Doctoral Candidate (GPTS) Sara Ibanez O'Donnell

Sara Ibáñez O’Donnell is a Ph.D. candidate at the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies. As part of the Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies (GPTS) and supervised by Prof. Dr. Christiane Brosius, her work deals with forms of knowledge production in diasporic activism against gendered violence. Sara holds a B.A. in Humanities, during which she spent a semester abroad at Maastricht University, and a second B.A. in Journalism & Media, both from Pompeu Fabra University. She studied a master’s degree in Transcultural Studies also at Heidelberg University. 

Latina/LatinX activism against femi(ni)cide in Berlin: transcultural practices of knowledge-making

There has been an undisputable rise over the last decade of activism engaged with femi(ni)cide in Europe. This is particularly the case in Berlin, a key transnational hub for activists, where the word femicide was barely used only a decade ago. The word Feminizide itself, which now in German co-exists with Femizide, is a transculturation of the Spanish term feminicidio, coined by the Mexican scholar Marcela Lagarde as a variation of South African scholar Diana E. Russell’s concept femicide. Activist collectives and practices entangled in movements and mediated discourses rooted in Mexico and Latin America are becoming more visible in Berlin’s urban and virtual spaces, alongside those of other diasporas. Chants-turned-straplines and networked hashtags against femi(ni)cide such as Ni Una Mas, Ni Una Menos and Vivas Nos Queremos have been translated into Keine Mehr, Nicht Eine Weniger and Wir Wollen Uns Lebend. 

This PhD project connects various forms of Latina/X activist practices against gender-based violence operating within Berlin’s transnational representational framework. It traces collective forms of performative activism linked to Frauentag on the 8^th of March (8M) and the Day Against Violence Against Women on the 25^th November (25N). Using ethnographic methods, it seeks to situate and trace at various scales multimodal practices to better understand Latina/X activism’s agency in co-producing knowledge around femi(ni)cide. Key questions of this research work include: How is Latina/X activism against gender-based violence performing within Berlin’s transnational activist framework? What agents are shaping transcultural knowledge-making on femi(ni)cide and where does diasporic agency lie? Which epistemologies are at play through these forms of mediated knowledge, place and memory-making?

2017 – 2022  Events Programme Manager (part time / remote) at Centre for Progressive Policy
2016 – 2017  Public Events Programmer at RSA (Royal Society of Arts), London
2014 – 2016  Events Producer, Centre for London, London
2012  Culture officer at Greater London Authority (City Hall), London
2011  Communications and Project Lead at Hackney WickED Festival (London) and Digital
2010  Communications Coordinator at Frequency Digital Culture Festival (Lincoln)
2009  Cultural communications for: Antic Teatre and Ebent (Barcelona)