Public Lecture by Achille Mbembe
Futureproof Solidarity
Organized by the International Spinoza Prize Foundation, in collaboration with NOG, IOS Gender, Diversity & Global Justice Platform, Network for Environmental Humanities, Pathways to Sustainability (Critical Pathways), and OSL: Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies
Theaterzaal, Bibliotheek Neude, Utrecht (Neude 11, 3512 TA)
November 25, 2025, 20:00-23:00h
Achille Mbembe
Research Professor of History and Politics, WISER – Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand
Laureate Spinozalens 2025
Chair
Sandra Ponzanesi
Professor of Media, Gender and Postcolonial Studies, Utrecht University
About the Lecture
Futureproof solidarity in times of climate change, migration, and digitalization is not only a complex philosophical question but also an urgent global issue. It extends beyond inequality and socio-economic differences, reaching into the very future of life on earth.
Achille Mbembe will reflect on the notion of futureproof solidarity through the lens of his influential oeuvre, which has gained international recognition. His work critically engages with neocolonialism, digitalization, climate change, and necropolitics, challenging Western societies while offering a message of hope rooted in the African continent.
The “African Archive,” as Mbembe names this intellectual and cultural tradition, inspires new ways of relating to one another, to other living beings, and to the planet. For Mbembe, this is urgent: the future of life, reason, and the earth itself is at stake.
Details Lecture
Date: November 25, 2025
Time: 20:00h-23:00h, including drinks
Registration: This event is fully booked. You can register for the waiting list by clicking this link. Please be aware that the confirmation email serves as your entry ticket and you will have to show the confirmation at the event. If you cannot make it, please let us know in a timely manner by emailing IOSGenderanddiversity@uu.nl.
Respondents
Scholars from Utrecht University will respond to Mbembe’s lecture and engage in discussion on race theory, environmental humanities, development studies, and digitalization:
- Jamila Mascat – Assistant Professor of Gender and Postcolonial Studies at Utrecht University
- Kei Otsuki – Professor of International Development Studies at Utrecht University
- Bruce Mutsvairo – Professor and Chair of Media, Politics and the Global South at Utrecht University
About Achille Mbembe
Achille Mbembe (b. Cameroon, 1957) is one of today’s most influential public intellectuals. He holds a PhD in History from Sorbonne University (Paris, 1989) and a D.E.A. in Political Science from the Institut d’Études Politiques. He has held positions at Columbia University, the Brookings Institution, the University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley, Yale, Duke, and CODESRIA in Dakar. He is currently Research Professor at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (University of the Witwatersrand).
Mbembe received the Holberg Prize in 2024, often described as the Nobel Prize for the Humanities. His work investigates the postcolony, Afro-cosmopolitan culture, and the politics of decolonization. He is renowned for his concept of necropolitics—the intertwining of destruction of human life with environmental devastation. On 24 november 2025 he will be awarded with the international philosophy prize the Spinozalens 2025 by the mayor of The Hague in the Kunstmuseum.
Selected Publications
- On the Postcolony (University of California Press, 2001)
- Critique of Black Reason (Duke University Press, 2016)
- Necropolitics (Duke University Press, 2019)
- Out of the Dark Night: Essays on Decolonization (Columbia University Press, 2020)
- The Earthly Community: Reflections on the Last Utopia (V2_Lab for the Unstable Media, 2022)
- Brutalism (Duke University Press, 2024)
His works, originally written in French, have been translated into thirteen languages, including English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Slovenian, Danish, Swedish, Romanian, Arabic, and Chinese.
Mbembe is co-founder of Les Ateliers de la Pensée in Dakar, holds an A1 rating from the South African National Research Foundation, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Sponsors
International Spinoza Prize Foundation
Institutions for Open Society (Gender Diversity and Global Justice Platform)
Network for Environmental Humanities.
Pathway to Sustainability (Critical Pathways)
Netherlands School for Gender Studies
