Situating oneself as a researcher (or artist) is not about positioning oneself – it is rather the opposite. To situate means to explore what one does not know, to become aware not only of epistemic privileges but also to honestly admit to shortcomings. To situate oneself is an exercise of endurance and impurity, of not taking the easy way out, of (speaking with Donna Haraway) staying with the trouble.
Karin Harrasser’s work circles around what situated research on cultural violence and colonial encounters from a European standpoint can be, and what are the terms & conditions that allow for a transformative dialogue between activist, aesthetic and epistemic worlds. “Working from here” means to accept entanglements we have not chosen; we cannot hope for a magic trick that lets us travel back before the historical entanglements happened. We will need to work with them and through them. What kinds of practices, images and words are needed to develop response-ability in unequal situations?
Karin Harrasser is Director of the ifk and Professor of Cultural Theory at the University of Arts Linz. After studying history and German language and literature, she received her doctorate in 2005 with a dissertation on the narratives of digital cultures at the University of Vienna. This was followed by a research assistant position at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and various guest professorships in Germany and Colombia. Afterwards habilitation at the Humboldt University in Berlin (book:
Prothesen. Figuren einer lädierten Moderne) (published 2016). In addition to her academic activities, she has been involved in various artistic and curatorial projects, e.g. at Kampnagel Hamburg, Tanzquartier Wien or with MAPA Teatro and the Colombian Truth Commission in Bogotá. Her research currently focuses on asymmetrical cultural transfers between Europe and South America and the relation between globalization and contemporary history. Recent books:
Surazo. Monika und Hans Ertl: Eine deutsche Geschichte in Bolivien (2022),
Gegenentkommen (2023).
References
Joseph Dumit, Writing the Implosion: Teaching the World One Thing at a Time, Cultural Anthropology, 29 (2), https://doi.org/10.14506/ca29.2.09.