»The Struggle Is Real« – A Video Portrait of Antje Scharenberg

Antje Scharenberg is a postdoctoral researcher and activist with a PhD from the Media, Communications and Cultural Studies department at Goldsmiths, University of London, currently at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Her thesis – titled Trans-Europa: Agency Beyond Borders in Alter-European Activist Networks – is based on a 4-years-long ethnographic research project conducted with transnational civil society organisations between 2016 and 2020. As an activist and ethnographer Antje has worked with different civil society actors including European Alternatives and Another Europe Is Possible, with whom she campaigned for a progressive Europe during and after the UK’s EU referendum in 2016.

One of the central questions driving her thesis and her wider research is how we can enact agency in times of border-crossing challenges that arise, for instance, in the context of migration, climate change or digital capitalism. Her research interests include activism and social movements, transnationalism, globalization, alternative media, new municipalism, feminism, ethnography and engaged methodologies. Antje’s work has appeared in English and German media, including openDemocracy, Soundings, Political Critique, Enorm and DIE ZEIT and was presented at both public and academic conferences. She is the series editor of Other Europes for Soundings – A Journal of Politics and Culture.