Daniel James

INFO

I teach philosophy at Technische Universität Dresden. My research focuses on classical German philosophy (especially Hegel), social philosophy (especially the philosophy of race), and the philosophy of social science. I am also interested in Africana and feminist philosophy, as well as in Marx and Marxism.

I’m currently engaged in two research projects:

In our collaborative project Hegel (anti)kolonial, Franz Knappik and I examine how racist and pro-colonialist elements of Hegel’s philosophy are connected with his metaphysics and other core elements of his philosophical system. Moreover, we explore the ambivalent legacy of Hegel’s philosophy, both in pro- and anti-colonial thought, and especially in the black intellectual tradition, as exemplified by W.E.B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, C.L.R. James, and Angela Davis. As part of the project, Franz and I also host an event series on Hegel and colonialism, racism, and anti-colonial thought. Some of our past events were in the news – you can read about them here (in German).

In our collaborative project Rasse: Negotiating a Fraught German Term, Leda Berio, Kurt Erbach, Benedict Kenyah-Damptey, Steffen Koch, Esther Seyffarth, Alex Wiegmann, and I use various empirical methods to investigate how talk and thought about ‘race’ and ‘Rasse’ differ in the United States and Germany. Moreover, we explore how these differences bear on the question of whether ‘Rasse’-talk should be conserved (including in a revised, social constructionist meaning) or eliminated (or, at least in some contexts, replaced with ‘racialization’ talk) in the German context.

Building on the findings of this project, I am currently also exploring how a conception of racism in terms of racialization (as opposed to race) can account for structural racism, as well as putative forms of racism that – like antisemitism, antislavism, and antiromanyism – are particularly relevant in the European context but hitherto underexplored in the philosophy of race.

Besides my scholarly work, I am – together with Barbara Vetter – also organizing the First-Gen Philosophers campaign that seeks to make first-gen students and academics in philosophy more visible and explore ways to improve their situation in academia. We have collected the stories our colleagues and students have so far shared here (in German). An English version of the campaign is in preparation.

uPCOMING EVENTS

Tereza Hendl’s, Morgan Thompson’s and my paper “Who Counts in Official Statistics? Ethical-Epistemic Issues in German Migration and the Collection of Racial or Ethnic Data” has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Applied Philosophy!

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pAST eVENTS

On April 29, I gave a talk entitled “Warum wir über Rassismus streiten (und warum das OK ist) in the context of the “Umkämpfte Begriffe:” lecture series, hosted by the Gesellschaft für Analytische Philosophie at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf.

On April 23, I gave a talk entitled “Welche Rolle spielen soziale Perspektiven im Umgang mit dem philosophischen Kanon? G.W.F. Hegel und Frederick Douglass in Angela Davis’ Lectures on Liberation als Fallstudie” in the context of the “Vergessene Stimmen in der Philosophie: das Thema der Kanonerweiterung” lecture series at the University of Basel.

On April 12, I gave a talk on “Why we disagree about racism (and why that’s OK) at the “Critical Race Theory and its Impact in Intersectional Perspectives” conference at the University of Hamburg.

I was “Global Scholar in Residence” at Vanderbilt University from Februar 26 to March 22. There, I gave a talk entitled “Black History is World History at the Vanderbilt Philosophy Colloquium on March 4.

On February 8, I gave a talk entitled “Schwarze Geschichte ist Weltgeschichte” on the occasion of Black History Month at the Humboldt-University of Berlin.

On December 14/15, I gave a talk on “‘Black Enlightenment’ Perspectives in Philosophical Pedagogy” at the workshop on “Bridging Divides:
Rethinking Reparative Politics through a North-South Dialogue” at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

On November 25, Franz Knappik and I hosted a workshop in our “Hegel (anti)kolonial” series on “W.E.B. Du Bois and classical German Thought” at Humboldt-University of Berlin.

On November 16, Rebekka Hufendiek and I presented our paper on “Science and Ideology” at the fem.wis – Standpunkte aus der feministischen Erkenntnis- und Wissenschaftstheorie conference in Dortmund.

On October 26, gave a talk on C.L.R. James’s subversive appropriation of Hegel’s philosophy of history and its paradigm, the Haitian Revolution, titled “Black History is World History” at UCL (hosted the Department of Philosophy and Sarah Park Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation and the EDI team of UCL Arts & Humanities).

I presented a paper on “White Supremacy as a Racialised Structure of Domination” at the Structural Domination conference in Dresden on September 19.

Kristina Lepold, Bastian Ronge, and I presented our paper on “Critical Theory’s Racial Blindspot” at the Futuring Critical Theory conference in Frankfurt am Main on September 13,

I presented my paper titled “Can Charles Mills’ Account of White Supremacy Capture Antislavism and Antisemitism?” at the MANCEPT workshop “The Hidden Terms of the Racial Contract: Exploring the Fine Print.” on September 11.

I presented my talk “Partial Racialisation” at the Social Ontology 2023 conference in Stockholm in August 2023.

I presented my talk “Narrative, Ignorance, and the History of Philosophy: Lessons From Feminist Philosophy of Science”, at the Workshop Philosophinnen in der akademischen Philosophie sichtbar machen: Wie geht das? in Bielefeld in May 2023.

Tereza Hendl, Morgan Thompson and I presented our talk “Who Counts in Official Statistics?” at the Workshop Ethics Against the Odds? in Mainz in August 2022, at the Symposium New Directions in the Science of Structural Oppression, in the context of the PSA 2022, in Pittsburgh in November 2022, and at the Feministische Philosophie im Dialog in July 2023 in Dresden.

I presented my talk “Racialisation Across the Colour-Line” at the workshop Philosophieren mit Charles Mills in Berlin in July 2022 (in English), and at the Wider den Rassismus conference in Munich in November 2022 (in German).

Leda Berio, Benedict Kenyah-Damptey and I presented talks on our project Rasse: Negotiating a Fraught German Term at the 1. Fachtagung zum Nationalen Diskriminierungs- und Rassismusmonitor in Berlin in June 2022 and at the Rassismus und Philosophie conference in Münster in October 2022.