Rosi Braidotti is a feminist Continental philosopher and Distinguished University Professor Emerita at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She holds degrees in philosophy from the ANU and the Sorbonne and Honorary Degrees from Helsinki, (2007) and Linkoping (2013). She is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA) and also a Member of the Academia Europaea. In 2022 she received the Humboldt Research Award for life-long contribution to scholarship. Main publications: Nomadic Subjects (2011a), and Nomadic Theory.(2011b), Columbia University Press. The Posthuman, 2013, Posthuman Knowledge, 2019; Posthuman Feminism, 2022 Polity Press. The Posthuman Glossary (2018) and More Posthuman Glossary (2022), Bloomsbury Academic.
Publications
Braidotti’s publications have consistently been placed in continental and feminist philosophy, at the intersection with social and political theory, cultural politics, gender, and postcolonial studies. Her interdisciplinary work can be divided into three main focal points: contemporary subjectivity, feminist theories and the posthuman convergence. The core of her work on subjectivity consists of four interconnected monographs, with special emphasis on the concept of difference within the history of European philosophy and political theory: Patterns of Dissonance (Routledge, 1991); Nomadic Subjects (Columbia University Press, 1994); Metamorphoses (Polity Press, 2002); and Transpositions (Polity Press, 2006). Braidotti’s philosophical project investigates how to think difference positively, which means moving beyond the dialectics that both opposes it and thus links it by negation to the notion of sameness. She makes a case for an alternative view on subjectivity, ethics and emancipation and pitches diversity against the postmodernist risk of cultural relativism while also standing against the tenets of liberal individualism.
The second phase of Braidotti’s research consists of a trilogy on the posthuman condition. The first volume is The Posthuman (Polity Press, 2013) and it sets up the general framework for the convergence of advanced technologies on the one hand, and advanced environmental devastation on the other. As the boundaries between the human and its others are becoming increasingly blurred, through our digital lives, reproductive technologies and genetically modified foods, the question of what it means to be human is taking a new turn. This also results in a need to reevaluate humanism and the humanities. Braidotti takes a closer look at these developments and proposes new and affirmative ways of producing knowledge and building communities. This topic is further explored in Posthuman Knowledge (Polity Press, 2019), which focuses on the implications of the convergence for the knowledge production practices of the contemporary Humanities.
In 2022, professor Braidotti published Posthuman Feminism with Wiley, as a continuation of her brilliant and elaborate exploration into the posthuman condition. This book examines the implications of the posthuman turn for feminist theory and practice. She defines the posthuman turn as a convergence between posthumanism on the one hand and post-anthropocentrism on the other, and she examines their complex relationship and joint impact. Braidotti claims that mainstream posthuman scholarship has neglected feminist theory, while in fact feminism is one of the precursors of the posthuman turn, through diverse social movements and political traditions. Posthuman Feminism is an analytic and creative response to contemporary conditions and a call to action. It highlights the constraints but also the potentialities available to feminist political subjects as they confront the ever-growing injustices of sexism, racism, ecocide and neoliberal capitalism.
Further, Braidotti’s edited volume More Posthuman Glossary (Bloomsbury Academic 2022), in cooperation with dr. Emily Jones and Goda Klumbyte is a follow-up volume to the brilliant interventions of Posthuman Glossary (2018). this book extends and elaborates on that work, particularly focusing on concepts of race, indigeneity and new ideas in radical ecology. It also includes new and emerging voices within the new humanities and multiple modes of communicating ideas. The notion of the posthuman continues to both intrigue and confuse, not least because of the huge number of ideas, theories and figures associated with this term. More Posthuman Glossary provides a way in to the dizzying array of posthuman concepts, providing vivid accounts of emerging terms. It is much more than a series of definitions, however, in that it seeks to imagine and predict what new terms might come into being as this exciting field continues to expand.
Throughout her work, Braidotti asserts and demonstrates the importance of combining theoretical concerns with a serious commitment to producing socially and politically relevant scholarship that contributes to making a difference in the world. Braidotti’s output also includes several edited volumes. Her work has been translated in more than 20 languages and all her main books in at least three languages other than English.
Introduction to Braidotti’s work
Influences
Influenced by philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze and especially “French feminist” thinker Luce Irigaray, but also by the Australian materialist tradition of Genevieve Lloyd Braidotti has brought postmodern feminism into the Information Age with her considerations of cyberspace, prosthesis, and the materiality of difference. Braidotti also considers how ideas of gender difference can affect our sense of the human/animal and human/machine divides. Braidotti has pioneered European perspectives in feminist philosophy and practice and has been influential on third-wave and post-secular feminisms as well as emerging posthumanist thought.
Honours
On 3 March 2005, Braidotti was honored with a Royal Knighthood from Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands; in August 2006 she received the University Medal from the University of Lodz in Poland and she was awarded an Honorary Degree in Philosophy from Helsinki University in May 2007. In 2009, she was elected Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2013 she was awarded an Honorary Degree in Philosophy from Linköping University, Sweden.
