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 transformation. 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).
Dialogue Panel (in German)
- When? Wednesday, November 19, 2025, 6 p.m.
- Where? Historischer Rathaussaal, Markt 1, 35037 Marburg
Academic Conference
- When? November 20 – 21, 2025
- Where? Deutscher Sprachatlas, Pilgrimstein 16, 35037 Marburg
Program
Mittwoch, 19. November, 18 Uhr | Dialogpanel
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
Thursday, November 20
9 a.m. Registration | 9.30 a.m. Welcome & Opening Remarks: Thorsten Bonacker & K. Andra Avram
10 a.m. Panel 1 & 2
Panel 1 | Zones of Disinterest: Geographies of Violence
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
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
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?
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
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
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
- Suparna Banerjee (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt) | The Weaponization of Bulldozers: Actor Network Theory and Bulldozer Politics in India
4 p.m. Coffee Break
4.30 p.m. – 6 p.m. Keynote 1
- Natascha Mueller-Hirth (Robert Gordon University, UK) | Temporalities of Violence at the Urban Margins
Moderation: Mariel Reiss
Friday, November 21
9.30 a.m. Panel 7 & 8
Panel 7 | LGBTIQ+ identities and political harm: accelerated slow violence
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
- K. Allison Hammer, Bailey Saldana & Marissa Ellermann (all Southern Illinois University Carbondale) | The Banning of Books and the Banning of Sex Ed as Forms of Slow Violence in the United States
Panel 8 | Pollution and Environmental Degradation
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
- Andrés Tafur Villarreal (University of Tolima) | Bosque de Galilea: The Layered Violence of Carbon Credits in Colombia's Contested Terrains
11 a.m. Coffee Break
11.30 a.m. Keynote 2
- Eyal Weizman (Forensic Architecture, UK) | Ungrounding: Israel’s Architecture of Genocide
Moderation: Susanne Buckley-Zistel
1 p.m. Closing Remarks
1.30 p.m. Lunch