At a time when acts of overt political aggression and excessive use of force by state actors dominate global media discourse and public debate, the more insidious forms of violence that unfold gradually and subtly often remain unacknowledged. How can we understand, observe and theorize these forms of violence? And how are they related to the more spectacular forms of direct violence that dominate public discourse? The concept of ‘slow violence’ provides one possible interdisciplinary framework for observing and examining these more subtle dynamics of harm. It disrupts traditional notions of violence and draws attention to how structural inequalities produce profound yet unrecognized suffering over extended periods.
Building on this conceptual opening, the TraCe annual conference ‘Beyond the Spectacle: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Slow Violence and Political Harm’ from November 19 until 21, 2025 in Marburg, aims to expand research on violence and its transformations. The TraCe Annual Conference will be opened by a German-language dialogue panel. The academic conference will be held in English.
The event is fully booked. Questions concerning the conference can be directed to trace(at)staff.uni-marburg.de.
The conference is organized by Felix Anderl, Kristine Andra Avram, Thorsten Bonacker, Anika Oettler, and Mariel Reiss (all Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps University Marburg).
Gewalt in Zeitlupe: Fehlende Aufmerksamkeit für schleichende Zerstörung
Theresa Deichert (Kunsthistorikerin & Kuratorin)
Carla Hinrichs (Klimaaktivistin)
Jakob Simmank (Gesundheitsjournalist, DIE ZEIT)
Anika Oettler (Soziologin)
Moderation: Verena Mischitz
Wann? Mittwoch, 19. November, 18 Uhr
Wo? Historischer Rathaussaal, Markt 1, 35037 Marburg. Öffentlich, auf Deutsch, Eintritt frei.
9 a.m. Registration | 9.30 a.m. Welcome & Opening Remarks: Thorsten Bonacker & K. Andra Avram (Room 001)
10 a.m. Panel 1 & 2
Panel 1 | Zones of Disinterest: Geographies of Violence (Room 001)
Moderation: Sophie Falschebner
Philipp Naucke (Free University Berlin) | Slow Violence in Emerging Sacrifice Zones. Conviviality between Post-Conflict and Polycrisis
Johanna Kocks (Marburg University) | Slow Violence in Sacrifice Zones of Capital: The Temporalities of Violence and Resistance on Ilha de Maré/Brazil
Asebe Regassa (University of Zurich) | Geographies of Violence: the Practices of Necropolitics and Slow Violence in Ethiopia
Ana Laura Velasco Ugalde (Bremen University) | Colonizing the Toosa: Recursive Dispossession as State Violence in the Yaqui Land
Panel 2 | Temporalities and Perceptions of Violence (Room 101)
Moderation: Myriell Fußer
Hanna Pfeifer (Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg) | Slow and Spectacular Violence in Israel’s Plausible Genocide in Palestine
Cora Bieß (IU, International University of Applied Sciences) & Marcel Vondermaßen (University of Tübingen) | Fast and Synchronous vs Slow and Asynchronous Violence
Philipp Lottholz (Marburg University) & Bakhtiiar Igamberdiev (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Academy Bishkek) | Transforming Conflict or Transforming Violence? Comparing the Nexus of Economic Development, Institutional Degradation and Political Conflict in Central Asia
Nadine Knab (Charité) | From Polarized Perceptions to Political Actions: Exploring the Connection of Political Stress, Coping and Political Engagement
11.30 a.m. Coffee Break
12 p.m. Panel 3 & 4
Panel 3 | Urban Violence (Room 001)
Moderation: Tareq Sydiq
Sybille Frank & Jona Schwerer (both Technical University of Darmstadt) | The Afterlife of Attacks: Sociospatial Manifestations of Terrorist Violence with Vehicles in Urban Public Spaces
Josefa Maria Stiegler (Austrian Academy of Sciences) | Beyond the Body Count: A Critical Feminist Perspective on Everyday Urban Violence and its Effects in Stockholm
Melek Mutioğlu Özkesen (Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University) | Slow Violence and the Politics of Land: Post-Earth-quake Urbanization and Environmental Degradation in Turkey
Panel 4 | Slow Violence, Slow Methodologies? (Room 101)
Moderation: Antje Röder
Thorsten Bonacker, Elspeth Oppermann & Sven Opitz (all Marburg University) | Methodological Approaches to Researching Atmospheric Violence
Axel Heck (Kiel University) & Gabi Schlag (University of Tübingen) | Making Slow Violence Visible – Imaginaries of Coloniality in John Akomfrah’s Art
Nilgün Yelpaze (Marburg University) | Water as a Narrative Tool in Kurdish Cinema in Understanding Slow Violence: Fluidity vs. Linearity
Lam-Phuong Nguyen Pham (Marburg University) | Swiddening, Weaving & Decocting Methodology: Understanding Violence through the Embodied Experience of Feminized/Feminine Subjects
1.30 p.m. Lunch Break
2.30 p.m. Panel 5 & 6
Panel 5 | Embodied Harm and (In)visible Suffering (Room 001)
Moderation: Juliana González Villamizar
Claske Dijkema (Bern University of Applied Sciences) | The Space-Time of Violence as an Embodied Experience of Migrants in Europe
Sharelle Aitchison (Immigration and Protection Tribunal) | Slow Violence and Mental Harm in Refugee Status Determination
Basak Naz Simsek (Bielefeld University) | Sexual Violence as a Form of Slow Violence, and the Role of Non-State Actors in Resistance
Panel 6 | Violent Governance and Institutional Inertia (Room 101)
Moderation: Violette Mens
Adriano Barcha (Mackenzie University) | Digital Slow Violence and the Legal Operator: Structural Preservation in the Age of Algorithmic Manipulation
Zumratkhon Sanakulova (Kazakh-German University) | Judicializing Labor Conflict: Slow Violence, Insurgency, and the Limits of Legal Reform in Kazakhstan
K. Andra Avram (Marburg University) | The Fluidity of Justice: Excessive Delay and Slow Violence in Post-Communist Romania
4 p.m. Coffee Break
4.30 p.m. – 6 p.m. Keynote 1 (Room 001)
Natascha Mueller-Hirth (Robert Gordon University, UK)| Temporalities of Violence at the Urban Margins
Moderation: Mariel Reiss
9.30 a.m. Panel 7 & 8
Panel 7 | LGBTIQ+ identities and political harm: accelerated slow violence (Room 001)
Moderation: Anika Oettler
Mariel Reiss (Marburg University) & Ãryã Jeipea Karijo | Cycle of Violence: The Framing of LGBTIQ+ Kenyans as Perpetrators of Colonization
Inga Nüthen (University of Kassel) | Violent Naturalization: Anti-gender Mobilizations and the Framing of Trans Bodies as Security Threats
Esther M. Franke (The New School) | Beyond Progress: Transnational Temporalities of Violence, Resistance and Trans Life
Panel 8 | Pollution and Environmental Degradation (Room 101)
Moderation: Mina Ibrahim
Marie-Louise Pfister (Leipzig University) | Toxic Legacies: How the Chlordecone Case Exemplifies Slow Violence Within France
Christin Stühlen (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt) & Mariam Salehi (Free University Berlin) | Knowing Extractive Violence in Mining Areas: Crossing space and time
Daniel Haudenschild (University of Kassel) | Exploring Emergent Infrastructural Violence in the Conflict over the Autobahn A49
11 a.m. Coffee Break
11.30 a.m. Keynote 2 (Room 001)
Eyal Weizman (Forensic Architecture, UK) | Ungrounding: Israel’s Architecture of Genocide
Moderation: Susanne Buckley-Zistel
1 p.m. Closing Remarks (Room 001)
1.30 p.m. Lunch
