11.12.25, 15:45, Sofie Avery, Sita Mohabir, Elly Van Eeghem, Safe(r) Spaces?

This afternoon event is part of the Festival of Equality and is a collaboration between deBuren and Studium Generale. Tickets are available via the Festival of Equality website from Tuesday 14/10. Students can attend free of charge by reserving a student ticket.

Sita Mohabir, Sofie Avery, and Elly Van Eeghem will examine the concept of safe(r) spaces in three mini-keynotes: are they limiting or liberating, and are they even possible?

Sita Mohabir examines how the intersections of disability, ethnicity, and gender determine who is included and who is excluded within organizations. Her keynote speech focuses on the question of what a ‘safe space’ can mean for groups that often have less opportunity to feel truly safe and heard. She discusses the conditions and pitfalls of creating such spaces. At the same time, she emphasizes that differences and inequality also exist within marginalized groups, where people can experience privileges as forms of exclusion at the same time — and she invites us to take a critical look at our own role in creating more inclusive spaces.

Sofie Avery takes aim at the university as a safe space. In recent years, our media have reported on testimonies of transgressive behavior and toxic leadership in the academic world, resulting in public outrage. In attempts to avoid damage to their image, universities repeatedly miss the mark. How can we bring about the necessary cultural change, and why is mandatory bystander training not enough?

Elly Van Eeghem examines how we experience the public spaces of the city where we live, work, pass through, and live as (un)safe. How do we deal with the difference between actual safety issues in the city and people's feelings of insecurity? She takes us to various cities where she has worked in recent years to build new places together with residents, thereby changing the image and perception of a square, street, bridge, park, or parking lot.

The discussion will be moderated by Anneleen Lemmens, coordinator of Engagement Arts, an organization dedicated to tackling sexism, abuse of power, and inappropriate behavior in the broader cultural sector.

• Sita Mohabir is passionate about sustainable systemic change, in which no one has to disappear in order to belong. Through her company Equitable Inclusion, she supports organizations in exposing and breaking through structural mechanisms of exclusion — at the intersection of ableism, racism, sexism, inaccessibility, and language. With accessible training courses, workshops, and policy advice, she makes it tangible how exclusion persists in systems, language, and daily practice, and encourages change based on knowledge, emotion, and collective responsibility. She combines strategic advice with experiential knowledge and makes room for perspectives that are often missing. Her interventions invite reflection, shift, and action — always with the question: Who decides? For whom is this space truly safe? Who is still being asked to adapt? And who is still missing?
• Sofie Avery is a philosopher, activist, and amateur sea dog. Sofie is particularly interested in power differences and the question of how institutions should deal with them. Sofie conducts research at the University of Antwerp and Ghent University on sexually transgressive behavior in academia. Sofie's first book, Over de Schreef: macht en grenzen aan de universiteit (Beyond the Line: Power and Boundaries at University), was published in February 2025 by Letterwerk.
• Elly Van Eeghem works as an artist exploring the meaning, design, and use of our urbanized environment. Her work consists of videos, photographs, texts, actions, and installations in public spaces. She creates both individual work and collective projects with other creators or residents of a neighborhood, city, or village. Her long-term project, (Dis)placed Interventions, was created during a city residency at Kunstencentrum VierNulVier and a doctorate in the arts at KASK & Conservatorium, where she teaches. This led to CAMPUSatelier, where Elly is creating various collective projects between 2021 and 2024.
• Anneleen Lemmens studied Literature and Theater Studies at the universities of Ghent and Antwerp and then followed the programme Drama – Directing at RITCS in Brussels. Since then, she has been primarily active as coordinator of Engagement Arts, an organization dedicated to tackling sexism, abuse of power, and inappropriate behavior in the broader cultural sector. In this context, Anneleen completed the programme to become a confidential advisor and immersed herself in prevention by giving lectures and workshops at art schools and institutions.

This lecture will be held in Dutch.

This lecture will take place in the Theaterzaal at Vooruit. Work is currently underway at Vooruit to improve accessibility. During the work, the elevator to the theater will remain accessible. The entrance to the festival will be moved to the concert hall, via Parijsberg. Enter the Parijsberg via Lammerstraat and walk the first part of the way to the loading and unloading area. There will also be signage here. Here you will find a notice from VIERNULVIER with the telephone number of the person in charge. (they/them) will come and collect you there with the elevator and take you to the level of the concert hall.

The hall is accessible to wheelchair users, accompanied by a VIERNULVIER employee. Wheelchair spaces are available in rows 1 and 17 of the stalls. There is an accessible toilet nearby. A live sign language interpreter will be provided for this lecture. If you have any further questions about accessibility facilities, please contact the organization: anais.vanertvelde@hogent.be