Porpora Marcasciano | Gender, culture, and politics: from personal experience to collective reflection

Sconfinare Festival 2025 OLTRE IL MURO | SATURDAY, 11 OCTOBER | 3:30 p.m.

What do bodies that challenge norms, cross gender boundaries, and assert their existence as a political act tell us? Starting from her own personal history, Porpora Marcasciano—activist, sociologist, and historical figure of the LGBTQIA+ movement—guides us in a profound reflection on identity, rights, freedom, and social transformation. In an era marked by tension between progressive forces and conservative tendencies, her critical and radical perspective opens up spaces for awareness and questions us about the future of our society and, more generally, of the planet. A meeting dedicated to the body as a place of memory and conflict, but also as a horizon of possibility and resistance; a necessary dialogue on the value of human dignity, the struggle for self-determination, and strategies for emancipation.

The conference will be moderated by Daniela Fabello, journalist.

Porpora Marcasciano is an activist, sociologist, and writer. A historic figure in the Italian LGBTQIA+ movement, she has chronicled decades of struggles through a transfeminist and libertarian perspective. She is the founder and honorary president of MIT – Movimento Identità Trans (Trans Identity Movement). Among her most recent publications are: Favolose narranti. Storie di transessuali (Maninìfestolibri, 2008) and L’Aurora delletrans cattive. Storie, sguardi e vissuti della mia generazionetransgender (Ed. Alegre, 2018). In 2016, she receivedthe Human Rights Defender award from Amnesty International, and in 2021, the UN included her in its list of the 7 leading trans activists in the world. She has been nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.