Rest As Resistance in the Feminist Classroom

This paper presents an autoethnographic reflection on the challenges and learning experiences I encountered in feminist teaching, including the establishment of a Gender and Diversity Studies Master’s program in North Belgium, which has been running for a decade. The conditions for higher education and critical thinking have been increasingly constrained, reflecting broader global trends. Despite attacks on fields such as gender, postcolonial, and migration studies, these disciplines have gained popularity among students, coinciding with broader initiatives to diversify curricula and implement diversity action plans in the neoliberal university.

Within Gender and Diversity Studies, this growth has brought both opportunities and challenges. While the student body is slowly diversifying in terms of backgrounds, motivations, and political engagement, whiteness and cis-women remain overrepresented among both students and faculty. This raises important questions about how to address these imbalances in feminist education and work toward more inclusive teaching practices. Furthermore, the increasing diversity among students creates unique demands for flexibility and accommodation, particularly for those who are neurodiverse, disabled, or working. The push for digitalization—accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic—has led to requests for live streaming, recorded lectures, and flexible and individualized learning options, alongside in-person teaching.

This paper explores how these accommodations intersect with the feminist classroom, which aspires to be a space of safety, bravery, accountability, and often vulnerable, embodied, and affective pedagogies. Following a leave of absence from academia due to burnout and personal crisis, I reflect on my return to teaching. Through concrete pedagogical examples, I discuss how I introduced "rest as resistance," creativity, joy, and mutual care into my teaching while navigating the evolving complexities of feminist pedagogy within changing academic and institutional landscapes.