Lecture & Talk: Prof. Dr. Ruha Benjamin
Lecture “Race to the Future? From Artificial Intelligence to Abundant Imagination”.
This program takes place within the framework and in cooperation with the following projects and partners: FWF-PEEK AR 679 Conviviality as Potentiality, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; Muslim*Contemporary by Salam Oida; Coordination Office for the Advancement of Women | Gender Studies | Diversity, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Hauptbücherei Wien.
Moderation: Marina Grzinic, Anna Gaberscik
A world without prisons? Ridiculous. Schools that foster the genius of every child? Naïve. Work that is fulfilling and fairly compensated? Impossible. Technology designed for the collective good? Inconceivable. A society where everyone has food, shelter…love? In your dreams. EXACTLY. In this talk, Ruha Benjamin takes us into the liberating power of the imagination. Deadly systems shaped by white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism, and eugenics emerged from the human imagination, and have real-world, often deadly impacts. To fight harmful systems and create a world in which everyone can thrive, we will have to imagine things differently. Drawing on work that critically examines tech-mediated inequities and her engagement with grassroots approaches to viral justice, she offers a pragmatic and poetic approach to worldbuilding that invites each of us to consider the role we play in maintaining or transforming the oppressive status quo.
Ruha Benjamin is Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, and award-winning author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (2019), Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (2022), and Imagination: A Manifesto (2024). Benjamin earned a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Spelman College, MA and PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley, and postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA’s Institute for Society & Genetics and Harvard’s Science, Technology & Society Program. Ruha Benjamin is also the recipient of fellowships and awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, National Science Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar Award, and President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton. In 2024, Ruha Benjamin was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship. For more info, visit ruhabenjamin.com.
