Research Fridays @ Intersections of Gender - The global Black Lives Matter movement: a comparative look at postcolonial forms of BLM protest and activism in Germany and France

The lecture offers a critical and postcolonial overview of police violence, racism and the Black Lives Matters movement in France and Germany. Besides striking differences, there are also some interesting parallels between the movements in the neighbouring countries, which will be examined within the lecture from a cultural studies perspective. 

Julien Bobineau studied French Philology, Public & International Law and Philosophy at the University of Würzburg (Germany) and the University of Kinshasa (DR Congo). In 2012, he graduated in Francophone Literature with a comparative work on the Afro-Caribbean documentary theatre and the Japanese dance theatre. In 2017, Bobineau finished his PhD thesis where colonial discourses from Belgium and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are comparatively analyzed and brought into relation with the representation of Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) in francophone drama and poetry. Bobineau currently works as Assistant Professor at the Institute for Modern Languages at the University of Würzburg. His research interests include the history, literature, politics and arts in the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as colonial memory, racism and anti-colonial movements in Europa while his habilitation explores hunting ethics and aesthetics in the field of French and Spanish literature during the 18th and 19th centuries.