Stefano Harney

Prof. Stefano Harney is a Professor of Transversal Aesthetics at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM). His work bridges critical theory, Black studies, and collaborative social practices. Previously, he held roles at institutions worldwide including Yale University and University of British Columbia. He co-authored influential texts like The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study and All Incomplete. His research explores resistant art forms, communal knowledge production, and anti-racist pedagogy.

Education: BA (Harvard), MA (NYU), PhD (University of Cambridge). Current projects include the Le Mardi Gras Listening Collective (music as theory), Ground Provisions (deprivatized reading), and the Center for Convivial Research and Autonomy (community empowerment). He teaches seminars on Shakespeare's Europe and James Baldwin's relevance. His work spans 15+ countries, emphasizing global solidarity and grassroots education.

Research interests focus on transversal aesthetics—art that disrupts systemic power. Key themes include fugitive planning, communal study, and anti-capitalist praxis. Collaborations with Fred Moten and others explore translation across cultures. Recent projects address environmental regeneration, food sovereignty, and intercultural dialogue through co-learning spaces.

Teaching emphasizes collective creation: his courses use film adaptations of Shakespeare to critique European identity and explore anti-Semitism, anti-Blackness, and sovereignty. Public talks and curatorial work (e.g., Shipping and the Shipped exhibition) extend academic boundaries into activist spaces.

Grants and fellowships include the Hayden Fellowship at Yale and BAK Fellowship in Utrecht. His writings critique global management education, financialization, and state work through a mass intellectuality lens. Ongoing projects aim to rebuild social infrastructures through convivial research and autonomous learning networks.