Join us on Thursday, November 19th from 14-16 hrs (German time) for the next RUSTLab lecture of this winter term. Julia Bee & Gerko Egert will present their work on “Extractivism. Cooperative, Intersectional, and Climate Justice Perspectives on AI Infrastructures”.
Extractivism, understood as the large-scale extraction of resources has profound impacts not only on landscapes but also on communities. From a cultural studies perspective, it is intertwined with societal erosion and operates as a powerful tool of control, regulation, and geopolitical politics. This perspective is rooted in critiques of colonialism and feminism. Beyond fossil fuel extractivism, the focus extends to forms linked to the AI supply chain, including rare earth minerals, water, energy, and data centers.
This talk pays particular attention to AI infrastructures in the Ruhr region, a former industrial heartland with a long history of extractive industries. Current investments in AI build upon these existing infrastructures. We examine the intersection of traditional industries such as coal and steel with emerging AI ecosystems, including data centers, click work, logistics, and AI development hubs. How do these convergences manifest in so-called brownfield projects, and what are their implications for cooperative, intersectional, and climate justice perspectives?
Julia Bee is a Professor in Gender Media Studies at the Institute for Media Studies at Ruhr-University Bochum. She does Projects on Mobility, Climate Justice and Anti-Fascism in the Media. She is focusing on applying intersectional approaches and gender media theory to the research of, among other things, climate disasters, which intensifies inequality. Currently she is researching anti-fascist protests and possibilities of implementing different formats of digital political education on various platforms. More information about her can be found here.
Gerko Egert is a performance and media studies scholar. He works as lecturer at the Ruhr-University Bochum. His research deals with the politics of movement, physical AI choreographic media and technologies, logistics and infrastructure, performance and climate justice. His publications include Performancekunst und die Politik des Handelns (August Verlag 2025) and Choreopower. On the Politics of Movement (transversal texts, forthcoming). In 2020 he co-founded the platform nocturne (with Julia Bee). They publish on experimental knowledge production and organize events of radical pedagogy across art, academia, and activism. More information can be found here.
Location: on campus (GB 03/49) and Zoom
Zoom Link
PW: RUSTlab
You will find additional resources and information on this term’s guiding theme Sacrificial Intelligence here on our website.