Rhizome Fellowship Cohort 2025
We are thrilled to announce the 2025 Rhizome Fellowship cohort! We received nearly 200 applications from over 45 countries for only 21 seats, making the selection process both exciting and incredibly difficult. With so many amazing projects and organizations in the applicant pool, our selection considered diversity of territories globally and an equal distribution of projects across the 5 Pathways for Regenerative Futures. Each application represented inspiring work toward narrative-led systems change, and we were moved by the depth of commitment and innovation demonstrated by applicants worldwide.
We are proud to announce the 2025 Fellowship program participants:
Land Back to Right Relationship
- Hajar Tazi and Malaury Kuhorn from Morocco are developing an 8-month Synergia Fellowship connecting changemakers to explore regenerative, place-based political economies.
- Tatiana Amor and Martín Zepeda from Mexico are elevating Fondo Defensores’ narrative to provide resources to Indigenous defender’s territories and communities.
- Ivan Oksah Sawyer García and Priscila Tapojara from Brazil/Mexico are amplifying Indigenous solutions through a comprehensive Amazon narrative intervention strategy.
- Susan Misra and Marcela Torres from the United States are Weaving Liberation For All Beings, reimagining human relationships with the more-than-human world.
Healing the Spirit, Healing the Earth
- Mahan Aslam and Tilyan Aslam from Pakistan are creating healing-centered spaces for Baloch women blending traditional practices with modern mental health approaches.
- Dexter Komakaru and Jaden Taylor from Turtle Island are creating indigenous storytelling that explores grief as regenerative force for reconnection to land and spirit.
- Zon Edwards-Antoine and Tricia Antoine from Trinidad and Tobago are expanding local consciousness around culture, history, and landscape through Shift TT project.
- Mary Thanissara and Andrés González from United States are reframing Buddhist practice from individual coping to catalyst for collective liberation.
- Karina Turtzo and Azadeh Momenghalibaf from Costa Rica/Canada are cultivating leaders through collective, ecological, and decolonial lenses for post-capitalist futures.
Economies of Regeneration
- Cynthia Wangechi Ng’ang’a and Kennedy Musembi from Kenya are remodeling freedom for queer Africans through gift economy markets, storytelling, and documentation.
- Kim Kamaluʻokeakua Moa and Keoni Lee from Hawaiʻi are transforming narratives around Hawai’i’s just transition to regenerative ʻĀina Aloha economy.
- Sterling Cunio and Maria Stamas from the United States are building Ubuntu Commons Initiative for commons-based cultures and economies in balance with Mother Earth.
- Nicolas Petit and Abigail Stein from Belgium are creating food storytelling festivals to shift dominant narratives from extractive to regenerative food systems.
Restoring Justice, Restoring Life
- Bianca Van Rooi and Ling Shephard from South Africa are creating !’Okua Hack recipe book and digital archive documenting intergenerational knowledge across Africa.
- Sergiu Zorger and Lu from Germany/Romania are developing analysis and tools for Eastern European social movements to challenge far-right narratives.
- Antonela Ferraro and Laura Sosa Micheli from Argentina are bringing eco-transfeminist approach to forest fires management through Fuegas collective.
- Lucas Canavarro and Nana Orlandi from Brazil are challenging colonial narratives through cultural encounters in Guanabara Bay region.
Bioregional Community Governance
- Sarah Queblatin and Timothy Salomon from Philippines are developing Restore-Restory project protecting biocultural heritage at risk from climate change.
- Marta Casilda Sala Rifà and Sergi Selvas from Spain are co-creating powerful narrative for Miceli as a Bioregional Learning Centre in rural Catalonia.
- Abdul Semakula and Isaac Daniel Munaaba from Uganda are restoring Nalubaaga wetlands while replacing colonial land ownership with Ubuntu-based collective stewardship.
- Esther Molina Olivencia and Deborah Benham from an International Network are developing a refreshed narrative for the 20-year-old Transition movement beyond peak oil framing.
We extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who applied and to all who continue to be part of this growing Rhizome community. Your work is vital, and we are honored to support the collective journey toward regenerative futures through narrative-led systems change.
2025: Pathways to Regenerative Futures
Are you a narrative practitioner, artist, academic, journalist, storyteller, or activist working at the intersection of reimagining cultural narratives and systems change? Do you believe in the power of narratives to challenge dominant paradigms and co-create regenerative futures?
The Rhizome Fellowship 2025 will offer a free self-study process:
🌱 Access to the Self-Study Curriculum
Each month we’ll share the theme and content of the Rhizome learning arc, allowing you to explore the same module as the fellows.
🌀 Open Monthly Drop-In Space
Once a month, we’ll host an open Zoom room where one of the Rhizome team will be present to offer support, reflections, or answer any questions you have about the learning materials or your own process.
Are you a narrative practitioner, artist, academic, journalist, storyteller, or activist working at the intersection of reimagining cultural narratives and systems change? Do you believe in the power of narratives to challenge dominant paradigms and co-create regenerative futures?
The Rhizome Fellowship is designed to equip you with tools and accompany you through a process of narrative-led systems change. Rooted in the Culture Hack Method, this fellowship provides a structured yet experimental space to develop and prototype narrative interventions that disrupt extractive models and seed regenerative futures.
Open Session 01: Narratives for Systems Change
Open Session 02: Pathways for Regenerative Futures
Pathways
This year’s fellowship is centered around Pathways to Regenerative Futures. These pathways emerged from a narrative research series Beyond the Carbon Fixation: Pathways to Regenerative Futures that set out to find pathways to liberate land, waters, ecosystems, and communities from the enclosures of capitalism and colonialism.
Through this research we found that beyond the carbon-centered approaches to the climate crisis limited by reductionist metrics and market-driven solutions are alternate pathways already embodied by living examples. These pathways, when interwoven, can serve as a navigational tool for systems change.
The Pathways to Regenerative Futures are:
🌿 Restoring Justice, Restoring Life – This pathway emphasizes the inseparable connection between ecological restoration and social justice. Addressing colonial and capitalist exploitation is necessary for healing ecosystems.
💰 Economies of Regeneration – Moving away from extractive economies toward regenerative, circular models that prioritize community resilience and ecological wellbeing.
🌍 Land Back to Right Relationship – Advocating for collective ownership models, like Community Land Trusts, to return land to the stewardship of communities rather than corporations.
🏡 Bioregional Community Governance – Promoting decentralized, participatory governance structures that empower communities to manage their resources and environments in ways that align with ecological limits.
🌀 Healing the Spirit, Healing the Earth – Reconnecting with spiritual and cultural practices that honor the Earth and challenge the disconnection and alienation that drives exploitation.
We will invite fellows and projects that align with the five pathways to apply for the fellowship. There is no cost for participating in this program. Fellows will receive training on narrative change methodology, tools, guidance and support from practitioners and a community of shared practice. The aim of this fellowship is to learn the methodology and launch a hack by the end of our time together in November 2025. The fellowship should support and be integrated into your existing work or activism. Fellows must apply as a collective or organization with at least two participants.
Fellowship
Phase 1: Culture hacking 101 – Everyone is Welcome
April 18 & May 2, 2025
Before the fellowship selection in late May, we invite anyone interested in learning about narrative-led systems change to join our Introductory Sessions. These open sessions will explore:
📌 Narratives for Systems Change & Culture Hacking
📌 Pathways to Regenerative Futures & Rhizome Fellowship
🔹 Dates: 18 April & 2nd May
🔹 Format: Two 90-minute online sessions
🔹 Who Can Join? Anyone interested in narrative change, storytelling, and systemic transformation
If you are considering applying for the full Rhizome Fellowship, we require that you attend these two sessions and complete a Narrative Project Proposal. Alternatively, you may attend these sessions and decide not to apply for the full fellowship – the introductory sessions are open to anyone eager to explore these themes and our method.
Phase 2: Project Submission & Selection Process
May 2 – June 6, 2025
At the end of the Introductory Sessions, those who wish to apply for the Rhizome Fellowship will be invited to submit a Narrative Project Proposal.
🔹 What are we looking for?
✔ A project that aligns with one of the Pathways to Regenerative Futures
✔ A clear connection to the applicant’s ongoing work or activism in systems change
✔ A commitment to developing the project through the Culture Hack Method
✔ One leading and one supporting person collaborating in the project
✔ A project that has the potential for real-world narrative impact
🔹 Timeline:
📅 Project Submission Period: May 2 – May 16, 2025
📅 Shortlist Candidates Interviewed: May 30 – May 31, 2025
📅 Final Selection (15 Projects Announced): June 6, 2025
The selected fellows will then move into the full Rhizome Fellowship program, where they will receive mentorship, training, and collaborative support to develop their narrative projects into impactful interventions.
What You Can Expect from the Fellowship
✔ 8-month collaborative process – Online and in-person sessions exploring narrative-led systems change
✔ Access to Culture Hack methodology & tools – Learn how to design and execute narrative interventions
✔ Mentorship & peer exchange – Join a global cohort of storytellers, organizers, and researchers
✔ Online Sessions every two weeks – Thursdays 10AM PST (California) – 11AM CST (Mexico City) – 6PM BST (London) – 8PM EEST (Gaza)
✔ Project incubation – Develop a narrative hack with a direct impact in your community
✔ In-person gathering – Meet fellows and co-create collective strategies in Costa Rica
What we expect from you
Full participation and aligned energy with the fellowship – there is no financial cost to participate, instead we ask for your focused energy and attention during the fellowship and through the final phase of your narrative hack.
If you are applying for the fellowship, check in with yourself to make sure you have the capacity and desire to be present and engaged at all zoom sessions and for the in-person gathering in Costa Rica, September 15-21, 2025. Each seat in the fellowship is precious. We dedicate energy and resources into each participant and ask that, in reciprocity, you fully commit to the process.
Who Should Apply?
🔹 Artists, media-makers, journalists, and researchers working in narrative change
🔹 Community organizers and activists embedding narrative strategy into their work
🔹 Teams already working on a narrative initiative
🔹 Those ready to challenge colonial worldviews and cultivate regenerative narratives
🔹 Applicants from diverse backgrounds committed to deep collaboration
Fellowship Timeline
📅 Introductory Sessions (Open to All): April 18 – May 2, 2025
📅 Project Submission & Selection: May 2 – June 6, 2025
📅 Fellowship Begins (Online Sessions): June 13, 2025
📅 In-Person Gathering in Costa Rica: September 15 – September 21 2025
📅 Hacking & Implementation: October–November 2025
📅 Final Reporting: December 2025
Selected fellows will receive access to resources, mentorship, and a global support network. One representative per project will travel to join the in-person gathering in Costa Rica. The intro and fellowship calls will happen every two weeks on Thursdays at 11am CST – Mexico City/Costa Rica.
The Rhizome is a sponsored fellowship – your project will receive a scholarship for 8 months with learning sessions, travel allowance, personal advisory and access to tools and methodology. You will not receive a personal stipend.
Together, we Rhizome.