Damani J. Partridge

Damani J. Partridge is a Professor of Anthropology and Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan, with an affiliate appointment in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. His academic work bridges multiple disciplines with a focus on transnational Black studies, citizenship politics, and urban futures.

His research interests include citizenship and noncitizen politics, exclusionary incorporation, sovereignty, participation, governance, care, urban futurity, Germany, Detroit, migration, dispossession, Blackness and universality, post-humanism, decoloniality, sexualities and body politics, intersectional, Indigenous, Black, and POC feminisms, corporate formations, supply-chain capitalism, Holocaust memory and memorialization, and film and media production. His scholarship demonstrates how these seemingly disparate topics intersect in the contemporary political landscape.

Partridge's publications reveal a consistent focus on how marginalized communities navigate and challenge systems of power. His work examines the ways Blackness operates as a universal claim in contexts like Berlin, how hostility functions as a technique for producing White space in Black cities like Detroit, and the complex relationship between Holocaust memory and contemporary racial politics. His research methodology often incorporates collaborative filmmaking as both a research tool and an intervention.

Partridge directs the Filming Future Cities Project in Detroit and Berlin (filmingfuturecities.org), which combines academic research with audio-visual production. His scholarly output includes two major monographs: Hypersexuality and Headscarves: Race, Sex, and Citizenship in the New Germany (2012) and Blackness as a Universal Claim: Holocaust Heritage, Noncitizen Politics, and Black Power in Berlin (2023), along with numerous journal articles in leading anthropology publications.

As an educator, Partridge teaches courses including First Year Social Science Seminar (AAS 103), DAAS In Action (AAS 498), First Year Seminar in Anthropology (ANTHRCUL 158), and Topics in Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology (ANTHRCUL 458). His teaching reflects his interdisciplinary approach, connecting anthropological theory with contemporary social issues.