Johanna Pitetti-Heil’s lecture interrogates the concepts of nature and culture in early US American modern dance. Tracing the discourse that modern dancers established regarding the liberation of women’s bodies through moving naturally, the lecture focuses on the writing and training practices of Isadora Duncan: while Duncan discursively naturalized bodies and their movements, she also participated in a technicalization of training methods. Duncan deployed her own understanding of nature and culture to train women’s bodies so that they would be able to express themselves. Duncan’s own dance-making was steeped in what she might have called Bolshevik-yet-Democratic ideas of equality, but her history of modern dance’s liberation of moving bodies also needs to be contextualized in the light of modernist eugenicist discourses on the body: these have to be acknowledged in the practice of gymnastics as much as in the genre-specific discussions of modern dance and its discourses on what essentialized white and racialized Black dancers’ bodies were allowed and expected to perform on stage. Whereas some writing on dance of the period is explicitly racist and racialization, reading early US American dance criticism and Isadora Duncan’s writings via the nature/culture debate makes visible the more tacit ways in which essentializing, racializing, and racist discourses shaped modernist dance practices and dance criticism alike.

https://www.angl.hu-berlin.de/research/conferences/dubois-lectures

Paper Title: “Becoming-Body” as “Worlding” in “Forcetimespace”: Dance (Studies) as a Way of Knowing in American Studies

https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/congress/making-sense-of-america/

Paper Title: Leaving ‘Venus Urania at her feet’: Margaret Fuller’s Mesmeric Recoveries of Health

https://thoreausociety.org/news/annual-gathering/ 

Current Book Projects

1. Becoming-Body: Practices of Freedom and Technologies of the Self in American Modern Dance

Book project based on Habilitation manuscript.

Becoming-Body: Practices of Freedom and Technologies of the Self in American Modern Dance considers American modern dance as a cultural practice in the context of the larger American history of ideas. Exploring links between modern dance technique and American philosophical discourses including transcendentalism, pragmatism, and new materialist philosophy, the project contributes to the cultural history of American dance, offers an expanded account of the relationship of physical culture to philosophical discourses in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and outlines a new materialist theory of subject formation grounded in an analysis of the identity-shaping potential of physical experiences and their discursive negotiation.

2. Materialist Transcendentalism

New book project. 

Forthcoming publication (Feb. 2025): “From Animal Magnetism to Materialist Transcendentalism: Margaret Fuller on Fanny Elssler.” The Articulate Body: Dance and Science in the Long Nineteenth Century. Ed. Lynn Matluck Brooks, Sariel Golomb, and Garth Grimball. Gainesville: UP of Florida

Monograph

2016    Walking the Möbius Strip: An Inquiry into Knowing in Richard Powers’s Fiction. Heidelberg: Winter, 2016.

Journal Articles

2022    “Social Choreography and Poetry during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Poetics and Politics of Distanced Movements.” Amerikastudien / American Studies 67.4 (2022): 503-20. https://doi.org/10.33675/AMST/2022/4/10

2022    “From (Sexual) Difference to Diversity: On Categories of Critique.” WiN: The EAAS Women’s Network Journal 3 (2022): n.pag. http://women.eaas.eu/win-the-eaas-womens-network-journal-issue-3/

2022    "AI from Sci-Fi to Soul Machines: (Re-)Configuring Empathy between Bodies, Knowledge, and Power.” Artificial Intelligence and Human Enhancement. Ed. Waldemar Zacharasiewicz. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022. 287-307.https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110770216-016

2020    With Ingrid Gessner, Izabella Kimak, and Elisabetta Marino. “Introduction: Feminism and Technoscience.” WiN: The EAAS Women’s Network Journal. 2 (2020). Web. 

2019    “With and Beyond Borders: Towards a Posthumanist American Studies.” Forum: Amerikastudien; or, American Studies in Germany. J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists 7.2 (Fall 2019): 343-48. https://doi.org/10.1353/jnc.2019.0009

2019    “Dancing Contact Improvisation with Luce Irigaray: Intra-Action in Elemental Passions.” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 34.3 (Summer 2019): 485-506. https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12479

2016    “Exercises in Discipline and Freedom? The Graham Technique.” Dance Chronicle 39.2 (2016): 123-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/01472526.2016.1183184

2010    “The Purloined Chamber: A Lacanian Reading of Richard Powers’s Plowing the Dark.” COPAS:Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies 11 (2010): n.pag. Ed. Torsten Kathke and Sascha Pöhlmann. Web.

Book Chapters

Forthcoming   “Gender and Diversity Studies.” Handbook of Interdisciplinarity: Paradigms and Practices in Literary and Cultural Studies. Ed. Nadine Böhm-Schnitker and Marcus Hartner. Berlin and Boston: de Gruyter (planned for 2024).

Forthcoming     “Memoirs of Hunger between Constraint and Liberation.” Controlling Bodies, Constructing Minds: Feminist Identity Politics in the Biomedical Age [working title]. Ed. Johanna Pitetti-Heil and Anna Thiemann. Frankfurt: Peter Lang (planned for 2024/2025).

Forthcoming     “Posthumanismus.” Geschlechterforschung Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Praxis. Ed. Carmen Birkle, Christl M. Maier, Susanne Maurer, and Bettina Wuttig. Baden Baden: NOMOS (planned for 2025).

2025     “From Animal Magnetism to Materialist Transcendentalism: Margaret Fuller on Fanny Elssler.” The Articulate Body: Dance and Science in the Long Nineteenth Century. Ed. Lynn Matluck Brooks, Sariel Golomb, and Garth Grimball. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 2025. 212-30.

2022    “AI from Sci-Fi to Soul Machines: (Re-)Configuring Empathy between Bodies, Knowledge, and Power.” Artificial Intelligence and Human Enhancement. Ed. Waldemar Zacharasiewicz. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022. 287-307.https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110770216-016

2018    “Between Organic Movement and Technique: Practicing Self-Care and Forging Subjectivities in American Modern Dance.” Modernities and Modernization in North America. Ed. Ruth Mayer and Ilka Brasch. Heidelberg: Winter. 2018. 163–86.

2018    “Practicing Graham: Becoming-Body between Counts and Spaces.” Verkörperte Heterotopien: Zur Materialität und [Un-]Ordnung ganz anderer Räume. Ed. Lea Spahn, Jasmin Scholle, Susanne Maurer, and Bettina Wuttig. Bielefeld: transcript, 2018. 43–55.

2016    “‘Of No Woman Born’ und doch des Herren Knecht*In?: C.L. Moores ‘No Woman Born’ und Richard Powers’ Galatea 2.2.” Feminismus und Freiheit: Geschlechterkritische Neuaneignung eines umkämpftenBegriffs. Ed. Barbara Grubner, Carmen Birkle, and Annette Henninger. Sulzbach: Ulrike Helmer Verlag, 2016. 319–37. Print.

2013    “Embedding Richard Powers’s The Echo Maker in Narrative Medicine: Narrativity, Delusions, and the (De-)Construction of Unified Minds.” Communicating Disease: Cultural Representation of American Medicine. Ed. Carmen Birkle and Johanna Heil. Heidelberg: Winter, 2013. 387–411. Print.

2012    “Narrative Strands, Lacanian Orders, and the Borromean Knot. Reading Richard Powers’s Plowing the Dark.” Ideas of Order: Narrative Patterns in the Novels of Richard Powers. Ed. Antje Kley and Jan Kucharzewski. Heidelberg: Winter, 2012. 143–73. Print.

2011    “Marital Law and Women’s Rights in Early Christian Ireland.” Allerlei Keltisches: Studien zu Ehren Erich Poppes. Studies in Honour of Erich Poppe. Ed. Franziska Bock, Dagmar Bronner, and Dagmar Schlüter. Berlin: curach bhán publications, 2011. 61–77. Print.

Interview

2022    “Black Feminism on the Edge: A Conversation between Jennifer C. Nash and Samantha Pinto.” Conversation facilitated by Ingrid Gessner and Johanna Pitetti-Heil. WiN: The EAAS Women’s Network Journal 3 (2022): n.pag. http://women.eaas.eu/win-the-eaas-womens-network-journal-issue-3/

Edited Collections and Special Issues

2020    WiN: The EAAS Women’s Network Journal. 2 (2020). Ed. Ingrid Gessner, Johanna Heil, Izabella Kimak, and Elisabetta Marino. Feminism and Technoscience. Web.

2013    Communicating Disease: Cultural Representation of American Medicine. Ed. Carmen Birkle and Johanna Heil. Heidelberg: Winter, 2013.

2013    COPAS: Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies 14 (2013). Guest ed. Britta Bein, Johanna Heil, Janina Rojek, and Silke Schmidt. Web.

Editorial Work

General Editor of

gender forum (with Judith Rauscher and Susanne Gruß)

WIN: The EAAS Women's Network Journal (with Christen "ChrisAnn" Bryson, Marie Dücker, Izabella Kimak, Elisabetta Marino)

Conference Papers

2024   "The Body Resilient: Margaret Fuller's Materialist Transcendentalism." Panel: Margaret Fuller, Women in the 19C, and Resilience. Thoreau Gathering 2024. Concord, MA.

2020      “Lost in Representation? Illness between Experience and Memoir.” ASA Annual Meeting 2020: Creativity within Revolt. Baltmiore. Nov. 12-15 Nov. ACCEPTED BUT HAD TO BE CANCELED DUE TO COVID19 PANDEMIC.

2020      “AI from Sci-Fi to Soul Machines: (Re-)Configuring Empathy between Bodies, Knowledge, and Power.” Internationale Tagung der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Kommission “The North Atlantic Triangle”): Artificial Intelligence and Human Enhancement: Affirmative and Critical Approaches in Literature and Philosophy on Both Sides of the Atlantic. Vienna. Oct. 19-21.

2020      “Dance as a Technology of Self: From Transcendentalism to Early American Modern Dance.” Dance and Disruption: Science and Body in the Long Nineteenth Century (A Working Symposium hosted by the Dance Studies Association Working Group Dancing the Long Nineteenth Century). Swarthmore College. Aug. 8-9. [online]

2019      “Kontaktimprovisation: Eine posthumanistische Kritik.” Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung, Symposium 2019: Sens(e)sation. ZHdK Zürich. Sept. 27-29.

2019      “Chôra in/and the Philosophy of Dance: Of SpaceTime and Becoming Movement.” SLSAeu 2019: SpaceTime. Athens. June 25-28.

2019      “Body Revolutions between Art, Labor, and Popular Culture: American Modern Dance as Political Genre.” DGfA/GAAS Jahrestagung 2019: U.S.-American Culture as Popular Culture. Universität Hamburg. June 13-15.

2018    Beyond Form and Matter: Toward a Chôratic Reading in/of Dance. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung, Symposium 2018: Tanz der Dinge / Things that Dance. Karlsruhe. Oct. 5-7.

2018    Enculturating the Roaring inside Them: An (Eco-)Feminist Perspective on American Modern Dance Techniques. DSA 2018: Contra: Dance and Conflict. Valletta, Malta. July 5-8.

2018    Haunted Heritage: Ancestral Landscapes in Nathaniel Hawthorne and Martha. SLSAeu 2018: Green. Copenhagen, Denmark. June 13-15.

2017    “From (Sexual) Difference to Diversity.” Workshop Conference: Diversity and/in the GAAS. Amerikahaus Munich. Oct. 20-21, 2017.

2017    Choreographing Empathies through Elemental Passions. SLSAeu 2017: Empathies. Basel, Switzerland. June 21-24.

2017    From Organic Movement to Technique: Forging Bodies in American Modern Dance. DGfA/GAAS Annual Conference 2017: Modernities and Modernization in North America. Leibniz Universität Hannover. June 8-11.

2017    On Diversity and Difference as Categories of Critique. Workshop-Conference: Diversity. Philipps-Universität Marburg. June 19.

2016    (Re)Claiming Cores of Authenticity: Martha Graham and Michael Kliën. CORD and SDHS Annual Conference 2016: Beyond Authenticity and Appropriation: Bodies, Authorship, and Choreographies Of Transmission. Pomona College, Claremont. Nov. 3-6.

2016    Body Revolution and Control: The Modern Dance of Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham. SLSAeu 2016: Control. Stockholm. June 14-17.

2016    Practicing Graham: Becoming Body between Counts and Spaces. [UN]Möglich! Verkörperte und bewegte Heterotopien als Orte der Bildung. Philipps-Universität Marburg. March 3-5.

2016    „Of No Woman Born“ und doch des Herren Knecht*In?: Entstehungsmythen, posthumane Körper(losigkeit) und Ermächtigungsstrategien in C.L. Moores „No Woman Born“ und Richard Powers‘ Galatea 2.2. Workshop-Conference of the Center for Gender Studies and Feminist Research. „Freiheit. Feministische Neuaneignungen eines umkämpften Begriffs.“ Philipps-Universität Marburg. Feb. 18.

2015    Reading Anorexia: Memoirs between Constraint and Liberation.  Session:  Narratives of Resistance: Rethinking the Politics of Health and Illness. ASA Main Annual Meeting. The (Re)Production of Misery and the Ways of Resistance. Toronto, Canada. Oct. 8-11.

2015    (Sub)Atomic Movement, Martha Graham’s Modernist Expressionism, and Gestures in Contemporary Dance: A Matter of Scale. Session: Scales of Modernity: Bodies, Buildings, Literature. SLSAeu 2015: Scale. Malta. June 15-18.

2015    The Graham Experience: Then and Now. Dance as Experience: Progressive Era Origins and Legacies. SDHS Special Topics Conference. Baltimore. March 26-28.

2014    Fluid Materiality? Moving / Moved Bodies in Modern and Contemporary Dance. SLSA Annual Meeting 2014: Fluid. Dallas. Oct. 9-12.

2014    What Narrative and Fiction Know: Theoretical Considerations of Medicine and Neuroscience in Contemporary Fiction. Session: What Narrative Can(not) Do: A Diagnosis of Narrative Approaches to Medicine. 129^th MLA Annual Convention. Chicago. Jan. 9-12.

2013    Panelist: Young Scholars and Postgraduate Forum. Usable Pasts, Possible Futures: The DGfA / GAAS at Sixty. Philipps-Universität Marburg. Nov. 1-3.

2013    “I really think that you’re a therapist who has remarkably little insight into your own behavior”: Narrative Perspectives, Life Writing, and Psychotherapy in In Treatment. It’s Not Television. Graduate Conference on Contemporary US-American and British TV-Series. Frankfurt am Main. Feb. 22-23.

2012    “Spirits raised by me”: Nonhuman Empowerment in Richard Powers’s Galatea 2.2 and Plowing the Dark. SLSA Annual Meeting 2012: The Nonhuman. Milwaukee. Sept. 27‑30.

2011    Crossing Borders, Dancing Identities: Modern and Contemporary Dance in a Transnational Perspective. DGfA/GAAS Annual Conference 2011: Transnational American Studies. Universität Regensburg. Juna 16-19.

2011    Luria’s “Romantic Scholar” and Richard Powers’s The Echo Maker: Narrative, Confabulation, and the (De-)Construction of Unified Minds. Literature and Medicine. International Conference, Philipps-Universität Marburg. Feb. 11-12.

2010    Narrative Strands, Lacanian Orders, and the Borromean Knot: Reading Richard Powers’s Plowing the Dark. Ideas of Order: Narrative Patterns in the Novels of Richard Powers. International Conference, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Nov. 26-28.

2009    The Purloined Chamber: A Lacanian Reading of Richard Powers’s Plowing the Dark. Postgraduate Forum. Ludwig-Maximilian Universität München. Oct. 30 – Nov. 1.

2009    On the Viability of Memories: The Case of Mark Schluter. Clinton Institute for American Studies Summer School. University College Dublin. July 5-11.

Discussant

2017    Introduction to Rebekah Sheldon’s “Form / Matter / Chora. Object- Oriented Ontology and Feminist New Materialism.” Posthumanist Feminisms Workshop. International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. Nov. 30. (circulated via email)

2017    Introduction to Rosi Braidotti’s The Posthuman. Posthumanist Feminisms Workshop. International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. Jan. 19.

Invited Lectures, Campus Talks, and Other Invitations

2023     “Feminist Publishing: Shifts & Intersections." With Susanne Gruß and Judith Rauscher. Networking DAAD-Workshop Mobile Feminisms: Frameworks in Publishing, Organizing, Working in (and around) the Academy." Universität Würzburg, Oct. 13.

2023      "Corporeal Creation: Abstraction, Indigenous Heritage, and Cultural Appropriation in American Modern Dance." Guest Lecture in the Lecture Series "Imagining and Producing Bodies and Spaces in the Americas." Universität Leipzig, Jan. 24.

2019      Einladung zurTeilnahme am Workshop-Event“Dancing Epistemology.” Organized by Asaf Bachrach, Romain Bigé, Mona Gérardin-Laverge, Lissa Streeter. In Cooperation with CNRS Labodanse und der Ecole Universitaire de Recherche ArTec. Paris. Nov. 1-3.

2018    “Martha Graham’s Modern Dance: Histories and Critical Perspectives.”Guest lecture Series in American Studies. Universität Graz, April 16.

2018    “From Devilish Dancing and ‘Wicked Waltzing’ to American Modern Dance: A Cultural History.” Making America: Public Lecture Series. Universität Bamberg. Jan. 11.

2016    “Becoming-Body: Constructions of Authenticity, Subjectivity, and Freedom in American Modern Dance.” American Studies Research Colloquium. Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Nov. 29.

2016    “(Re-)Positioning the Scholar: Situatedness and Autoethnographic Research (A Case Study).” Lecture Series “How to Do Literary and Cultural Studies: Methods of Analysis.” Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. June 8.

2016    “Martha Graham’s Dance and the Heritage of Puritanism.” Seminar “The Coherent Individual: The Literary Legacy of Puritanism in the United States” (Dr. Sonja Schillings). Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. Jan. 28.

2015    “Exit Stage Left: Martha Graham’s Abstract American Expressionism and the Perils of European Fascism.” Research Colloquium “Recent Research in American Studies.” Universität Regensburg. Dec. 10.

2014    Exodus wider Willen: Jüdisch-amerikanische Literatur in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts[The Reluctant Exodus: Jewish-American Literature in the First Half of the 20^th Century]. Seniorenkolleg Marburg. Jan. 15.

Conference Organization

2022    Access to Equality: Reproductive Justice in the United States. Fifth Biannial EAAS Women’s Network Symposium. With Christen "ChrisAnn" Bryson, Marie Dücker, Izabella Kimak, Elisabetta Marino, and the local organizers Imola Bülgözdi and Éva Mathey. Debrecen. 31 March - April 1.

2020    Feminisms in American Studies in/and Crisis: Where Do We Go From Here? EAAS Women’s Network Symposium. With Ingrid Gessner, Izabella Kimak und Elisabetta Marino. 28-29 April. online.

2012    PGF. Graduate Conference of the German Association of American Studies (DGfA / GAAS). With Britta Bein, Janina Rojek, Silke Schmidt. Philipps-Universität Marburg. 2-4 Nov. 2012.

2011    Literature and Medicine. With Carmen Birkle, Carmen Fels. International Conference. Philipps-Universität Marburg. 11-12 Feb.

Panel Organization

2020      “Writing Bodies in Revolt: Narratives of Radical Relationality.” Mit Christine Marks (LaGuardia Community College). ASA Annual Meeting 2020: Creativity within Revolt. Baltmiore. 12. – 15. November. ACCEPTED BUT HAD TO BE CANCELED DUE TO COVID19 PANDEMIC.

2019      “Sinnliche Un/Gewissheit: Eine machtkritische Analyse von Kontaktimprovisation als Berührungsphänomen.” With Lea Spahn, Bettina Wuttig. Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung, Symposium 2019: Sens(e)sation. ZHdK Zürich. Sept. 27-29.

2017    “Irigaray.” With Elisabeth Friis, Jenny Jarlsdottir Wikström, Erik Erlanson, and Connor Pitetti. SLSAeu 2017: Empathies. Universotät Basel. June 21-24.

2015   “Scales of Modernity: Bodies, Buildings, Literature.” With Connor Pitetti (Stony Brook U). SLSAeu 2015: Scale. Malta. June 15-18.

2015    “Playing with the arts and sciences: (Post-)Feminist Discourse and the ‘Tools of Patriarchy.’” With Anna Thiemann (Universität Münster). DGfA/GAAS Annual Conference 2015: Knowledge Landscapes North America. Universität Bonn, Germany. May 28-31.

2014    “What Narrative Can(not) Do: A Diagnosis of Narrative Approaches to Medicine.” With Christine Marks (LaGuardia Community College) and Jennifer L. Baldwin (UIUC) 129^th MLA Annual Convention. Chicago. 9-12 Jan.

2013    PGF Workshop. With Britta Bein, Janina Rojek, Silke Schmidt. DGfA/GAAS Annual Conference 2013: Rural America. Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. 30 May – 2 June.

Employment

10/2021                Senior Lecturer (Akademische Rätin) for Gender and Diversity Studies, English Department I, U of Cologne

3/2021 - 9/2021   parental leave

4/2015 – 9/2021   Postdoctoral Researcher (Wiss. Mitarbeiterin): American Literary and Cultural Studies, U of Marburg

6/2017 – 7/2019   Academic Managing Director: Center for Gender Studies and Feminist Futures, U of Marburg

4/2009 – 3/2014   Doctoral Researcher (Wiss. Mitarbeiterin): American Literary and Cultural Studies, U of Marburg 

Research Stays and Summer Schools

3/2017 – 5/2017   Barnard College, Dance Department (DFG-funded)

6/2014 – 3/2015   The New School, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts

                                 The New School; Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance (independent program)

6/2013 – 7/2013   School of Criticism and Theory (SCT), Cornell University (PROMOS-funded)

8/2012 – 9/2012   University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of English (DAAD-funded)

9/2010                    Fulbright American Studies Institute, San Francisco State University

8/2010 – 9/2012   University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of English (DAAD-funded)

7/2009                    Clinton Institute for American Studies Summer School, University College Dublin

. . . coming soon . . .

Cooperation with stimmen afrikasfor the following classes:

• Daughters of the Black Atlantic: Contemporary Fiction (winter term 2022/2023)
• Gender and Empire (summer term 2023)

Panel Discussion with

Dagmar Schultz

Abenaa Adomako

Glenda Obermuller

When and Where:

16 Jan., 2025, 6:30 p.m.

Filmforum NRW, Museum Ludwig

Bischofsgartenstraße 1, 50667 Köln

Registration necessary: audrelordescreening.eventbrite.de

FREE ADMISSION

About the Panelists:

Dagmar Schultz was born in Berlin and studied at the Free University, as well as in the United States of America and Puerto Rico. She taught “Women’s studies and cultural and immigration issues” at the John F. Kennedy Institute of North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin and from 1991 to 2004, she was a professor of Social Work at the Alice-Salomon University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. Her teaching and research have focused on feminist studies and women’s movements, anti-racist social work, women’s health care, and cultural competence in the psychiatric care of migrants and minorities.  In 1974 she co-founded Orlanda Women’s Press and was its (co-) publisher until 2001. As director at Orlanda she edited and published several works about or by Audre Lorde including Macht und Sinnlichkeit: Selected texts by Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich and Die Quelle unserer Macht and introduced her works to German readers. In 1980 Dagmar Schultz met Audre Lorde at the Women’s World Conference in Copenhagen and invited her to Berlin to teach as Guest Professor at the John F. Kennedy Institute of North American Studies. She documented their entire time together and directed and produced the the film Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992. She is also co-producer of the film Hope in My Heart. The May Ayim Story by Maria Binder (1997). 

Abenaa Aqyeiwaa Adomako is 62 years old and from Berlin Schöneberg. She is a networker, activist, and project assistant at an NGO. Moreover, she is co-founder of ISD Germany (the “Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland”) and of “BeeeG/black elders empowerment education Germany.” In 2023, she co-curated the exhibition “In the footsteps of the Diek family” at Schöneberg Museum. She is co-author of various afro-diasporic publications including Farbe bekennen  - Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (Orlanda Frauenverlag, 1986), Sisters and Souls  - Inspirationen von May Ayim (Orlanda Verlag 2015) and Spiegelblicke  - Perspektiven Schwarzer Bewegung in Deutschland (Orlanda Verlag 2016). In addition to her role as a protagonist in „Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984-1992,” she appears in several other Afro-diasporic documentaries like the 2023 DW Documentary “Black and German.”

Glenda Obermuller born and raised in Guyana, moved to Germany at the age of 24. As a single Black-Indigenous migrant mother, she is familiar with numerous intersectionalities through her lived experience, education, and networks. She is co-founder of the Afro-diasporic self-organization „Sonnenblumen Community Development Group e.V.“ Moreover, she is part of  various other networks and decolonial projects and iniatives like "N-Wort Stoppen", PROUD Black-Owned Pop-Up Market and Event, Black Sisterhood NRW and other task forces which were founded after the Black Lives Matter protests. As a book lover she is co-founder of the Theodor Wonja Michael Bibliothek, the first Black library in Cologne which is dedicated to educate, empower, and overcome the stigma of „the single story.“  “Literature is a tool to deconstruct racism, because literature can bridge the gap that divides us an initiate the necessary change of perspective.” Glenda identifies as a community organizer, activist, and people connector.

26 June 2024 | 12.00 . 13:30 | Aula II (Hauptgeäude)

The English Department I, the GSSC, and stimmen afrikas are looking forward to welcoming you at the public lecture of Prof. Kwame Anthony Appiah!

Prof. Kwame Anthony Appiah, NYU, (https://appiah.net/) is a philosopher who specializes in Black Studies and ethics and who often works in interdisciplinary contexts. His work is easily understandable and thus accessible to students without prior philosophical knowledge.

A most notable publication for students and scholars of American literature is his collaboration with Henry Louis Gates Jr., with whom he published the Encyclopedia Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience. Another significant achievement of Appiah's is his 1993 book In My Father's House, in which he addresses the scientific racism ("race theory" / "racial science") of the nineteenth century and its extending impact as he witnessed it in the 1990s.

The reason for his invitation to Cologne is based on Appiah's latest book publication, The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity. In this book, Appiah examines the contemporary concept of identity from an intersectional perspective of "creed, country, colour, class, culture," as he states in his subtitle. Although not part of this list, the categories of sex/gender and sexuality form an important constant in his analysis, as he considers gender to be the most fundamental of all categories of power in many cultures. Appiah's approach in Rethinking Identity is philosophical, but perhaps even more importantly, he always approaches the topic of identity biographically: he is the son of an English mother and a Ghanaian (Asante) father; he grew up in Ghana and England, has lived in the USA for a long time, and works prominently within African American Studies. As he writes himself, his identity is often unreadable to others, as his appearance, accent, and cultural involvements (his cosmopolitanism) surprise others, as if such an identity were (still) unthinkable. Appiah takes his own lived reality and the stories that shape his identity, along with the biographies of others, and abstracts them in a philosophical manner, thus strengthening and complicating the biographical and social components that make up identities. This strategy allows him to capture identity as a tension between prescribed normativity and individual freedom.

His lecture at the University Cologne is entitled “Political Identity,” and he will address the role that identities play in the political life of contemporary democracies.

stimmen afrikas will provide a book table.

We thank our sponsors, the Diversity-Projekt Fonds (UzK), the AmerikaHaus NRW e.V., the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), and the VUB Brussels for the collaboration.

The U of Cologne lecture is organized in collaboration with stimmen afrikas and their  new project series

Wings with Roots - Dynamic Belongings

Tuesday, 25 June 2024, 7 p.m.:

Dynamic Identities and their Creative Potential - Talk by Kwame Anthony Appiah & poetry performance by Lubi Barre, followed by a conversation with Liz Shoo

Wednesday, 26 June 2024, 7 p.m.:

Ghost Season - Reading with novelist Fatin Abbas & conversation with Kwame Anthony Appiah and donna Kukama

Thursday, 27 June 2024, 7 p.m.

Theodor Wonja Michael Library meets Fatin Abbas for an exchange about her writing, working and living in Germany. Cofounder of the TWM Library Cucuteni will moderate the exchange with the writer.

For more information, please consult: https://www.stimmenafrikas.de/veranstaltungen/