Spotlight on Feminist Movement Building School

We are in conversation with participants from our second Feminist Movement Builders School convened in partnership with Just Associates in from August 2024-August 2025.

About the episode

In this episode, we speak with Larisa W. Chikanya, a gender, peace and governance specialist from Zimbabwe whose work spans feminist leadership, inclusive peacebuilding, and social justice across Africa.

Larisa reflects on what changemaking means in the current political moment, how feminist organising is shifting dynamics locally and transnationally, and how movements sustain themselves under repression. She also discusses the role of young women and queer organisers in reshaping leadership, and the importance of political education and feminist research in strengthening movement work.

BioLarisa W Chikanya is a gender, peace and governance specialist from Zimbabwe, with over six years of experience advancing inclusive peacebuilding, feminist leadership, and social justice across Africa. Her work centres on African feminisms, amplifying marginalised voices, and integrating gender perspectives into governance, political participation, and conflict prevention and resolution .

She has contributed to regional feminist initiatives, creating spaces for communities to strategise, organise, and take action for transformative change. Larisa brings a decolonial, intersectional lens to her work, bridging scholarship and activism to imagine futures where justice, inclusion, and equity guide leadership and social change.

Credits

Interviewee: Larisa W. Chikanya

Interviewer: Nadia Asri

Produced by: The Feminist Centre for Racial Justice

Sound design, editing, production: Ellan A. Lincoln-Hyde

Music: Broken by AudioWay, freesound.org.