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Race to the Future?
From Artificial Intelligence to Abundant Imagination
Lecture: Ruha Benjamin
A world without prisons? Ridiculous. Schools that foster the genius of every child? Naïve. Work that is fulfilling and fairly compensated? Impossible.Technology designed for the collective good? Inconceivable. A society where everyone has food, shelter … love? In your dreams. EXACTLY.
In this talk, Ruha Benjamin takes us into the liberating power of the imagination. Deadly systems shaped by white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism, and eugenics emerged from the human imagination, and have real-world, often deadly impacts. To fight harmful systems and create a world in which everyone can thrive, we will have to imagine things differently. Drawing on the insights of Black and decolonial feminists, she critically examines tech-mediated inequities and engages with grassroots approaches to viral justice, offering a pragmatic and poetic approach to worldbuilding that invites each of us to consider the role we play in maintaining or transforming the oppressive status quo.
The event is being held in cooperation with the Center for Gender Studies at the University of Basel.
If you can't afford a ticket, please get in touch at info@feministischersalon.ch
Bio Ruha Benjamin
Ruha Benjamin is currently a visiting researcher at the University of Basel. Benjamin is Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and award-winning author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (2019), Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (2022), and Imagination: A Manifesto (2024).
Ruha earned a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Spelman College, MA and PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley, and postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA’s Institute for Society & Genetics and Harvard’s Science, Technology & Society Program. She is also the recipient of fellowships and awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, National Science Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar Award, and President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton. In 2024, Ruha was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship. For more info, visit ruhabenjamin.com
feministischer salon basel
Once a month, intellectual, provocative, political, funny, radical, racism-critical, affective and thought-provoking evenings on queer_feminist topics are organised. The Salon is a meeting point and gathering place for current issues and topics, often in connection with and always as an enrichment of the feminist programme at the Kaserne Basel. The series is curated by Katha Baur, Caroline Faust, Franca Schaad and Franziska Schutzbach.
Credits
By and with
Katha Baur, Caroline Faust, Franca Schaad und Franziska Schutzbach
Co-Production
Kaserne Basel
Supported by
Christoph Merian Stiftung