Martta Kaskinen - How are radical feminists in Kenya making their voices heard?

This month we are overjoyed to be joined by fellow University of Helsinki Global Development Studies doctoral researcher, Martta Kaskien. Martta is currently working with the project Citizenship Utopias in the Global South: The Pursuit of Transformative Alternatives in Times of Civic Disillusionment. Her research is centred on feminist activist narratives in Kenya using ethnographic methods. She gives us insight into her research trajectory and how she got to this topic in this context, and how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted her fieldwork. She gives us insight into how the social pressure from anti-feminist political and public spaces, especially on social media, impact feminist activism and activists. However, even in the face of this pressure she has noticed the prevalence of curated spaces on social media that are created by the feminist activists themselves. These spaces are focused on community building and represent safe spaces for radical feminists to express themselves in the way they wish. These spaces are a form of an everyday utopia and allows these feminists to live life as they would like to today and how they would like to live in the real world  in the future.

If you would like to know more about Martta’s research work, please check out her University profile https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/martta-kaskinen 

If you would like to read more about the Citizenship Utopias Project https://blogs.helsinki.fi/citizenshiputopias/ 

Want to check out Eija Ranta’s episode that we refer to? Here is a direct links for your convenience. 

Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/zw/podcast/eija-ranta-when-indigenous-movements-lead-governments/id1499621252?i=1000622609915 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1XUlXgKRWFSUj4jxh6yz3a?si=LbXpbC20SKOccxJoPOLGGw 

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