Within the Theoretical Fiesta programme
The fragility and uncertainty of life epistemologies, as well as the fragility of our (post-)human relationships, demand a new understanding that can make uncertainty, ambivalence, and contradictions comprehensible and tolerable. A politics of the strong, which is typified by cold statistics and war metaphors, is unlikely to prove an effective means of ensuring our collective survival. It would be prudent to explore avenues for cultivating competencies and reflexes that sustain our capacity for solidarity, empathy, and care, as well as our ability to perceive the ‘other’ and empathize with their suffering. In accordance with the argument put forth by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (2012), I posit that it is imperative to cultivate and hone our ethical reflexes and aesthetic sensibilities.
The evolution of queer politics and theories over decades has demonstrated that knowledge and political practices cannot be conceived of as disembodied entities. The central focus of queer politics and theories is not merely any bodies, but rather those bodies that have been historically and persistently subjected to shame, failure, sin, and illness. These bodies offer a distinctive lens through which to comprehend fragility.
In the first part of the event, theses on fragility will be presented and discussed. In the second part, we will use the knowledge inscribed in the body to counter the bleakness of life and imagine a (fragile) future.
To participate, you can apply by completing the following form. Applications will be open untill full capacity (20).
* As a way of providing a safe space of uninterrupted dialogue, the location of Maria do Mar Castro Varela’s lecture is disclosed only to the participants.
María do Mar Castro Varela is Professor of Pedagogy and Social Work at the Alice Salomon University for Applied Science in Berlin, and holds a double degree in Psychology and Pedagogy and a PhD in Political Science. Her research interests lie in Postcolonial Theory, Queer Studies, Ethics and Aesthetics.
Amongst others she was awarded in 2021/22 the Ustinov Visiting Professorship at the University of Vienna and in 2023 the Thomas Mann Fellowship in Los Angeles.
She has held visiting fellowships: Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna; Institute for International Law and the Humanities, The University of Melbourne, Australia; University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain; Pusan National University, South Korea.
Selected publications in German include: Untimely Utopias. Migrant Women between Self-Invention and Learned Hope, (2007); Post/pandemic life: A new theory of fragility (co-authored, 2021); Friendship. Triad of a political practice (co-authored, 2023).
María do Mar Castro Varela is the founder of the bildungsLab* in Berlin (www.bildungslab.net) and chair of the Berlin Institute for Contrapunctual Social Analysis (BIKA).