Françoise Vergès (Reunion Island) is a political theorist, an antiracist and decolonial feminist and independent curator. She has written extensively on the afterlives of slavery, South-South solidarities, the decolonization of the public space and of the museum, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, decolonial feminism, the circulation of textiles, ideas and tastes, neoliberalism and the economy of predation.

A co-founder of the non-profit Decolonize the Arts (Paris,2015-2020), she has been convening L’Atelier a workshop cum public performance with artists and activists of color, contributes to The Nomad Colony created by artist Kader Attia and organizes decolonial visits in museums. Recent publications: Programme de désordre absolu. Décoloniser le musée (2023), A Feminist Theory of Violence. A Decolonial Perspective (2022), A Decolonial Feminism (2020), De la violence coloniale dans l’espace public (2021) Resolutely Black. Conversations with Aimé Césaire (2019), The Wombs of Women: Race, Capital, Feminism (2020).

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What Is A Politics of Vital Needs?

This two-sessions seminar will look at the questions raised by the state of permanent war waged by imperialism, authoritarian governments, libertarianism and militarism and neoliberal racial patriarcal capitalism and the ways in which it destroys what can be described as « vital needs » of the non-human species—water, air, land, food that are not contaminated—and the human specie—water, air, land, food that are not contaminated, and joy, peacefulness, and life. We will explore the notions of « peace », "vital needs » and ask how their fulfillment would lead to a profound transformation (revolution?) of the ways in which social life is conceived. We will read testimonies of migrants and refugees, of Palestinians, of indigenous feminists, of peasants fighting for land. But we will also read declarations from the advocates of libertarianism and permanent war.

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