Organized by: Dr. Esther von der Osten, Peter Szondi Institute of Comparative Literature, Freie Universität Berlin, PD Dr. Susanne Lettow, Margherita von Brentano Center for Gender Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Dr. Tuija Pulkkinen, Department of Cultures, Director doctoral program Gender, Culture and Society (SKY), University of Helsinki.

Input

Prof. Dr. Christine Daigle, Brock University

The intensity of extreme experiences such as rape and war provide us with a good lens through which we can understand our beings as transjective, that is as subjectively and materially radically entangled. Most narratives on trauma focus on the intersubjective relationality of selves and how it is challenged by the trauma and fail to acknowledge the equally important material inscription of trauma. Recognizing this allows us to uncover ourselves as the transjective beings I claim we are. I explain that we are dynamic beings, constantly becoming as the assemblages of experiences, consciousness, affects, materiality, etc. Material feminism is inspired by insights from quantum physics and biochemistry that posit entanglement and porosity and challenge the notions of agency and individuality. The transjective entangled and porous being that emerges from this view is fundamentally vulnerable. I argue that we must embrace this vulnerability if we are to thrive individually and collectively.

Bio: Christine Daigle is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Posthumanism Research Institute at Brock University. Her current research explores the concept of posthumanist vulnerability and its ethical potential from a posthumanist material feminist point of view. She also works on environmental posthumanities and issues related to the Anthropocene, extinction, and posthumanist futures. Most recently, the volume she co-edited with Terrance McDonald, From Deleuze and Guattari to Posthumanism. Philosophies of Immanence, has been published at Bloomsbury. She has also published extensively on the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir (for a full list of publications, see: https://brocku.ca/humanities/philosophy/faculty-and-staff/christine-daigle/ ).

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