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Department of Cultural Studies

Guest Lecture

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Header for the lecture, includes a picture of Michael Sawyer and the title of the talk © KR
Michael Sawyer on "Black Event Theory: What the Image Cannot Hold" on June 23.

This lecture introduces Black Event Theory through its encounter with image, representation, and archive: the places where the Black Event becomes most legible and most elusive at once. A central argument of BET is that aesthetic practices and the objects produced are, vis-à-vis themselves, primary philosophical arguments that can be examined without the mediation of recognized disciplines.

We will move through a series of concrete instances drawn from literature and visual culture: Toni Morrison’s manipulation of narrative time as philosophical method; the structural role of masking in diaspora aesthetics; and the ways the archive reaches for an Event it was designed not to preserve. Students will encounter BET not as abstract doctrine but as a reading practice; one that transforms how we see what images do and do not show.

You can find the poster for the event here.

Date: June 23, 2026
Time: 4 pm (s. t.)
Location: American Studies Foyer, Emil-Figge-Straße 50