FU Berlin | Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Friedens- und Konfliktforschung

Another event in the INTERACT conversation series:

BRIDGING SOLIDARITY

JUNE, 26 2025  |  18:00

Freie Universität Berlin |  Hörsaal Thielallee 67

In a political climate increasingly marked by repression, securitization, and shrinking spaces for dissent, acts of solidarity—particularly those that confront state policy, unsettle dominant narratives, or emerge from transnational and intersectional struggles—are subject to intensified scrutiny and constraint. This roundtable brings together scholars and activists engaged in different fields of solidarity work to reflect on the contested nature of solidarity in contemporary Germany and to explore the challenges and possibilities of building cross-struggle alliances under these conditions.

The event will interrogate how solidarities that are marginalized, ignored, or repressed—whether due to their alignment with politically sensitive causes, their oppositional stance toward official policy, or their entanglement in competing claims to justice—can nonetheless become sites of political agency and coalition-building. A key aim is to identify both the structural impediments and the practical resources for developing solidarities that are intersectional, durable, and grounded in mutual recognition.

At the same time, the event opens a critical conversation on the role of academia in these dynamics. What does it mean for scholars to be in solidarity with proliferating struggles around them? How can academic engagement move beyond rhetorical expressions of support toward concrete practices of care, co-resistance, and institutional accountability?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Simin Jawabreh (Activist and Political Scientist) 
• Ahmed Isamaldin (Artist and Researcher, Sudan Uprising)
• Naika Foroutan (Director, DeZIM Institute)
• Moderation: Myriam Ahmed (INTERACT / Freie Universität Berlin)

Concept & Organization: Jannis Julien Grimm (INTERACT / Freie Universität Berlin)

Students, researchers, and activists are invited to join for an open dialogue on the potentials and limits of solidarity work across political, disciplinary, and social boundaries.