WS: Posthumanist Feminism and Technology

Posthumanism encompasses a broad spectrum of critical perspectives that categorically question classic humanist understandings of the human being. Posthumanist approaches are interested in addressing the categorical relationship between human beings (in their plurality) and “technology” on the one hand, “nature” on the other. “Technology” and “nature, in traditional humanism, have emerged as central categories because they designated the paradigmatically non-human and thus helped specify, though contrast, that which was deemed characteristically human.  In this, posthumanist approaches attempt a different, more organic relationship between human being(s) and the world.

In feminist discourses, such relational approaches have been established for decades, though the focus on analysis is often different in important ways. This workshop seeks to bring into conversation feminist, posthumanist, and feminist-posthumanist approaches to discuss questions of technology in depth.

To allow intensive discussion of these contributions, four texts will be covered in depth. These texts will be suggested and briefly introduced by presenters, and discussed at length by the group. The aim of the workshop is to understand the basic ideas of these critical perspectives, to compare different research interests that correspond with different theoretical approaches, and to critically reflect on the unspoken premises of the arguments under discussion.

To register for this workshop, please send an e-mail to Sonja.Schillings@gcsc.uni-giessen.de

Required Readings:

Donna Haraway: "A Cyborg Manifesto"

Jacques Derrida, Catherine Porter, Philip Lewis: "No Apocalypse, Not Now (Full Speed Ahead, Seven Missiles, Seven Missives)"

Rebekah Sheldon: "Form / Matter / Chora: Object-Oriented Ontology and Feminist New Materialism"

Arthur Kroker: "Body Drift"

If you would like to participate and suggest a text yourself, you are very welcome to contact us under Sonja.Schillings@gcsc.uni-giessen.de