra's poems have recently been translated to Croatian. Nóra is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Turku, Finland starting in January 2022. She has an MA in Hungarian linguistic and literary studies from the Department of Hungarian Literary Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania; and a BA in Hungarian Literature and Language (major) and Finnish Literature and Language (minor) from the Faculty of Lettres, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania.

Maria Martelli, Independent Activist Researcher

Maria Martelli writes and researches mixing antispeciesist and queer-feminist theories. They graduated from the Master of Advanced Sociological Research at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, Babeș-Bolyai University with a critical thesis on anthropocentrism in education for sustainable development. Currently she works on an independent activist-research on the liberatory potential of animal sanctuaries, urban coexistence and multispecies imaginaries. They were an editor at the Student Journal of Vegan Sociology, and are currently part of the artistic antispeciesist project just wondering…, of the Queer Vegan Community (CVQ) and of the autonomous literary group Cenaclul X.

Veda Popovici, DIST, Polytechnic University of Turin, ERC Project, Inhabiting Radical Housing – Core Team Member, Beyond Inhabitation Lab, Italy

Veda Popovici is an organizer and theorist dedicated to anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian values based in Bucharest, Romania. Their political work has developed together with anarchist and feminist initiatives such as the Gazette of Political Art, Pink Block community, Macaz cooperative. After finishing their PhD on nationalist and far-right intellectual genealogy in Romania, Veda has taught classes on decolonial thought, counter-nationalism and feminism at the National University of Arts (Bucharest) and the University of California, Santa Cruz, department of Feminist theory. Dedicated to radical housing organizing, Veda has cofounded the Common Front for Housing Rights (Bucharest), the national federation The Block for Housing and has been the facilitator of the European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and the City. Veda is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Inhabiting Radical Housing ERC-funded project, hosted by the Polytechnic of Turin and a Core Team Member of the Beyond Inhabitation Lab.

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Published

2025-02-05

Issue

Vol. 10 (2025): Tenth issue

Section

Matters of Solidarity

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Copyright (c) 2025 Nóra Ugron, Maria Martelli, Veda Popovici

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