ANNOUNCEMENTS & EVENTS

One more year, Za’atar participated at the annual celebrations, events and demonstrations for the Pride Week in Athens. On the 18th of June, Za’atar’s team could be found on its kiosk at Syntagma Square, at the center of Athens, informing the public about the ATLAS programme, which supports LGBTQIA+ refugees and migrants. During that day, […]

On the 5th and 6th of June, Za’atar participated in the 7th Network for Dialogue Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. During this conference, members of the Network discussed the importance of interfaith and intercultural dialogue and had the opportunity to know God’s House (Guds Hus), a meeting place in a common building for Christians and Muslims. […]

From 15-18 June this year, FAC (Feminist Autonomous Centre for Research) colleagues organised the Feminist No Border Summer School in a decentralised way, in the cities of Palermo, Heraklion, Berlin and Athens, in collaboration with Associazone Closer, de:border – migration justice collective, Legal Centre Lesvos, Sea of Solidarity, Kompass Collective, LasciateCIEntrare, Watch the Med – […]

On the 27th of May, Sindillar joined a round table focused on antiracist pedagogy and community-based strategies for social action, from a grassroots perspective. The event was organised by the Escoleta Popular de Sants, a libertarian and self-sustained organization that works with critical pedagogies in non-formal education contexts. This was the first of a series […]

On March 16th, the first session of the participatory workshop “Let’s talk about anti-racism and anti-fascism” was held at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and led by Núria Solsona, a psychology student at the UAB and practitioner of the BRIDGES project. This workshop, divided into two sessions, aims to reflect on racism at university and […]

On the 21st February, Zaatar NGO took part in a panel discussion hosted and organized by KAICIID in the framework of the Network for Dialogue Project. Several speakers from this project gathered to discuss how transit countries can support social inclusion of refugees and migrants in Europe using interreligious and intercultural dialogue. It was a […]

On Wednesday 30 March at 10am in Barcelona, Sindillar, one of BRIDGES’ partners, will present the conference “Let’s talk about care and neglect: what to demand on 30 March?”, in the framework of the International Day of Home and Care Workers. This day aims to highlight the importance of their work and the problems they […]

FACR (Feminist Autonomous Centre for Research), one of the BRIDGES partners, organizes the 5th annual  Feminist No Borders Summer School for the next 15th-18th of June 2022. This event provides a space of encounter, mutual learning, and inspiration for researchers, activists, artists, and members of community organisations to exchange experiences, strategies, and struggles across and […]

On the occasion of the online summit A Week of Neighbours, organized by A World of Neighbours on the theme “Keeping our humanity”, our colleague from Zaatar NGO, Aude Sathoud, and also member of the organization’s Practicioners Network and founder of Tremble, hosted a conference titled “The Borders of Democracy: Welcome to Fortress Europe!” This […]

BRIDGES would like to congratulate our project partners Sindillar/Sindihogar, a union of domestic and care workers. The reason is twofold: on 13 November Sindillar/Sindihogar celebrated 10 years of existence, collective struggle and mutual support. And on 16 December, they received the first prize from the Barcelona City Council’s Municipal Migration Council for their project “The […]

On 12 January, at 1pm, at the Faculty of Translation and Interpretation of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, a round table entitled “How to decolonise the curriculum” will take place. It will be moderated by Marisela Montenegro (UAB), coordinator of BRIDGES, and will also include the participation of our colleague Catalina Álvarez (UAB), along with […]

After two years without being able to meet, members of KAICIID, linked to the #Network4Dialogue met in Belgrade from 19-21 November. Among the participants was our colleague Marina Liakis, from the partner organization Zaatar BGO. During these days, the participants discussed the future plans of the network and the use of dialogue to shape and […]

The conference Teaching in Exile: Transnational Experiences in the Digital Age (18-19 November 2021 online) consisted of three formats: Taking Action in Teaching, Showing Off Science Digital Fair, and Infrastructures of Inclusion. Prof. Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez (Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, PAR Giessen team) was discussant at the panel on Infrastructures of Inclusion (together with Wendy Shaw, Yasemin […]

During next October and November, Sindillar, together with the Law Faculty of the University of Barcelona and other organizations, will carry out this seminar, dedicated to share proposals and strategies from independent unions for a dignified regulation of care and home work in Spain. It implies to have the right to unemployment benefits, to erase […]

During 2021, and for the second time, Sindillar has organized a textile job training programme of 3 month’s length addressed to migrant women. This course of 60 hours consisted of a basic sewing training for future job occupation. It has been possible thanks to the involvement of multiple alliances created during the last 10 years […]

This July 2021, Zaatar NGO took part, once again, in Athens’ Pride, introducing the Atlas program to the public on its colorful booth. Since 2016, Zaatar NGO, through its initiative ATLAS (Aid To LGBTQ+ Asylum Seekers), has been building a program designed to best support LGBTI+ asylum-seekers and refugees with their specific needs. It provides […]

Zaatar NGO has been very happy and proud to partner with clinical consultant and psychotherapist Mego Nerses this summer, for a series of workshops on Trauma-Informed Care and Self and Community Care in the framework of the Atlas program, dedicated to the support of LGBTQI+ asylum-seekers and refugees. On Monday, August 9 and Tuesday, August […]

Last 26 to 28 of July, Marisela Montenegro participated in the Online XXXVIII Interamerican Congress of Psychology, organized by the Interamerican Society of Psychology. She presented a paper titled “The university as a territory of intervention for Community Psychology: contributions from feminist and decolonial perspectives” where she exposed some of the reflections and contents connected […]

During 7-9 July 2021, Marisela Montenegro, who is BRIDGES Coordinator, participated in the IMISCOE Annual Conference that took place online. She presented the BRIDGES project among a community of PhD students from all over the world. Through the different workshops, they reflected on the benefits of digitalization of education and the challenges and tools for […]

“Tensioning the memory: Towards other ways of remembering” is the name of the workshop that took place on May 28 in Barcelona, carried out by Catalina Álvarez Martínez-Conde and Margarita Vélez-Maya, together with a group from the Barcelona Youth Council. Both Catalina and Margarita are PhD students in UAB, psychologists and researchers from the Program […]

Last June 3rd, the “Migrant Memories” Workshop was held by Catalina Álvarez, a PhD student in UAB and a member of Barcelona PAR-group in BRIDGES. This workshop is part of the “Visual Memories” Project, promoted by Xarxa Poblenou and the BCN Anti-rumor Strategy of the Barcelona Interculturality Program. In this training workshop, she approached the […]

On June 7th, 2021, the exhibition “Exposem El Racisme: Problematitzar el racisme és cosa de Totes”, curated by Ester Cecilia Chico, Cristina Fusté i Valentí, Óscar Gea Ortiz, Judit Puig Marín and Sandra Villegas Castells, as part of their internship at BRIDGES, ended. This exhibition, which began on April 12ve at the Faculty of Psychology […]

Next July 7th, a representative of the BRIDGES project will participate in the Imiscoe Conferences, organized by the Imiscoe PhD Student Network. The Imiscoe Conferences aim to provide support and contacts to junior researchers to help them shape their future of teaching and research. This year, the Imiscoe Conferences topics are focused on the intersection […]

During this semester, Francina Planas, a student from the Master’s Degree in Psychopedagogy at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) carried out her internship as part of the BRIDGES project. In a pandemic context that has conditioned the teaching format, her intervention has consisted in the virtualisation of some materials that […]

On 9th, 16th and 23rd of June, Za’atar NGO has been developing the ATLAS workshop about LGTBQIA+ asylum-seekers and refugees’ legal situation. Mainly addressed but not exclusively to NGO professionals, the aim of this workshop was to inform participants about “the current situation regarding LGBTQI+ rights, from a legal perspective, but also discussing with them, […]

On the 1st of May, Sindillar, a BRIDGES partner, celebrated the day of workers by making a performance in front of the headquarters of the Promotion National Work institution. As part of their action, they read a statement. Here we share an excerpt of it and the link to the complete statement: “This first of […]

Last May 20th, the Austrian Society for Gender Studies (OEGGF) organized the Panel Discussion “Feminist Struggles for Schorlarly Work”. Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, a BRIDGES colleague from JLU Giessen, was one of the speakers and presented the paper “Building the anti-racist democratic university: the role of Gender Studies”. This event was part of a series of […]

The Research Network in Queer Studies, Decolonial Feminisms and Cultural Transformations, from the Chair for General Sociology at JLU Giessen, has organized an oline Lecture Series about New Insights in Gender and Trans-Studies. From April 12ve until July 12ve, every Monday morning, there has been weekly sessions to present research works, papers and projects that […]

Along three days in May, June and July, the Margerita von Brentano Center of the FU Berlin has been organizing three online sessions under the title of “Transnational Feminist Dialogues in Times of the Neoliberal University”. In the second session, on June 24th, our colleague from BRIDGES project, Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez (JLU Giessen) will dialogue […]

No Borders! No Nations! No binary gender formations! Queer feminist solidarity smashes borders! On 14-16 June 2021, the Feminist No Borders Summer School took place online. During three days, activists, researchers, artists, and people with lived experiences of migration have been attending and sharing together different discussions, workshops and lectures. Different projects and organizations that […]

Deanna Dadusc, a member of BRIDGES and Lecturer on Critical Criminology at the University of Brighton, participates in this podcast with Roxana Pessoa Cavalcanti and Stephen Burrell to discuss about gender violence and violence against women. In it, they talk about how police are not the solution to male toxicity, but part of the problem, […]

On March 8th, the colleagues of the Union of Domestic and Care Workers Sindillar / Sindihogar launched a manifesto in which they denounce their working conditions, injustices, violence and discrimination that they live as a group, and where they also demand human, social, economic and labor rights that are being systematically denied. In this manifesto […]

Za’atar NGO, which works for the reception, training and self-sufficiency of migrants and refugees from Athens, is expanding its activities and offering training and services despite the difficulties caused by the Covid. It has launched online language classes, job preparation and CV development workshops, acupuncture sessions, and has also activated LGTBQIA + discussion groups, in […]

The many restrictions on mobility and public gatherings which have been implemented in Greece for almost a year now, have led Za’atar NGO to adapt its organization, transferring all of its educational services online in order for beneficiaries to keep improving their language skills – a key factor of the process of integration into a […]

On February 28th, it was commemorated the 20 years anniversary of the migrant seclusions that tried to fight against the immigration law that condemned hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants to irregularity. From Sindillar, Norma Falconi read a text in the commemoration ceremony demanding the continuation of the Papers for Everyone campaign. Here you can […]

On February 11th, colleagues from PAR-Giessen, from JLU Giessen University and the social entity an.ge.kommen, presented their work developed for the BRIDGES Toolkit within the framework of the online conference “Rethinking Postcolonial Europe: Moving Identities, Changing Subjectivities”, organized by the International Graduate Center for the Study of Culture, GAPS and the Literarisches Zentrum Giessen, at […]

The UAB School of Psychology, center to which the BRIDGES coordinating team is linked, is preparing an exhibition entitled “Exposem el racisme a la UAB”. The exhibition will open on April 12ve and aims to make visible and reflect on racist practices within the framework of the UAB. To keep up to date with all […]

In different parts of Europe, the emergence and strengthening of the ultra-right movements and of supremacist and sexist positions are provoking violent threats and attacks against feminist and anti-racist teachers and researchers. These acts of violence put their safety and physical integrity at risk, but they also seek to undermine freedom of expression and thought, […]

The BRIDGES’ colleagues Marisela Montenegro and Catalina Álvarez, both from the UAB, participated on November 28th in a round table dedicated to “Methodologies for a rebellious memory”, within the Conference “Dissenting History. Decolonial memories, rebellious memories”, organized by the Barcelona City Council. Together with Esther (Mayoko) Ortega and Seo Cizmich, the companions shared interpretation frameworks, […]

Our colleague from FACR, Aila Spathopoulou, co-organized with Martina Tazzioli the online seminar “Dismantling asylum: The EU Migration Pact viewed from Greece and Italy”, (25th of November 2020). This meeting was organized in the frame of the ESRC-funded project GLITCH and with the support of the Department of Politics & International Relations at Goldsmiths, University […]

The colleagues from FACR have been involved, as partners, in the organization of the digital conference “Exploring Intersectionality – Building Solidarity across EU-Turkey Borders: Inclusive Education in Times of Forced Migration and COVID-19” (11-12 November 2020), hosted by the Istanbul Policy Centre and Stiftung Mercator Initiative, Sabancı University, Istanbul. This conference was curated by Ellen […]

This State Encounter is articulated from the active communication between the organizations that were present in it. “Carrying out these days of work, meeting, conversation and dialogue is of the utmost importance and urgency”, Sindillar explains. “The dynamics that took place in those days were designed from, by and for us, trying to generate empowerment […]

Deanna Dadusc and Marisela Montenegro, two colleagues from the University of Brighton and the UAB, presented the BRIDGES’ Toolkit at the Seminar Series “Decolonising the Curriculum”, organized by DeCol, a students and staff collective in the School of Humanities in the University of Brighton that are working in partnership to transform colonial sites of knowledge […]

Zaatar NGO has started a support group for asylum-seekers men victims of sexual violence after seeing the difficulties that survivors face to find services tailored to their needs. Survivors can choose to see Zaatar’s psychologist for individual sessions but also for group sessions with other survivors like them. In many countries, there is no specific […]

Zaatar NGO has started a support group for LGBTQI asylum-seekers and refugees on Zoom. Several of them requested it when meeting with Zaatar’s psychologist, as they often feel really lonely living in shared accommodation (being camps or shelters) with people from their country of origin, therefore they usually do not feel safe at all. They […]

The ATLAS-LGBTQ Project at Za’atar is a new social initiative that takes steps to extend supportive provisions to the LGBTQ refugee population. Most LGBTQ refugees come from countries where being gay is considered a crime. Upon reaching Europe these refugees are forced to live in overcrowded camps and shelters with fellow nationals where harassment and […]

DONATE NOW We are designers, architects and urban planners with a civil duty of care. As an organisation we do not support Moria 2.0 and will continue to advocate for compassionate and more sustainable alternatives to the current migration policies of containment and exclusion. Our mission is to utilise the power of design and education […]

On July 29th, two members of our project presented papers at the Panel: “Culturas de la Acogida”: Acción colectiva y derechos de las personas migrantes en tiempos de significados cambiantes en el Estado español y la Unión Europea (“Host Cultures”: Collective Action and Migrant Rights in Times of Changing Meanings), in the context of the […]

Europe is at a critical turning point. The whole world witnessed #MoriaCamp on Lesvos go up in flames, leaving 12,598 people without shelter amidst the global pandemic. On 17th September, EU Commissioner Ylva Johannson promised “no more Morias”. But within the week, the EU had helped fund and build Moria 2.0. The so-called long-term solution […]

The digital conference “Inclusive Education in Times of Forced Migration and COVID-19: Exploring Intersectionality – Building Solidarities across EU-Turkey Borders” will take place November 11–12, 2020. The conference is organized by Ellen Kollender and Joanna  Krzeminska and hosted by the Mercator Foundation and Istanbul Policy Center at Sabancı University, with further partners such as the […]

As part of the Athens Pride Week in September 2020, Marina Liakis, (director and co-founder of Zaatar) and Tony Haouam (the facilitator of the ATLAS-LGTBQ workshop for humanitarian workers) gave two talks about the LGTBQ refugees situation and how Zaatar is supporting. LINK

On July 17th, at 5:00 p.m. (Spanish time), through the Instagram LIVE of @observatori_uab, you will be able to attend a live conversation on “Sexist violence and racialized realities at the University”, as the title says, between Marisela Montenegro, coordinator of BRIDGES, and Antoinette Torres Soler, founder and director of Afroféminas. The event is organized […]

The last 5th of September, Sindillar organized the awards ceremony to deliver the SindiRebels dolls elaborated for the COVID Campaign. These SindiRebels rug dolls were home made by Sindillar’s participants and awarded in exchange for the economic donations made during the 3 months’ lockdown in Barcelona. This is an extract of the discourse ceremony, done […]

On Tuesday June 30th at 6pm (Chilean Hour), the third session of the Permanent Dialogues of the Iger Network on Pandemic, Intersectionality and Resistance Practices, entitled “Pandemic and migration: new scenarios of exclusion and racism”, will be held. Marisela Montenegro, BRIDGES’ coordinator from the team of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, will participate as a […]

Office of Displaced Designers (ODD) is acting as the local link for the Global Free Unit Lesvos Summer School Workshop, supported by Umeå University in Sweden, is exploring the role of architects in designing for vulnerable displaced populations. The two week virtual workshop is pushing the boundaries of online collaboration, testing new forms of education […]

During the next 7, 8 and 9 May 2020, the Transnational Meeting of the Erasmus + BRIDGES project (“Building Inclusive Societies: Diversifying Knowledge and Tackling Discrimination through Civil Society Participation in Universities”) will take place. Originally, this meeting was to be held in the city of Giessen (Germany) but due to the Coronavirus pandemic and […]

As we already announced in our first Newsletter, the Feminist No Borders Summer School, organized by the BRIDGES colleagues from FACR (Feminist Autonomous Centre for Research), had to be postponed until June 2021. Nevertheless, this spring, a virtual process involving invited speakers and participants selected from proposals received prior to this year’s application deadline took […]

Three weeks ago BRIDGES’ partner Za’atar NGO opened a Syrian restaurant to provide training and job opportunities to refugees. Za’atar is training them to improve their Greek language and cooking skills. The restaurant has an eco friendly approach: it doesn’t serve meat, is mostly vegan, uses pasta straws instead of plastic ones, and eco-friendly cleaning […]

The COVID-19 quarantine makes us reflect on our political demands, as well as to continue to face the Immigration policy in order to make it possible to be recognized in the system without having an address. The crisis imposes a struggle for recognition. The special tax regime to which we are subjugated in Spain deprives […]

From the Espai Avinyó, organized by the Barcelona City Council, three activities have been proposed to reflect on the implications of the Coronavirus pandemic on different areas of our lives: time, disease and work. The third activity, next 25th of June, is a conversation titled “The Reproduction of Absences” has brought together Marisela Montenegro, BRIDGES […]

The BRIDGES’ partner Feminist Autonomous Centre for Research, in Athens, has been organizing the FEMINIST NO BORDERS SUMMER SCHOOL, which was scheduled for June 15-21. While the international meeting has been postponed until June 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, a virtual process involving researchers from all over the world has been initiated in the […]