Talking Back: Inside GCWS's First Summer Feminist Learning Institute

What does it mean to move from silence into speech? This June, GCWS brought scholars, educators, organizers, and advocates together to find out, launching the inaugural Summer Feminist Learning Institute (SFLI).

Inspired by bell hooks's Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, this year's theme centered feminist practice as an act of liberation, healing, and collective transformation.

Held virtually from June 15–30, SFLI convened an intensive series of micro-courses designed for immediate, real-world impact — among them Sankofa as sacred Writing and Return to Ourselves and What Counts as Evidence? (And Who Decides?). Each session paired direct access to leading scholars with a deeply engaged cohort, grounded throughout in feminist theory and praxis.

Participants joined from across sectors and borders — researchers, students, and practitioners alike — building a global community around a shared question: how do we turn feminist ideas into action?

“I gained so much insight from Dzidzor’s facilitation style. Specifically what it can mean and look like to consider the body and bodily sensation/experience in one’s instruction.” - 2026 participant

SFLI marks the start of an ongoing investment in accessible, rigorous, praxis-driven feminist learning.

Want updates on the SFLI and other GCWS programming as it happens? Subscribe to our newsletter!