One of the most meaningful moments in this project was my participation in the PitchWise Festival in Sarajevo in September 2025. The festival brought together feminist and queer activists, representatives of women’s and LGBTIQ+ organisations, students, journalists and others working on or interested in gender equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina and across the region.
As part of the festival, I organised and moderated a panel on Anti-Gender Movements in the Western Balkans, followed by a workshop with activists and other participants. It was an opportunity to take some of the questions and findings from my research out of the academic space and into a room filled with people who are directly engaged in these struggles.
Apart from PitchWise Festival being a wonderful space for exchange and joy, what stayed with me from these conversations was how differently anti-gender mobilisation can look from the perspective of those confronting it on the ground. Activists spoke not only about political rhetoric, but about the concrete ways these narratives shape their work, access and the space available for feminist and LGBTIQ+ voices.
The conversations did not end with the festival. The meetings and exchanges at PitchWise opened the door to further conversations with organisations, activists and colleagues in Sarajevo, including the Sarajevo Open Centre, Fondacija CURE and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. I am very grateful to all the activists who organise this beautiful yearly festival and create a space where these kinds of conversations can happen. What began as a panel discussion at PitchWise developed into a much broader exchange about how research can be useful to those who are directly engaged in understanding and responding to anti-gender mobilisation.
