Xenofeminism: a Politics for Alienation

Speakers: Diann Bauer & Helen Hester (Laboria Cuboniks)

Xenofeminism (XF) is a gender abolitionist, anti-naturalist, technomaterialist form of posthumanism, initiated by the working group Laboria Cuboniks. It is a project aiming to infect a wide range of fields, operating on the assumption that any meaningful change will happen at a range of scales and across a range of disciplines. In this talk, two members of Laboria Cuboniks (Diann Bauer and Helen Hester) will build upon the 2015 manifesto 'Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation'. Bauer will elaborate upon what is meant by alienation in XF, and consider how this concept might be usefully reframed as a politically productive force. Hester will draw upon both Bauer's work and her forthcoming book Xenofeminism (Polity, 2018) as she develops an account of feminist posthumanism founded on the idea of 'sapience + care'.