Enacting everyday feminist collaborations: Reflexive becoming, proactive improvisation and co‐learning partnerships

Abstract

We trace back our own multi‐year teaching and writing collaboration in academia to theorize feminist collaboration. Drawing from feminist theories and our autoethnographic reflections, we surface three metaphorical processes that constitute feminist collaboration. We consider feminist collaboration as: (i) reflexive becoming, that is, feminist collaborators constantly make sense of what counts as feminist as the group and context evolve; (ii) proactive improvisation, that is, feminist collaborators collectively strive for everyday transformations within situated constraints; and (iii) co‐learning partnerships, that is, feminist collaborators relate to one another in ways that uphold commitments to reflexivity, equity and care. Enacting these processes are fraught with tensions that intertwine with one another to constrain and enable feminist collaboration. We conclude the article by calling for continued theorization and engagement with feminist collaboration.