The term ‘queer’ is often exclusively associated with human gender and desire and often linked with human language and culture. Yet sexuality beyond reproduction, same-sex sexual behaviour and gender diversity are also widespread in a variety of animal species. Additionally, plants, fungi and microbes as well as other non-human lifeforms subvert fixed notions of the ‘naturalness’ of two-genderedness and heterosexuality and can inspire us to think differently about human gender, desire and coexistence.

Human categories of gender, sexuality, reproduction, but also certain personality traits are often projected onto ‘nature’, and the world of the non-human is used to legitimize behaviours and power structures of human societies. On closer inspection and contrary to our expectations, many areas of the non-human reveal 'queer' forms of sexuality and gender, but also of solidarity, cooperation and belonging. We can therefore learn a lot from the ‘queer creatures’ of this world in two respects: on the one hand, a look at the whole range of morphological, social and reproductive (and non-reproductive) forms in non-human nature offers insights into the diversity and function of gender and sexuality beyond narrow ideas of two-genderedness and reproduction. On the other hand, life forms such as fungi or microbes are fascinating models that can be used for developing theories in the humanities and social sciences, but also in technology development and in the field of ‘artificial intelligence’. Also, in literature and art, animals and plants offer a rich treasure trove of imagination that invites us to explore queer models and possibilities. A queer perspective on ‘nature’ and the non-human world thus raises a critical awareness of the construction of categories and the blurred boundaries between (supposedly purely human) ‘culture’ and ‘nature’. At the same time, recent developments in AI and robotics show how man-made categories and ideas are consciously and unconsciously inscribed in non-human systems.

In this lecture series, we want to use contributions from the natural, technical and social sciences, as well as from the humanities, to ask how we can think, research and work with the non-human - for example with plants, animals, fungi, microbes, robots and AI - while critically questioning existing categories and structures of human societies and learning from the complexity and diversity of the world beyond the human.

Programme