Elena Silvestrini (Rome, Italy)

Elena Silvestrini (she/her) is group facilitator and inclusive process designer interested in queer feminist theory and practice. She is based in Rome (Italy) and is the co-founder of the Design Justice Network Mediterranean node.

Elena is the Facilitation and Training Lead at Platoniq Creatividad y Democracia, a Spanish community-centered design organisation, which uses technopolitics: technology for bottom-up political action. Elena focuses on justice-oriented participation methodologies and training implementation. Her work engages with feminist approaches to technology, appropriating tools of oppression for self defence, and power dynamics and values in design process. 

In 2015, Elena started Chayn Italia, a collective project fighting gender based violence through critical engagement with technology, collaborative practices, and capacity building. Elena is a 2021 Fellow at NewNew, running a training project for women’s aid centers on the dual role of tech in domestic abuse.