By Ruta Śpiewak

 

Ruta and Jo spent the week of 27–30 April with Stefanie, Barbara and Charlotte at BOKU in Vienna. Our time together was inspiring (and far too short), but we managed to map out a number of themes that we’d like to deepen as part of our shared work in SWIFT and beyond.

On the morning of 29 April, we introduced SWIFT to Masters’ students taking the Gender and Rights to Food and Nutrition course. We spoke about how we engage with agroecology and feminism, and about the participatory methodologies we use to amplify the transformative messages at the heart of our work. The session closed with each of us acting as a “living library,” inviting students to ask questions about our different identities and positions as scholar-activists.

That afternoon, we joined the Climate Scholar Activism Masters’ course for a conversation about storytelling as a form of public engagement. Ruta walked the group through the process of co-creating the SWIFT anthem – with all of its many twists and turns – and Jo shared the story behind the Soil Sisters podcast. The students then led small storytelling workshops in the beautiful park across the road from BOKU, weaving together collage-making, story writing and improv theatre. Together with Stefanie, we explored the theme of our own positions within academia, and it was a real gift to step into the participant’s seat alongside them.

Beyond the teaching, we made space for longer conversations about the ideas taking shape between us: possible publications and comparative research on feminist agroecology, the rights to food and nutrition, and food care. We sketched out plans for the upcoming SWIFT photo voice exhibitions in Warsaw and Vienna, and talked through episode 6 of the Soil Sisters podcast, which will explore social security from an Austrian perspective.

What we all agreed on, in the end, was how much being together in person mattered. It was joyful, generative, and a reminder of why this work feels alive – and we’re determined to organise more SWIFT exchanges of this kind in the months ahead.