Join VCUarts Qatars Associate Professor of History, Dr Jörg Matthias Determann in conversation with curator and afrofuturist Ingrid LaFleur to learn more about the exhibition ‘Futurisms’ hosted by The Gallery at VCUarts Qatar from March 7 to April 9, 2022.
The conversation is available only in English.
Biographies
Jörg Matthias Determann is an associate professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. He also serves as an associate editor of the Review of Middle East Studies. Previously, Determann worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Zentrum Moderner Orient and the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, Freie Universität Berlin. He also taught at King Saud University and was a visiting scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. He holds a doctorate from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and master’s degrees from the University of Vienna. In 2013, he was a joint winner of the BRISMES Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize for the best doctoral thesis on a Middle Eastern topic at a university in the United Kingdom. He is the author of four books published by I.B. Tauris: Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life; Space Science and the Arab World; Researching Biology and Evolution in the Gulf States; and Historiography in Saudi Arabia. He is currently writing a book about the history of the movement for equity, diversity and inclusion in modern astronomy.
@maisonlafleur
ingridlafleur.com
Ingrid LaFleur is a globally recognized curator, artist, pleasure activist and Afrofuturist committed to exploring and implementing forward-thinking solutions across multidisciplinary industries including but not limited to art, technology, education, social enterprise, and finance.
For over twenty years, LaFleur has participated in and witnessed the growth of the cultural movement Afrofuturism.
Author of the upcoming book, ‘How to Think Like An Afrofuturist’, LaFleur regularly consults individuals, businesses, educational institutions and social justice organizations on how to forecast and transform their practices to help manifest their future goal.
She boasts an extensive list of speaking engagements nationally and internationally including presentations and workshops at Centre Pompidou (Paris), TEDxBrooklyn, New Museum (New York), Harvard University, and Oxford University. In 2020, she founded The Afrofuture Strategies Institute (TASI), to research the future impact of emerging technology on Black bodies and to co-create alternative destinies using ethical imagination.
Photo credit: Jacques Nkinzingabo