Mx. Science X SWARM: Embodied Invitations to Playful Resistance

This masterclass brings together the methodologies of drag and collective dance and movement. The event is organized by the minor program Gender and Sexuality in Society and Culture in collaboration with NOG, and engages with methodologies of embodied knowing and play. Together with Mx. Science (Saskia de Wildt), and the Swarm movement (Floor van Leeuwen, Sylvie de Kubber, and Nataly Ba), this masterclass aims to rethink modes of knowledge production in academia.

Recent years saw growing attacks on the right to protest, as well as renewed struggles of the universities to defend academic freedom against both corporate and governmental interests meddling in what it means to practice academic freedom. Responding to these developments and to the process of knowledge production in general, this masterclass urges us to think about the research methodologies we choose to be able to practice critical thinking, and invites us to start with the body.

In this masterclass we will experiment with what it means to know collectively, to know through the body, and to know and resist through play and movement. Both Mx. Science and Swarm weave together the street and the nightclub, and a sense of collectivity through a politics of the body. Through a performative lecture, collective movement, and critical reflection and conversation between Mx. Science and Swarm, the masterclass addresses these topics through different angles.