Susan Holland-Muter

Susan Holland-Muter died before her arrival at NIAS. We are deeply saddened by her passing. († 2025 )

In Loving Memory of Susan Holland-Muter

It is with heavy hearts that we mark the sudden passing of Susan Holland-Muter — feminist scholar, activist, lesbian, and deeply beloved comrade in both academic and queer activist circles across South Africa.

Susan was never just a thinker — she was a builder, a disruptor, a weaver of care. She was also one of those rare white lesbian feminists who was deeply conscious of her own positionality and privilege, and whose praxis reflected that consciousness with humility and integrity — especially in a context where Black lesbian and trans women continue to bear the brunt of structural and intimate violence.

Though Triangle Project's formal collaboration with her was last in 2016, Susan kept showing up — in activist meetings, in feminist dialogues, in random unplanned restaurant sightings, and in those huge, unforgettable hugs. Some of us still smile when remembering her ever-enthusiastic pitches about “erotic justice” and those moments she’d burst out laughing at terms like “digital sex” — cheekily clarifying, "you know, finger fucking." She had that rare gift: to hold the political and the playful, the serious and the irreverent, all in one breath.

Her written work — including her contributions to Queering Cape Town and her bold call in Outside the Safety Zone: An Agenda for Research on Violence Against Lesbian and Nonconforming Women in South Africa — continues to resonate in our movements. Susan reminded us that our politics must stay rooted in lived realities — in bodies, in desires, in grief, in joy. She challenged us to think critically, to feel deeply, and to never lose sight of love and laughter as a radical force.

To Solange, and all of Susan’s loved ones — we hold you in our hearts and in our shared grief.