The lecture "Solace and Transitional Objects" by Hanna Engelmeier unfortunately has to be cancelled due to illness. Thank you Stephan Zandt for taking over!

Since the dawn of modernity, stuffed animals have shaped a globalizing material culture of childhood. As familiar companions, transitional objects, and comforters, they populate children's rooms, toy stores, books and movies, doctor's offices, and memorial sites. They serve as good luck charms, mascots, or keepsakes. As beloved objects they stand up for the protection of their living relatives during animal welfare as well as climate protests. By following the traces of their migration stories, these familiar, plush companions tell us about their repressed and forgotten colonial relationships, which are worth remembering.

Stephan Zandt, Dr. phil., is a research associate at the Institute for Cultural Studies at Humboldt University in Berlin. After studying Comparative Cultural Studies and Religious Studies as well as Cultural Studies in Marburg and Berlin, he completed his doctorate in 2019 with a thesis on the cultivation of taste and the transformation history of culinary sensuality. In addition to the cultural history of the sensual and to Cultural Studies aesthetics, he is intensively engaged with questions in the field of tension between childhood, colonialism and human-animal relations.

Notes on accessibility: Information about the structural accessibility of the venue can be found here.