Keynote by Xine Yao followed by a conversation with Katrin Köppert
In this talk, Yao explores the long-standing histories behind specifically North American intellectual traditions, in which objects become meaningful images within the cultural imagination.
Watermelons and gauze are the two central symbols in this talk, which draws on 19th-century North American literature.
The watermelon, once a symbol of Black independence, is reinterpreted through the writings of Charles Chesnutt and August Wilson. Yao also considers gauze as a symbol of healing and beautification in the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, connecting this to W.E.B. Du Bois’s theory of the Black experience.
The talk examines the commonalities between gauze and watermelons and explores the implications of non-Black thinkers citing Black theory. Drawing on popular culture, poetry, and philosophy, Yao reflects on the orthogonal, appositional, simultaneous, and oblique as methods for examining the shifts between gazes, veils, and gauze.
English with simultaneous German translation
Additional information
Dates
December 2025
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