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What do we do with the increasing sense of estrangement and disillusion some of us feel with academic structures? Our tentative relation to academia—Stefano Harney and Fred Moten describe it as being “in but not of” the university—is fueled by tending to injuries sustained by structural violence. What strategies can we develop in light of the recurrent historical injustice unfolding before us? How do we dismantle the racist, ableist, anti-queer and otherwise hostile logics of the neoliberal university?

In this discussion, we will read Harney and Moten’s “The University and the Undercommons” to think through these questions. One focus will be on what Harney and Moten describe as the negative function of individuation vs. collectives. Another will be to consider how the insights in their work apply to German studies specifically and the types of commitments and allegiances that are possible despite it all.

Friday, Feb. 12 at 2:30 p.m.