#spui — Public Fediverse posts

Das amerikanische Beben

SPUI25, Thursday, September 17 at 05:00 PM GMT+2

​In her book Das amerikanische Beben, historian and bestselling author Christina Morina reflects on her year in New York during Donald Trump’s return to power. Drawing on her expertise in democratic history, she examines the erosion of American democracy. What lessons can Germany and other democracies draw from it? This afternoon, she will be in conversation with historian, philosopher, and political scientist Ton Nijhuis.

Please note: the language of this event will be German.

​Historian Christina Morina lived with her family in New York for a year in 2024/25, as a visiting professor at the world-renowned New School for Social Research. From close up, she witnessed Donald Trump’s disastrous comeback and its devastating consequences for American democracy, reflected in people’s everyday lives. She had come to America to research and teach the history of democracy. Suddenly, she found herself witnessing a large-scale attempt to destroy it.

​In her book, she describes in a very personal way how Trump’s assault has shaken democracy to its core. At the same time, she places current events in a broader context: How do German experiences of democracy differ from those of Americans? What role do historical and contemporary developments play? How can a democratic order be protected against anti-democratic attacks? And what lessons can German democracy draw from the American upheaval? ​

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/das-amerikanische-beben

Queer Is Not Dead Festival Opening

Vrankrijk, Friday, August 28 at 07:00 PM GMT+2

In our current political climate we need to focus on what unites us – Queer is not dead Fest aims to strengthen and connect the antifascist and queer communities.

The fest consists of workshops, skill sharing and parties, related to queer and antifascist topics and groups. There will be open slots for spontaneous contributions, discussions and action-planning.

You don’t need to be queer to join the fest, it’s meant to connect different political movements that engage in antifascist actions with the queer community.

The fest is:
Antifascist,
Antiracist,
Anticapitalist,
Vegan,
Pro Palestinian,
Queer or queer allies,
Anti Meta.

More info coming soon!

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/queer-is-not-dead-festival-opening

A Brief History of Environmental Humour

SPUI25, Thursday, September 3 at 08:00 PM GMT+2

What is and can be the role of humour in environmental literature? Nicole Seymour will explore this question by discussing two primary Anglophone genres: nature writing and cli-fi. While the first has been widely stereotyped as preachy and sentimental, Seymour returns to its playful roots as well as its recent tradition of self-satire. And while cli-fi has a progressive reputation, she will show that the genre’s recent deployments of humour have had troubling effects, such as erasing Indigenous perspectives.

Seymour will place these phenomena in their larger contexts, including the development of queer ecologies as a critical framework and the rise of meta-modernism as a cultural sensibility. After her talk, she will be joined in conversation by Peter van Dam, Barnita Bagchi, and moderator Jesse van Amelsvoort. Together, they will think about environmental humour in other literary and cultural traditions and histories across Europe, South Asia, and North America. How do protest movements use humour and other playful affects? How to read Dutch environmental discourses and genres in this respect? And how does children’s literature incorporate humour?

Speakers

Nicole Seymour is Professor of English and Graduate Advisor for Environmental Studies at California State University, Fullerton. Her most recent books are Glitter (Bloomsbury) and Bad Environmentalism: Irony and Irreverence in the Ecological Age (University of Minnesota Press). She is working on a new book project about the right-wing appropriation of camp aesthetics.

Peter van Dam is professor of Dutch history at the University of Amsterdam. Inspired by social, environmental, and political history, he investigates how people attempt to change their relationships with each other and the environment. The handling of food and energy are central to this work. His latest book is Fair Trade: Humanitarianism in the Age of Postcolonial Globalization.

Barnita Bagchi is Chair and Professor in World Literatures in English at the University of Amsterdam. Her expertises on women’s writing, utopia, dystopia, heterotopia, and speculative scenarios has led to current work on ecologies, the environment, and literature.

Jesse van Amelsvoort (moderator) is a scholar of comparative literature, and a lecturer in European Studies, University of Amsterdam. His latest book is Post-National Worlds in Contemporary European Literature.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/a-brief-history-of-environmental-humour

AI, Infrastructures and Sustainability

SPUI25, Wednesday, September 2 at 08:00 PM GMT+2

Why are we rapidly expanding AI infrastructures? What is the social and environmental impact of rapidly expanding AI infrastructures? Who benefits from the AI–hype and who bears the costs? How do metaphors used to describe technology restrict our understanding of these questions?

Speakers

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/ai-infrastructures-and-sustainability

Roots, Ancestors, DNA: What are we looking for?

SPUI25, Friday, September 18 at 08:00 PM GMT+2

DNA tests, genealogical databases, the Dutch TV show Spoorloos, roots travels, family constellations, the search for biological ancestors: a (marketed) mass interest in ancestry and lineage has emerged in western worlds.

“In all of us, there is a hunger, bone-marrow deep, to know our heritage—to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning.”
– Alex Haley

Since Alex Haley’s influential 1976 novel Roots, America has seen the rise of a genealogical industry. Western Europe would later start to pick up on the frenzy, with TV shows such as the Dutch Spoorloos, and the BBC’s Who do you think you are?, and particularly with the booming of DNA tests in the 21st century. Simultaneously, the value of ancestors and biological lineage has been accentuated from a different perspective. Stimulated by critical black studies, indigenous studies, and adoption studies, these voices bring to the fore the trauma and impact of forcefully broken (biological) family ties under colonialism, slavery, and international adoption.

Biological descent, lineage, and family trees are quite ambiguous issues. They also carry connotations of biological determinism, racism, and patriarchy. How can racial notions of biological descendance or nationalist belonging, and patriarchal foundations of lineage be critically distinguished from the longing for reparation after separations from ancestors, family, or parents? And, in the case of LHBTQI histories, how have symbolic ancestors done the work of rooting identities in the past in the absence of biological lineage? In sum: What kind of relationships with the past are sought for, and which ones are neglected or excluded?

Speakers

Francesca Morgan teaches U.S. history at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. Her publications include her 2021 book on American genealogy’s political dimensions, entitled A Nation of Descendants, and her earlier monograph on hereditary organizations, Women and Patriotism in Jim Crow America (2005).

Chiara Candaele is a postdoctoral researcher at NL-Lab, KNAW. She specializes in studying the historical intersections of children and colonialism. She wrote a Ph.D. dissertation on the history of transnational adoption in postcolonial Belgium, and is currently conducting research on institutional childcare in the Dutch East Indies/Indonesia (1800-1980).

Ayşenur Korkmaz received her Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on the afterlives of the Armenian genocide, touching upon mass violence, genealogy, and heritage studies. Korkmaz currently works at the Meertens Institute on an ERC-funded project, where she focuses on Turkey’s immersive heritage spaces and the political imaginaries of neo-Ottomanism.

Marijke Huisman is assistant professor of Public History in the Department of History at Utrecht University, interested in emancipatory uses of the past. She recently published Queer geschiedenis van Nederland. De strijd om een eigen verleden (2026). (A Queer History of the Netherlands. The Struggle around a History of Themselves).

Geertje Mak (moderator) is Professor of Gender History and Senior Researcher at the University of Amsterdam, NL-Lab and KNAW.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/roots-ancestors-dna-what-are-we-looking-for

Een avond met Douglas Stuart over zijn nieuwste roman ‘John, zoon van John’

SPUI25, Friday, September 18 at 08:00 PM GMT+2

Deze avond ontvangen we bekroond bestsellerauteur Douglas Stuart. De Schots-Amerikaanse schrijver, die in 2020 de Booker Prize won met zijn debuut Shuggie Bain, gaat in gesprek over zijn laatste roman, John, zoon van John, en over het schrijverschap dat hem tot een van de meest geprezen stemmen van nu maakte.

In John, zoon van John keert John-Calum – Cal voor wie hem kent – na een mislukte start als kunstenaar berooid terug naar het Schotse eiland Harris. Daar wachten de twee pijlers van zijn jeugd: zijn vader John, schaapsboer, tweedwever en lekenprediker, en zijn grootmoeder Ella, een warme en ruwgebekte vrouw uit Glasgow. Cal verlangt naar een soort leven dat op het kale eiland weinig ruimte krijgt, terwijl zijn vader worstelt met zijn zoons lange haren, de vreemde kleren en het geloof dat maar niet wil beklijven. Douglas Stuart schreef een roman over afkomst en plicht, over mannelijkheid en verlangen, en over de ingewikkelde liefde tussen een vader en een zoon en gaat hierover deze avond in gesprek. Koop hier je ticket.

Douglas Stuart (1976) is een Schots-Amerikaanse schrijver. Zijn debuut Shuggie Bain won in 2020 de Booker Prize en werd in meer dan veertig talen vertaald. Daarna verscheen Young Mungo. John, zoon van John is zijn nieuwste roman; het boek werd gekozen voor Oprah’s Book Club en is een wereldwijde bestseller.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/een-avond-met-douglas-stuart-over-zijn-nieuwste-roman-john-zoon-van-john

​​Over de grens: identiteit, cultuur en de postnationale verbeelding​

SPUI25, Wednesday, September 9 at 05:00 PM GMT+2

We zeggen vaak dat mensen tegenwoordig wereldburgers zijn, kosmopolieten, ‘anywheres’. In zijn nieuwe boek Post-National Worlds in Contemporary European Literature laat Jesse van Amelsvoort aan de hand van het werk van zeven Europese schrijvers zien dat dat helemaal niet zo is. Mensen voelen zich niet overal thuis – en tegelijkertijd heeft zelfs de meest verstokte nationalist een zwak voor die ene buitenlandse stad, die ene streek, dat ene eiland. Tijdens dit programma bespreken we wat de postnationale verbeelding ons leert over grenzen, identiteit en politiek in de eenentwintigste eeuw.

ls je ergens in de jaren 1970 in West-Berlijn staat en het regent, zou het dan ook regenen in Oost-Berlijn? Die ogenschijnlijk ridicule vraag stelt het hoofdpersonage zich in de roman Seltsame Sterne starren zur Erde (2003) van Emine Sevgi Özdamar. Deze vraag naar de verbeelding van een plek is een kernvraag in het werk van Özdamar, een van de zeven schrijvers wier werk Van Amelsvoort analyseert. Literatuur kan gemeenplaatsen en idées reçues bevragen, zoals in dit geval de vermeende gelijkheid tussen delen van een stad. Tegelijkertijd rijst de vraag: waren West- en Oost-Berlijn nou echt zo anders omdat ze in twee verschillende landen lagen? Oftewel: wat betekent de plek waar we wonen? Bewegen we ons in ons dagelijks leven door een stad, een wijk, een regio, of zelfs een land?

In een gesprek met drie literatuur- en cultuurwetenschappers gaat Jesse van Amelsvoort in gesprek over onderwerpen als taal en meertaligheid, diversiteit, grenzen, belonging en de postnationale verbeelding in Europa en elders. Zijn we al echt voorbij de natiestaat? Wat is precies de waarde en het belang van een grens? Hoe verhoudt literatuur zich tot andere kunstvormen, en tot de bredere maatschappij? En wie leeft er niet een postnationaal leven?

Maria Barnas verzorgt een poëtische bijdrage.

Sprekers

Jesse van Amelsvoort is docent moderne Europese letterkunde aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Hij is de auteur van Loft en lân. Gesprekken over Tsjêbbe Hettinga (2021) en Post-National Worlds in Contemporary European Literature (2026).

Maria Barnas is dichter, beeldend kunstenaar en redacteur van De Gids. Haar veelbekroonde werk onderzoekt de transformerende kracht en de beperkingen van taal. Meest recent publiceerde ze de bundels Diamant zonder r (2022) en Tussen mij (2026).

Sudha Rajagopalan is universitair docent (Oost-)Europese Studies aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Ze is de auteur van Indian Films in Soviet Cinemas: the Culture of Movie-going after Stalin (2009) en Journeys of Soviet Things: Cold War as Lived Experience in Cuba and India (2023). Haar nieuwe onderzoek gaat over transnationale intimiteit en vriendschapsgebaren.

Aafje de Roest is universitair docent moderne Nederlandse letterkunde aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. In 2026 publiceerde ze De nieuwe golf: Culturele identiteit in hedendaagse Nederlandstalige hiphop. Haar werk richt zich op hedendaagse literaire cultuur, jongerencultuur en verbeeldingen van de toekomst.

Tjalling Valdés Olmos is universitair docent mondiale en koloniale mediageschiedenis aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Zijn onderzoek richt zich op de mondialisering en genres van koloniale verbeeldingen, vooral waar het gaat over settler colonialism. In 2025 verscheen Rural Imaginations for a Globalized World, dat hij samen met Esther Peeren redigeerde.

Carlijn Cober (moderator) doceert Europese literatuur en cultuur aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. In 2026 is ze aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen gepromoveerd op affecttheorie en het werk van Roland Barthes. Met een essay over Oroppa won ze in 2025 de Elise Mathilde Essayprijs.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/over-de-grens-identiteit-cultuur-en-de-postnationale-verbeelding

Nederlands-Duitse cultuurdialogen: Dilan Yurdakul & Fatih Akın

SPUI25, Friday, June 26 at 08:00 PM GMT+2

In deze editie van de Nederlands-Duitse cultuurdialogen een gesprek tussen de Nederlandse actrice, schrijfster en theatermaakster Dilan Yurdakul en de Duitse regisseur Fatih Akın (bekend van onder meer Gegen die Wand). Over identiteit, vrijheid, rebellie en het kunstenaarschap van deze inspirerende makers – en hoe zij elkaar inspireren. En over hun visie op het culturele landschap van Nederland en Duitsland. Moderatie: Britta Bendieck (DIA/UvA).

De voertaal van dit programma is Duits. De vragen uit het publiek kunnen wel in het Nederlands of Engels worden gesteld.

Tijdens de Nederlands-Duitse cultuurdialogen brengen wij Nederlandse en Duitse kunstenaars en cultuurmakers bij elkaar om te spreken over hun werk en inspiratie, maar ook over het cultuurlandschap in beide landen. Welke thema’s houden cultureel Nederland en Duitsland bezig? Waar kunnen wij van de ander leren?

Wie inspireert jou? En met wie zou je graag in gesprek gaan? Die vragen stelden wij aan actrice, schrijfster en theatermaakster Dilan Yurdakul. Haar antwoord: Fatih Akın. De films en documentaires van de bekende Duitse regisseur draaien om de zoektocht naar identiteit en vrijheid. Motieven die ook een grote rol spelen in Yurdakuls eigen werk. De woede, directheid en rebellie in Akıns veelgeprezen film Gegen die Wand inspireerden haar tot het maken van de Videoland-serie Bonnie & Clyde.

Ook Duitsland vormt een belangrijk aanknopingspunt tussen hen beiden. Yurdakul studeerde Duitse taal en cultuur en voelt zich aangetrokken tot de rauwheid en radicaliteit van de Duitse literatuur. Voor Fatih Akın is de Duitse samenleving – en haar omgang met het verleden – een terugkerend thema in zijn oeuvre.

Tijdens deze cultuurdialoog gaan wij met beide artiesten in gesprek over hun kunstenaarschap en drijfveren. We vragen hen wat kunst kan betekenen in een onrustige, gepolariseerde wereld, hoe zij naar het culturele klimaat in Nederland en Duitsland kijken en waar kansen liggen voor samenwerking en nieuwe gezamenlijke projecten.

Sprekers

Dilan Yurdakul is actrice, schrijfster en theatermaakster. Ze studeerde Europese Studies en Duitse taal en cultuur aan de UvA. Ze schreef en speelde de solovoorstellingen Door de schaduw heen, Niet gezien, niet gehoord, Alter en De Stille Vrouw. Ze speelde de hoofdrol in de Videolandserie Bonnie & Clyde, waar ze tevens de bedenker en medeschrijver van was. Ook schreef ze de roman Maskerziel en speelde de hoofdrol in de bioscoopfilm De jacht op Meral Ö, gebaseerd op de toeslagenaffaire. Yurdakul is vanwege haar achtergrond geboeid door de wrijving tussen vrijheid en identiteit, tussen autonomie en gemeenschap.

Fatih Akın is een Duitse filmregisseur, acteur en producent. Als zoon van Turkse gastarbeiders groeide hij op in Hamburg-Altona. Al op school schreef hij korte verhalen en scenario’s en experimenteerde hij met film. Tijdens zijn studie Visuele Communicatie in Hamburg maakte hij zijn eerste korte films en werkte hij als acteur en schrijver. Met Gegen die Wand brak hij internationaal door en won hij prijzen als de Gouden Beer en de Europese Filmpreis. Aus dem Nichts (2018) leverde hem ook erkenning in de VS op, waaronder een Golden Globe. In zijn nieuwste werk Amrum (2026) bestudeert hij het Duitse schuldbesef aan de hand van een coming-of-age verhaal.

Britta Bendieck is werkzaam als docent en wetenschapper bij het Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam (DIA). Zij doceert bij de afdeling Moderne Vreemde Talen en Culturen aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Ze promoveerde op de rol van kunstenaar Armando in de Duits-Nederlandse cultuurtransfer. Haar werk richt zich op Duits-Nederlandse culturele relaties, culturele bemiddelaars en hedendaagse Duitstalige literatuur. Vanuit de Medical Humanities onderzoekt ze momenteel welke rol kunst kan spelen in tijden van onzekerheid en ziekte.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/nederlands-duitse-cultuurdialogen-dilan-yurdakul-and-fatih-akin

​​Falling Walls Lab Amsterdam​

SPUI25, Thursday, June 18 at 08:00 PM GMT+2

Three minutes is all it takes! During the Falling Walls Lab, students and early-career professionals present their innovative and ground-shaking ideas to a distinguished jury and the public. Which research will tear down walls in the future?

On 18 June 2026, the Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam will host the Falling Walls Lab Amsterdam as part of its 30th anniversary.

During this Science Slam, students and early-career professionals will pitch their innovative and groundbreaking idea or research in 3 minutes to a professional jury. The central question is:

“Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, where will walls come down and breakthroughs occur in the near future?”

The winner will travel to Berlin in November for the Falling Walls Global Finale.

The jury consists of: Anahit Galstyan (Head of Agronomy, Operations Technology, at BASF| Nunhems), Thomas Walter (Policy Officer at the German Embassy The Hague), Leah Niederhausen (PhD candidate Restitution, Archives and Historical Justice at the University of Humanistic Studies), Felix Bohr (Journalist at German weekly Der Spiegel) and David Caspar Peter (Associate Professor in Financial Accounting at the Erasmus University Rotterdam).

Speakers

Ellen Ipenburg Tomesen (moderator) has been working at the Dutch Embassy in Berlin for four years and is Head of the Science and Education Team. She is also accredited to Switzerland. Prior to this, she worked on various international dossiers and themes for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

Jury:

Anahit Galstyan is a Plant Geneticist with extensive international experience spanning both academia and industry. Currently, she leads a global, multidisciplinary Agronomy team at OTEC within BASF | Nunhems. In this role, they focus on scouting, developing, and implementing innovative technologies that enable efficient and reliable seed production across diverse crops. They partner closely with crop seed production teams worldwide to address production challenges, enhance operational efficiency, and improve overall productivity.

Felix Bohr is a historian, author and journalist. He studied history and Catholic theology in Berlin and Rome. He has been working for the news magazine Der Spiegel since 2012 and currently heads the history department.

Leah Niederhausen is a historian and PhD Candidate at the University of Humanistic Studies, Utrecht. She conducts research into the restitution of colonial archives, focusing on the (re)production of historical knowledge, narratives, and justice.

Caspar David Peter is an Associate Professor in Financial Accounting. He joined the Rotterdam School of Management after completing the PhD Program at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in 2015 and holds a Diploma (MSc equivalent) in Business and Economics from the Ruhr University Bochum. His research interest focus on economic consequences of transparency and combine the fields of financial accounting and economics.

Thomas Walter is the Cultural Affairs Officer at the German Embassy in The Hague, with many years of experience in the fields of event management and book retail.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/falling-walls-lab-amsterdam

​Psycho-Politics: Authoritarianism and the Return of the Repressed​

SPUI25, Thursday, June 18 at 05:00 PM GMT+2

To what extent can psychoanalysis and critical social psychology help us understand the current political conjuncture, where rising fascisms around the world increasingly appear as a kind of “return of the repressed”? This event brings together two leading theorists in psycho-political theory to reflect on psychic explanations of current authoritarian mobilisations.

How can psychoanalytic and critical psychological perspectives illuminate the contemporary resurgence of authoritarian and anti-democratic tendencies?

Alenka Zupančič: Adapting to a New Reality?

We often hear today that, as the old world order is collapsing, we must adapt to a new reality. But what exactly does this mean—and, more importantly, what does it entail? Jacques Lacan once wrote that we easily ‘adapt to reality. The truth we repress.’ What is the cost of this repression, and what does it imply for the so-called new reality, or new world order? These and other questions will be discussed from the perspective of what many perceive today as a new rise of fascism.

Hannah Proctor: Authoritarian Personalities Then and Now

Alberto Toscano’s Late Fascism (2023) opens with a section on the ‘spectre of analogy’: ‘Those who find themselves living in times of crisis and disorientation often seek shelter and guidance in analogies’. But the present, he argues, should not be mistaken for the past. Following Trump’s first election victory in 2016 there was a flurry of interest in historical attempts to understand the psychological appeal of fascism from Wilhelm Reich’s Mass Psychology of Fascism to Adorno et al’s The Authoritarian Personality. In this lecture Proctor will return to debates about right and left authoritarianism from the early years of the Cold War that raged following the publication of The Authoritarian Personality in 1950, arguing that while the ideological discussions and methodological approach taken by social scientists at that time are not analogous to the present, that some of the questions they were asking about the relationship between politics and the psyche are nonetheless worth revisiting in the context of our current conjuncture.

Speakers

Alenka Zupančič is a Slovene philosopher and social theorist, one of the prominent members of the ‘Ljubljana school of psychoanalysis’. She works as Research Councilor at the Institute of Philosophy, Scientific Research Center of the Slovene Academy of Sciences, Ljubljana. She is also professor at the European Graduate School in Switzerland, and is guest lecturer to numerous universities worldwide. Notable for her work on the intersection of philosophy and psychoanalysis, she is the author of numerous articles and many books, including Ethics of the Real: Kant and Lacan; The Shortest Shadow: Nietzsche’s Philosophy of the Two; The Odd One In: On Comedy; What is Sex?; Let Them Rot: Antigone’s Parallax; and Disavowal.

Hannah Proctor holds a Wellcome University Award at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Her second book Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat was published by Verso in 2024. She is a member of the Radical Philosophy editorial collective and is a contributing editor at Parapraxis. She is currently working on two new book projects: Communist Cases, an academic monograph on Cold War era social science in the US for OUP, and a history of the long 1990s for Verso. She is also interested in revenge.

Jana Cattien is Assistant Professor in Social and Political Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, in the capacity group Philosophy and Public Affairs. Her research and teaching is situated in continental philosophy (phenomenology, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism), feminist theory, critical race theory and postcolonial theory. Her work has been published in journals like Feminist Theory, New German Critique, Hypatia, Signs, and Radical Philosophy.

Veerle van Wijngaarden is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam. Her research lies at the intersection of sexual ethics, feminist philosophy, and critical theory, and focuses on the problem of sexual subjectivity. In her PhD dissertation, Change What You Want? Sexual Subjectivity and the Politics of Desire, she examines how sexual subjects are constituted through relations of recognition, vulnerability, and objecthood, and how these dynamics complicate dominant frameworks of consent and autonomy.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/psycho-politics-authoritarianism-and-the-return-of-the-repressed

Trauma and Affect

SPUI25, Tuesday, June 23 at 05:00 PM GMT+2

Given the many current wars and conflicts, it is crucial to understand how trauma works, how it is stored in our bodies, and how it manifests itself time and again. In this programme Ernst van Alphen, Ihab Saloul, Eugenie Brinkema, and Ronald Ophuis engage in a dialogue regarding Van Alphen’s latest book, ‘Trauma and Affect’, in which he explores the power of these concepts through art and literature.

Trauma and affect: both concepts have become increasingly important in the critique of art, literature, and culture since the 1990s. The concepts have been used in many different ways and disciplines, including queer studies, feminism, cultural analysis, art criticism, literary studies, and postcolonial studies, as well as sociology and economics. However, with the current tendency to easily use the concepts in relation to everyday events, they have suffered from inflation. This led to widespread confusion: the terms have been overused and exhausted, thereby losing their critical power.

Ernst van Alphen, Ihab Saloul, Eugenie Brinkema, and Ronald Ophuis will engage in a discussion, posing questions such as: what relevance and critical power do the concepts hold today? And how are they intertwined?

The guiding of this program is Van Alphen’s new book titled Trauma and Affect: (Mis)Understanding Pain Through Art and Culture (Valiz, 2026). Through the lens of visual artworks, literature, and cinema, Van Alphen explains how trauma originates in the past and what explains its re-enactment in the present. In addition, he discusses artists who develop strategies that process affect into critical making and thinking.

The work of visual artist Ronald Ophuis demonstrates how the ideas of trauma and affect are made productive, a proposition that will be explored in greater depth during the panel discussion.

Valiz’s founder and director Astrid Vorstermans will open the programme with a short introduction.

Speakers

Ernst van Alphen is professor emeritus of Literary Studies at Leiden University. Before that, he was Queen Beatrix Professor of Dutch Studies at UC Berkeley. His fields of research and expertise are cultural analysis, trauma and affect studies, and gender studies. He is particularly interested in issues that are central in modern and postmodern literature and in the relation between literature and the visual arts. His most recent publications include: Seven Logics of Sculpture (Valiz 2023), Productive Archiving (ed. Valiz 2023), Shame! and Masculinity (ed. Valiz 2021), among others.

Ihab Saloul is Founder and Research Director of the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM), and Professor of Memory and Narrative at the at the University of Amsterdam. Saloul is a founding editor of several book series: Global Heritage and Memory Studies in the Present (Amsterdam University Press), Heritage and Memory Studies (Routledge), Palgrave Studies of Cultural Heritage and Conflict (Palgrave Macmillan), and the forthcoming book series Palestine: Past, Present and Future Narratives (Central European University Press CEU).

Eugenie Brinkema is Professor of Contemporary Literature and Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, status-only Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto, and affiliated faculty at the University of Amsterdam. Her work focuses on the relationship between aesthetic form and violence, affect, sexuality, and ethics. She is the author of numerous articles and two books: The Forms of the Affects (2014) and Life-Destroying Diagrams (2022), both with Duke University Press.

Ronald Ophuis lives and works in Amsterdam. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the AKI in Enschede. Ophuis’s practice interrogates the representation of interpersonal trauma and the pervasive inclination to avert one’s gaze. Drawing on sustained research, dialogues with involved subjects, and carefully staged scenes with actors, he constructs paintings that position the viewer as an implicated witness, mobilizing art as a site for affective engagement, critical reflection, and ethical judgment. He is also a member of SAAC (Sexually Abused Artists Collective).

Astrid Vorstermans is the publisher/founder of Valiz, with a background in art history and a long path in publishing. www.valiz.nl

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/trauma-and-affect

Platform Power

SPUI25, Wednesday, June 24 at 08:00 PM GMT+2

Artificial intelligence, platform consolidation, geopolitical struggles over digital infrastructure, and increasingly polarized online cultures have transformed the terrain of public life. Critique of digital systems is no longer confined to specialists. But what comes after diagnosis? A conversation organized by the Institute of Network Cultures.

For over two decades, the Institute of Network Cultures has critically engaged with digital culture through research, artistic experimentation, and para-academic forms of public engagement. How have the conditions for critique changed?

If earlier moments of network culture were shaped by promises of openness, participation, and distributed organization, the present conjuncture raises more difficult questions. What forms of critique remain possible when digital infrastructures increasingly mediate politics, labor, culture, and knowledge? Has the object of critique itself shifted — from websites and social platforms to AI systems, synthetic media, logistics, and new forms of algorithmic governance?

At the same time, the institutional conditions for critique have also changed. As universities and cultural institutions face increasing pressures of precarity, quantification, and commercialization, para-academic spaces such as the Institute of Network Cultures have taken on renewed significance. But how can critical and experimental spaces sustain themselves while maintaining autonomy?

As the opening event of the Institute of Network Culture’s Exit Fest — marking a moment of institutional transition as INC reimagines its future beyond the university — this event brings together leading thinkers in media theory and critical network cultures. The conversation reflects on platform power, the changing conditions of critique, and the institutional and collective forms through which critique might still be sustained — both within and beyond the university.

Speakers

Tiziana Terranova is Professor of Cultural Studies and Digital Media Theory at the University of Naples “L’Orientale.” A major theorist of network culture and digital capitalism, her work explores digital labor, automation, platform economies, and the digital commons. She is the author of Network Culture (2004) and After the Internet (2022).

Ned Rossiter is Professor at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, and a theorist of media infrastructures, logistics, and organized networks. His work examines how digital systems reorganize labor, institutions, and political life, with particular attention to automation, platform economies, and new forms of organization.

Yuk Hui is Professor of Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam and one of the leading contemporary philosophers of technology. Known for his concept of cosmotechnics, his work explores the relationship between technology, culture, ecology, and planetary futures, challenging universal understandings of technological development.

Anna-Verena Nosthoff is Junior Professor of Ethics of Digitalisation at the University of Oldenburg and Co-Director of the Critical Data Lab at Humboldt University Berlin. Her work examines platform power, AI, cybernetics, and digital governance, with particular attention to Big Tech, political subjectivity, and contemporary forms of technological control.

Geert Lovink is founder of the Institute of Network Cultures and Professor of Art and Network Cultures at the University of Amsterdam. His work spans tactical media, organized networks, platform critique, and alternative forms of publishing and digital organization. He is the author of numerous books on internet culture and networked media.

Marc Tuters(introduction) is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam and co-director of the Open Intelligence Lab. His research focuses on platform cultures, propaganda, conspiracy theories, and digital infrastructures, with particular attention to online political movements and media ecologies.

Jernej Markelj (chair) is a Lecturer in New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on affective politics of digital media, agentic imaginaries of AI, and online gender.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/platform-power

Reimagining African Independence

SPUI25, Wednesday, June 3 at 05:00 PM GMT+2

In 1968, Augusta Conchilia, a journalist and photographer, went to Angola to document the guerrilla warfare conducted by the liberation movement against the Portuguese occupation. Her documentary film A Proposito dell’Angoloa (1971) drew the attention of the international community on the oppression of the Angolan people. How can visual culture challenge oppressive power systems? How does it raise questions of witnessing and responsibility vis-à-vis African independence movements?

This event is part of Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis’ Annual Conference, this year titled “Wayward Visuality: The Question of Violence and Liberation”.

Conchilia’s images of the combatants wretchedly dressed while marching with sticks instead of guns attracted the attention of the international community on the oppression of the Angolan people and the heroism of the rebels. Her journey through Angola resulted in the book Guerra di Popolo in Angola, a photo reportage realised together with the MPLA partisans (1969), and the documentary on the struggle for liberation titled A Proposito dell’Angoloa (1971).

On June 3rd, Augusta’s film will be screened (not in its entirety) to open a discussion to think about visual culture as wayward in its work to refuse systems of oppression. Where the wayward is understood as that which threatens structures of oppression and power, through one’s deviance from oppressive systems and making a commitment to living an emancipated futurity now. A Proposito dell’Angoloa provides an opportunity to untangle questions of witnessing and responsibility.

Speakers

Rodrigo Brum is a film producer, programmer, and scholar. He is Associate Professor of Practice in the Film Program at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and a Ph.D. candidate at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (UvA), where his research focuses on the development of film education in Africa and Latin America during the Third Cinema movement.

Maria do Carmo Piçarra is vice-coordinator of ICNOVA at Nova University of Lisbon, an assistant professor at FSCH- Nova University of Lisbon, and a film curator. She was awarded the Hélio and Amélia Pedroso/Luso-American Foundation Endowed Chair in Portuguese Studies at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (2023). Her research subjects focus on (post)colonial filmic representations, film propaganda and censorship in Portugal, women in decolonization movements and militant uses of the image.

Eleri Connick (moderator) is a doctoral candidate at the University of Amsterdam’s School Cultural Analysis. Her doctoral project is titled: “The Material Witness: Practices of Palestinian Refusal in Amman”. Drawing upon curated workshops in Amman and in-depth ethnographic research she explores how objects that interlocuters bring to the workshops become disobedient in their refusal of hegemony and what counts as a Palestinian narrative. She was the Darat al Funun PhD Fellow in February to July 2023 and the Sijal Scholar in Summer 2026.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/reimagining-african-independence

The Making of a Global Icon: Nefertiti’s Growing Fame in the 20th Century

SPUI25, Thursday, June 4 at 05:00 PM GMT+2

​When the bust of Nefertiti, queen of Egypt’s 18th dynasty, was discovered in 1912, it marked the beginning of her global career as an iconic image. She has been admired by many; from National Socialists and nationalists in Egypt and Bengal, to prominent figures such as Beyoncé. Being on display in a Berlin museum, the bust has never been returned to Egypt. In this lecture, historian Sebastian Conrad will show how Nefertiti’s journey illuminates the changing forms of globalization, from the age of imperialism to the present.

Nefertiti was the great royal wife of pharaoh Akhenaten. The discovery of her stucco coated limestone bust in 1912 was the beginning of a career as a global icon, used for a wide variety of purposes. The silhouette alone of this powerful Ancient Egyptian queen was recognized and admired around the world, from National Socialists and nationalists in Egypt and Bengal, to prominent Black figures such as Elijah Muhammad and Beyoncé.

​Immediately after its first exhibition in Berlin in 1924, Egypt unsuccessfully demanded its restitution. Still today, the bust is the must-see museum piece of the New Museum in Berlin. Against a global backdrop, historian Sebastian Conrad showcases the stunning object’s fame and the often-controversial issues and debates in which it has been embroiled. He argues that the story of Nefertiti’s trajectory offers insights into the changing shape of globalization from the era of imperialism until now.

​Speakers

​Sebastian Conrad is a leading scholar in global history. He holds the Chair of Modern History at Freie Universität Berlin and taught, among others, at the European University Institute in Florence. Conrad has been on the editorial board of prominent peer reviewed journals such as Geschichte und Gesellschaft and Contributions to the History of Concepts. Among his many books, he published What Is Global History? (2016), German Colonialism, A Short History (2012), and Globalisation and the Nation in Imperial Germany (2010). The English version of his German-language book on Nefertiti will be published this year.

Hanco Jürgens is a member of the academic staff of the Duitsland Instituut and a fellow at the Montesquieu Institute. He teaches German and European history at the University of Amsterdam. Jürgens’ research focuses on the history of modern Germany in both European and global contexts. Currently, he is researching the transformation of German society since the 1970s as a result of globalization, digitalization, and social changes. He has published on a wide range of topics, such as the colonial and religious history of the eighteenth century, Dutch German relations in the twentieth century, memory culture, and German EU policy.

Marieke Bloembergen is senior researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), and professor in Heritage and Postcolonial Studies in Indonesian History at Leiden University. Her research interests concern the politics of cultural knowledge and heritage formation in colonial and postcolonial Indonesia in transnational and global contexts, through the prism of sites, objects and non-human species, in relation to religion, violence, and practices of (environmental) care. Her most recent monograph, co-authored with Martijn Eickhoff, is The Politics of Heritage in Indonesia: A Cultural History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020).

Natalie Scholz is Senior Lecturer of modern and contemporary history at the University of Amsterdam. In her work she tries to understand the culturally and emotionally mediated intersection between modern political regimes and national, ethnic and gender identities. She has published on the popular imaginations of the 19th century French Restoration monarchy and more recently on the political meanings of commodities and modernism in postwar Germany. Her latest publication is Redeeming Objects: A West German Mythology (University of Wisconsin Press 2023).

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/the-making-of-a-global-icon-nefertitis-growing-fame-in-the-20th-century

Talking Back and Looking Forward: Prof. Kimberlé Crenshaw on Intersectionality

SPUI25, Friday, June 5 at 03:00 PM GMT+2

Debates around DEI, education, and collective memory are becoming increasingly contested. At this urgent moment, we are honored to welcome Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, a pioneering scholar whose work has given us the language to understand these dynamics.

As one of the founders of Critical Race Theory and the scholar who coined the term intersectionality in 1989, Doctor Crenshaw has spent decades working at the intersection of civil rights, legal theory, and social justice.

On Friday, June 5th, the influential legal scholar and author will join Room for Discussion to discuss her new book, Backtalker: An American Memoir, and the enduring relevance of her work on intersectionality.

Following the interview, there will be a book sale, with an opportunity to have your copy of Backtalker signed by Professor Crenshaw herself. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to meet one of the most influential scholars and activists of our time!

Location: Roeterseiland, REC C1.04

The register link will be published soon on the website of Room for Discussion.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/talking-back-and-looking-forward-prof-kimberle-crenshaw-on-intersectionality

Feminist Solidarity and Resistance in a More-than-Human World

SPUI25, Thursday, July 2 at 05:00 PM GMT+2

Why is the current ecological and climate crisis a feminist issue? In what ways can feminist methodologies and concepts be mobilised to understand and act upon pressing more-than-human problems? During this event, Jasmijn Leeuwenkamp discusses these questions with four voices working in the environmental humanities and law: Astrida Neimanis, Rosi Braidotti, Emily Jones, and Jetske Brouwer. Nele Buyst will provide a poetic intermezzo.

Despite the tendency to objectify and quantify ecological and climatic disruptions, these do not happen in an abstract and external realm with respect to human bodies. As embodied beings, posthumanist and ecological feminists argue, we are materially entangled with various life forms for survival. Those relations are currently under threat from extreme weather events, pollution, loss in biodiversity, ocean acidification, and rising sea levels. How to reorient these vulnerable relations ethically, politically, and legally? How can we foster practices of solidarity and resistance?

In their new book How to Weather Together, Astrida Neimanis and Jennifer Mae Hamilton propose “weathering” as both an ecological feminist framework and a set of practical tools for responding to environmental catastrophe. In SPUI25, Neimanis will lay out their ideas, and is joined in conversation by Rosi Braidotti, Emily Jones, and Jetske Brouwer. They, too, will share conceptual tools for posthuman and feminist ethics, politics, and law. Nele Buyst, additionally, will read poetry. Following the public defence of her dissertation “Rethinking Human and Nonhuman Rights in the Anthropocene,” Jasmijn Leeuwenkamp will moderate the discussion.

Speakers

Astrida Neimanis is Canada Research Chair in Feminist Environmental Humanities at the University of British Columbia, Canada on unceded syilx territory. She is the (co-)author of various publications including Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology and How to Weather Together: Feminist Practice for Climate Change (with Jennifer Mae Hamilton).

Rosi Braidotti is a continental and feminist philosopher and an emeritus professor of Utrecht University. Her many publications include The Posthuman, Posthuman Knowledge, Posthuman Feminism, Nomadic Subjects, and Nomadic Theory.

Nele Buyst publishes poetry and essays. Her second collection CORPS, poreus (het balanseer, 2024) was shortlisted for de Grote Poëzieprijs. She is working on a PhD thesis on the potential of aesthetic practices for repair and is affiliated with the Centre for Ethics at the University of Antwerp. She is an editor at the magazine for culture and criticism rekto:verso.

Emily Jones is a Senior Research Fellow at Newcastle Law School, United Kingdom. Dr Jones’ interdisciplinary research applies critical theory including feminist, queer, posthuman, postcolonial and critical disability studies, to analyse and re-imagine international law.

Jetske Brouwer is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, affiliated with the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA). Working at the intersection of feminist theory and ecological thought, she writes about earthly care, embodiment, and coalition-building.

Jasmijn Leeuwenkamp (moderator) is a philosopher and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam. She recently finished a PhD project on anthropocentrism in human and nonhuman rights discourse. Her work focuses on the interrelations between political philosophy, legal theory, posthumanism, and ecology.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/feminist-solidarity-and-resistance-in-a-more-than-human-world

De eik en de lariks. Een avond over de Russische bossen met Sophie Pinkham

SPUI25, Thursday, June 25 at 05:00 PM GMT+2

De bossen van Rusland reiken van de Oostzee tot de Stille Oceaan en van het Noordpoolgebied tot de steppen van Centraal-Azië. Ze beslaan bijna een vijfde van alle beboste gebieden ter wereld. In De eik en de lariks onderzoekt journalist en literatuurwetenschapper Sophie Pinkham dit immense gebied, bewoond door voorchristelijke bosgeesten, mysterieuze Siberische heremieten, beren, wolven en allerhande volk dat tussen taaie Siberische lariksen en majestueuze eiken een schuilplaats vond vanwege een conflict met het regime. Simone Peek gaat hierover met haar in gesprek.

Voertaal: Engels

Van de Mongoolse invasies tot de oorlog die vandaag in Oekraïne plaatsvindt: Pinkham zet het ondoordringbare en eindeloze woud in als lens om Ruslands lange geschiedenis van imperialistische oorlogen te duiden. Ook laat Pinkham zien hoezeer het de Russische cultuur heeft gevormd, waarbij ze rijkelijk put uit sprookjes en de grote literaire werken. De eik en de lariks is een wervelende geschiedenis van de rol die het bos heeft gespeeld in de Russische cultuur, geschiedenis en politiek.

Sprekers

Sophie Pinkham is hoogleraar aan Cornell University. Haar essays en artikelen verschenen onder meer in The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Guardian en Harper’s. Eerder publiceerde ze Black Square. Adventures in Post-Soviet Ukraine (2016), een portret van Oekraïne waarin ze memoires, reportage en cultuurgeschiedenis combineert.

Simone Peek is journalist en eindredacteur bij de buitenlandredactie van NRC. Ze doet verslag van de Russische oorlog tegen Oekraïne.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/de-eik-en-de-lariks-een-avond-over-de-russische-bossen-met-sophie-pinkham

Brain Bites: Are We Really Having Fewer Children?

SPUI25, Thursday, June 4 at 12:30 PM GMT+2

Birth rates have fallen significantly across the industrialised world in recent decades. Low fertility has attracted growing attention from demographers, economists, and policymakers. In the Netherlands, the total fertility rate (TFR) has dropped from 3.1 in 1960 to 1.4 in 2024, a pattern seen across many developed countries.

In addition to explaining what these figures tell us, Esmée Zwiers will present newly compiled data on fertility by mothers’ birth cohort – that is, grouping mothers by the year they were born rather than the year they gave birth. These findings offer a new perspective on recent trends in birth rates and open new questions about what might be driving them.

Programme

12:15: Doors open
12:30: Introduction by Revka Bijl
12:35: Mini lecture by Esmée Zwiers
12:45: Q&A with Esmée & Revka
13:00: End of programme

The programme is free of charge, but we do ask you to register because of catering. The event is in English and lasts 30 minutes.

Speakers

Esmée Zwiers is an economist with research interests in health economics, labor economics, and economic demography. Her latest work focuses on the interaction between fertility, reproductive health, and the labour market. She is an Assistant Professor at the Amsterdam School of Economics at the University of Amsterdam. Before she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University’s Center for Health and Wellbeing. She received here PhD in Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and Tinbergen Institute. She is also a Research Fellow at IZA and a Research Fellow at the Tinbergen Institute.

Revka Bijl is a member of the communication team of SPUI25. She studied Journalism at the School voor Journalistiek in Utrecht and Media and Culture at the University of Amsterdam. Her Dutch novel Gapen onder water was published by Nieuw Amsterdam in 2019. She is currently working on a new book, as well as working as a presenter and journalist. She also presents a morning show on Red Light Jazz Radio.

About Brain Bites

Brain Bites gives you a quick dose of “brain food” in the form of a short lunch programme in the Salon of the University Library. Every first Thursday of the month, the UvA-podia in the University QuarterExternal link Allard Pierson, SPUI25, VOX-POP and the University Library offer you a brief insight into the work of a UvA researcher. We interview them about their research, give you the opportunity to ask questions and offer you a concise half hour full of ideas and a free lunch.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/brain-bites-are-we-really-having-fewer-children-1

Art Against the Machine

SPUI25, Thursday, June 11 at 05:00 PM GMT+2

Cyborgs, hyperobjects and Spaceship Earth popularised the idea that the distinction between nature and culture should no longer be made. The book Art Against the Machine examines what this implies and argues for distinguishing intensifying automation from what we need to live well, as part of a living earth. Join us this afternoon for the launch of this book. With: Miriam Meissner, Jeff Diamanti, Sruti Bala, Monique Peperkamp.

From a position of concern with ecological breakdown, the book Art Against the Machine: Untrapping Life from Profit-Driven Tech Dependency inquires into the role of art and theory in relation to the hybridist idea that a distinction between nature and culture, between humans and technologies, and between nature and technologies should not be made. It relates the demise of critique of technology to the rise of space perspectives on Earth, the internet and the network economy. This history unfolds a genealogy of the Anthropocene discourse and the proposed aesthetics of an ecology without nature as a naturalisation of technologisation which does not contest, but instead intensifies, the domination of nature inherent in the nature-culture dualism.
The interrogation of artworks—by Melanie Bonajo and Regina José Galindo—shows that both theory and art that understands the need to disentangle humans and nature from the machine(s) is vital to how we create futures in the present.

At the launch, Monique Peperkamp will give a lecture about the book’s thesis. We will then have a panel discussion and Q&A about the usefulness of more structural critique of technology in support of practices of contestation and of social and ecological regeneration.

Speakers

Miriam Meissner is an Assistant Professor of Culture and Political Ecology (Maastricht University) and currently a Visiting Professor at the School of Arts and Humanities, Royal College of Art, London.

Jeff Diamanti teaches Philosophy and Cultural Analysis (UvA) and is Professor of Global History of Sustainable Development (VU)

Sruti Bala is Associate Professor in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Monique Peperkamp is an art historian and cultural researcher and obtained her doctorate at the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analyses in June 2025 (UvA). She has worked as an artist, mentor, lecturer and teacher in art history and cultural theory (e.g. ArtEZ University of the Arts).

Marjanne van Helvert (moderator) is a designer, writer, teacher at Rietveld & Design Academy.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/art-against-the-machine

Abolish Europe

SPUI25, Thursday, June 4 at 08:00 PM GMT+2

“Europe is indefensible”, writes the anticolonial thinker Aimé Césaire already in 1950. A civilization that has practiced, witnessed and justified colonialism and genocide, he argued, would inevitably develop forms of indifference, ignorance and coldness towards human life that allows the most extreme forms of violence and neglect to emerge and to flourish. The manifold forms of brutality we currently observe can thus be seen as the direct consequences of the very concept of “Europe“. What might abolition mean in, for and against Europe?

Abolitionism, as a distinct approach in critical theory and political activism, is often associated with the abolition of slavery in the Americas. Contemporary movements such as police and prison abolitionism are also marked by debates centered on the US. This event asks what abolition might mean in, for and against Europe; its own specific genealogies, articulations and conjunctures of legal and extralegal violence – border regime, militarism, ecological destruction, exploitation and super-exploitation – and its own histories, traditions and coalitions of resistance and living otherwise.

We have invited writers, scholars and activists to discuss the question of what abolition means, has meant and might mean in Europe.

Speakers

Deanna Dadusc is Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton. She examines the criminalization of migration and solidarity by the European border regime.

Akwugo Emejulu is a professor of sociology at the University of Sheffield and the author of Fugitive Feminism (London 2022), amongst other books. She works on the history and presence of Black feminist organizing in Europe.

Simin Jawabreh is a political scientist and activist, living and organizing in Berlin. She explores how marginalized communities manage to create safety from below.

Safae el Khannoussi is a writer and a member of the “Abolition Democracies” research project. She will read from the English translation of her critically acclaimed novel Oroppa.

Oscar Talbot is a philosopher, activist, and a member of the “Abolition Democracies” research project. He will moderate the evening.

This conversation concludes the 4-year research project “Abolition Democracies – Transnational Perspectives” at the University of Amsterdam, funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/abolish-europe

AI Empires

SPUI25, Monday, June 8 at 05:00 PM GMT+2

This debate examines the rise of ‘AI empires’ and the geopolitical struggle over AI’s future. Dr Nick Srnicek will discuss his latest book Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI (Polity, 2025), analysing how corporations and states use AI to consolidate power. The discussion panel will address platform capitalism, Big AI, and control of chips, data, cloud and energy, with responses from Dr Anne Helmond and Prof Thomas Poell.

This debate will explore the emerging landscape of ‘AI empires’ and the struggle over the future of AI. We begin with a talk by Dr. Nick Srnicek (King’s College London) on his latest book: Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI (Polity, 2025). The book offers a critical analysis of the geopolitical economy of AI, examining how powerful corporations and states are competing for dominance. Srnicek argues that AI competition has evolved into a geopolitical struggle between state-backed ‘empires’, particularly in the U.S. and China, which deploy AI to reshape global wealth, power, and infrastructural control.

Following the introduction, Srnicek will be joined by Dr. Anne Helmond (Utrecht University), who will discuss her latest work on Big AI and platformisation, and Prof. Thomas Poell (University of Amsterdam), who will present his research on AI and platform power. Their debate will critically examine the expansion of “platform capitalism”, in which tech giants scale up models based on data extraction, network effects, and infrastructural control to dominate the entire AI value chain from chips and data to cloud services as well as the material foundations of AI, including the scramble for advanced semiconductors, escalating energy demands, and control over global supply chains. Prof. Tobias Blanke (University of Amsterdam) will moderate the debate.

Speakers

Nick Srnicek is Senior Lecturer of Digital Economy at King’s College London. His research focuses on the digital economy, artificial intelligence, anti-work politics, and postcapitalist futures. His book, Platform Capitalism (Polity, 2016), was translated into 15 languages. His latest book is Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI (Polity, 2025). In addition, he has written or co-written more than 30 academic articles and book chapters for a variety of publications, as well as editing two collections.

Anne Helmond is Associate Professor of Media, Data & Society at Utrecht University. Her research places particular emphasis on platformization: the expansion of platforms across the web, the mobile ecosystem, AI technologies, and various societal domains. She focuses on developing methods for empirically and historically studying platformization, the politics and governance of platforms, how platform power is operationalized in practice, and the rise of AI as a platformized infrastructure. She is author of the forthcoming book Platforms: A Critical Introduction (Polity, June 2026) with Fernando van der Vlist.

Thomas Poell is Professor of Data, Culture & Institutions at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on platforms, AI, and the transformation of the cultural industries. With colleagues from around the globe, he is currently developing a research project on Generative AI and Creative Work, which connects platform studies with ideas from postcolonial and decolonial theory in a Global Perspectives program. And with David Nieborg and José van Dijck, he is writing a book on Platform Power.

Tobias Blanke (moderator) is Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Humanities at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on long-term interdisciplinary initiatives connecting artificial intelligence (AI) and the human sciences both on new AI methods for cultural and social data and the critical studies of AI. His most recent book is Algorithmic Reason – The new Government of Self and Other with Claudia Aradau (OUP, 2022).

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/ai-empires

Nadav Vissel – DE WERELDSTER BRENGT DE WERELDVREDE

Theater de Richel, Saturday, October 3 at 08:15 PM GMT+2

Op papier heeft Nadav Vissel een prettig leven: een mooie vrouw, een goede IT-baan bij een sympathieke uitgeverij, een fijn huis op de Lauriergracht. Oh ja, en een dochter.

Tot hij op een dag op kantoor, met niemand in de buurt, achter zijn bureau, heel hard tegen zichzelf roept: ‘Maar ik ben ook iemand!’

Waarom roept hij dat?

Wat zit daar achter?

Wat wil hij dan doen?

Wanneer vind hij zichzelf wel iemand?

Bepaalt geld zijn waarde?

Of hele andere zaken?

In dit optreden doet hij verslag van zijn pogingen om een antwoord op die vraag te vinden.

Goeroe-achtige mannen en vrouwen die hij bezoekt beloven steeds gouderene bergen. Ze zeggen: hij is niet een kansloze zoekende twijfelaar, maar hij is als een superheld: iemand die zich ongeacht het risico blind in het diepe stort om de mens een stap vooruit te helpen.

Klopt dat?

Het verhaal is zijn meeslepende strijd tussen zijn naïviteit en de realiteit.

Het is tragisch voor hem, vermakelijk voor u en hij vertelt het graag.

Hoe loopt het af?

Is hij werkelijk iemand?

Wat geeft hem levensgeluk?

Het antwoord is verassend.

Duur: ca. 75 minuten

——–

Nadavs debuutroman kwam op nr 1 in de top 10 van Het Parool. Lees hier: https://www.awbruna.nl/boek/romans/nadav-vissel/het-grote-niets/

Nadav won de VERS-publieksprijs in 2009 (tijdje terug alweer) met zijn korte film Hoe krijg je eigenlijk een lintje? Zie video:

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/nadav-vissel-de-wereldster-brengt-de-wereldvrede

Fajah Lourens – 100 Mannen Later

Theater de Richel, Sunday, January 17 at 08:15 PM GMT+1

Fajah Lourens is terug met een pijnlijk grappig cabaret over alle mannen die een rol speelden in één vrouwenleven. Van zeven stiefvaders tot grote liefdes, van moederschap tot het verlangen om gezien te worden. Met humor en zelfspot fileert Fajah haar relatiegeschiedenis en de lessen die mannen haar leerden over liefde en gemis. Ze neemt het publiek mee in de zoektocht naar bevestiging buiten zichzelf, met de conclusie dat echte liefde pas ontstaat wanneer je stopt met zoeken. Een persoonlijke, scherpe en ontroerende voorstelling.

Biografie

Fajah Lourens brak in 2002 door bij het grote publiek met haar rol als Yasmin Fuentes in de populaire soapserie Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden. Daarmee vestigde zij direct haar naam als actrice. Ze speelde vervolgens onder meer de hoofdrol in de Nederlandse film ‘Als je verliefd wordt’.

Naast haar werk in de entertainmentwereld ontwikkelde Fajah een grote passie voor fitness en gezonde voeding. Wat begon als een persoonlijke zoektocht naar balans en kracht, groeide uit tot succesvol ondernemerschap. Met haar bestseller ‘Killerbody’ verkocht zij meer dan 300.000 boeken en inspireerde zij honderdduizenden vrouwen om sterker en zelfverzekerder in het leven te staan.

Het succes van haar boeken vertaalde zich naar een healthy lifestyle imperium met de merken Killerbody en MKBM. In 2024 en 2025 tourde Fajah met een inspirerend theatercollege langs de Nederlandse theaters. In 2027 keert zij terug naar het podium met haar eerste cabaretvoorstelling, waarin ze opnieuw haar persoonlijke verhaal, humor en levenslessen met het publiek deelt.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/fajah-lourens-100-mannen-later

FUNHOUSE

Theater de Richel, Monday, October 26 at 06:30 PM GMT+1

FUNHOUSE is een initiatief van de Theatertroep, een programmareeks in het kader van mentale gezondheid onder jongvolwassenen (18-30 jaar), gemaakt door jongeren.

Op een FUNHOUSE avond nemen we het hele gebouw van Theater de Richel over met ons programma, en dat kan van alles zijn: theater, film, muziek, lezing, workshop, debat etc, en in ieder geval; altijd inclusief soep en brood.

Elke avond heeft een eigen thema. Gedurende vijf avonden verkennen we dit jaar onder andere de impact van de politiek, racisme en discriminatie en het nachtleven op onze mentale gezondheid.

De wereld lijkt steeds sneller te draaien en soms zijn we even kwijt wat we moeten met alle gevoelens, angsten en onrust om ons heen. De avonden zijn deels informatief, maar vooral ook bedoeld om lichter naar buiten te lopen dan je naar binnen kwam.

We proberen de avonden met de toegangsprijs zo toegankelijk mogelijk te houden. Een ticket kost dit jaar 4,50eu, hiervoor krijg je het hele programma + een kopje soep met brood.

De deuren openen om 18:30u voor soep en brood, het programma is van 19u – 21:30u.

Het programma wordt binnenkort bekend gemaakt.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/funhouse-2

FUNHOUSE wordt CLUBHOUSE

Theater de Richel, Friday, June 12 at 08:30 PM GMT+2

FUNHOUSE is een initiatief van de Theatertroep, een programmareeks in het kader van mentale gezondheid onder jongvolwassenen (18-30 jaar), gemaakt door jongeren.

Op een FUNHOUSE avond nemen we het hele gebouw van Theater de Richel over met ons programma, en dat kan van alles zijn: theater, film, muziek, lezing, workshop, debat etc, en in ieder geval; altijd inclusief soep en brood.

Elke avond heeft een eigen thema. Gedurende vijf avonden verkennen we dit jaar onder andere de impact van de politiek, racisme en discriminatie en het nachtleven op onze mentale gezondheid.

De wereld lijkt steeds sneller te draaien en soms zijn we even kwijt wat we moeten met alle gevoelens, angsten en onrust om ons heen. De avonden zijn deels informatief, maar vooral ook bedoeld om lichter naar buiten te lopen dan je naar binnen kwam.

We proberen de avonden met de toegangsprijs zo toegankelijk mogelijk te houden. Een ticket kost dit jaar 4,50eu, hiervoor krijg je het hele programma + een kopje soep met brood.

Het programma wordt binnenkort bekend gemaakt.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/funhouse-queer-nightlife

FUNHOUSE

Theater de Richel, Monday, December 21 at 06:30 PM GMT+1

FUNHOUSE is een initiatief van de Theatertroep, een programmareeks in het kader van mentale gezondheid onder jongvolwassenen (18-30 jaar), gemaakt door jongeren.

Op een FUNHOUSE avond nemen we het hele gebouw van Theater de Richel over met ons programma, en dat kan van alles zijn: theater, film, muziek, lezing, workshop, debat etc, en in ieder geval; altijd inclusief soep en brood.

Elke avond heeft een eigen thema. Gedurende vijf avonden verkennen we dit jaar onder andere de impact van de politiek, racisme en discriminatie en het nachtleven op onze mentale gezondheid.

De wereld lijkt steeds sneller te draaien en soms zijn we even kwijt wat we moeten met alle gevoelens, angsten en onrust om ons heen. De avonden zijn deels informatief, maar vooral ook bedoeld om lichter naar buiten te lopen dan je naar binnen kwam.

We proberen de avonden met de toegangsprijs zo toegankelijk mogelijk te houden. Een ticket kost dit jaar 4,50eu, hiervoor krijg je het hele programma + een kopje soep met brood.

De deuren openen om 18:30u voor soep en brood, het programma is van 19u – 21:30u.

Het programma wordt binnenkort bekend gemaakt.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/funhouse-3

Collectief FAKT – Omelas

Theater de Richel, Wednesday, November 18 at 08:00 PM GMT+1

Geen kostuumdrama, geen mannen, niemand sterft, ze is out & proud en toch is het leven voor Emma alles behalve simpel.

Emma heeft een alles veranderende meet-cute. Ze wordt stapelverliefd op Levi, een activistische filmstudente die van alles weet over de wereld. De wereld waar Emma nog maar weinig van denkt te begrijpen. Al snel verliest Emma zich in haar eigen activisme. Ze duwt de mensen om haar heen weg in naam van het redden van de toekomst, zelfs haar relatie met Levi komt hierdoor in gevaar. Wat het beste is voor de wereld, is niet altijd het beste voor jezelf en de mensen om je heen. Hoe houden we balans? Hoe hebben we nog lief in tijden van verandering en polarisatie?

Omelas is gebaseerd op het kortverhaal ‘Omelas’ van Ursula LeGuin, dat aanspoort om te twijfelen aan de oneerlijke wereld waar we in leven. De kracht van het twijfelen staat in ons stuk daarom centraal. Is polarisatie niet ook de uitkomst van de overtuiging dat er één waarheid is?

Collectief FAKT bestaat uit Floor van der Jeugd (acteur/maker) & Aska Hayakawa (schrijver), twee vrouwen met een duidelijke missie: meer schurende, vrouwelijke, queer representatie in film & theater. Geen kostuumdrama, de personages zullen niet eindigen met een man, niemand sterft op het einde en queer zijn is geen probleem. Aan de hand van deze regels maken ze humoristische en maatschappijkritische voorstellingen. Want, als je iets mist, moet je het zelf gewoon gaan maken.

Credits

Spel/concept: Floor van der Jeugd

Regie: Nanine Kok

Tekst: Aska Hayakawa

Vormgeving: Raf Stekelenburg

met dank aan: Iris Jansen & Mirte Koerts

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/collectief-fakt-omelas

Bert of Roy – Sketch 5

Theater de Richel, Saturday, January 23 at 08:00 PM GMT+1

Na Sketch 1 en Sketch 2 is er de langverwachte: Sketch 5 oftewel Man koopt kunst.

Bert of Roy speelden voor het eerst samen op de ter ziele gegane Studio Herman Teirlinck. We schrijven 1998. Zo’n 25 jaar later doen ze dat nog steeds en zetten zich op die manier almaar meer in het rijtje van iconische duo’s zoals Gaston en Leo, Laurel en Hardy, Messi en Ronaldo... Bert of Roy.

In hun geheel eigen absurdische universum, dat het midden houdt tussen comedy en theater, blijven de twee op zoek gaan naar de ultieme Sketch. In Sketch 5 oftewel Man koopt kunst lijken Bert of Roy daar zeer dichtbij en almaar meer tot de kern te komen. Verwacht je aan een hilarisch verbaal steekspel waarin het steeds onduidelijker wordt wie nu precies wie probeert op te lichten. Als dan ook nog eens Bert’s criminele broer, net uit de bajes, in aantocht blijkt, lijkt het hek helemaal van de dam.

Opnieuw worden Bert of Roy vakkundig bijgestaan door hun coach Herwig Ilegems, die menig voorstel tot transfer afwees en bijtekende voor onbepaalde duur.

“Er valt zo weinig te lachen in deze wereld dat het de artiest zijn plicht is humor zeer ernstig te nemen.” Herwig Ilegems

Credits:

Spel: Bert Haelvoet en Roy Aernouts

Tekst: Roy Aernouts

Coaching: Herwig Ilegems

Dramaturgie en vrijblijvend advies: Dr. Liesbeth Verpooten

Schilderwerken: Fred Bervoets

Foto: Tom Uytersprot

Spreiding: Jimmie Dimmick

De pers over Sketch 5:

“Stilaan worden we ons bewust van de meta en mega mindfuck die deze voorstelling is” © **** De Standaard

“Sketch 5, virtuoos taalgevoel in een absurd universum. Comedy? Cabaret? Theater? In elk geval grappig!” © **** De Standaard

“Herbert Flack meets Alex Agnew” © **** De Standaard

“Wat ze ook zeggen, taalkundig en inhoudelijk klopt de ‘soevereine’ tekst als een bus, in al zijn irreële logica.” © **** De Standaard

“Ze doen het weer! Bert of Roy of Roy of Bert.Uniek. Supergrappig. Maatschappelijk relevant. Eigen. Grensoverschrijdend. Kunstig. Volks. Mega. Meetlat. Spelers. Prijzen. Wat is de clue. Is er een clue. Beckett meets Ionesco meets Bert of Roy. Gaat dat zien!”

Biografie:

Bert Haelvoet speelde onder andere mee in theatervoorstellingen van de Roovers en tg stan. Tv-en film filmbekendheid geniet hij als acteur in onder meer Wat als?, De Helaasheid Der Dingen, Spitsbroers, 13 Geboden, De Dag en De Verraders.

Roy Aernouts is acteur, zanger, scenarist en cabaretier. Hij won het Leids Cabaret Festival, speelde bij verschillende gezelschappen. Vorig seizoen was hij nog te zien in tal van theaters als Egmont aan de zijde van Jan Decleir met Het Banket! Als scenarist schreef hij de CANVAS-serie Clinch waarin hij naast Wim Helsen acteerde in een regie van Herwig Ilegems.

Samen met Gregory Frateur vormt hij Los Speedy Bobs een surreëel muzikaal trio! Ook voor Bert of Roy schrijft hij de teksten.

https://offbeat.amsterdam/event/bert-of-roy-sketch-5

Solidariteit met #Gaza. Stop de zionistische escalatie.

Spreker: #TofikDibi.

Zondag 8 februari. 13:00u.

#Spui #Amsterdam.

#BIJ1