Helen Gibson

Dr. Helen Gibson is a historian at Freie Universität Berlin's John F. Kennedy Institute, currently serving as Visiting Assistant Professor (2024-2025). Her academic journey includes a summa cum laude PhD (2021) from Freie Universität Berlin, MA from LMU Munich (2014), and BA from University of Virginia (2005) with Lyon studies (2004/05).

• Research Focus: Black feminist/Womanist theory, history of slavery, reproductive justice in midwifery, and critiques of racial capitalism.
• Key Methodologies: Denise Ferreira da Silva's poethical frameworks, quantic metaphysics, and decolonial historiography.

Her 2024 NSF-funded project FW-HTF-R examines child care technologies through equity lenses. Recent publications interrogate cosmic metaphors, automotivity in Black communities, and property critiques. She co-edited Relating to Landed Property (2024) and serves as EJAS editor (2021-present).

Awards:

• 2024: NSF grant
• 2022: Rolf Kentner Dissertation Prize
• 2021: DAAD STIBET grant
• 2015-2019: DFG doctoral fellowship

As conference organizer (2016-2024), she spearheaded events on racial capitalism, epistemic reparations, and Black radical traditions. Her media analyses on Kamala Harris and reparations debates appear in Spiegel and campus.life.