Mute/Unmute is a podcast and seminar by Astrid Mania, with the support of Noi Fuhrer (WS2021/21 and SoSe 2021), Rahel grote Lambers and Anne Meerpohl. The idea of this podcast is to introduce and discuss art works, theories and incidents that relate to questions like: who is allowed to speak, who’s not? What can be said, what not? Whose voices have been suppressed? What kind of narratives and histories? What violence do we exert when speaking about others? What should we urgently talk about?

Mute/Unmute is meant to be active during the summer semester 2023, but it can potentially run much longer. We welcome contributions from HFBK students and staff and beyond. For more info / list of contributions please see https://pad.hfbk.net/Mute_Unmute and  / or get in touch with rahel.grote-lambers@hfbk-hamburg.de or astrid.mania@hfbk-hamburg.de

In this episode, Tom Holert speaks about queer silence as well as the process of unlearning silence.

Literature:

J. Logan Smilges, Queer Silence. On Disability and Rhetorical Absence, Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2022 

Sohini Chatterjee in conversation with J. Logan Smilges on Queer Silence, November 24, 2022 https://newbooksnetwork.com/queer-silence
Jane Parpart, “Rethinking Silence, Gender, and Power in Insecure sites: Implications for Feminist Security Studies in a Postcolonial World,” Review of International Studies 46, no. 3, 2020, 315–324

Silence, Feminism, Power. Reflections at the Edges of Sound, ed. by Sheena Malhotra and Aimee Carrillo Rowe, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013

Athena Athanasiou, Agonistic Mourning. Political Dissidence and the Women in Black, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013 (chap. “Political Languages of Responsiveness and the Disquiet of Silence”)

Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, trans. Robert Hurley. 2 vols., New York: Vintage, 1990