In this episode, Berlin-based comedian, Kate Cheka discusses the Enlightenment, (post)coloniality, and the power of protest. In addition to talking about her work in comedy and the radical potential of joy and community building comedy can create, Kate also shares her scholarly research from her master’s thesis which centered around decolonial critiques of the Enlightenment. After studying in New Delhi and Buenos Aires, Kate also talks about how traveling to formerly colonized cities gave her an expanded understanding of ongoing forms of coloniality as well as the ways in which the classroom continues to be a colonial space.

Team

Edna Bonhomme is an activist, historian, writer, curator, and lecturer whose research interrogates disease, gender, surveillance, and embodiment. Edna earned a PhD in history of science at Princeton University with a dissertation that examined plagued bodies and spaces in North Africa and the Middle East. Her creative work is guided by diasporic futures, herbal healing, and bionic beings. Follow her on Twitter @jacobinoire.

Kristyna Comer studies art history and cultural studies at Humboldt University in Berlin where her research focuses on public museum collections in Berlin and past and current demands for restitution, reparations, and repatriation.