Research Fellowship 2025
Research Institute for Sustainability - GFZ Potsdam
My research fellowship at the RIFS institute in 2025, extends on"Mx. Science"; an artistic intra-vention that I developed during my PhD research at Queen's University in Canada. "Mx. Science" isa speculative character that reconfigures the figure of the scientist and the epistemic norms of transdisciplinary knowledge co-production. Mx. Science draws from the queer art of failure (Halberstam), the shapeshifting logics of drag (Rosenfeld), and the porous corporealities of the monstrous (Shildrick; Stryker).
As such, Mx. Science emerges as a fugitive presence that troubles artificial delineations between self and other in scientific spaces, along with the performative forms of expertise and authority that are produced and sustained through these divisions.
Activities / Deliverables
My fellowship at RIFS was divided into three stages, "encounter"; a series of in-person encounters with Mx. Science, "dialogue"; one-on-one conversations and playful workshops, and finally "gathering"; a multi-modal interactive event/gathering/workshop at RIFS.
Encounter
Mx. Science at RIFS
My fellowship contained a series of in-person encounters, where I will appear as ‘Mx. Science’ at the institute. The goal was to engage in, in-situ conversation about the positionality, role and practices of scientists at selected moments of research group events, or institutional gatherings.
Dialogue
Workshops and Conversations
Following the stage of encounter, I engaged in one-on-one conversations, and workshops in playful group formats. This stage also included small intermediate presentations, pop-ups and discussion of evoked responses to Mx. Science in more-depth.
Gathering
Submit to the Monster; A Research Cabaret
As the closing element of my fellowship, I curated and produced a final multi-modal interactive event/gathering/workshop at RIFS. This 'research cabaret' extended on themes that have surfaced as part of my project.
Submit to the Monster: A Research Cabaret
Picture by Papi Pistola
Picture by Papi Pistola
Picture by Papi Pistola
Picture by Papi Pistola