Guest Talk Gerhild Perl

Unfortunately, the lecture of Prof. Gerhild Perl must be cancelled

31 January 2022, 18:15

Prof. Dr. Gerhild Perl (University of Trier):

Affective Politics: Loss, grief, and solidarity in the aftermath of a shipwreck

In recent years, the politics of grief have become a major concern in the interdisciplinary scholarship on violent death during migration. In addi-tion to public commemorations, attempts to share grief between activists and bereaved families are considered politics of grief. Based on my field-work on a solidarity movement in the aftermath of a deadly boat sinking in the Spanish-Moroccan sea, I take a critical stance on grief as a trans-formative political practice. Departing from the premise that grief and loss are inextricably linked, I pose the question of whether it is possible to mourn the loss of an unknown person. Rather than trying to collectivize grief, I argue to nuance the different affects that death at and due to the border evokes in different people. My main argument is that the aim to share grief is a form of emotional violence. I contend that recognizing and acknowledging the grief of others bears much greater political po-tential, opening a path to assume ethical responsibility for the ongoing violence on the threshold of Europe.

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