This series of events takes place as part of the seminar »Theory and Figurations of Gender Relations« (Freie Universität Berlin) and the doctoral program in Gender, Culture and Society
(University of Helsinki). It is a cooperation between Esther von der Osten (Peter Szondi
Institute of Comparative Literature, Freie Universität Berlin), Susanne Lettow (Margherita von
Brentano Center for Gender Studies, Freie Universität Berlin) and Tuija Pulkkinen
(Department of Cultures, Director doctoral program Gender, Culture and Society (SKY),
University of Helsinki).

Inputs

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January 16, 2024, 4-6 pm (online)

Prof. Dr. Estelle Ferrarese (Amiens): A Feminist Philosophy of Sobbing

I would like to try and philosophize on the subject of sobbing, based on the following elements: in a fit of sobbing, my body neutralizes everything that could, or even should, give me a form of mastery over the world: breath, speech, thought. It thus doubles the powerlessness that has just struck me.

It tears apart the seductive narrative that I am the author of my biography, the midwife of my potentialities, the organizer of my progressions. This series of phenomena forces me to face up to my powerlessness. I live it. And yet, in their violence, in their work of disfigurement and disorganization, these phenomena shatter the self-evident. I protest against my powerlessness in the very act of allowing myself to be overwhelmed by it.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://fu-berlin.webex.com/fu-berlin/j.php?MTID=m9be426c5764760eb951f043d53de8684
Meeting-ID: 2789 530 5448
Passcode: 3kDv3MpKSp2

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February 6, 2024, 4-6 pm (online)

Prof. Dr. Federica Giardini (Rome): Care, Reproduction and the Environmental Humanities

The talk gives an account of both a research path and teaching experience at the university. Beginning with the two pivotal concepts of reproduction and care, which mark different spaces and times of feminist elaboration – reproduction as a feminist critique of the Marxist framework of the 1970s; care as an ethical-political proposal of U.S. provenance between the 1980s and 1990s – the general concept of eco-trans-feminism will be articulated and the necessary spillovers on the relationships between disciplines and knowledges will also be examined.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://fu-berlin.webex.com/fu-berlin/j.php?MTID=mf9a688a58f2297ea34907bcf70933590
Meeting-ID: 2784 347 0278
Passcode: 3kDv3MpKSp