Abolish!

I had the honour of opening Abolish! as part of the Politmonat with a public lecture on the history and contemporary significance of abolitionism. The talk introduced abolitionism as both a historical movement and a present-day critical framework, tracing its roots from the struggle against transatlantic slavery to current debates around prisons, policing, and social control.

Drawing on Stuart Hall’s theory of political representation, I connected historical abolitionist thought with contemporary questions of visibility, belonging, and resistance, with particular attention to digital images and visual cultures of protest. My research on biracial identities and Black cultural spaces informed the discussion, opening a space to think about ambivalence, recognition, and radical forms of inclusion within abolitionist imaginaries.

The lecture was conceived as a conceptual and contextual grounding for the month-long programme, providing a shared theoretical vocabulary and historical frame for subsequent events, discussions, and interventions.

Serafina Andrew macht den Auftakt zum Abolish! [Barrikade] Read Article