To communicate theory by means other than the words of academic discourse. To clean out the hegemony of words as the sole markers constitutive of thought. To begin again. To research-create. To make a (platform for) performance that can do the work of a cocoon: transfiguration. My test case: an emerging anti-racist theory of transpersonal Whiteness. My platform practices: music, circus, theatre, prose, performance art. My discursive practices: affect theory, process philosophy, and critical race theory.

How to tend the process of such a large endeavour when the scope/size/form of the project is just as much a subject of the research as the “content”? How to tend the coming together of multiple mediums of creation? And how then to experiment with such an assemblage in a way that opens the technicity of practices and discourses onto one another, an event where both are changed? How to do all this specifically with the theory of transpersonal Whiteness? I have been experimenting, reading, and performing around these questions for many years. Now the project has intensified in this PhD (began in September 2014) and I find I have questions and struggles, as well as signs of progress. I would be honored to share the current state of my research with you and receive any feedback, ideas, or criticism you may have. It’s been a wild ride already; I suspect it will only get hairier.

Bio