GCSC Keynote Lecture: "Notes for Planetary Bodies: Black Studies and Critical Whiteness Praxis in Europe" with Prof. Ben Spatz (University of Birmingham)
- https://www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns/veranstaltungen/vortraege/gcsc-keynote-lecture-notes-for-planetary-bodies-black-studies-and-critical-whiteness-praxis-in-europe-with-prof-ben-spatz-university-of-birmingham
- GCSC Keynote Lecture: "Notes for Planetary Bodies: Black Studies and Critical Whiteness Praxis in Europe" with Prof. Ben Spatz (University of Birmingham)
- 2026-04-28T16:00:00+02:00
- 2026-04-28T18:00:00+02:00
28.04.2026 von 16:00 bis 18:00 (Europe/Berlin / UTC200)
Phil II, Karl-Glöckner-Str. 21E. R207 and online
Importance note: our today´s Keynote will take place at Phil II, Karl-Glöckner-Str. 21E. R207!
Organized by: Emerging Research Topic Group "Interfaces of the Study of Culture and Life Sciences"
This presentation grapples with the increasingly prevalent concept of the planetary, foregrounding embodiment from a queer critical race perspective. Advancing critical black studies as an essential contemporary theoretical project and robust “critique of Western Civilisation” (Cedric Robinson), I argue that it will not be possible to envision the planetary — as distinct from the global and the international — without that field’s serious account of enslavement, colonialism, and racialisation as foundational to modernity. I offer notes toward thinking and enacting our own bodies in planetary ways, especially when we are operating within and through the predominantly white institutions of europe, such as its universities. These suggestions are drawn from my critical research on embodied knowledge, with a focus on the complex relations among blackness, whiteness, jewishness, and indigeneity. The presentation will be multimodal and experimental, addressing topics that may include: white writing; research as ceremony; critical audiovisual methods; and decolonising jewishness. I aim to provoke and inspire new experiments in the forms of academic and para-academic praxis.
//Ben Spatz (they/he) is an interdisciplinary scholar-practitioner working at the intersections of artistic research and critical theories of embodiment and identity. They are the author of several books, including What a Body Can Do (2015) and Race and the Forms of Knowledge (2024), and founding editor of the videographic Journal of Embodied Research. Ben is currently Assistant Professor in Creative Practice at the University of Birmingham, as well as Docent in Artistic Research at Uniarts Helsinki and Creative Director at EcoGPX Limited. Their ongoing “cryptojudaica” project explores decolonial jewishness through writing, performance, and video. For more information, please visit: https://urbanresearchtheater.com/
Discussants:
Frederic Hanusch (Professor of Planetary Change and Politics, Justus Liebig University Giessen)
Bojana Kunst (Professor in Dance Studies with a Focus on Choreography and Performance, Institute of Applied Theatre Studies, Justus Liebig University Giessen)