04.04.26, 13:30, Margrit Shildrick, Monstrous Bodies: Re-imagining representation

This afternoon event is part of the Festival of Equality and is a collaboration between deBuren and Studium Generale. Tickets are available via the Festival of Equality website from Tuesday 14/10. Students can attend free of charge by reserving a student ticket.

Sita Mohabir, Sofie Avery, and Elly Van Eeghem will examine the concept of safe(r) spaces in three mini-keynotes: are they limiting or liberating, and are they even possible?

Sita Mohabir examines how the intersections of disability, ethnicity, and gender determine who is included and who is excluded within organizations. Her keynote speech focuses on the question of what a ‘safe space’ can mean for groups that often have less opportunity to feel truly safe and heard. She discusses the conditions and pitfalls of creating such spaces. At the same time, she emphasizes that differences and inequality also exist within marginalized groups, where people can experience privileges as forms of exclusion at the same time — and she invites us to take a critical look at our own role in creating more inclusive spaces.

Sofie Avery takes aim at the university as a safe space. In recent years, our media have reported on testimonies of transgressive behavior and toxic leadership in the academic world, resulting in public outrage. In attempts to avoid damage to their image, universities repeatedly miss the mark. How can we bring about the necessary cultural change, and why is mandatory bystander training not enough?

Elly Van Eeghem examines how we experience the public spaces of the city where we live, work, pass through, and live as (un)safe. How do we deal with the difference between actual safety issues in the city and people's feelings of insecurity? She takes us to various cities where she has worked in recent years to build new places together with residents, thereby changing the image and perception of a square, street, bridge, park, or parking lot.

The discussion will be moderated by Anneleen Lemmens, coordinator of Engagement Arts, an organization dedicated to tackling sexism, abuse of power, and inappropriate behavior in the broader cultural sector.

• Sita Mohabir is passionate about sustainable systemic change, in which no one has to disappear in order to belong. Through her company Equitable Inclusion, she supports organizations in exposing and breaking through structural mechanisms of exclusion — at the intersection of ableism, racism, sexism, inaccessibility, and language. With accessible training courses, workshops, and policy advice, she makes it tangible how exclusion persists in systems, language, and daily practice, and encourages change based on knowledge, emotion, and collective responsibility. She combines strategic advice with experiential knowledge and makes room for perspectives that are often missing. Her interventions invite reflection, shift, and action — always with the question: Who decides? For whom is this space truly safe? Who is still being asked to adapt? And who is still missing?
• Sofie Avery is a philosopher, activist, and amateur sea dog. Sofie is particularly interested in power differences and the question of how institutions should deal with them. Sofie conducts research at the University of Antwerp and Ghent University on sexually transgressive behavior in academia. Sofie's first book, Over de Schreef: macht en grenzen aan de universiteit (Beyond the Line: Power and Boundaries at University), was published in February 2025 by Letterwerk.
• Elly Van Eeghem works as an artist exploring the meaning, design, and use of our urbanized environment. Her work consists of videos, photographs, texts, actions, and installations in public spaces. She creates both individual work and collective projects with other creators or residents of a neighborhood, city, or village. Her long-term project, (Dis)placed Interventions, was created during a city residency at Kunstencentrum VierNulVier and a doctorate in the arts at KASK & Conservatorium, where she teaches. This led to CAMPUSatelier, where Elly is creating various collective projects between 2021 and 2024.
• Anneleen Lemmens studied Literature and Theater Studies at the universities of Ghent and Antwerp and then followed the programme Drama – Directing at RITCS in Brussels. Since then, she has been primarily active as coordinator of Engagement Arts, an organization dedicated to tackling sexism, abuse of power, and inappropriate behavior in the broader cultural sector. In this context, Anneleen completed the programme to become a confidential advisor and immersed herself in prevention by giving lectures and workshops at art schools and institutions.

This lecture will be held in Dutch.

This lecture will take place in the Theaterzaal at Vooruit. Work is currently underway at Vooruit to improve accessibility. During the work, the elevator to the theater will remain accessible. The entrance to the festival will be moved to the concert hall, via Parijsberg. Enter the Parijsberg via Lammerstraat and walk the first part of the way to the loading and unloading area. There will also be signage here. Here you will find a notice from VIERNULVIER with the telephone number of the person in charge. (they/them) will come and collect you there with the elevator and take you to the level of the concert hall.

The hall is accessible to wheelchair users, accompanied by a VIERNULVIER employee. Wheelchair spaces are available in rows 1 and 17 of the stalls. There is an accessible toilet nearby. A live sign language interpreter will be provided for this lecture. If you have any further questions about accessibility facilities, please contact the organization: anais.vanertvelde@hogent.be

What does it mean to guard your boundaries in a world where everything is constantly rubbing, pushing and pulling? How do you stay true to yourself when systems, people or desires force you in opposite directions?

In this essay for the Karakters series, author Sharvin Ramjan takes you on a journey through different cities and diverse themes to examine boundaries in cross-sexual identity friendships, open relationships and at work. Not a neutral view, but a lens shaped by intersections: of cultures and perspectives, of duties and privileges, of inner tension and external expectations. The tone is personal, essayistic and confrontational.

‘Sharvin Ramjan finds the right words to capture the spirit of the times and ask pertinent questions about our work culture, the complexity of contemporary relationships and the hypocrisy in the diversity debate. His disarming tone ensures that you always feel engaged as a reader.’

– Jozefien Meijer, media maker, writer and Talent Development Coordinator at deBuren

Nooit Genoeg (Never Enough) by Sharvin Ramjan is a publication in the series Karakters, pocket-sized essays on philosophy and cultural criticism. The Karakters are a collaboration between Studium Generale, Academia Press, deBuren and Rekto:Verso. During this book presentation, Sharvin will read from Nooit Genoeg. This will be followed by a conversation about boundaries in work and relationships with Kelia Kaniki Masengo and several artistic interventions. Afterwards, there will be time for a drink and you can purchase the book at the book stand.

• Sharvin Ramjan fulfils various roles in the Dutch cultural landscape. Through his presenting, moderating and writing, he questions the norms and values we take for granted. Sharvin strives for diversity, equal opportunities and greater representation of marginalised groups within the arts, culture and creative sectors and beyond.
• Kelia Kaniki Masengo writes, speaks and bounces through life. Her participation in the first edition of Nieuw Geluid, a talent development programme for high-profile voices organised by deBuren, gave Kelia the push she needed. Since then, she has devoted herself to hosting, writing fiction for young children and making jokes. In 2024, Kelia was selected for Get Up Stand Up, a programme for budding comedians organised by 'Nuff Said.

This lecture will be held in Dutch. 

Deze lezing zal plaatsvinden in de Kazematten. Het gehele gebouw is rolstoeltoegankelijk via een ruime lift. Voor deze lezing is een tolk gebarentaal voorzien. Wie verdere vragen heeft over de toegankelijkheidsvoorzieningen, kan contact opnemen met de organisatie: anais.vanertvelde@hogent.be

In 1500, Woyeken Hagen voluntarily allowed herself to be kidnapped so that she could marry a man she had chosen herself. In 1601, Marin le Marcis was subjected to intimate physical examinations without her consent to determine whether she had male or female sexual characteristics. In 1889, Charlotte underwent the first unwanted caesarean section in Belgium.

Three people, three different times and circumstances. Their stories seem to have little in common. And yet there is one element that connects them: in each case, it revolves around the presence, or rather the absence, of consent.

Today, we mainly associate consent with sexual violence and #MeToo. But history shows that the struggle for control over one's own body is much older and more multifaceted. In “A forgotten history of consent”, historians Chanelle Delameillieure and Jolien Gijbels examine how people have navigated between coercion and free will throughout the centuries. How did marginalised groups manage to create space for their own choices? What forms of resistance, negotiation or silent protest were involved?

This lecture opens a window onto the surprising, often uncomfortable history of a concept that everyone is familiar with, but which remains difficult to define precisely. A look at the past makes it clear that people agreed to situations they did not actually want for various reasons, and that not everyone had the same amount of say. The lecture shows that consent can often be difficult to reduce to a simple yes or no and invites further reflection on the many shades of grey between coercion and freedom.

The lecture by Jolien Gijbels and Chanelle Delameillieure will be followed by a panel discussion with Douwe Haenen and moderator Anneleen Lemmens. In between, there will be an artistic intervention by Yousra Benfquih.

• Jolien Gijbels is a teacher in History at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She researches the history of medicine and gender in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is currently co-editing a public book with Chanelle Delameillieure on consent from different historical perspectives.
• Chanelle Delameillieure is a teacher in medieval history at KU Leuven. Her research focuses on gender, family and crime history. She is the author of ‘Wijvenwereld’, a popular science book about women in the Middle Ages, and is co-authoring a book with Jolien Gijbels about consent in the past.
• Yousra Benfquih is a writer, poet and spoken word artist. In 2017, she won the txt-on-stage competition “Naft voor Woord” and was selected for the deBuren writing residency in Paris. Since then, Yousra has been a fixture on the Flemish stage, from Bozar to Roma, Arenberg to Theater aan Zee. Her written work can be read in Kluger Hans, DW B, De Poëziekrant, De Revisor and De Gids, among others. Yousra is one of the regular authors/house authors of Rekto:verso and teaches Spoken Word at LUCA School of Arts, Writing for Performance. She is currently working on her poetry collection.
• Anneleen Lemmens studied Literature and Theatre Studies at the universities of Ghent and Antwerp and then followed the programme Drama – Directing at the RITCS in Brussels. Since then, she has been primarily active as coordinator of Engagement Arts, an organisation dedicated to tackling sexism, abuse of power and inappropriate behaviour in the broader cultural sector. In this context, Anneleen completed the programme to become a confidential advisor and immersed herself in prevention by giving lectures and workshops at art schools and institutions.
• Douwe Haenen is a programme maker and heritage professional. During his studies at the Reinwardt Academy, he focused on ethical issues within the cultural sector. He has worked and advised for deBuren, the Bonnefantenmuseum, OSCAM and SHCL, among others. He currently works as a programme maker at Curieus, where Douwe continues to promote accessibility and participation in the cultural sector.

This lecture is held in Dutch

This evening is a collaboration between Studium Generale and deBuren. This lecture will take place in the MIRY Concert Hall. The hall is wheelchair accessible via a lift to the first floor. A sign language interpreter will be provided for this lecture. If you have any further questions about accessibility facilities, please contact the organisation: anais.vanertvelde@hogent.be. Questions can be asked to the student assistant at the desk on site.

We are still living in colonial times. That old order has not disappeared, but has changed form. Behind our democratic, liberal façade lies a pecking order that still determines which lives count and which can be destroyed.

While our leaders undermine international law and remain complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people, the question arises: what does that do to us? What does it say about our society, our institutions?

Aimé Césaire wrote about how the dehumanisation that is accepted elsewhere inevitably returns to us. He called this the “colonial boomerang”. Writer and anthropologist Sinan Çankaya already sees this spiral of violence, for example in the ways in which freedom and security are discussed in Europe. Politicians in the Netherlands and Flanders repeatedly fuel fascist energies. In his lecture, Çankaya analyses the temptation of racial and sexual spectres in uncertain times.

How do you remain human when violence looms? How do we save democracy when its foundations are being eroded from within? And above all: are we prepared to pay the price of resistance?

After the lecture, Sinan Çankaya will be in conversation with journalist Samira Bendadi.

Previous communications stated that the title of the lecture would be “Guilt and shame as social wounds”, but the speaker has since changed the title and content to “The fascist boomerang: on violence, dehumanisation and the crisis of democracy”.

• Sinan Çankaya is an anthropologist and writer. He obtained his doctorate with a study on diversity within the Dutch police force and researched ethnic profiling in the Netherlands. He has written essays on identity and exclusion for De Correspondent. His book Mijn ontelbare identiteiten (My Countless Identities, 2023) was awarded the Jan Hanlo Essay Prize Groot, the Sociologische Bril (Sociological Perspective) and the E. du Perron Prize. His latest book, “Galmende geschiedenissen” (2025), is about who is allowed to speak and who is silenced, about which dead we remember and which stories we bury deeper. He wrote the introduction to the Dutch edition of Edward Said's Orientalism and is a university teacher at VU Amsterdam.
• Samira Bendadi is a journalist at MO* and has worked for both radio and television in the past. Her expertise lies mainly in the field of migration and citizenship. In addition to her focus on migration in Belgium, she has produced numerous reports in various countries in North Africa and the Middle East. In recent years, she has focused in particular on the situation in Libya and Sudan.
  
  Her journalistic work is always based on a human rights perspective. Whether it concerns in-depth reports, analytical contributions or interviews with writers and artists, both in Belgium and Europe or the Arab world, the political context and its impact on human rights are always central to her approach. Bendadi is the author of Dolle Amina’s. Feminisme in de Arabische Wereld (2008). In 2019, she was co-curator and co-author of the book Textiel in Verzet (Textiles in Resistance), a publication accompanying the exhibition of the same name on textiles, migration and resistance, commissioned by the Fashion Museum (MoMU).

This lecture will be in Dutch.

This lecture is part of the Dark Nights series at the GUM Forum. More information about accessibility can be found on their website. A sign language interpreter will be present for this lecture. If you have any further questions about accessibility facilities, please contact the organisers: anais.vanertvelde@hogent.be. Questions can also be asked at the reception desk on site.

This lecture has been cancelled due to illness. 

In recent years, there has been no denying it: Taylor Swift is everywhere, including at university. But how far does her influence actually extend? In this lecture, we will take a closer look at the so-called Swiftian Turn in academia and how it challenges academic ideals of knowledge and expertise. The line between fan and researcher is blurring, and new types of knowledge are being produced. What does it mean for science when Taylor Swift enters our lecture halls and journals? And does the pop star also influence current politics and feminism?

After the lecture, Sigrid Wallaert will talk to researcher Barbara van Dijck.

• Sigrid Wallaert is a postdoctoral researcher in philosophy at Ghent University. Her research focuses on knowledge injustice, feminist anger, medical humanities, and sometimes Taylor Swift. Her first book, Kwaad spreken: Wie gelooft de boze vrouw?, was published by Letterwerk in 2023.
• Barbara Van Dyck is a political agroecologist and ecofeminist. She is currently affiliated with the Agroecology Lab at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. In her work as a researcher and activist, she focuses on the intertwining of technology, knowledge, power, and politics in agriculture. In this way, she aims to contribute to sharpening our collective imagination, to make room for practices in which care for vulnerable and finite life is paramount.

This lecture is held in Dutch

This lecture will take place in the MIRY Concert Hall. The hall is wheelchair accessible via a lift to the first floor. A sign language interpreter will be provided for this lecture. If you have any further questions about accessibility facilities, please contact the organisation: anais.vanertvelde@hogent.be. Questions can be asked on site to the student assistant at the desk.

No body is so often commented on, standardised and controlled as that of women. Dress codes, beauty standards, abortion laws, headscarf bans,... What women wear, how they behave, how they look and what happens to their bodies has been the subject of debate, policy and political struggle for centuries everywhere. At the same time, women's bodies have remained a kind of medical mystery all this time. Against the obsessive urge to police women is a bewildering lack of knowledge and understanding of female anatomy, biology and physiognomy. This contradiction highlights that the personal is still political, a slogan of feminists from the 1960s and 1970s, which remains relevant today.

• Bieke Purnelle is co-director at Rosa vzw, knowledge centre for gender and feminism. She is a freelance writer and columnist for De Standaard, MO, et al.

This lecture will take place at MIRY Concert Hall. The hall is wheelchair accessible via a lift to the first floor. A sign language interpreter is provided for this lecture. Anyone with further questions about accessibility facilities should contact the organisation: anais.vanertvelde@hogent.be. On site, questions can be put to the job student at the desk.

In the West, we commonly believe that the aversion to fatness is rooted in medical concerns, especially given the purported “obesity epidemic.” However, studies have shown that the aversion to fat bodies in the West precedes medical warnings about any presumed relationship between size and health. Further, research has long-established that the group most likely to be denigrated for being fat is Black women. In this presentation, Strings will show that contrary to popular beliefs, fatphobia is not rooted in health concerns. Rather, it arose as a mechanism to justify the booming enterprise of slavery through the degradation of Black people, and Black women in particular, as unrestrained in their “animal appetites.” Moreover, when the medical establishment elected to take up questions regarding the relationship between fat and health in the 20th century, physicians chose BMI as its proxy, a tool mired in colour-blind racism.

This event is a collaboration between Studium Generale and VIERNULVIER.

• Sabrina Strings is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. She previously held an appointment as a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology and the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.
• Philsan Osman is co-author of “For Whom We Want to Care: Ecofeminism as Inspiration” (EPA 2021). She is originally from Somalia and is a writer, activist and community builder.

In the summer of 2024, writer Louise Souvagie undertook a Six Week Crossfit Challenge. It provided an occasion to reflect on social engineering, heteronormativity in fitness culture and the inherent rebellion of the fat body. After all, isn't being fat and staying fat an act of rebellion in a world that tells us we are in control of our weight?

Fitness is imbued with an idea that we live in battle with our own bodies. When you win, you demonstrate your success with the combination of a successful before and after photo. But what if you live in a body that rejects a timeline from point A to point B? Then you soon fall into a category of people fighting for inclusion for various reasons such as the queer community. Unexpectedly, down-ups and deadlifts lead to the affinity between queerness and the fat body.

After the lecture, Louise Souvagie will be in conversation with activist Philsan Osman. This event takes place as part of the WACF festival and is a collaboration between Studium Generale and VIERNULVIER.

• Louise Souvagie is a writer and moderator. In 2019, she obtained a Master's degree in visual arts from KASK & Conservatorium. She made the podcast ‘GALLERINAS’ and wrote for Rekto:Verso and Extra Extra Magazine. In recent years, she participated in Nieuw Geluid (deBuren), the Week of Art Criticism (Frans Masereel Centrum) and the Mediakaravaan (de lage landen). She teaches art criticism at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven.
• Philsan Osman is co-author of ‘Voor Wie Willen We Zorgen: Ecofeminisme als inspiratiebron’ (EPO 2021). A native of Somalia, she is a writer, activist and community builder.

This lecture will take place at The Minard Theatre —the New Hall is easily accessible for wheelchair users. When purchasing a ticket, please mention that you are a wheelchair user. Then a separate seat will already be reserved for you and your possible companion. Upon arrival at the theatre, you can easily reach the ticket desk via a gentle ramp. Sign in there, and our venue staff will look for escorts. A writing interpreter will be provided. Anyone with further questions about accessibility facilities can contact the organisation: anais.vanertvelde@hogent.be. On the spot, questions can be put to the job student at the desk.

The term sexual racism refers to the farce of racial stereotypes, fantasies, fears and lusts projected onto non-white bodies. Sexual racism is deeply rooted in the perceived superiority of the white (male) psyche. A psyche that, through reason, has acquired control and discipline over the white (male) body. As a Black trans woman with an active sexual practice in the diaspora, sexual racism is a daily occurrence.

Is it possible to truly love a Black trans woman? Is it possible to lust after me without fetishising me? What roles do desire and shame play in the emergence of fetishism? Does my Black transwoman body fulfil the role of psycho-sexual terrorist? Can you covet and love a body if that body also evokes fear? How do I neutralise the transmisoginoire violence of those who covet me? How do I escape from this?

Olave: ‘Tonight, we will hold any fig leaves over our pubes. That is, I'm going to talk about sexual violence in my talk, and I won't shun or gloss over erotic and pornographic language. I invite attendees to an exploration of intimacy and sexuality from my perspective — coarseness and violence are the norm and the mechanisms by which my sexual complexity threatens to be flattened.’

• Olave Nduwanje was born in Burundi and raised in the diaspora and is a Black trans woman writer. She was a literary contributor to ‘Zwart- Afro-europese literatuur uit de Lage Landen’ (2018), ‘De Goede Immigrant' (2020) and 'Being Imposed upon' (2020). She has also published several times in De Standaard, OneWold Magazine and also the NRC Handelsblad. Her track record as a writer so far has been marked by short-term projects (columns, articles, literary contributions to anthologies, readings, etc.). Her ambition is to break away from this, in the next few years, and move towards two major projects: a play (working title ‘A Bubble of Five’) and a novel about dying.

This lecture will take place at MIRY Concert Hall. The hall is wheelchair accessible via a lift to the first floor. A sign language interpreter is provided for this lecture. Anyone with further questions about accessibility facilities should contact the organisation: anais.vanertvelde@hogent.be. On site, questions can be put to the job student at the desk.

Due to personal circumstances, Lennart Soberon will unfortunately have to be absent for next week's Studium lecture. This Studium evening is therefore cancelled; at 20:30, however, the film will still play in the regular KASKcinema programme, without introduction.

Studium Generale and KASKcinema join forces for an anthology on cinematic corporeality. Although cinema deals in immortality, few bodies have been so successfully preserved for eternity as that of Jean-Claude Van Damme. Once Belgium's most sought-after export, JCVD melted celluloid prints throughout the 1980s and 1990s with the sight of his buttock, stomach and biceps muscles. Fresco-like fight manoeuvres and eyes full of childlike innocence made him stand out with splits and shoulders above the hunks of brute flesh that made up action cinema.

Soaked in techno-paranoia as only the nineties felt, this small-scale sci-fi epic outlines the story of a cyborg soldier on the run from the government agency that created him — as well as a gruff Dolph Lundgren. This breakthrough film from genre craftsman Roland Emmerich has the same genetic material as his later hits, such as ‘Independence Day’ (1998), but stands out for its more intimate scale and red-blooded characters. Van Damme takes centre stage here as Emmerich's supreme Vitriviusman; a body exposed from all sides to exhibit the bliss of action anatomy.

Prior to the film, film scholar and programmer Lennart Soberon will give an introduction on the body politics of American action cinema. In action cinema, (men's) bodies are always a canvas on which desires, insecurities and enemy images of their time are depicted. Using analysis of the genre and its history, Lennart discusses the incarnate power structures these icons represent.

• Lennart Soberon is a researcher in film studies (VUB) and artistic coordinator at KASKcinema. His PhD research dealt with the representation of violence and the construction of enemy images in Hollywood cinema. He is currently working on a project on the cinematic representation of national borders.

This lecture and film screening will take place at KASKcinema. The venue is wheelchair accessible and a limited number of places are provided in the auditorium. The toilet for wheelchair users is on the first floor, accessible by lift. A written-out version of the introduction will be provided. The introduction will be in Dutch and the film will be in English with Dutch subtitles. Anyone with further questions about accessibility facilities should contact the organisation: anais.vanertvelde@hogent.be.