Dear activist, artist and researchers,

we invite you to participate in our workshop to explore ways of organizing ethical collaborations between academics and activists beyond academia. „Politics and Ethics of Activist Research“ aims to strengthen and reflect on these collaborations, giving particular attention to the power dynamics involved. We want to address the challenges that may arise from the differing values, interests, geographies, and priorities of academic and non-academic actors, and we are specifically interested in the conceptualizations, forms of value, and reflections that emerge from activist-academic collaborations.
The workshop invites activists and scientists from different disciplines to present and discuss their situated activist research practices and particular perspectives on questions concerning potentially conflicting priorities and their negotiation as well as extractivist approaches, data rights and biased knowledge production. The aim is to address the complex challenges of activist research together.
The workshop entails two sessions of 3 hours each. The first session on Day 1 (25.11 14.00-17.00 CET) features two keynote talks offering specific perspectives on activist research and the politics of research:
Working at the Intersection: Bellingcat, Open Source Investigations, and Impact in Research – Dr. Giancarlo Fiorella, Director of Research and Training at Bellingcat and Assistant Professor at Utrecht University’s Global Justice Investigations Lab
Media & Communication Studies for the Common Good: Three Dimensions of Exchange between Academia and Society – Dr. Sevda Can Arslan, Research Associate at Paderborn University
The second session on Day 2 (26.11. 10.00 -13.00 CET) continues these themes in an interactive discussion format, with three activist researchers leading discussions on specific topics:
Between Extractivism and Collaborative Knowledge Practices: An Activist Research during War – Tasha Lomonosova (ZOiS)
Collective Mapping as a Method of Activist Research – Paul Schweizer (kollektiv orangotango)
Awareness of Biased Knowledge Production – Chris Regn (Who writes his_tory?/ Bildwechsel)
If you would like to participate, please send us a short email to warsensing@europa-uni.de. Before the workshop starts, we will send you an updated schedule and program and ask for your preferences for the working groups. You can also find more information on our website or Instagram.
Kind regards,
Project Cycling Media (Julia Bee & Hannah Schmedes) | Project War Sensing (Miglė Bareikytė & Johanna Hiebl)
CRC 1187 “Media of Cooperation”