June 12, 2025, 2 p.m. Linz University of Arts Linz, Hauptplatz 8, Lecture Hall F
The Department of Didactics - Mediation - Research invites you to a guest lecture by Antke Antek Engel.
Queer_Pedagogy is inspired by queer theory. But Q theory is not an end in itself. Rather, it serves to open up spaces of imagination and learning that enable friendly(peer-to-peer) learning. Queer_pedagogy is interested in embodied learning because it assumes that learning always takes place in social contexts and social space, where gender and sexuality are - in many ways and in a variety of ways - linked to social and sensual experiences for all those involved. Dynamics of power and desire are intertwined and reproduce or change domination. To what extent can a queer_pedagogical focus on spatial design and bodies in space contribute to shifting hierarchical learning-teaching arrangements? How can the desire for control, which strives for stable categories and fixed identities, be transformed into a desire for complexity, confusion and conflict?
Can we design the workshop itself as a learning space in which queer pedagogy is discussed and tested, so that dynamics of power & desire are thrown into a spin? Using concrete learning materials (three experimental videos, an online platform, a manifesto and the book Queer Theory - Queer_Pedagogy), we will enter into a joint reflection: What can queer_pedagogy be? To what extent does it play a role in our own practices, even if this term was not previously available?
Antke Antek Engel (Drˣ phil., ens/they) heads the Institute for Queer Theory (iQt) in Berlin and works as a visiting professor and freelancer in academia and cultural production. Queering as a practice and queerversity as a principle guide Engel when ens offers writing workshops, seminars, moderations (IG: @engel_queerversing) or curates events and encounters. Engel holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Potsdam with a thesis on queer critique of representation. In addition to numerous essays, Engel has published the monographs Wider die Eindeutigkeit (2002), Bilder von Sexualität und Ökonomie (2009) and Queer Theorie - Queer_Pädagogik (2024) as well as three videos introducing queer theory: KÖRPER, FIGURATIONEN, WELTEN (Engel & Filmfetch, FernUni Hagen 2021: e.feu.de/queer-theory-videos).
Organized by the Department of Didactics - Mediation - Research
Petz Haselmayer, Susi Hinterberger and Nora Landkammer