Affective Dialogue: Building Transnational Feminist Solidarity in Times of War

This article sheds light on the promises and pitfalls of building feminist solidarity in times of war. By engaging with the empirical material gathered during a peace-building project in response to the war in Ukrainian Donbas (2014–22), I suggest the notion of affective dialogue as a theory and praxis of building relations of solidarity across conflict lines. I draw on two feminist theories of solidarity beyond identity politics—transversalism by Nira Yuval-Davis and affective dissonance by Clare Hemmings. By reading ethnographic material through these two theoretical lenses, I underline their strengths, such as explicit interrogation of social and ideological differences in the process of transversal dialogue and engagement with unpleasant feelings through affective dissonance. Simultaneously, I argue that neither transversal dialogue nor affective dissonance is sufficient on its own for building solidarity in times of war, and the notion of “affective dialogue” suggests how these theoretical approaches can be productively combined in solidarity praxis. While affective dissonance can be a powerful tool to shake people’s ideological and identarian grounds, something that transversal dialogue fails to achieve, the effects of such affective disruption may be short-lived. Therefore, transversal politics requires scrupulousness and consistency to transform affective dissonance into affective solidarity as a change-oriented political and ethical practice of collaborative work and struggle.