Race to the Future? From Artificial Intelligence to Abundant Imagination

Vortrag von Ruha Benjamin 

DE 

(English below)

Eine Welt ohne Gefängnisse? Lächerlich. Schulen, die das Talent jedes Kindes fördern? Naiv. Eine Arbeit, die erfüllend ist und gerecht entlohnt wird? In your dreams.

Doch genau diese befreiende Vorstellung führt uns Ruha Benjamin in dieser Lesung vor Augen. Auf Grundlage der Erkenntnisse Schwarzer und dekolonialer Feminist*innen setzt sie sich mit basisdemokratischen Ansätzen für eine virale Gerechtigkeit auseinander. Ihr pragmatischer und poetischer Ansatz zur Weltgestaltung lädt ein, über die eigene Rolle bei der Aufrechterhaltung oder Veränderung des unterdrückerischen Status quo nachzudenken.

EN

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 theimagination. 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 toviral 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.

BIO

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. For more info, visit ruhabenjamin.com

The event is being held in cooperation with the Center for Gender Studies at the University of Basel. The lecture is in English, there will be a translation.