Current Activities
Exploring Multimodal Humour: Decolonial and Intercultural Perspectives
This event explores how black humor functions as a powerful tool for resistance, pedagogy, and decolonial critique in contemporary Europe. Through stand-up performance, digital content, and scholarly analysis, both speakers investigate how racialized identities and social inequalities are negotiated and subverted through comedic expression.
Prof. Alfonso Bartolomé (Virginia State University) will present a lecture titled “Decolonial Perspective through Asaari Bibang’s Humor in the Digital World.” This talk examines the work of Spanish-Equatoguinean comedian Asaari Bibang, whose performances address topics such as racism, immigration, and stereotypes through a decolonial lens. Drawing on Horace’s dictum docere et delectare, Prof. Bartolomé explores how Bibang uses laughter as a means of protest and community-building, asserting Black identity and agency within digital and cultural spaces.
Prof. Margherita Dore (Sapienza University of Rome) will deliver a lecture titled “‘Tanto ‘nero’ in spagnolo si dice ‘negro’: Subverting Stereotypes and Racism through Stand-up Comedy.” Her talk investigates the work of Assiane Diop and Nathan Kiboba, two emerging stand-up comedians in Italy whose performances critically engage with racism, identity, and cultural stereotypes. By subverting audience expectations, these comedians open up space for reflection on systemic social inequalities and the transformative potential of humor.
We hope you will join us for this insightful event. Please feel free to share this invitation with students and colleagues who may be interested.
To register for the online talk please write an email to: afroeuropecyberspace@uni-bremen.de.
Adventures in Afropea: Black Travelogues as Counter Narratives to Colonial-Ethnographic Travel Writing
Guest Lecture von Jenaba Samura (ZfL Berlin) as part of the MA ESC seminar ?African diaspora studies and Afroeuropean literatures“ (Lecturer: J. Borst)
3 July 2025 | 18-20 c.t. | GW2 B3010
~Waves~ Interdisciplinary Dialogue in the Research Focus Point on Ocean, Polar and Climate Sciences at University of Bremen
Every second Tuesday, 18:15–20:00 hours, Rotunde, Cartesium, University of Bremen
Hybrid Lecture Series in Eng. and German
For the first time, this lecture series is intended to facilitate an interdisciplinary discussion on the oceans - or more precisely on the topic of “waves” - across all faculties at the University of Bremen. The wave can be examined from many perspectives. Oceanography, meteorology and mathematics, for example, show how the interaction of turbulence, waves and eddies in the ocean and the atmosphere help to determine the Earth's climate and temperature. Our climatic future is measured in waves of different sizes, speeds and orders, in tsunamis, rogue waves or regular waves.
But in addition to measurements, computer simulations and future forecasts in ocean wave science, waves can also be understood in other ways. For example, economics and sociology are familiar with wave-like phenomena. Art is full of iconic depictions of waves, from the paintings of Rembrandt, who depicted “Christ in a Storm” on a huge wave in 1633, to the famous TheGreat Wave of Kanagawa by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. Then, of course, there are waves of a completely different kind: sound waves, gravitational waves, electromagnetic waves, or even the wave as an aquatic metaphor for political movements and literary and cinematic trends.
This lecture series aims to shed light on different aspects of waves and thus bring our disciplines into conversation with each other. How do we measure, describe, understand and comprehend waves in the various disciplines? And where and how do interdisciplinary interferences and points of contact arise?
Organisation: Kerstin Knopf (department 10), Andrea Muehlebach (department 9)
The lecture series takes place in a hybrid format in German and English. To request online access, please contact noellen@uni-bremen.de.
Dates:
12.11.2024:
Stefan Helmreich (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)): Inaugural Lecture: A Book of Waves: Ocean Waves, Ocean Science, Ocean Media.
26.11.2024:
Johannes Kiefer (Fachbereich 4): Technische Thermodynamik: Welleninterferenz – von der Badewanne bis ins Optiklabor
Kerstin Knopf (Fachbereich 10): North American and Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies: Fluten und Wellen in Amerikanischer Literatur
3.12.2024:
Alice Lefebvre (Fachbereich 5 und MARUM): Sediment waves in rivers and estuaries: What underwater dunes tell us about water currents and sand transport, and how can we manage them?
Raimund Bleischwitz (Fachbereich 8 und ZMT): Wellenreiten für den Klimaschutz – Bausteine einer Theorie des Wandels und zur Rolle der Politik
17.12.2024:
Andreas Rademacher (Fachbereich 3): Mathematical Models of Waves and their Analysis
Jana Jürgs (Fachbereich 10): Germanistische Mediavistik: Wellen sind weiblich – Undine und ihre Schwestern
7.1.2025:
Elda Miramontes García (Fachbereich 5 und MARUM): Brandung in der Tiefsee
Torben Klarl (Fachbereich 7): (Lange) Wellen in der ?konomik
21.1.2025:
Marie Fujitani (Fachbereich 8 und ZMT): Waves to and from our shores: reflecting on the future of coastal tourism
Sarina Niedzwiedz (Fachbereich 2): Die Folgen mariner Hitzewellen auf Kelpwald-Gemeinschaften
28.1.2025
Till Markus (Fachbereich 6 und Helmholtz-Zentrum Leipzig für Umweltforschung): Titel TBD
Andrea Muehlebach (Fachbereich 9): Haben Wellen Rechte?
The Black Diaspora in Western Andalusia from a Historical-Anthropological Perspective
Presentation by Andrea Rueda Herrera (Sevilla) in the public lecture series of Worlds of Contradiction (WOC)
On the 05.11.2024: 18:15 - 19:45
Uni Bremen, SFG: Room 1.020
Until the middle of the 20th century, there were small groups of people known as “negra” (black) or “morena” (brown) in several towns in Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). Both socially and academically, their existence has been linked to the trade of enslaved black Africans in the Early Modern period, which relates these populations to the Black Diaspora in the Iberian Peninsula. My doctoral research has been conducted in one of these towns, Gibraleón, where many of these “morenas” and “negras” families live today. Through archival and ethnographic work, I have been able to create a genealogy as well as delve into the social, economic and cultural dynamics of the town to understand the structures and strategies that help us to understand the existence and persistence of this very specific social phenomenon in Spain.
Andrea Rueda Herrera holds a bachelor in Humanities and Translation Studies, a Master in Religion Studies and a Master in Anthropology. She is currently working on her Doctoral dissertation, financed by the Spanish Ministry of Universities. In her research, Andrea focuses on the identity and sociability of the Black Diaspora in Southwestern Spain, combining historiographic and anthropological methodologies. In this regard, she is a member of the Research Project The Making of Blackness in Early Modern Spain: A Process of Cultural and Social Negotiation from the Bottom-Up, directed by Dr. Diana Berruezo-Sánchez.
Photo Exhibition: Afromayores – Memory and Genealogy of Afrodescendants in Spain
15.10.2024 –15.12.2024, 18:00
At GRK Contradiciton Studies, Grazer Stra?e. 2
“Afromayores” is an audiovisual project coordinated by Lucía Asué Mbomío Rubio, Laurent Leger Adame, and José Oyono Ngalo that aims to increase the visibility of African and Afro-descendant individuals over 65 years of age in Spain. The project’s objective is to acknowledge their existence, elucidate their history, and valorise their experiences, celebrating their legacy, knowledge, contributions, and struggles. It is one of the numerous artistic initiatives associated with the Conciencia Afro association and its Afro-centric cultural centre, Espacio Afro, in Madrid.
From 15 October to 15 December 2024 the photographic exhibition “Afromayores” will be displayed at the premises of RTG Contradiction Studies (Grazer Str. 2, Bremen). The exhibition comprises portraits captured by photographer Laurent Leger Adame, and images from the personal archives of the persons represented.
The exhibition is supplemented by a series of video interviews accessible via YouTube through QR codes.The exhibition will commence with a vernissage on 15 October 2024, at 6:00 PM, featuring Laurent Leger Adame, who will discuss the project’s conception, motivation and aim (in English).
Curators:
Nelson Sindze Wembe (RTG: Contraditions Studies)
Dr. Julia Borst (PI, ERC Starting Grant AFROEUROPECYBERSPACE)
WoC Agora #4 Lecture: El humor al servicio del afrociberactivismo en Espa?a: Asaari Bibang y Lamine Thior
By Odome Angone (U Cheikh Anta Diop Dakar) & María Ignacia Schulz (U Internacional de La Rioja)
8.5.2024, 16-18 Uhr c.t., Rotunde (Cartesium)
Lecture | WoC Agora #4 | WoC Lab Digitale Diaspora
Guest Lecture in spanish
Moderation: Julia Borst
Afro-cyberactivism can be defined as a neologism that encompasses, in its globality, a range of practices, movements and dissident discourses 2.0, mostly generated in decolonial, feminist and intersectional approaches from social networks to give voice and identity to Afro collectives immersed in multiple oppressions of a systemic nature. In this sense, the talk “Humor at the service of Afro-cyberactivism in Spain: Asaari Bibang and Lamine Thior” is part of a series of initiatives advocated online over the last decades, in order to link the critical relevance of the new forms of communication that are born of the cyberworld, with new social actors producing discourses, knowledge and wisdom, thus reconfiguring the political scenario, outside of forms of hegemony and related ideological behaviors.
Link to the video: https://ml.zmml.uni-bremen.de/video/664cc5cfd42f1c22218b456a
Germany's most important young talent award: INPUTS deputy spokesperson Dr. Julia Borst receives the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize 2021
Romance philologist Dr. Julia Borst from the University of Bremen has been awarded the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize 2021, the most important award for young researchers in Germany. The prize from the DFG and the BMBF is endowed with 20,000 euros.
Online-Tagung zum Thema ?Mundos plurales: perspectivas actuales sobre las culturas, lenguas y literaturas de Guinea Ecuatorial“ in Kooperation mit dem INPUTS
Am 18. Mai 2021 findet in Kooperation mit dem INPUTS eine Online-Tagung in spanischer Sprache zum Thema ?Mundos plurales: perspectivas actuales sobre las culturas, lenguas y literaturas de Guinea Ecuatorial“ mit internationalen G?sten statt. Organisiert wird die Veranstaltung von Julia Borst (Universit?t Bremen), Max Doppelbauer (Christian-Albrechts-Universit?t zu Kiel) und Sandra Schlumpf-Thurnherr (Universit?t Basel). Bei Interesse melden Sie sich bitte bei Max Doppelbauer an: max.doppelbauerprotect me ?!univie.acprotect me ?!.at. Die Teilnahme ist kostenlos.
Find out more here.
Digital study day: Equatorial Guinea
On 26 January 2021, from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., a study day on Equatorial Guinea will be organized at U Bremen. It will take place as a videoconference via Zoom. The event is free and open to everyone. It will include talks by international guests and presentations of student research projects about Equatorial Guinea. The event is conducted in Spanish.
Organizers: Julia Borst & Carolin Patzelt
"The Writer From A Country Without Bookstores" (2019) – film screening and discussion with writer Juan Tomás ?vila Laurel Plakat
On 19 January 2021 at 2.00 p.m.,we will screen a documentary based on the life of Equatoguinean writer Juan Tomás ?vila Laurel. The documentary is titled "The Writer from a Country Without Bookstores" (dir.: Marc Serena), and has been nominated for 7 Goya awards. The screening of the film, in its original version (Spanish and Fá d'Amb?) with English subtitles, will be followed by a discussion with Juan Tomás ?vila Laurel.
Organization: Dr. Julia Borst
The event will take place as a videoconference via Zoom. To register please write an email to Dr. Julia Borst (borstprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de). The number of participants is limited to 100 persons.
Synopsis: Juan Tomás ?vila Laurel is the most translated writer from Equatorial Guinea but he had to flee the country in 2011, after going on a hunger strike against Teodoro Obiang’s dictatorship, the longest lasting in the world. Since then, he lives as a refugee in Spain, the former colonial power, where his work is largely ignored. He feels he has to travel back to his country despite of the risks, as he is one of the most prominent intellectuals against the regime. With him and his books we embark on a journey to one of the most isolated African countries.
With financial support by ForstA integriert.
Filmvorführung und Diskussion – "Untersch?tzt und unbeachtet: literarische Stimmen ?quatorialguineas" (Doku, 2009)
Am 24.11.2020 um 14 Uhr s.t. wird Rahmen des interdisziplin?ren Seminars "Guinea Ecuatorial: perspectivas lingüísticas y literarias" von Julia Borst und Carolin Patzelt der Dokumentarfilm "Subvaloradas sin ser vistas: voces literarias de Guinea Ecuatorial" in der spanischen Originalversion mit deutschen Untertiteln gezeigt. Im Anschluss diskutieren wir mit Mischa G. Hendel, dem Regisseur des Dokumentarfilms (Moderation: Julia Borst).
Alle Interessierten der Universit?t Bremen und von au?erhalb sind herzlich eingeladen, den Film gemeinsam mit uns per Zoom zu schauen. Um Zugang zum Zoom-Meeting zu erhalten, wenden Sie sich bitte an Julia Borst (borstprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de).
Unterstützt wird die Veranstaltung von ForstAintegriert und dem INPUTS.
?Blo? keine Geschichte: Der Mythos der sauberen Baumwolle“
Mit rhetorischen Tricks kontert die Bremer Baumwollb?rse Rassismus-Vorwürfe. Die eigene Rolle bei der Versklavung wird am World Cotton Day ignoriert.
Ein Gastkommentar in der taz am 7. Okt. 2020 von Prof. Sabine Boeck: https://taz.de/Bloss-keine-Geschichte/!5716162/
An OP-ED in the taz on 7 Oct. 2020 by Prof. Sabine Boeck: https://taz.de/Bloss-keine-Geschichte/!5716162/
Digital workshop "Diaspora and (post-)digitality: imagined communities in cyberspace", 28-29 August 2020 (via Zoom)
Organizers: Shola Adenekan, Julia Borst, Linda Maeding
The growing popularity of diaspora studies in the fields of cultural studies, is happening around the same time as diasporic movements are generating renewed interests in the news media, as well as in art and literature - a phenomenon that is associated with the effects of globalization, particularly transmigration and transnationalization. Increasing social digitization arguably involves a fundamental change for these communities.
The workshop takes on the task of theoretically exploring a fresh relationship between diaspora and (post-)digitality and using case studies to investigate how marginalized groups design themselves as decentralized “imagined communities” (B. Anderson) in the internet and actively shape their self-image. A crucial notion to be discussed is the concept of “digital diaspora” and its specificities as well as the consequences for diasporic communities’ practices of self-representation and performances.
Conference languages are: English, Spanish and German.
Open to an interested audience. Please contact maedingprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de to get access to the ZOOM meeting.
This workshop is organized by the research lab "Digital Diaspora – Imagined Communities in Cyberspace" of the interdisciplinary and collaborative research platform ?Worlds of Contradiction“ (U Bremen).
With financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – project numbers 353492083 and 404354183 as well as the Spanish research project REC-LIT: Reciclajes culturales (project number RTI2018-094607-B-I00). In cooperation with the Institute for postcolonial and transcultural studies (INPUTS) and the Institut für kulturwissenschaftliche Deutschlandstudien (Ifkud), U Bremen.
Solidarity in times of collapsing imperial orders and life
August, 5th 2020
Delhi 6.30 pm, San José 7.00 am, Berlin 3 pm, Pittsburgh 9 am
Announcement
---out now---
Birgit D?wes, Kerstin Knopf, guest eds. Indigenous Knowledges in North America. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik (ZAA) 68.2 (2020)
Spendenaufruf zur Unterstützung der Black Lives Matter-Bewegung
Wie auch mittlerweile vielfach in der deutschen Presse berichtet und diskutiert, protestieren in den Vereinigten Staaten und weltweit Millionen von BürgerInnen. Sie fordern ein Ende der m?rderischen Polizeigewalt gegen schwarze Menschen und der strukturellen, institutionellen antischwarzen Gewaltverh?ltnisse, die als Nachleben der Versklavung den Alltag der schwarzen Bev?lkerung bestimmen. Wie sehr diese ungebrochene Gewalt alle Lebensbereiche dominiert, hat sich gerade in den letzten Monaten wieder gezeigt, in denen schwarze Menschen in skandal?s h?herer Zahl an Covid-19 erkrankt und gestorben sind, was den strukturellen Ausschluss schwarzer Menschen von den ohnehin prek?ren Versorgungsleistungen des amerikanischen Staates für seine BürgerInnen deutlich macht.
Diese k?mpferische Bewegung, die inzwischen das ganze Land erfasst hat, hat es trotz massivster Einschüchterungen durch Polizeiterror und juristische Verfolgung bisher geschafft, dass alle vier Polizisten, die für die Ermordung George Floyds verantwortlich sind, angeklagt sind. Sie wird weiterk?mpfen, um weitergehende antirassistische Forderungen mit dem Fernziel ?abolish the police“ durchzusetzen.
Zun?chst einmal ist dieser Protest aber durch die faschistische Politik Pr?sident Trumps in h?chstem Masse gef?hrdet, der mit der Ankündigung: ?when there is looting, there will be shooting“ und der bereits erfolgten Stationierung von Armeeeinheiten in amerikanischen St?dten den Einsatz von Milit?r gegen die eigene Bev?lkerung androht. Dies ist nur die letzte Eskalation Trumpscher absoluter Skrupellosigkeit in der Durchsetzung seiner Interessen, um um jeden Preis wei?e gesellschaftliche und ?konomische Machtverh?ltnisse immer unverhüllter zu st?rken und aggressiv auszubauen. Hierbei schreckt Trump auch nicht vor der ?ffentlichen Unterstützung wei?er Milizen zurück. Hierüber wurde eine breite Diskussion in liberalen Kreisen der amerikanischen ?ffentlichkeit und ihren Organen und Institutionen (Presse, Bildungswesen, Kulturinstitutionen) angeschoben, die – auch angesichts der dieses Jahr anstehenden Wahlen – für eine Demontage des Systems Trump votieren.
Die Black Lives Matter-Bewegung wird allerdings nicht die Stra?en verlassen, denn es hat sich gezeigt, dass nur ihre K?mpfe und radikaler ?ffentlicher Druck überhaupt die Verteidigung des Lebens und der Bürgerrechte der schwarzen Bev?lkerung auf die Tagesordnung setzen k?nnen. So sieht sich die wei?e Mehrheitsbev?lkerung der USA ein weiteres Mal in der inzwischen jahrhundertelangen Geschichte des schwarzen Befreiungskampfes mit der Frage konfrontiert: Auf welcher Seite steht ihr denn? Es ist diese Bewegung, die ein weiteres Mal klargestellt hat, dass die Ermordung George Floyds und Breonna Taylors und so vieler anderer keine skandal?sen Einzelf?lle sind, die zu spontaner, aber schnell verpuffender Emp?rung führen, sondern zwei der unz?hligen F?lle, die die systemische antischwarze Gewalt einer wei?en amerikanischen Mehrheitsgesellschaft offenbaren, für die schwarzes Leben keinen menschlichen Wert hat, wie es schwarze Aktivisten und Intellektuelle – von Fredrick Douglass über James Baldwin zu Frank Wilderson, und von Harriet Brent Jacobs zu Angela Davis zu Toni Morrison und Cristina Sharpe und den schwarzfeministischen Organisatorinnen der Black Lives Matter-Bewegung, um nur einige hier zu nennen – seit Jahrzehnten anprangern.
Wie europ?ische, und auch deutsche, schwarze Organisationen, Initiativen und AktivistInnen deutlich gemacht haben, ist dieser strukturelle Rassismus eine transnationale Praxis. Auch die bundesdeutschen gesellschaftlichen (politischen, kulturellen und sozialen) Strukturen – wie zum Beispiel gerade der Bildungssektor – reproduzieren den Ausschluss schwarzer Menschen. Auch bei uns wird seit Jahrzehnten von der schwarzen Community die Beseitigung dieses systemischen Rassismus gefordert. Niemand kann sich 澳门皇冠_皇冠足球比分-劲爆体育 auf eine Position unschuldiger Unwissenheit zurückziehen. Die Situation erfordert nicht nur Solidarit?tserkl?rungen, sondern massive politische Interventionen – dies wird ein Kampf sein, der nicht in einigen Monaten wieder aus den Aufregungsschleifen der Medien verschwindet. Im Augenblick fordert die Black Lives Matter-Bewegung Hilfe von ihren UnterstützerInnen, so dass ihre Arbeit finanziell abgedeckt werden kann; es werden immense Summen gebraucht, um vor allem Prozesskosten, aber auch Unterstützung für inhaftierte AktivistInnen zu finanzieren.
Deshalb ruft das INPUTS an der U Bremen dazu auf, an folgende Organisationen zu spenden:
Unterstützung für inhaftierte Frauen: https://donorbox.org/operationrestoration
Bail out Fund: https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/louisville-community-bail-fund/
澳门皇冠_皇冠足球比分-劲爆体育: https://www.aaihs.org/status-of-the-bail-funds/
INPUTS Artist-in-residence – postponed to summer term 2021
The Equatorial Guinean poet, playwright, and actor Recaredo Silebo Boturu was invited to be the Artist-in Residence at the Institute for Postcolonial and Transcultural Studies (INPUTS) University of Bremen, for eight weeks in May and June 2020. Unfortunately, due to the current corona virus pandemic, we had to cancel his residency for the summer term 2020. His residency and the proposed theatre workshop for students of the University of Bremen is now postponed until the summer term of 2021. For more information please contact Dr. Julia Borst (FB 10): borstprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
Global Cotton: Eine Uni – Ein Buch – Eine Stadt
INPUTS ist Ko-Organisator der Initiative “Global Cotton: Eine Uni – Ein Buch – Eine Stadt” (FB 9), in der das Buch von Sven Beckert King Cotton. Eine Geschichte des globalen Kapitalismus in 澳门皇冠_皇冠足球比分-劲爆体育eren Seminaren, Vorlesungen, ?ffentlichen Vortr?gen u.?. gelesen und besprochen wird.
INPUTS is co-organizer of the year-long initiative ?Global Cotton: a uni – a book – a city“ (FB9), where, in several seminars, lectures, public talks, and other events, we will read and discuss Sven Beckert’s book Empire of Cotton: A Global History.