Within Corpoanarchy there is a common space for rhizomatic exchange as a ‘place to breathe’. One of the conversations took place within the exhibition at Raumstation, Zurich(15 December 2018), with Evelien Geerts

This presentation touches upon the damaging impact of neoliberal reason on institutions of higher education, and my efforts as a teacher to help turn things around by re-vitalizing the classroom. After a critique of current neoliberal ‘borderline times’, the reader is being taken on a journey of diffractive re-imaginings in which I share some of my experiences of co-learning with undergraduates in an American feminist-philosophical classroom. My central argument is that the neoliberalism-induced crisis in education can be affirmatively counteracted through experimentations with various posthuman and new materialist theories, and the Harawayan-Baradian methodology of diffraction in particular. Furthermore, informed by the impression that theory and pedagogical praxis go hand in hand in many contemporary feminist new materialisms, I zoom in on daily acts of resistance against the neoliberal corporatization of the American university, acts that actualized themselves as feminist new materialist pedagogies. Three examples of diffractive pedagogical strategies are then discussed in detail, namely an open-ended and jointly-designed syllabus; a Google Docs-based midterm; and classroom memes.

*This presentation will soon be published as: “Re-vitalizing the American feminist-philosophical classroom. Transformative academic experimentations with diffractive pedagogical tools.” In Posthumanism and Higher Education: Reimagining Pedagogy, Practice and Research. Palgrave. Forthcoming in 2019

Subversive philosophy memes by Evelien Geerts 

360° view of the main installation (December 2018)