Shape/Shift: Imagining a Discipline of Care through Mutual Aid.

How can a mutual aid network reshape German studies to challenge structural inequities and difficulties, and to create meaningful communities of care that generate sustainable support? In this contribution we reflect on the work of the Diversity, Decolonization, and the German Curriculum mutual aid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Feminist German Studies Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 94 - 109
Main Authors: Kost, Kiley, Neuman, Nichole M.
Format: Article
Published: University of Nebraska Press Spring/Summer2024
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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Summary:How can a mutual aid network reshape German studies to challenge structural inequities and difficulties, and to create meaningful communities of care that generate sustainable support? In this contribution we reflect on the work of the Diversity, Decolonization, and the German Curriculum mutual aid network by outlining key components of mutual aid, focusing on basic principles, notions of deprogramming, and the barriers of asking for help. Expanding networks of radical kinship necessarily entails questioning the systems that frame the field of German studies in favor of a temporality of care. It also requires implementing a flat, nonhierarchical relational structure that empowers all collective, network, and action group members. We also consider mutual aid's potential to fundamentally shift the field by focusing on communities that sustain and inspire. We conclude our contribution with an invitation to Feminist German Studies readers to join us in shaping our disciplines in our mutual aid network.