• Sun 06 10 2019 / 12 pm •
Toward a dirty universalism

The reading group was established as a (self-)educational initiative intending to stimulate thoughtful exchanges on the themes raised by Academy’s program. This season, the reading group continues the discussion that was triggered by the project Perverse Decolonization and explores questions of identity and multiculturalism in the context of emerging nationalisms.

By engaging with texts by Slavoj Žižek, Terry Eagleton, Donna Haraway and Gilles Deleuze, possible forms of a new universalism shall be discussed. The reading group is a self-organized group that meets once a month in an informal atmosphere and is open to anyone interested. Participants are encouraged to give own impulses and propose their own reading material. Depending on the group of participants, reading and discussion will be in English or German.

In this session, the participants will read two texts by activists, curators and educators Georgy Mamedov and Oksana Shatalova, which deal with Soviet science fiction and the theory of ‘queer communism’, among others. Anyone who would like to join the second session is very welcome.


Languages: English | German
Participation is free of charge.
Register at readinggroup@academycologne.org
Venue: Alte Feuerwache (Room 1, Branddirektion), Melchiorstr. 3, 50670 Cologne

Perverse Decolonization is an international research and discussion project addressing the current crisis of postcolonial studies and identity politics and its possible appropriations in new nationalisms emerging on a global scale. It proposes to look closely at how the decolonizing agenda we support is enlisted in reactionary projects, and what new forms of solidarity and common action one might propose to resist these new dangers.

Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.