Abstract
This paper introduces the tentacular-feminine-body as an embodied methodology for exploring archives as relational constituted in the encounters between citizen and city. Rooted in Black/endarkened feminist thought and developed through an interdisciplinary research partnership in dance and urban studies, tentacular-feminine-body resists hegemonic framings of place-making that erase or distort marginalized perspectives. Rather than treating archive as a static repository, we conceive of it as a living process of sensation, memory, and encounter, in which the city is forever entangled with the bodies that move through it and the grammars that shape it. Drawing on dance choreographic practices as a tool of sensorial and situated inquiry, we position the tentacular-feminine-body as a threshold through which research questions arise. Our findings articulate three areas of inquiry: the grammar of the city, the feminine of the city, and the city archivist. By emphasizing dynamism, plurality, and interconnectedness, we suggest that the tentacular-feminine-body provides a methodology through which design can be informed by collaborative, relational archives of citizen–city life
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APA 7th edition
In-text citation: (Akinleye & Karimnia, 2026)
Reference: Akinleye, A., & Karimnia, E. (2026). Tentacular-feminine-body as city archivist: An interdisciplinary methodology across dance and urban planning.
Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 10(2), Article 27.
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/19075
AMA 10th edition
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Akinleye A, Karimnia E. Tentacular-feminine-body as city archivist: An interdisciplinary methodology across dance and urban planning.
Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics. 2026;10(2), 27.
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/19075
Chicago
In-text citation: (Akinleye and Karimnia, 2026)
Reference: Akinleye, Adesola, and Elahe Karimnia. "Tentacular-feminine-body as city archivist: An interdisciplinary methodology across dance and urban planning".
Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics 2026 10 no. 2 (2026): 27.
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/19075
Harvard
In-text citation: (Akinleye and Karimnia, 2026)
Reference: Akinleye, A., and Karimnia, E. (2026). Tentacular-feminine-body as city archivist: An interdisciplinary methodology across dance and urban planning.
Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 10(2), 27.
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/19075
MLA
In-text citation: (Akinleye and Karimnia, 2026)
Reference: Akinleye, Adesola et al. "Tentacular-feminine-body as city archivist: An interdisciplinary methodology across dance and urban planning".
Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, vol. 10, no. 2, 2026, 27.
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/19075
Vancouver
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Akinleye A, Karimnia E. Tentacular-feminine-body as city archivist: An interdisciplinary methodology across dance and urban planning. Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics. 2026;10(2):27.
https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/19075