Posthuman Possibilities on Multiple Levels: A Black Queer Non/In/human Future

• In Event: Ethnic Studies and STS: Connections, Interruptions, Innovations

Abstract

How can centering a radical, entangled future of Black feminist theories of the “human,” queer posthumanist ecological theories examining scale, and a clear focus on the Non/In-human interrupt STS? Black and queer scholars have generally theorized what it means to be “human” from the “margins” (although I would argue that the margins have always been central). For example, Christina Sharpe has theorized the “wake” which privileges how Black lives have made and remade their lives with the slave ship and the voyage throughout the Diaspora. Utilizing Sharpe’s theorization, scholars can develop what it means to prioritize the non-human and inform novel ways of being in and with the world on multiple scales. This paper will expand on the insights of queer and Black feminist STS scholars in order to shift and reorient questions of what it means to be, embody, and operate as/with the non-human while continually informing the naturecultural meanings and representations of the “human.” I aim to experiment with the radical possibilities that can be unearthed if creatives and activist/scholars move the subject/object line by combining perspectives and seeing the world from a post/non-human vantage point. To achieve this goal, I will read science fiction written by Black women as theory in conjunction with theoretical interventions from the realm of posthuman ecologies, queer theory, and Black feminisms. Together, this paper will disrupt STS by privileging Black feminist and queer theories in order to shift the subject/object line and be with the world on many levels.

Author

• Teresa L Hoard-Jackson, Indiana University - Bloomington