Dismantling fortress Europe: Ecofeminist responses to climate migration and right-wing populism - September 26 - 27,  2026 14:00 - 18:00 

This is an advanced masterclass for researchers, policy analysts, migration experts and practitioners, and NGO strategistsDate: Saturday, 26 and Sunday, 27 September 2026 | 14:00 - 18:00 CEST

Format: Online course (Detailed syllabus, readings, and recording provided)

Course overview

Recent data confirms that Europe remains the fastest-warming continent on Earth, with temperatures rising at more than double the global average. This accelerating environmental crisis is converging rapidly with a volatile geopolitical shift: the mainstreaming of right-wing populism across the European Union.

Rather than sticking to traditional climate denial / scepticism, modern populist movements are increasingly adopting frameworks of eco-nationalism and eco-bordering. 

In France, under Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, the National Rally has engineered a calculated shift away from climate skepticism toward what they term ecological patriotism (l’écologie patriote). 

In Italy, Giorgia Meloni has integrated environmentalism into a conservative, nationalist agenda, moving away from traditional right-wing climate dismissal toward ecological conservatism.

The narrative has moved from blatant climate denialism, to a clear question: Who gets to survive climate change catastrophes safely inside the fortress?

These ideologies weaponise climate-induced migration and resource scarcity to justify border militarisation, exclusionary immigration policies, and the protection of the internal homeland at the expense of external climate justice.

This advanced four-hour seminar provides researchers and policymakers with a precise analytical toolkit to understand and counter this shift. Led by Dr Asmae Ourkiya, founder of The Ecofeminist Institute, this session introduces ecofeminism as an empirical and systemic framework. Following Dr. Ourkiya's work on the EU's energy transition in 2021 and their work on the European Environmental Bureau's 2021 report on why the EU Green Deal needs ecofeminism,  participants will move beyond basic human rights rhetoric to analyse how the intersection of climate collapse and border policy actively exploits historical colonial patterns, gendered vulnerabilities, and racialised hierarchies. Participants will also examine the structural alternatives focused on transnational solidarity and ecological accountability, and collaborate on policy recommendations.

Course objectives

By the conclusion of this intensive masterclass, participants will be equipped to:

Deconstruct econationalist rhetoric: Identify and dissect how right-wing populists use environmental data and "greenlash" politics to advance anti-migration legislation.
Apply ecofeminist intersectional frameworks to migration policy: A holistic introduction to ecofeminism, followed by a valuation of the current European asylum and border frameworks through an ecofeminist lens to identify hidden gendered and neo-colonial structural inequalities.
Enhance research methodologies: Integrate non-extractive, pluralistic, and ecofeminist methodologies into academic research or policy briefs addressing climate displacement.
Formulate alternative policy indicators: Design strategic policy recommendations that move away from security-centric models toward transnational care economics and climate reparations.

The course will end with a plenary presentations by the participants of the reframed policy briefs, followed by a closing strategy session on embedding these decolonial, ecofeminist frameworks into upcoming research funding proposals and advocacy campaigns.

Course fee: €370
Cohort size: Limited to 15 participants to ensure peer-to-peer quality collaborative work and policy review.
Enrolment deadline: 10 September 2026, or earlier upon capacity.

To register, please fill out this form.

Research course: Queer Ecofeminism and the Climate Polycrisis: Introduction and Critical Frameworks 

Sundays: November 7, 14, and 21, 2026, 14:00 - 17:00 CET

Course overview

Led by the founder of The Ecofeminist Institute and award-winning researcher Dr. Asmae Ourkiya, this course invites academics, researchers, and activists alike to collectively explore and rethink our understanding of ecofeminism through an expanded lens of queer ecological theory and relational care.

Anchored in foundational ecofeminist thought, we will probe how rigid binaries such as human/non-human, natural/cultural, and living/non-living, uphold both ecological violence and gendered, ableist, and racialized hierarchies. Through a blend of theoretical readings, creative exercises, and peer-to-peer feedback, participants will experiment with queering nature, envisioning kinship, fluidity, and care as radical alternatives to systemic domination and destruction.

Drawing upon contemporary queer ecology scholarship, the course challenges participants to reimagine ecological crises not as external threats to be managed, but as entangled political, epistemic, and emotional landscapes where new forms of relational knowledge and plural futures can emerge.

Course objectives

Deconstruct institutional binaries (human/non-human, natural/cultural) that actively perpetuate ecological violence and intersectional social hierarchies.
Integrate queer ecological theory and relational care frameworks into ongoing academic research, systemic advocacy, or community organizing.
Develop radical alternatives to domination by co-creating actionable frameworks centered on kinship, fluidity, and ecosystemic care.
Format: Live online sessions (recordings provided for ongoing access)

Capacity: Strictly limited to 15 participants to maintain an intimate, high-engagement seminar environment (first-come, first-served basis)

Course fee: 325 EUR

Register
To reserve your spot, fill out the registration form here.

Early application is strongly encouraged due to the limited cohort size.

Application Deadline: October 19, 2026 (or earlier as soon as all spots are filled)

Trans*ecology and the (Re)naturalisation of Transness: Queer, Decolonial, and de-essentialized Ecofeminist Reflections on Gender, Nature, and Scientific Authority
Lead Instructor: Dr. Asmae Ourkiya

Format: 3-Part Intensive Sunday Course & Collaborative Working Groups

Timeline: November 8, 15, and 22, 2026 from 14:00 to 17:00 CET

For: Faculty, Postdoctoral Fellows, and Advanced Researchers looking to actively integrate trans*ecological frameworks into their current scholarship.

Course overview

This intensive course is designed as an active, collaborative research lab. It moves beyond the mere addition of transgender scholarship to existing environmental frameworks, positioning trans*ecology as a (re)emerging field where transness and ecology reshape one another.

Over three Sundays in November 2026, participants will balance deep theoretical immersion with hands-on, peer-led working group exercises. You will stress-test the science-cultural infrastructures of dimorphic sex classification, deconstruct the coloniality of gender, and collaboratively build new, decategorized methodologies for the contemporary environmental humanities.

Weekly schedule & working group labs

Sunday I: November 8, 2026 | Epistemologies of the asterisk & Queer ecofeminisms

We establish the theoretical lineage from queer ecology to a decolonial and de-essentialized queer ecofeminism, unpacking the typographic and methodological power of the asterisk in trans*ecology.

Core Themes: The metronormative binary; multispecies complexities; the asterisk as a theoretical refusal of cisnormative grammar.
Key literature: Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands, Nicole Seymour, and Greta Gaard.

Sunday II: November 15, 2026 | Scientific Authority, Bias, and the Sex Binary
This session examines how medicine, biology, and state bureaucracies have historically enforced binary sex models to manage populations and regulate reproduction.

Core themes: Chromosomal reductionism (XX/XY shorthand); medical pathologization versus institutional governance; epistemic closure in sex research.
Key kiterature: Anne Fausto-Sterling and contemporary Feminist Science Studies (S. Crasnow).

Sunday III: November 22, 2026 | Decolonial Teleologies & Decategorising Embodiment

Our final session traces how modern/colonial gender systems enacted epistemic violence on Indigenous cosmologies. We explore how the Western devaluation of the environment mirrors the cultural abjection of queer and Black trans bodies.

Core themes: The coloniality of gender; erotophobia as colonial logic; Black trans feminism as a wayward movement; the material ethics of (re)naturalising transness.
Key literature: María Lugones, Marquis Bey, Susan Stryker, and Asmae Ourkiya.

What researchers gain from this course:

Methodological tools: Walk away with actionable strategies to apply "trans-ing" as an analytical method to your own research data, archives, and texts.
Peer-review and collaboration: Benefit from intensive, structured feedback on your current projects from an international cohort of scholars working at the intersection of radical ecological thought.
Interdisciplinary Synergy: Bridge the analytical gaps between environmental humanities, queer theory, decolonial studies, and feminist science studies.

Applications close October 15, 2026.

Course fee: 350 EUR.

To register, fill out this form: https://forms.gle/5mgpMgji9KdWhGpH9