InterGender course “Queer Death Studies – Analyzing and Resisting Necropower”

InterGender Consortium Coordinator Edyta Just (edyta.just[at]liu.se)

Professor Em Nina Lykke, Linköping University, Sweden

Senior lecturer Tara Mehrabi, Karlstad University, Sweden

Postdoc Marietta Radomska, Linköping University, Sweden

The course gives an introduction to the emerging field of Queer Death Studies, its critiques of necropowers, and its framings of resistances to current necropolitics, moulded by neoliberal and extractivist capitalism and post/colonialism. It raises the question: What does it mean to bring the notion of queering to bear on the analysis of death, dying, mourning and afterlife in current political climates and contexts of crises? In response, the course takes a point of departure in a broad conceptualization of queering. This means that queer will be understood in its verbform, queering, which refers to processes of undoing and unmaking of norms and structurally oppressive societal normativities in a broad sense, which in the case of death, dying, mourning and afterlife is related to clusters of intersecting necropowers. But it will also be emphasized how such an understanding opens horizons towards politically much needed reflections on resistance and reontologizations, based on entanglements of queering methodologies with posthumanizing and decolonizing ones. The lectures will draw on different analytical examples, focusing 1) on the issue of killability and disposable bodies related to lab animals; 2) on bioart practices and the ways in which they call for reflections on the non/living; 3) on viral ontologies and necropowers, related to the CoVid19 pandemic.

The course will be organized as a one-day online event in real time (Dec 8, 10.00-12.30 + 13.00-17.45), see time schedule below.

Time schedule:

10.00-10.30 – Welcome and round of short presentations.

10.30-10.45 – Shared creative exercise

10.45-11.30 – Discussion of lecture 1 and related readings from the reading list.

11.30-11.45 – Shared creative exercise

11.45-12.30 – Discussion of lecture 2 and related readings from the reading list.

12.30-13.00 – Lunch break

13.00-13.45 – Discussion of lecture 3 and related readings from the reading list.

13.45-14.00 – Shared creative exercise

14.00-17.00 – Group work on students’ projects (3 groups, each chaired by one of the teachers – creative moments and breaks will be decided in the group)

17.00-17.45 – Wrap up, evaluations, and creative farewell moment.

• Course readings: will be sent to participants, when admitted to the course.

• Paper (2–5 pages describing research problem related to the participant’s PhD thesis project (or master thesis project) to be sent to the Local InterGender Course and the InterGender Consortium Coordinator Edyta Just (edyta.just[at]liu.se) Remember to mark it with your name and the course name.

• All participants are expected to read the paper of their fellow group members before the course and be prepared to offer constructive comments in the group sessions and workshops. The papers will be made available online.

• 10-15 pages to be handed in no later than 3 months after the course. One copy should be sent to the teacher, who chaired the group in which the student presented their paper at the course and who is going to evaluate it, and one to the InterGender Consortium Coordinator Edyta Just (edyta.just[at]liu.se). The teacher has 3 months to evaluate the essay.

• The essay should strike a balance between addressing a theme that has been part of course (lectures, discussions, reading material), and be relevant for participant’s own research.

• The essay should, moreover, be considered as an exercise in doing a written presentation aimed at an academic readership not familiar with the author’s PhD research. The essay should constitute a whole and explain relevant contexts.

1. 7,5 ECTS credits are recommended for active participation and a short paper, 2-5 pages describing research problem related to the participant’s PhD thesis project (or master thesis project).

2. 15 ECTS credits are recommended for active participation plus an essay (graded pass/fail).

3. The essay should be 10-15 pages. The selected topic shall be related to the course content and readings, and relate to the student’s own research area. The essay is to be sent to the teacher as well as to the InterGender Consortium Coordinator no later than 3 months after the final day of the course. The teacher has 3 months to evaluate the essay.

In order to request the certificate, please send an e-mail to Edyta Just (edyta.just[at]liu.se).

InterGender cannot issue a regular InterGender Certificate to MA students but a Certificate of Attendance. For MA students, the coordinator can state what the course was about content and format wise, what the requirements were for all in terms of readings and participation and the number of the credits it was equivalent to.

* name, affiliation, full address, e-mail, phone

* name and affiliation of PhD supervisor (MA supervisor)

* brief CV

* description of PhD project (MA project) (1-2 pages)

* motivation: why do you want to participate in the course (1-2 pages)

* please, indicate if you are in the first/middle/last phase of your PhD research or if you are a MA student

a) Students registered as PhD students at Partner Units will be prioritized for a maximum 80% of places. When the places are distributed among the Partner Unites, a good spread between these units will also be ensured.