This article delves into the challenges of conducting activist research with communities labelled as ‘marginalised’ within the confines of neoliberal academia. Through autoethnography and feminist decolonial praxis, we draw from our experiences with Lüvo, a feminist antiracist collective, to illustrate how we navigate these obstacles and integrate our scholarly endeavours with transformative activism. Specifically, we examine three intertwined constraints encountered when working within neoliberal academic structures alongside ‘marginalised’ communities: language, time, and space. After delineating these significant challenges, we propose four methodological and epistemological strategies aimed at surmounting them: mobilising translocal knowledge, establishing autonomous spaces for knowledge production, advocating for decolonial methodologies, and fostering a politics of friendship. These strategies serve to decolonise neoliberal academia from the margins, embodying decolonial feminist praxis both academically and politically.