Toward Grounding Transnational Feminism in Borderland Spaces

Abstract

This article discusses our efforts to ground transnational feminist practice locally in borderland spaces and to detach this practice, to the extent possible, from the overall structure of Euro-centered knowledge in mental health. We recognize that transnational training and research in psychology has the potential to offer scholar-practitioners the opportunity to engage in transformative intercultural learning processes. However, these processes can become forms of colonization in which dominant knowledge systems originating in the United States are positioned to exert undue influence on vulnerable communities whose members sometimes unwittingly give consent to participate. We situate ourselves and discuss our conceptual framework. We present how we co-constructed a borderland learning space in a particular training program and analyze challenges we encountered in this process. We discuss our research collaboration, highlighting our efforts to ground aspects of the research process also in a borderland space. Finally, we offer recommendations for transnational feminist training and research.