OR DYING TOGETHER: A LIVING DOCUMENT

What does it mean, as feminists, to live and die in COVID-19 times? What does it mean to do feminism in the pandemic? How to think this moment together without succumbing to the demand to be productive despite the crisis? How to think new models of processing together that are nourishing, collective, prefigurative, and—importantly—not based on keeping busy, or on outputs. Central to our collective project will be asking the question about whether this the time to get creative, or to get things done? And if not, “What is our role, as intersectional feminists, in the pandemic and beyond?”

“Doing Feminism in the Pandemic” is conceived as a collective, process-based living archive, housed on the Feminist Media Studio website, in the city, on our hard drives, and in the digital ether. It invites in-process reflections, hundred-word responses to prompts, keywords, conversations, and encounters amongst its participants. It is organized around four streams: “The Crisis was Already Here” (#thecrisiswasalreadyhere), “What does COVID-19 teach us?” (#emergentmodels), “What is the ‘Everyday’ of the Pandemic?” (#theeveryday), and “What am I reading?” for sharing links, articles or other material (#whatimreading). Each stream includes some preliminary thoughts and questions to begin an open, process-based, collective conversation.

Alongside the living archive, the Feminist Media Studio is organizing a series of Zoom conversations, artistic prompts, and roundtable discussions with members of numerous communities (academic, artistic and activist) vital to doing intersectional, antiracist, queer, and decolonial feminisms, which participating FMS members can attend, and which will form a vital part of the living archive itself and its various collaborative contributions.

Because of this, “Doing Feminism” requires the explicit consent of all participants in making material public. We do not aim to create primary data for research projects. Doing Feminism in the Pandemic is a resource, but it cannot be mined. It is a space for open-plan thinking, without immediate ends or results. It is not knowledge mobilization, even though it may lead to forms of public expression.