Jaya Jacobo Coventry University Researcher Jaya Jacobo is a transfeminine thinker and artist based at Coventry University where she currently does work on trans feminist pedagogies in literature, art and performance. She has worked alongside travesti and transsexual women artists, scholars and community workers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as well as with trans, queer and nonbinary Filipina/x/o performers from the Philippines and Filipino diaspora abroad. Jacobo was a former Board Member of the Society of Trans Women of the Philippines (STRAP), a former President of the Film Desk of the Young Critics Circle (YCC) of the Philippines, a Founding Co-Editor of Queer Southeast Asia: A Transgressive Journal of Literary Art and Co-Editor of BKL: Bikol/Bakla, Anthology of Bikolnon Gay Trans Queer Writing . Jaya is the author of Arasahas , her debut volume of poetry in Filipino from Savage Mind Publishing House. Publications: Jacobo, Jaya. 2024. “A Love That Burns Hot Enough to Last: Scenes from Trans Tropical Love”. ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics 23 (1):18-24. Adriany, V, Bong, SA, Curtin, B, Jacobo, J & Luther, JD. 2022. "Pedagogy of queer studies beyond empire." in S Tang & HY Wijaya (eds), Queer Southeast Asia. 1 edn, Taylor and Francis - Balkema, pp. 243-265.

Minal Sukumar on Performance Poetry In this podcast, doctoral candidate Evangeline Scarpulla speaks with performance poet and PhD researcher Minal Sukumar. Minal’s humorous and engaging poetry explores themes of identity, selfhood, and coming of age. In this episode, she gives a reading of some of her poems including #OOTD , If History Catches Up and The Women I House . These readings are followed by a conversation about the origins and inspiration for her work, the meaning of transnationalism in her life and writing, and some of the specific imagery and themes found in her poetry. She also reflects on the challenges and rewards of performance poetry, and the unexpected universality of her deeply personal writing. We hope that you enjoy listening to this podcast. You can follow Minal on Instagram @minalsukumar_ for updates on her work and upcoming performances. The episode transcript can be accessed here: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:5805a08e-4837-46d8-9366-c95c69e96ab0 This episode is part of the EUTERPE Podcast Library on European Literatures and Genders from a Transnational Perspective The podcast is powered by the European Union, UKRI, and the Central European University Library. Grant Agreement: 101073012 EUTERPE HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01 Project. For more information about the EUTERPE project please refer to the official project webpage https://www.euterpeproject.eu/ , or follow us on Instagram @euterpe_project_ or Facebook at EUTERPE Doctoral Network Project . This episode was produced and edited by: Evangeline Scarpulla. Thank you to Alexander Walker for the music and to Alice Flinta for the voice over. Thank you also to Ninutsa Nadirashvili and Kris Orszaghova for designing the podcast covers.

Coventry University Katherine Wimpenny Principal Investigator Jaya Jacobo Researcher Suzanne Clisby Special Project Advisor and Supervisory Expert Advisor

Reading for Each Other Review of 'The Eighth Life' by Nino Haratischvili Haratischvili’s novel joins a tradition of feminist authors who give voice to the unique ways in which war, famine, dictatorship, and revolution are experienced by caregivers and women. by Evangeline Petra Scarpulla Review of ‘The Emperor's Babe' by Bernadine Evaristo Evaristo boldly challenges the prevailing notion of Britain as a white man’s nation by interweaving Roman history with elements of contemporary Black British culture and fiction, offering alternative visions of London. In doing so, she skilfully illuminates the often-overlooked histories of the African diaspora within both Roman and British contexts, while exercising creative license to craft a compelling counter-historical narrative. by Uthara Geetha Review of 'Dogs of Summer' by Andrea Abreu Abreu's novel places provincial life at the center stage and transforms the ordinary experiences of two young adolescents into extraordinary. Also, the novel celebrates the Canarian Spanish dialect and language difference and invites the reader to experience the narrative through a descriptive narration and imagery. by María Auxiliadora Castillo Soto Review of 'Sexe et mensonges' by Leïla Slimani Slimani’s interlocutors navigate their secret, but rich sexual lives, being constantly at risk of losing their social position and freedom. Their testimonies are often deeply saddening, but also witty and humorous. Most of them stress the society’s hypocrisy over sexuality, pointing out that the system promotes the exploitation and commercialization of the female body, while pretending to support “virtue”. Slimani leads the reader through these stories bringing different voices into a conversation by providing examples from Moroccan public life, scholarly articles, and her personal experiences. by Tamara Cvetković Review of 'Exquisite Cadavers' by Meena Kandasamy From the outset, Kandasamy expresses her intention to separate the biographical from fiction. Yet, the autobiographical elements that she registers on the text’s margins spill over into the “main” text, blurring the boundaries between personal and fictional. One may ask if Exquisite Cadavers can exist without its margins; however, such a question is predicated on the assumption that the margin is a separable entity that can somehow be extracted from the novel proper. The margins are not merely experimental additions; they drive the text, adding theoretical and political arguments informed by the author’s material and lived experiences. by Samriddhi Pandey Review of 'Rosso come una sposa' by Anilda Ibrahimi Ibrahimi writes in swift sentences that mirror the simple, yet tortured, living of her characters, whilst giving voice to the complexities of human relationships – a fine balancing act between the innocence of young voices and the weight of words passed down through bodies that carry their pasts. by Alice Flinta Reviews of 'White is for Witching' by Helen Oyeyemi Helen Oyeyemi’s White is for Witching combines elements of the gothic tradition, vampire stories and haunted house stories to craft a narrative which probes issues of xenophobia and racism in contemporary British society. The novel follows Miranda, a young woman with vampiric qualities, as a sentient house intervenes in her life to protect, control and possess her. by Séamus O’Kane Review of 'Persepolis' by Marjane Satrapi While reading Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, three major questions emerge. First, who can colonize or be colonized? Second, is war anything but a personal matter? And third, is the idea of a return just as much of a myth as the Golden Fleece? by Ninutsa Nadirashvili Review of 'Down with the Poor!' by Shumona Sinha An evocative portrayal of those who arrive but never truly ‘arrive.’ Down with the Poor! is a novel about borderlands—geographic, linguistic, and personal. by Laura Bak Cely Review of 'Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative' by Isabella Hammad This creative review pairs Isabella Hammad’s theoretical work – Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative with the Georgian semi-fictional 1958 film Mamluki to discuss themes of exile, transnationalism, subjectivity, recognizing the stranger, and what must come after. by Ninutsa Nadirashvili Review of 'The Illiterate' by Ágota Kristóf Ágota Kristóf’s 'The Illiterate' (New Directions, 2023 [2004]) is a short memoir in which the author somatically recalls her childhood in Hungary—before and during the Soviet occupation, the surreptitious border crossing to Austria and the relocation in Switzerland as a refugee. The memoir is organised in short chapters titled after the main resonances that are explored within; while, throughout the work, the writing style juxtaposes descriptive passages with a profound reflexive tone. Landscapes, faces and objects become not only aesthetic resources for the narration but also spaces of embodiment through which emotions and physical sensations are echoed. by Olga Fenoll Martínez Review of 'Big Brands Are Watching You: Marketing Social Justice and Digital Culture' by Francesca Sobande In Big Brands Are Watching You, Francesca Sobande conducts in-depth research to challenge the role that brands and marketing have in the construction of societal morality, and how this construction influences people’s perception of their own activism and their stance on specific issues. Furthermore, the book offers an intersectional approach to media philosophy and digital studies, addressing an important gap in previous research concerning race. by María Auxiliadora Castillo Soto

Uthara Geetha University of Oviedo Doctoral Candidate Uthara Geetha is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oviedo, Spain working on ‘The role of transnational literatures in the decolonization of understandings of gender within the European academe’. She was an Erasmus Mundus scholar (2019-21) of Gender Studies from University of York (UK) and University of Oviedo (Spain). She also holds a master’s degree in applied economics from Centre for Development Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her main research interest is on the intersections of gender with race, caste, and class inspired from her Dalit identity. In addition to her academic works, she also writes online articles on popular culture from a decolonial intersectional feminist perspective. Contributions: Prose and Counter-history: Review of The Emperor's Babe by Bernadine Evaristo

Olga Fenoll Martínez Univeristy of Lodz Doctoral Candidate Olga Fenoll-Martínez holds a BA in Translation and Interpreting (University of Granada) and an MA in English Literature and Linguistics (University of Granada). She has been granted with different scholarships for early researchers provided by the Spanish Government and the University of Granada, and she has also engaged in R&D research projects. In her works, Olga has aimed to display a queer approach through different intra-actions such as contemporary queer poetry, translation studies or located audiovisual cultures from a feminist new-materialist lens. Olga’s PhD project aims to tackle located and nomadic transnational womxn’s art and writings as assemblages that are in-the-making by exploring the plastic potentiality of those works through a diffracted approach guided by onto-epistemological new materialist optics and interferenced logics.

Ninutsa Nadirashvili Ninutsa Nadirashvili is a Georgian-American gender studies scholar, editor, and translator. She earned her bachelor’s degree in International Studies at Boston College and completed a dual master’s program in Gender Studies at the Universities of Utrecht and York. Since 2020, Ninutsa has been actively involved in NGO initiatives based in Georgia, collaborating with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Women’s Fund in Georgia, and the Equality Movement. In 2019, she spent a year working as an English teaching assistant through a program facilitated by Fulbright Austria. In 2022, she completed a Fulbright research fellowship in Tbilisi, focusing on an intersectional analysis of Georgian literature and language textbooks. This year, as a doctoral student joining the Centre for Global Learning at Coventry University in the U.K., Ninutsa will explore how transnational texts have influenced the decolonization of Women’s and Gender Studies programs across Europe. Her research will involve interdisciplinary feminist methods and methodologies, including curricula case studies, textual analysis of syllabi, interviews, and participant observation. Vision Statement I am a first-generation Georgian-American. This background has informed my undergraduate and graduate work in comparative literature and film analysis, which I paired with theories on anti-colonialism, nationalism, social reproduction, and representations of humanness. I intend to maintain this perspective as I begin my PhD studies at the Centre for Global Learning. Research topic “The role of transnational literatures in the decolonisation of understanding of gender within the European academe” Drawing on interdisciplinary feminist methods and methodologies, including pedagogical and textual content analyses, curricula case studies, participant observation and semi-structured interviews with educators, students and transnational intellectuals in cross-European contexts, this research will investigate the ways in which transnational literatures (including text, novels, poetry, play texts, digital literary media) have influenced processes of pedagogical decolonisation within the teaching of Women’s and Gender Studies. The research asks to what extent transnational intellectuals and literatures that challenge thinking about European gender identities have been deployed to develop, extend, and decolonise theoretical frameworks for rethinking politics of identity within interdisciplinary gender studies. Research interest list Feminist storytelling; contemporary cultural theory; relationalities; anti-colonialism; migration and nationalism; film studies; poetry; queer theory; literary and critical theory. Previous Next

Laura Bak Cely Laura Bak is a Gender and Diversity Ph.D. student at the Universidad de Oviedo. She holds a B.A. in Literary Studies from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, with a minor in Philosophy, and an M.A in Literature from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Her work has focused on the problems and representations of space in exiled Latin American Jewish women’s autobiographical writing, emphasizing in the search and creation of places that have disappeared in the current geopolitical maps. Her research continues to explore the subject of ‘autocartography’ within life-writings by migrant women through the lens of counter-mapping, spatial justice, and geocriticism. Research topic The subject of imagination and representation of lost places in life-writings has been at the centre of my research trajectory. In this research phase, I plan to study how migrant women in Europe produce life-writings in an exercise of creating alternative representations of the spaces they inhabit and transit. I intend to designate this type of writing as counter-autocartographies as they challenge dominant cartographic representations and weave counter-maps that represent the perspective and understanding of the spaces dwelt by migrant women. Previous Next

A Conversation with Author Alejandra Ortiz In this podcast episode, doctoral candidate Maria Auxiliadora Castillo Soto and transnational author Alejandra Ortiz took a walking tour around different places in Amsterdam that are important to the author. Ortiz is the author of the book De Waarheid zal me Bevrijden , published in 2022 by Lebowski Publishers. In her book, Ortiz recounts her migratory experience from Mexico to the United States and Netherlands and her varied experiences in these countries as a trans migrant woman. Together with some information about her book, this podcast invites listeners to experience Amsterdam from Ortiz’s transnational gaze, far away from the touristic places and the typical representations of the city. At each stop, Alejandra’s short monologues explaining why these places are meaningful to her were recorded. The audios contain ambient sounds and noises that were experienced that day with the intention to offer listeners the experience of the movement of the conversation and the city. This small project also has photographs that were taken during the walk. These photographs and Alejandra’s experience will be published as a written report in an edited volume titled Amsterdam Diaries, Life Writing and Identity: Urban Lives in October 2025 by Amsterdam University Press. Check out the links below for more information about this piece. Edited volume - Amsterdam Diaries, Life Writing and Identity: Urban Lives (forthcoming, Amsterdam University Press, 2025): www.vu.nl/en/events/2023/urban-lives-amsterdam-diaries-and-other-stories-of-the-self Boost Amsterdam: www.boostamsterdam.nl T-Huis: www.transhuis.nl Papaya Kuir: www.papayakuir.com Winq Community Awards: www.winq.nl/winaar-winq-community-award-2023-alejandra-ortiz/103934 The episode transcript can be accessed here. An English translation of the transcript can be accessed here. This episode is part of the EUTERPE podcast Library on European Literatures and Genders from a Transnational Perspective. The podcast is powered by the European Union, UKRI, and the Central European University Library. Grant Agreement: 101073012 EUTERPE HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01 Project. For more information about the EUTERPE project please refer to the official project webpage https://www.euterpeproject.eu/ , or follow us on Instagram @euterpe_project_ or Facebook at EUTERPE Doctoral Network Project . This episode was produced and edited by: María Auxiliadora Castillo Soto Thank you to Alexander Walker for the music and to Alice Flinta for the voice over. Thank you also to Ninutsa Nadirashvili and Kris Orszaghova for designing the podcast covers.

EUTERPE: European Literatures and Gender from a Transnational Perspective Coordinator: CEU PU Vienna, Austria Principal Investigator: Jasmina Lukic Funding: Marie Skłodowska–Curie Actions – Doctoral Network (MSCA DN) Duration: 1 October, 2022 - 31 September, 2026 Grant Ref: EP/X02556X/1. The aim of EUTERPE: European Literatures and Gender from a Transnational Perspective is to offer an innovative approach to rethinking European cultural production in the light of complex social and political negotiations that are shaping European spaces and identities at present. EUTERPE intends to do that by bringing together gender and transnational perspectives within an interdisciplinary approach to literary and cultural studies. The research is organized into 8 work packages within four main areas: Transnational women’s literature and its travels: points of entry and pathways (WP 1, WP2); Translational genres: crossing borders in gender, form, space, and identity (WP 3, WP4); Transnational women intellectuals, multilingualism and decolonising European pedagogies (WP 5, WP6); Transnational literature and cultural production: intermediality as a form of translation (WP7, WP8). The Doctoral Candidates’ academic training will include two supervisors from cooperating universities, a compulsory secondment period, and an industrial internship with an Associated Partner organization to support bespoke employability enhancement. The major impact outputs of the project: 11 PhD theses; a co-produced open-source Dictionary of Transnational Women’s Literature in Europe with key concepts and bio-bibliographic entries on leading representatives of the field; and a Digital Catalogue and Podcast Library , which will make accessible all relevant material collected during the creation of the Dictionary. As a complex, interdisciplinary project, EUTERPE brings together literary and gender studies, as well as transnational studies, translation studies, migration studies and European studies. Objectives EUTERPE is envisaged as a complex, multilayered project, which has several long-term objectives, connected with very concrete tasks in the intersecting fields of gender studies, literary studies, translation studies and European studies. The objectives of the project are the following: To map the field of transnational literary studies in Europe as an interdisciplinary field, which brings together a range of interconnected disciplines and approaches, with gender perspective as the main integrative component and gender as a key analytical concept. To propose an interdisciplinary and intersectional framework for a theory of transnational literature. To contribute to the furthering of the discussion of European identity in academia and beyond by focusing on questions of non-national identity in contemporary European literary and cultural production. To set the frame for a history of transitional women’s literature in Europe by focusing on women-identified authors in the research of Doctoral Candidates (DCs), in the Dictionary of Transnational Women’s Literature in Europe, and in the Digital Catalogue and Podcast Library, the major results of the project. To produce the open access Dictionary of Transnational Women’s Literature in Europe as a major contribution to several intersecting disciplines: transnational studies, literary studies, gender studies, European studies, translation studies and migration studies. The Dictionary will consist of two parts: the first will be dedicated to theoretical and conceptual issues, and the second will bring together original bio-bibliographical articles dedicated to major women-identified authors in Europe today. To create the Digital Catalogue and Podcast Library to enhance the cross-border circulation of European cultural wealth by establishing and running an inclusive and flexibly available platform about European transnational literary output. Through the Catalogue all bio-bibliographic entries of the second part of the Dictionary will be online accessible and searchable together with extra links and contents, such as the author interviews of the Podcast Library. To offer comprehensive training in interdisciplinary thinking and intersectional, gender conscious research practices to the employed DCs. To train DCs in socially responsible, open science practices. To provide custom-made employability skills training for all DCs through ‘industrial’ internships within cogent but diverse organizations through associate partnerships across European contexts with libraries, publishing houses, museums, art networks. The Associate Partners offer important skills training in the fields of academic publishing, lexicographic writing, podcast recording, archival and curatorial work in order to open career choices for the DCs beyond academia. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement nr. 101073012. This project has received funding from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Research Grant, Grant Ref: EP/X02556X/1.

Overview of the research and training program Based upon a truly interdisciplinary gendered approach to knowledge production, EUTERPE offers a new and innovative quality of PhD training characterized by synergy between research, training, and supervision. Within a broader area of research that focuses on transnational literature on a European level, EUTERPE creates a considerable added value compared to standard PhD or research programs through its carefully planned collaborative approach that includes several major components: training at the host university; training at the secondment university; consortium-wide specialized intensive training via summer and winter schools; bespoke employability enhancement with the support of an individually assigned Employability Mentor; skills development through periods of two-month internships with an Associated Partner organization; hands-on training in open science research methods, academic publication and alternative forms of content dissemination within the EUTERPE Transnational Literary Research Laboratory while working on the project’s main impact outputs: the Dictionary of Transnational Women’s Literature in Europe, the Digital Catalogue and the Podcast Library. The EUTERPE Transnational Literary Research Laboratory as an essential eminent of EUTERPE research across eight universities will represent the project’s central research hub responsible for the conceptualization, investigation, and intellectual design necessary for the project’s overarching impact outputs, the Dictionary of Transnational Women’s Literature in Europe, the Digital Catalogue, and the Podcast Library. The Laboratory will rely on the interdisciplinary expertise of the consortium members as well as on the practical know-how concentrated amongst our Associate Partners, but just as importantly, all DCs are expected to be active members of the Laboratory, within which they will have a chance to get hands-on experience with the process of designing, researching, shaping, and launching a top-notch open access academic and literary publication and website, as well as receive training in open science methodology, and learn how to apply it in their own research work.

Our Time in Utrecht: Transnational Reflections Authors: Anna Hulsen, Franka Stauber, Giada Quaranta, Marta Scalera, Stella Ivory, Viola Ruggieri, and Ninutsa Nadirashvili What you see here is a collaborative collage and a co-written creative reflection made with love by the seven of us – transnational students who found each other during a fall semester at Utrecht University. Setting off on an adventure is never easy. It is scary, troubling, and, quite frankly, one of the most excruciatingly hard things to navigate. You face the unknown, the void, you close your eyes and jump. It’s a leap of faith. The first months in Utrecht have been brutal. Battling bureaucracy and the weather of doom? Not for the weak. Adjusting to an entirely different academic system? A game of survival. And yet, it is among the difficulties, the tears, and the ‘I can’ts’ that I have found community, care, and solidarity. Looking back on this past year as a transnational student, I realize that the initial and apparent glamour of living abroad has faded. There’s something deeply tiring about having multiple nests, multiple homes scattered across different places. Of course, there is a significant degree of privilege in living abroad, but once the excitement of a new adventure wears off, you are left facing a new language, new people, and a new bureaucracy (and yes, Dutch bureaucracy can be truly exasperating). The months I spent in Utrecht felt a little like sinking into dark blue water. It was a time of vulnerability. Being in the classroom felt both frightening and safe. Much of the study material, like the university system, was new, heavy, and exposing. I felt vulnerable in the academic environment: I wasn’t used to speaking so much, to writing, and being read. I felt that it was expected to explain where we come from, what our families are like, what kinds of chosen families we are building, and where. In the gender studies classrooms, I searched for a space to listen, read, and learn from those who live, and have lived, under fire. I found a space for grief and reflection, but also a space of comfort and privilege. Studying gender in Utrecht felt like watching a long, beloved film that makes you cry every time – one that connects you to pain, but in a place where you’re allowed to feel it. Being open to intimacy and risking being wounded is one of the most difficult but bravest things one can do nowadays. Making yourself vulnerable in a world driven by toxic, painful, and harmful systems that drain and decelerate you requires a lot. Though over and over again, community and companionship pushed me through the systemic sludge that was aiming to make me feel miserable in Utrecht. Looking for and finding genuine connection with people was the bridge I needed when coming to Utrecht and finding myself in a random place I should call home out of nowhere, in the middle of a breakup and a horrendous global political climate. Staying soft in hard times has been a life goal of mine for a long time now, but this last year has reminded me yet again that it is not possible to stay soft with oneself without intimate friendships that hold, balance and catch you. Tough times can’t be dealt with on your own. And there were a lot of tough times, believe me. This work required a reconfiguration, but for long stretches in the Netherlands winter, we couldn’t find our way through. We were trapped in the density of texts, in the thick raindrops made bigger through the impact and speed of our bikes, in a constantly shifting social and political landscape in our classroom, amongst our peers, and beyond. We huddled, stuck in confusion and sticky with commiseration for months. The world is on fire, but the master's tools will never dismantle the master’s house, so what do we do with these words? A constant questioning that our teachers failed to answer, if they even listened to hear us ask. Important liberatory theories stretched above us, out of reach, eluding any application in our bodies or on the earth. As a Gemma, I felt accepted by other GEMMAs and part of the community, but there was the lingering feeling that I was still on my own because everyone had different countries, classmates, teachers, and courses. It feels a little cringy to even write this out, but I was so angry all the time. I think I was flying in rage, constantly, and I wanted to land so badly it made my soul ache. No wonder then that my semester in Utrecht was painful. I smoked more cigarettes than I should have and walked up more stairs than my body was willing to. The wind routinely cut through to my bones; the rain drenched those cuts like alcohol thrown onto a fire. And the protests, and the encampments, and the lecturers complaining about students missing class. Weren’t they angry, too? I kept thinking. Why weren’t they also shooting up, high with rage over the flat landscape of the Netherlands? At first glance, this picture of two figures putting on their rain jackets in our collage is nothing but an unsuspecting moment of shared routine (although I’ll admit it has caused a hysterical amount of giggles) that could easily be washed away by the greater coming-of-age-movie kind of memories. And yet, the person who chose this picture saw in it something more: the promise of care. Helping each other weather the storm – a simple gesture, an act of care that tells you, “You do not have to face this alone” – you zip each other’s rainjackets up and up and away you go, a little bit warmer, a little bit stronger. When the glamour of the international experience begins to fade, something far more meaningful takes place: the deep bonds formed with those who truly understand your struggles – because they’re going through the same thing. And so, the glossiness is replaced by something warmer: regular coffee and croissants at “Vegitalia”, where you talk, vent, and comfort one another. You build a nest in this new country – a temporary one, because it is only a matter of time before you must leave and start building all over again. I often felt intimidated by others, and I felt certain that each person, though it takes a great deal of privilege to get there, was guided by a fire inside, a story that deeply motivated them to arrive in that classroom. I think I’m still intimidated by the reasons behind the fire inside me, but I know that this fire is alive. Riding my bike on cold nights to find a warm place where we could share and embrace that mixture of rage, fear, and the desire to build something was essential for me. To me, Utrecht felt like dark blue water, but also like a warm room. I see myself searching for markers on a Saturday night, knowing that even in a new city, there was a house where I could be welcomed. Now those memories feel farther away. Summer is over. I don’t know what our families look like today, or where the connections we built are going. What was that summer for us? And where, now, do we find space to grieve those who did not survive the summer under fire? Oh, I can’t count the times I was sitting at home, in my room, burning. Burning from anger, frustration, and sadness. But one person after another contributed their little, cooling drop of water to ease my fire, to gently restrict it, to channel it into motion instead of letting it numbly burn me. And for that, I am grateful every day. Grateful that I risked it. Grateful that I found personal, political, and spiritual intimacy that was worth every burn along the way! And who knows, maybe one day, we’ll master the flames and throw them right back at the injustices of the world. Together. Eventually, the light returned, and with cheap coffee (2 euros before 11 am, dankjewell), we got braver and found ways to loosen our focus on the imperfections in our writing and perspectives. When we laughed together, the lofty ideas dripped into our crevices and those between us, gradually saturating and permeating us. Despite the endless rain, a new world began to, at least, feel possible, as long as we had each other. It’s the memories with all of us that make this past year so special. In our group, we have grown closer, as friends, humans, and international students trying to navigate life with all its intricacies and hardships. We have shared tears, laughter, hugs, discomfort, joy, and so many more things. But this is why we made it through. Every class, coffee, and meeting at night was an experience of sharing how we felt. I learned how to feel with and through all of you. It is okay to sit with but also share my discomfort. There was so much frustration that we all shared the burden of, but also so many lovely moments, small or big, full of gentle kindness or much-needed life advice. But we are not alone in this, and we also do not have to be. Each of us is good enough with all our complicated, heavy, and happy moments and personalities. This is what spending time in Utrecht has shown me and what I will always treasure. We hugged each other in the damp, clutching onto our keffiyehs and knowing that was all we could do. I was furious. I had so much joy inside me, and I wanted to spread my arms wide and rise into the endless grey, radiant, toward the sun. Instead, I shook in the gales like a protest poster, begging for someone to do something. The only solace I found in this place that was not mine was the sight of you careening across the clouds with me, just as angry, just as tired. I knew you were also full of joy, with it nowhere to go, being choked by everything, everything. I could reach out, hold your hand, and bat my wings a little harder. So maybe you could rest for just a second. Works cited in our collage Angelou, Maya. “Alone.” Poem. In Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well. Random House, 1975. Anzaldúa, Gloria. “Preface: (Un)natural bridges, (un)safe spaces.” In This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation. Edited by Gloria Anzaldúa and AnaLouise Keating. Routledge, 2022, pp. 1-5. Blofeld, John, trans. I Ching: The Book of Change. London: Mandala, 1978. Davenport, Michael A. “3,090 Degrees Fahrenheit.” Oil on canvas, 2025. https://michaeladavenport.art/paintings/ Ferrante, Elena. My Brilliant Friend: The Four Volumes. Translated by Ann Goldstein. London: Europa Editions, 2025. Glissant, Édouard. Poetics of Relation . Translated by Betsy Wing. London: Penguin Books, 2025. Hobbs, May. Born to Struggle . Plainfield, Vermont: Daughters, 1975. Jansson, Lars. Moomin: The Complete Lars Jansson Comic Strip. Vol. 8. Montréal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2015. Mbaye, Aminata Cécile. Feminist Research Practice: Session 2 (Presentation). Utrecht. September 18, 2024. Minoliti, Ad. “Fantasias Modulares.” MASS MoCA | Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, March 9, 2021. https://massmoca.org/event/ad-minoliti-fantasias-modulares/ . Oliver, Mary. “When I Am Among the Trees.” Poem. In Thirst: Poems. Boston: Beacon Press, 2006. Pillow, Wanda. 2003. “Confession, Catharsis, or Cure? Rethinking the Uses of Reflexivity as Methodological Power in Qualitative Research.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 16 (2): 175–96. doi:10.1080/0951839032000060635. Putuma, Koleka. “Graduation.” Poem. In Collective Amnesia: Poems . Cape Town: uHlanga, 2019. Wynter, Sylvia. “The Pope must have been drunk, the King of Castile a madman: Culture as actuality, and the Caribbean rethinking modernity.” In Reordering of Culture: Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada in the Hood . Edited by Ruprecht Alvina and Cecilia Taiana. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1995, pp. 17-41. Zhadan, Serhiy. “So That’s What Their Family Is like Now.” Translated by Virlana Tkacz and Bob Holman. Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine , 2017. https://www.wordsforwar.com/so-thats-what-their-family-is-like-now .