Meet Our Guest Keynote Speakers
Our confirmed keynote speakers will be presenting in plenary sessions in a variety of formats – from individual keynotes, to panels and rountable conversations. All the speakers have exensive experience engaging in resistance, both as thinkers and through action and community building.Â
John Holloway
Marxist theorist; long-time Zapatista solidarity activist and proponent of global movements for autonomy and social transformation
John Holloway is a Marxist sociologist, political theorist, and Professor Emeritus at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), Mexico. His influential publications include Change the World Without Taking Power, Crack Capitalism and Hope in Hopeless Times, have contributed to key debates on revolution, power, labour, and anti-capitalist politics.
Holloway has been deeply engaged with social movements, such as the Zapatistas, Indigenous, anti-capitalist, and autonomy-based movements that challenge state-centred and party-led models of political change.
Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons
National Council of Elders civil rights leader; former SNCC co-founder and Islamic feminist professor
Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons is a founding member & member of the National Council of Elders, (NCOE) a group of
veteran social justice activists focused on supporting 21st-century movements, fostering nonviolent direct action, and bridging generation gaps. Now Professor Emerita of the University of Florida, she began volunteering in 1962 at the headquarters of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) alongside SNCC Chairperson John Lewis, SNCC Executive Secretary James Forman and others – eventually becoming Spellman College’s representative to the SNCC coordinating committee. Simmons was one of the few female directors of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer projects, and was co-director of the controversial SNCC Atlanta Project, an early grassroots expression of Black Power. By the late 1960s, Simmons had both become a member of the Nation of Islam and a national staff person of the American Friends Service Committee, a position she kept for over twenty years. She also served as a regional coordinator of the National Council of Negro Women, prior to her work at AFSC, treasurer of the National Black Independent Political Party, and an adherent of Sufism; she is still an active member of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship and Mosque. She and her family are the subject of Stayed on Freedom: The Long History of Black Power Through One Family’s Journey (Dan Berger, Basic Books).
Vivian Tatiana Camacho Hinojosa
Quechua physician and traditional healer; former Bolivian Vice Minister of Health, Traditional Medicine, and Interculturality
Vivian Tatiana Camacho Hinojosa (Quechua) is a distinguished Quechua physician, ancestral midwife, and an influential public health advocate from Bolivia. As the former Vice Minister of Traditional Medicine and Interculturality, she has been a pivotal force in shaping policies that recognize and integrate indigenous healing practices into national healthcare frameworks. Her work embodies a deep commitment to decolonizing health and promoting a pluralistic approach to well-being. Dr. Camacho is also a High-Level Commissioner for the Pan American Health Organization, has worked as the Coordinator of Health for the Bolivian Peoples, and has represented the Andean Region in the Latin American Coordination within the World Movement for Peoples’ Health.
Jihad Abdulmumit
Spirit of Mandela Black Liberation Movement organizer; Black Panther former political prisoner
Jihad Abdulmumit is the Honorary Chairperson of the Spirit of Mandela coalition, having served as one of the key organizers of the 2021 International Tribunal on US Human Rights Abuses Against Black, Brown, and Indigenous Peoples. The 2021 Tribunal, held at the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Educational Center in Harlem, New York, and presided over by a panel of nine independent jurists, found the US government guilty of five counts of human rights violations, amounting to ongoing policies making the USA guilty of genocide. Abdulmumit is a community activist, motivational speaker, playwright, and retired health care provider who joined the Black Panther Party at age sixteen and eventually went underground with the Black Liberation Army; he is co-editor, with Matt Meyer and Tomiko Shine, of Guilty of Genocide (Africa World Press, 2026). Jihad was a political prisoner and prisoner of war and served 23 years of his life in prison for his involvement in the Black Liberation Movement. He joined the Black Panther Party at age sixteen and eventually went underground with the Black Liberation Army. He is a member of the Muslim community, the Jama’at of the Sheu Uthman dan Fodio of West Africa, and he lives in Atlanta, Georgia.