This talk will consider different aspects of sovereignty as it has developed as a force in the modern world. In particular it will ask how a dedication to collective study can combat the sovereignty of concepts. Reference will be made to figures from the 'black radical tradition,' as Cedric Robinson named it, and will include Robinson, Huey Newton, and contemporary scholars Fumi Okiji and Denise Ferreira da Silva. This talk will be given in relation to the work of the Guatemalan artist Sandra Monterosso.  

Stefano Harney is the co-author with Fred Moten of The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study (2013) and the forthcoming All Incomplete (2020), both from Autonomedia/Minor Compositions. He is Honorary Professor at The Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia and a Visiting Critic at Yale School of Art. Together with Tonika Sealy Thompson he runs Ground Provisions, a reading residency. He is also co-founder of School for Study, a collective of teachers in higher education experimenting with ensemble teaching. Stefano has held teaching positions in New York, Leicester, London, and Singapore. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and an A.B. from Harvard University.