The quilt is a traditionally gendered, domestic object that historically embodies the collective labor of women (Hedges, 2014). By reimagining the quilt as an interactive artwork, we engage with transnational feminist theory, which challenges Western-centric understandings of ‘’womanhood’’ and foregrounds the interconnected yet diverse experiences of women across borders (Nissen, 2022). The quilt's interwoven threads symbolize the constructed social reality experienced within each individual's context (the different squares). 

One side of the quilt displays black-and-white images of binary oppositions. These binaries reflect the mechanisms of ‘othering’ that transnational feminism seeks to dismantle (Lin & Roelofsen, 2024). The absence of color evokes the flattening of subjectivities, the way marginalized groups’ lived experiences and agencies are invisible within dominant frameworks. The opposite side features a colorful image representing transnational feminist ideals and resistance to homogenization.

Participants take agency through origami techniques, folding the quilt into a heart shape. By folding, the participant transforms the ‘oppressed’ collage into a new view, making the binary oppositions disappear from the visual. This symbolizes how transnational feminism emphasizes agency in challenging hierarchies (Lin & Roelofsen, 2024). Each crease becomes an intervention, reconfiguring binaries into a more interconnected whole, echoing the transnational feminist claim that the standpoints of marginalized groups deconstruct the oppressive social order (Lin & Roelofsen, 2024). The heart shape signifies care as resistance, love redefined through transnational feminist solidarity.

In summary, by transforming the quilt, participants are exposed to the core principles of transnational feminism not as abstract theory, but as an embodied experience. By confronting binary oppositions and folding them into a new form, they come to understand how agency and interconnectedness can challenge systems of exclusion. The process reveals that identities are not fixed or oppositional but fluid and relational. Ultimately, participants get a good view of how transnational feminism seeks to re-stitch the world through the recognition of diverse lived realities.

Access and download this resource: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HlngvtdzXe3IqAM9Y_IOPL6DcN89pR-X?usp=drive_link 

References:

- Hedges, E. (2014). Quilts and Women’s Culture. The Radical Teacher, 100, 10–14. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48694435 

- Lin, C. T., & Roelofsen, M. (2024). Feminist tourism geographies as reflected in their emergent histories. Tourism Geographies, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2381061 

- Nissen, J. (2022). From tourism to solidarity: transnational feminism and world music in the UK, Gender Place & Culture, 31(8), 1029–1049. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369x.2022.2150605 

Resource designers: Kunle, Liv, Nopparut & Minke

What does it mean to hear feminism across borders? How do words, when spoken aloud, performed, and echoed in which carry the weight of histories, identities, and solidarities that cross nations and languages? 'Our Unheard Voices, Echoes' invites the visitors to listen together to the poetic rhythms of transnational feminism through the voices of influential writers such as Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, and most contemporary ones, Britta B, the three women whose words continue to resonate across time and space. 

This poetry shows how feminist thought is embodied in sound, rhythm, and language. Based on the transnational feminist approach, it highlights interconnected struggles against gendered oppression, racial justice, and colonial legacies while celebrating resilience, empowerment, and collective strength. Each poem represents a distinct moment in feminist history, such as: Angelou’s 'Still I Rise' and 'A Brave and Startling Truth' speak of defiance and the courage to envision new world; Lorde’s 'Dahomey' traces ancestral power and the politics of identity in the one of African country; and Britta B’s 'Dear Young Woman' gives voice to contemporary womanhood, solidarity, and mental health awareness.

Visitors can enter a space and experience the readings through audio recordings that allow the words to unfold intimately in their ears. The audience can also listen to the poem when we read directly from one of the poems chosen by visitors. The sound of each poem becomes both the presence and memory of a transnational movement between generations of women who rise, speak, and resist.

References:

• Angelou, M. A Brave and Startling Truth: https://youtu.be/UjEfq7wLm7M?si=8JkA-0IL52dFJ7P5 

• Angelou, M. Still I Rise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqo50LSZ0 

• BrittaB. DearYoungWoman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adUToRtRkaY 

• Lorde, A. Dahomey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wIuwR4fv18 

Resource designers: Komang, Wiske & Luuk

From the transnational feminist approach, it is argued that social reality is constructed and experienced by people according to their unique contexts. These constructions are not free from gender relations but also other power relations, it is believed that these relations between people and social identities are not static, they change according to structural forces. Changes in political, economic and social climate affect those forces. Through forms of agency and resistance, power relations are challenged and can be changed. 

Our experience of the world is diverse, and it is influenced by gender and other social inequalities present. There are many ways in which people can experience privilege or marginalisation. This intersectionality of constructed social realities is made visible through this physical exercise. We can see that some people are undervalued or made invisible by being literally put to the background. And other voices are being heard and seen more. The knowledge claims that come from people that are marginalised are also often undervalued. Making this physically visible shows the need to build on each other and hold space for our different lived experiences. What is also made visible is that there are shared struggles but also shared powers across people coming from all around the globe, transcending borders (Kellam et al., 2021). 

In this space we do an exercise together; this togetherness is actually what is seen as valuable in methodologies around transnational feminism. The researcher isn't someone who just researches a subject from studying it. Research is a process of co-generating knowledge, looking at the embodiment of experience and knowledge. All while making clear how there are power relations at play during research processes, reflecting back on the fact that knowledge is never a neutral description of social reality (Enns et al., 2021).

Access and download the resource: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11Cl59jQ4K11BULtWrE5Nxo_HsiHXtf6V?usp=drive_link 

References:

• Enns, C. Z., Comas Díaz, L., & Bryant-Davis, T. (2021). Transnational Feminist Theory and Practice: An Introduction. Women & Therapy, 44–44(1–2), 11–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/02703149.2020.1774997 

• Kellam, N., Svihla, V., Davis, S. C., Sajadi, S., & Desiderio, J. (2021, January 1). Using power, privilege, and intersectionality to understand, disrupt, and dismantle oppressive structures within academia: A design case. NSF Public Access Repository. https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10215732 

Resource designers: Magor Szász-Bencsik, Nadia de Bell, Yusuke Mizusawa, Willemijn Smits

In this video, a portrait of how women and men perceive travel is shown. By asking the question, how do you feel as a woman/man travelling? We tried to create an intersectional opinion of how women and men have experienced traveling and the result this has had for their personal views on this subject. Interestingly, while some people answered the question with their opinion on travel, most solely focused on how safe they feel travelling, while this was not necessarily the question. This could be the result of personal experiences people have had when travelling. If someone has experienced negative experiences traveling on their own, they might not feel safe. Whereas, some people love the empowering and liberating feeling that traveling provides for them, so their opinions on travelling have not been tainted by safety concerns. In addition, this video envisions binary opposition through the relaxed behavior of the males who do not doubt anything and just describe it as ‘fun’. Age difference also matters, since the younger women feel more unsafe than the older women interviewed in the video.

From a transnational feminist perspective it is believed that our social reality is constructed through our personal experiences. Our experiences of the world are very diverse since these have all been unequally affected by gender, ethnicity, age or class. Sometimes these multiple dimensions are intersectionalized for women travelling, think about being a black woman travelling in a Western country. These have created a subjective sense of reality, where marginalized groups have (often) been excluded from the conversations. In the past, travelling was male-dominated. Women were mostly on the side-lines of this industry, because ‘in many societies being feminine has been defined as sticking close to home. Masculinity, by contrast, has been the passport for travel’ (Enloe, 2014). This shows how through binary thinking there has previously been a difference in the socially constructed reality of travelling, where our video shows how women have come to create their own experiences with travel as well.

Access the video: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xqPuRrNFbfysWwEc4oYlDzMwIYsgT5pz?usp=drive_link 

Resource designers: Harvin Chaggar, Jiayi Dong, Nadine Waalkens, Suze Westra

What is the relationship between music, culture and feminism? And to what extent does world music create spaces for transnational feminist praxis? These questions allude to the need for a more critical engagement with place and culture in relation to music and a broader scope for feminist theory that recognises the vast range of transnational feminist activity undertaken through expressive means (Nissen, 2022a), examining the position of women’s music within the social construction and maintenance of gender (Nissen, 2022b), and exposing gender inequalities, sex discrimination and oppression of women in music (Leonard, 2007). Often, we fail to recognize how our sociocultural context constructs social reality, and music is one of many ways in which certain voices are heard (literally), and others are not. Furthermore, song lyrics tend to promote certain ideas of gender and other power relations.

In “Hey Girl, Do You Feel Empowered?”, you hear excerpts of songs followed by a conversation between two women about their experiences being a woman and the perceived impact certain songs have on them.

The exhibition piece features a sample of four different songs that can be categorized as either “female empowerment” or “female  objectification/belittlement through a male singer’s perspective”. All artists share a western background and the songs were considered popular throughout the 2010s. The two pairs of women based in the Netherlands have different backgrounds, with one pair being neighbors from different Chinese cities studying abroad and the other a lesbian couple from the Netherlands and the United States. The two conversations showcase the diverse experienced realities and intersectionalities that shape the women’s lived experiences and broader ideas of gender roles. Since knowledge is never a neutral description of reality, interviewers co-create knowledge by reflecting on their own experiences. Both women in the interviews  therefore interpret the song, observe what it means and does to them, and analyze in what ways the song can empower certain marginalized groups of young women.

Access and download this resource: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1s6iT0nCGbVPyGdzUmY8inGXvuqqVEZmd/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=116246804226737732234&rtpof=true&sd=true 

References:

• Leonard, M. (2007). Gender in the Music Industry: Rock, Discourse and Girl Power. Aldershot: Ashgate.

• Nissen, J. (2022b). From tourism to solidarity: transnational feminism and world music in the UK. Gender, Place & Culture, 31(8), 1029–1049. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2022.2150605 

• Nissen, J. (2022a). ‘Give us a voice!’: voice, envoicement, and the politics of ‘world music’ at WOMAD. Ethnomusicology Forum, 31(2), 236–259. https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2022.2117226

Resource designers: Elke, Izzy & Gia

The Memory Card Game focuses on binary concepts that are often associated with gender, identity, and social roles. This approach investigates the dynamics and developing nature of feminist thought and concentrates a critical eye on traditional binaries and how they affect people through various interactions of gender with class and race/ethnicity.

In this card game, players should flip two cards at a time. Each card has a word with a short definition. Players must match the card with its opposite. This action reflects the binaries that Transitional Feminism wants to challenge - like masculinity and femininity. The cards encourage participants to think about opposite meanings simultaneously and try to pair them. This game offers an interactive and practical learning tool    to understand the key concepts of Transnational Feminism. 

For instance, the pair "Away" and "Home" represents the distinction between the public and private space, where males have tradiionally had the privilege to be in public space and shape it ("Away"), while females have been limited in household spaces ("Home"). Looking at this binary calls us to consider its power and to challenge this false separation by recognising women’s diverse roles in public and private spaces.

In summary, through these binary word pairs, players are not only exposed to how these social constructions maintain unequal power relations. They are also encouraged to gain a deeper grasp of the intersection of gender, identity, and power relationships. Through the lens of Transitional Feminism, we have the opportunity to not only   question how we assign value via these binary categories but also to examine how we can revise them, because they are not fixed or unchanging.

Access and download this resource: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TL6lC6alIVISzqFmGtMLRyhFH263xqjH/view?usp=drive_link 

Resource designers: Daniëlle Schuijt, Tim ten Brinke, Reihane Sadeghazde & Ayla Brouwers

From  a transnational feminist perspective, social reality is mediated through context-specific power relations, which are experienced differently by and produce marginalized groups. The  experiences of marginalized groups are made invisible or undervalued. Intersectionality plays a significant role, with people experiencing inequality not just based on gender, but through the intersection of gender with, for example,   race/ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, nationality, and ability.

Yoga is affected by similar power relations. The current Western yoga landscape is dominated by able-bodied, middle-class, white women, who often set the standard for what “yoga” should be. This creates barriers for marginalized groups. People of color, with different body types and from lower economic classes are affected by this and excluded from the dominant ways in which yoga is practiced. In addition, western yoga practice is quite disconnected from its South Asian roots. It can be understood  as a form of cultural appropriation embedded in global power relations that marginalize certain South Asian voices and benefit the predominantly white Western fitness industry.

At the same time, yoga can serve as a tool for empowerment, encouraging women to listen to themselves in ways that patriarchy often does not allow. It can be a tool to highlight and address existing inequalities. In briefly experimenting with a few   yoga moves together, we explore the different intersectionalities present among Museum exhibition participants. How do you experience the different power relations in this yoga practice? If you consider your gender - how you and others perceive it -, does the physical prectice of yoga make you feel empowered, or does it challenge your beliefs about how to perform your gender? How might your yoga partner experience this? Do they have similar intersectional identities to you? How does that impact your experience? Consider how factors such as race/ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and ability influence your practice and the way you perceive yourself and others in this yoga session.

Watch a yoga instruction video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7AYKMP6rOE 

Resource designers: Age, Pinelopi & Viva

This interactive activity is designed to help people rethink how we categorize the world, especially regarding gender, race, and global power structures. Inspired by transnational feminist ideas, this visual puzzle uses images to represent contrasting concepts like "home/away," "first world/third world," and "masculine/feminine." It encourages participants to question the way these constructed binaries shape inequality and power relations.

In the images provided for this puzzle, "home" is shown as a peaceful domestic scene, while "away" is depicted as a busy city street. "First world" is illustrated by a modern skyline, while "Third world" is represented by a rural non-Western village. These binary images prompt participants to consider how global power relations are often represented as clear opposites.

The challenge of the puzzle is to connect these binaries. Participants also can draw lines between images, revealing the hidden links between categories we usually think of as separate. For example, connecting "masculine" with "independent" and "feminine" with "dependent" shows how traditional gender binaries uphold power differences.

By exploring these connections, the puzzle shows that these paired images  are not just representing binaries but that they are part of a broader system that maintains inequality. 

"Breaking the Binaries" is a hands-on, visual learning tool for making connections and thinking critically about the categories that divide us. By recognising and unpacking these binaries, participants can begin to imagine a world where rigid hierarchies are challenged.

Access and download this resource: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19wwBxZMoPeQZu3nDVd4vSNUGEVPp6lIL/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116246804226737732234&rtpof=true&sd=true 

Resource designers: Manon Pasman & Anna de Moor