– an international research colloquium

This postgrad and research colloquium brings together participants working in academic, artistic, literary, or journalistic genres. Experimenting with formats that challenge the distinction between those genres is part of our program. Queer, queerness and queering are explored in their interplay, considering their aesthetic and political potential as well as their mundane immediacy.

Taking individual projects as starting point, the colloquium provides an arena for common discussion, exchange, for mutual feedback and inspiration. Controversies are meant to spark our curiosity, sanguinely convinced that tension may turn into understanding and support. Since October 2020, we are meeting online every 6-8 weeks.

If you are interested to join the group, feel free to contact us at mail@queer-institut.de.

Meetings scheduled for 2024:

Wed, 24. July, 4-6 pm (CET)
discussion of Firoodeh Farvadin: The Emergence of Other Feminisms, p. 286 – 295)

Wed, 28 August 4-6 pm (CET)
open discussion on the meaning of “arts” in the colloquium’s title “Queer Arts and Theories”

Wed, 09 October 4-6 pm (CET)
Input by and discussion with Chris Schramm: Transfeminist and queer artivism in contexts of silence, censorship, and violence

Thu, 21 November 4-6 pm (CET)
Input by and discussion with Daniel Amorós aka D Loves The Sodomites:
“I’m going to talk about the queer art mainly produced in Spain during the civil war, specifically about those who had to go into exile, and the transcendence to recent times of Francoism persecution, tortures, and assassinations of intellectuals and artists. Thus, loads of non-binary and politicized artists feel the urge to escape from Spain due to institutional and symbolic violence and the lack of freedom of speech after the rise of far-right and fascist ideologies. I’ll illustrate the speech with images and little excerpts through a visual presentation (PWP).”

Please register at least one week in advance. If there are less than three people registered, the event will be canceled. 

Currently active participants:

Aimen Siddiqui (Gender Studies scholar and prospective PhD candidate, University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, with particular interest in strategies that can mitigate victimization)
Alexandre Martins (PhD candidate Freie Universität Berlin, researching on antiqueer violence, queer social movements and decolonial queer theories)
Anna T. (textual artist, lecturer, και θεωρητικιά, author of Opacity – Minority – Improvisation)
Antke Antek Engel (philosopher who works on the politics of desire)
Daniel Amorós aka D Loves The Sodomites (1990, Spain) is an artist, university teacher, researcher, and PhD student in Art History at the National Distance Education University, whose work deepens in queer art narratives.
Heedrinaa Deka (independent researcher with focus on queer sexualities)
Ipek Sahinler (researcher and doctoral student who works on queer(ing) narratives from Turkish and Hispanic literatures )
Kristina Eichel (PhD in psychology interested in topics of mindfulness, empathy, and compassion, climate justice activists)
Mathias Klitgård (PhD candidate University of Stavanger, queer theory and new and historical materialisms)
Mika Upton (King’s College London, researcher on LGBTQI+ activism regarding HIV and health issues)

Former or dormant participants:

Babak Salimizadeh (writer, poet and translator, who works on queer theory, literature, aesthetics and politics)
Christina Kkona (philosopher who works on ‘The Unexpected: toward a politics and aesthetics of discontinuity‘)
Cristina Veiga Judar (novelist, screenwriter, curator and journalist who works on lgbti and trans / non-binary representation on contemporary literature)
Ferdiansyah Thajib
Hala Maurice
Loren Britton
Saboura M. Naqshband (researcher and doctoral student who works on (anti-Muslim) racism, Muslim feminism and religion, gender and sexuality)

> Bios

Past meetings:

Wed 18 Jan 16-18 (CET)
Wed 08 March 14-16 (CET)
Fr 12 May 16-18 (CET)
Wed 28 June 14-16 (CET)
Wed 23 August 16-18 (CET)
Fr 06 October 14-16 (CET)
Wed 22 November 14-16 (CET)