Institute of Media Studies

Distinguished Visiting Professorship 2022

Dr. Natasha A. Kelly

Bio

Dr. Natasha A. Kelly is author and editor of six books, a curator and visual artist. Her art installations were shown at diverse museums throughout Germany, including the German Historical Museum in Berlin. She made her film debut at the 10th Berlin Biennale in 2018 with her award-winning and internationally traveled documentary “Millis Awakening”. A film monography, film installations and screenings in the USA, Brazil, Australia, India and Europe followed, as well as a filmythology produced for the Maxim-Gorki-Theater Berlin in 2019. In Brazil she celebrated her theater debut with the adaption of her dissertation “Afrokultur” at the Goethe Theatre in 2019. The show was later put on stage in the USA (2020).

Based on her edited volume “Sisters & Souls” (2015), she founded and directed the empowerment theater “M(a)y Sister” in memory of the Afro-German poet May Ayim. Every year the show articulates Black German realities and has been staged at the HAU Hebbel am Ufer Theater in Berlin since 2016. The second edition “Sisters and Souls 2” was published for May Ayims 25th death anniversary in the summer of 2021. With the reader “The Comet – Afrofuturism 2.0” (2020) that resulted from the symposium of the same name in 2018, she moved away from historical representations of Black Germany towards visions of future.

Dr. Kelly has taught at universities in Germany, Austria and the USA and presently holds her second appointment as Max Kade Visiting Professor for German Studies. Her book, “Racism. Structural problems need structural solutions” (April 2021) is a response to the Black Lives Matter Summer 2020 and builds the foundation of her class of 2022 at the University of Tübingen.


Education
PhD & M.A. in Communication Studies and Sociology from the University of Münster, Germany

Public lecture

As part of the Tübingen Media Days, Dr. Natsha A. Kelly will give this lecture an May 10, 2022. The talk is open to the public, all interested parties are cordially invited.

Black Lives Matter: On the ‘De_Perception’ of Structural Racism in Media and Academia

Anti-Black-racism has always been part of social norms and media realities in Germany and Europe. Over the centuries, it has been reconstructed and constituted in and through media and academia, as well as in and through Media Studies. However, for the most part, it has only been counteracted by individuals who are affected by racism and less by media institutions, laws or regulations. Ignoring structural racism in the mediversum, or reducing it to ‘unintentional exceptions’ does not lead to its absentia, but rather to the fact that Black knowledge, histories, and discourses are ‘de_perceived’ and consequently Black lives and realities actively non-communicated – neither in film or on TV, nor in editorial offices or broadcasting rooms. In her lecture and following seminar Distinguished Visiting Professor Dr. Natasha A. Kelly will dismantle structural racism in German academia and media institutions and give best-practice-examples that demonstrate how structural change can be made.

Teaching

Dr. Natsha A. Kelly is offering a course for Media Studies students and interested students from other fields in the summer semester 2022. Title and a course description will be given here shortly. Register via the Alma platform.

At the Institute of Media Studies, Natasha A. Kelly will give a seminar titled Racism in Media and Media Studies. All media students as well as interested students from all fields are cordially invited! Please register via alma.

Dates: 2022, May 20 + 21 | May 27 + 28 | June 03 + 04