Dr. Saud Al-Zaid
Writing Intersectionally
Analog seminar, English, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Fridays, 10-14h, bi-weekly, 8 dates: 22.10. (online), 5.11., 19.11., 3.12., 17.12.2021, 7.1., 21.1., 4.2.2022
Hardenbergstr. 33, room 004

No registration possible anymore, the course is full.

Race, class, gender – how can one rightfully address the matrix of oppression that is present in the present moment? This seminar focuses on the practice of writing as an expressive tool — or a blunt instrument — for political action. After an engagement with texts from Crenshaw, Lorde, Du Bois, Reed, and hooks, participants will write on specific aspects that intersect with what others in the seminar have written. We will read and edit these texts as a group to build languages of solidarity and styles for emancipatory discourse.

Be forewarned: there will be a lot of writing. However, participants are welcome to bring texts from their artistic practice or course of study in one part of the seminar. Writing exercises will take various forms; from experimental to technical to academic writing. English will be the primary language of the seminar, but we will be able to handle other languages as a group.

Requirements for the ungraded Studium Generale credits: Regular active participation in the class activities and exercises.

Saud Al-Zaid is a scholar of Islamic thought and aesthetics. He specializes in the writings of Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), a literary critic and ideologue of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his aesthetic influence on the Salafis of Central Arabia and the Gulf. Al-Zaid holds degrees in Economics and Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago, a Masters degree in Arab Studies from the Center of Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, and another Masters in the Anthropology & Sociology of Religion from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. He completed his doctorate in Islamic Studies at Freie Universität Berlin entitled “Modernity’s Other: An Intellectual Anthropology of Radical Islamic Thought”. Al-Zaid is based in Berlin and has given public lectures at Re:publica, the Berlin Biennale, Chaos Computer Club Congress and Computerspielemuseum, among others. More information on saudalzaid.com.