Academy of Migrant Organizing

Ali is a human rights activist from Iran, who is living in Germany. He has been an activist of Amnesty International for 5 years and of Fridays for Future Europe since 2018 now, and currently he is busy with evacuating activists at risk from Afghanistan. Apart from this Ali is a member of Grüne Jugend Deutschland and the Steering Committee of the Global Young Greens as well as its Regional Coordinator for Europe.

Anna is an artist, architect, journalist, editor and activist. She is a creative member of the Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy (Denmark); member of the Sinus_3 design and architecture studio (Poland); founder and member of the Polish queer feminist collective Dziewuchy Berlin (Germany); initiator and member of the International Council of Polish Women+ (global). She takes part in exhibitions, develops creative actions, publishes illustrations, lectures about feminist activism and art, sustainable architecture, urban planning and theory. Anna lives in Berlin and Puszczykowo (Poland).

Berena is a second generation migrant and political activist. Her experiences of belonging have never based on concepts of identity. The longing for change and the will to join a struggle that is led by a common vision and the desire to win - that is where she finds friends, peers and comrades.

Daniel is a movement researcher and organizing trainer focused on the problem of workers’ organization, power, and strategy. He has participated in workplace, migrant, and housing struggles in the United States and Germany. Through the Werkstatt für Bewegungsbildung, he facilitates spaces where ordinary people can experiment with toolboxes that help them build rewarding, resilient, and politically effective organizations. As a co-host at Spadework podcast, he helps circulate organizing insight more broadly. He lives in Berlin.

Karam, born and raised in Damascus, Syria before moving with family to Amman, Jordan. Started his academic career as an English language student at the Arab College in Amman. After graduating in 2011, Karam started his Bachelor’s degree at Hashemite University in Zarqa City, Jordan, specializing in literature and cultural studies. Beside studies, he was an active member of the university theatre, which qualified him to play in several international theatre festivals. In 2013, he graduated from Hashemite University and started to work with ActionAid ARI as a Community Mobilizer at the Zataree refugee camp. Currently he is focusing on his on research in Social Anthropology, refugeness, migration after myth and its implications on mental health for new comers.

Tarek is a political scientist, educator, consultant and activist in social, migrant/anti-racist as well as in queer movements. They are currently completing their Master of Arts in Global Studies at Humboldt University in Berlin with support of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Previously, they worked as a community organizer in queer communities in Marburg and studied political sciences at Philipps-University of Marburg. Their focus lies on domestic and social movement policies. Tarek deals with social movements, queer politics, police- and migration/border-regimes from both, an academic and a political intersectional perspective. Such a perspective puts an analysis of the social and material formations of class upfront. They are also engaged with the QTI*BIPOC United collective in Berlin and write for media platforms such as analyse&kritik (ak) and wissenschaft und frieden.

Vincent is a Berlin-based musician, author and activist working at the intersection of art and politics. In recent years, his artistic and political projects have focused in particular on migration, flight, decolonisation, exploitation and resistance, as well as the search for positive visions for a just society in which we can all be different without fear. Vincent is a member of numerous civil society initiatives such as the NSU Tribunal and the Initiative Black People in Germany (ISD-Bund e.V.). His publications include the audio walks "ZURÜCKerzählt" and "Unser Land. Punkt", the theater performance "Eigensinnige Leben" as well as the anti-racist music-pedagogical writing "Africa Bling Bling Hakuna Matata".

Yağmur was born in Izmir, Turkey, and moved to Germany when she was 21 years old, to continue her studies, which she had started in Istanbul. She has been involved in activism for a long time and she was mostly influenced by the Gezi Park demonstrations, which she experienced when she was 18. She worked as a journalist for different media and right now works for a human rights organization and is active at the campaign Deutsche Wohnen und Co. Enteignen, which focuses to expropriate private housing companies in Berlin.

Zeynep was born in Elazığ, Turkey. She ranked 18th in Turkey overall in the university entrance examinations and graduated from BA in English Language Education at Boğaziçi Üniversitesi in Istanbul in 2020. She came to Germany in December 2020 to study and started working at Gorillas in February 2021 as a rider to make ends meet. In order to stop problems such as systematic wage theft, lack of health and safety equipment, as well as racist and sexist harassment, Zeynep organized with other workers in the Gorillas Workers Collective. Currently, she is a member of the newly established Workers’ Council at Gorillas and continues her studies at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena in the department of MA English and American Studies focusing on linguistics.