Dr. Ben Trott

21335 Lüneburg, Universitätsallee 1, C5.330
ben.trott@leuphana.de
Associated member, Institute of Philosophy and Art History
Frauen und Gleichstellung

Table of contents for this page

Vita

Ben Trott is Academic Director of Gender Studies. He is speaker of the Center for Critical Studies (CCS) and co-speaker of the university-wide Gender and Diversity Research Network. His research combines three areas of inquiry. First, social/political philosophy and theory and the resources these provide for thinking about political claim-making, demands, social conflict and transformation. Second, queer theory and gender studies. This includes attention to the relationship between sexuality, gender, labour and global political economy. Third, social movements and contentious politics in an age of globalisation. He is currently working on a book about the ongoing effects of the 2007/8 political economic crisis, the politicisation of “identity”, and contemporary conflicts around free speech. He was previously Lecturer in Feminist Thought and Global Justice in the Politics Department at Cardiff University and a Postdoc with the Program in Literature at Duke University.

He has held research fellowships at the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at New York University (NYU), the Forum Basiliense at the University of Basel, and the Center for the Study of Social and Global Justice at Nottingham University. He completed his doctorate in Philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin. 

CV

- Spring 2026, Global Visiting Scholar, Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, New York University (NYU)

- since 2025, Academic Director of Gender Studies, Leuphana University of Lüneburg

- 2024 winter semester, Research Fellow, Forum Basiliense, University of Basel

- 2016 – 2025 Visiting Scholar/Visiting Professor, Institute for Philosphy and Art History (IPK), Leuphana University of Lüneburg

- 2016 Lecturer in Feminist Thought and Global Justice, Department of Politics and International Relations, Cardiff University, UK

- 2015 – 2016 Associate Lecturer, Political Science, JFK Institute for North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

- 2014 – 2015 Post-Doctoral Associate with the Program in Literature, Duke University, USA

- 2013 – 2014 Associate Lecturer, Political Science, JFK Institute for North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

- 2012 – 2013 Post-Doctoral Associate with the Program in Literature, Duke University, USA

- 2012 Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham, UK

- 2011 – 2012 Associate Lecturer, Political Science, JFK Institute for North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

- 2011 – 2012 Associate Lecturer (Lehrbeauftragter) MA in European and World Politics, Department of Social Sciences, Bremen University of Applied Sciences

Education

- 2012 PhD in Philosophy, Freie Universität Berlin

- 2005 MA in International Relations, University of Sussex, UK

- 1999 BA in Politics with Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK

Teaching Fields

- Social and Political Philosophy and Theory

- Queer Theory and Gender Studies

- Globalisation and Political Economy

- Social Movements

- Anglophone Cultural Studies

Membership of Editorial Boards

- The Journal of Labor and Society

- fem.phil | Gegenwärtige feministische Philosophie (Book series, Metzler Verlag) (Advisory Board)

Reviewer for:

Journal of Social Philosophy; Social Theory and Practice: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal of Social Philosophy; Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Applied Contemporary Thought; Graduate Journal of Social Science; Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory; Journal of Labor and Society; Feminist Theory; Sexualities; Social Movement Studies – Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest; Organization; Organization Studies; Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography; Contention: The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest; ephemera: theory & politics in organization; Interface: A Journal For and About Social Movements; METU – Studies in Development; Culture, Health & Sexuality; Open Gender Journal; Pluto Press.

Projects

Publications

Books and anthologies

  1. Queer Studies: Schlüsseltexte
    Ben Trott (Editor) , Mike Laufenberg (Editor) , 2023 2. ed. Berlin , 576 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Collected editions and anthologies › Research

  2. Die intime Stadt: Kulturen queerer Verbindung
    Ben Trott (Editor) , Kristine Beurskens (Editor) , Laura Calbet i Elias (Editor) , Nihad El -Kayed (Editor) , Nina Gribat (Editor) , Stefan Höhne (Editor) , Johanna Hoerning (Editor) , Jan Simon Hutta (Editor) , Justin Kadi (Editor) , Michael Keizers (Editor) , Yuca Meubrink (Editor) , Boris Michel (Editor) , Gala Nettelbladt (Editor) , Lucas Pohl (Editor) , Nikolai Roskamm (Editor) , Nina Schuster (Editor) , Lisa Vollmer (Editor) , 2022 Berlin , 296 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Special Journal issue › Research

  3. The Conjuncture of “Corbynism” and the UK Labour Party
    Ben Trott (Editor) , 2021 Durham NC , 51 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Special Journal issue › Research

  4. Politics of Reproduction
    Ben Trott (Editor) , Armin Beverungen (Editor) , Inga Luchs (Editor) , Randi Michaela Heinrichs (Editor) , Sascha Simons (Editor) , Clemens Apprich (Editor) , Laura Hille (Editor) , 2020 Lüneburg

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Special Journal issue › Research

  5. Queer Theory After Marriage Equality. Edited collection in the journal "South Atlantic Quarterly"
    Ben Trott (Editor) , 2016 2 ed. Durham, North Carolina

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Special Journal issue › Research

View all publications

Journal contributions

  1. Editorial: Die intime Stadt – Kulturen queerer Verbindung
    Ben Trott (Author) , 16.12.2022 , in: sub\urban zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung, 10, 2/3 , p. 7-15 , 9 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Other (editorial matter etc.) › Research

  2. Introduction: The Political Project of Corbynism
    Ben Trott (Author) , 01.10.2021 , in: South Atlantic Quarterly, 120, 4 , p. 872-878 , 7 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Scientific review articles › Research

  3. Politics of Reproduction
    Ben Trott (Author) , Armin Beverungen (Author) , Inga Luchs (Author) , Randi Michaela Heinrichs (Author) , Sascha Simons (Author) , Clemens Apprich (Author) , Laura Hille (Author) , 01.03.2020 , in: spheres - Journal for Digital Cultures, 2000, #6 , p. 1-10 , 10 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Other (editorial matter etc.) › Research

  4. Friends and Family - the Reproduction of Queer Life
    Ben Trott (Author) , 01.01.2020 , in: spheres - Journal for Digital Cultures, 6 , 14 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research

  5. Queer Berlin and the Covid-19 Crisis: A Politics of Contact and Ethics of Care
    Ben Trott (Author) , 01.01.2020 , in: Interface: A Journal for and About Social Movements, 12, 1 , p. 88-108 , 21 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research

View all publications

Contributions to collected editions/anthologies

  1. Queer Studies: Genealogien, Normativitäten, Multidimensionalität
    Ben Trott (Author) , Mike Laufenberg (Author) , 25.12.2023 Berlin , p. 7-99 , 93 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research

  2. Cognitive Capitalism
    Ben Trott (Author) , David Harvie (Author) , 01.01.2022 Los Angeles , p. 1517-1538 , 22 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review

  3. From the Precariat to the Multitude
    Ben Trott (Author) , 01.01.2015 London , p. 22-45 , 24 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review

  4. Gefühle, Affekte, Feminisierung: Interventionen in die geschlechtliche Arbeitsteilung
    Ben Trott (Author) , 01.01.2013 Münster , p. 104-115 , 12 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research

  5. Protest
    Ben Trott (Author) , Tadzio Müller (Author) , 01.01.2012 , p. 226-227 , 2 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Articles for encyclopedia › Research

View all publications

Activities

Press / Media

  1. Soziopolis Besprechung von "Queer Studies. Schlüsseltexte" (hg. Ben Trott und Mike Laufenberg)
    1 Media contribution

    Press/Media: Press/Media

  2. Jahrbuch Sexualitäten (2024) Besprechung von "Queer Studies. Schlüßeltexte" (hg. Ben Trott und Mike Laufenberg)
    1 Media contribution

    Press/Media: Press/Media

  3. Zündstoffe. Queere Positionen und Kritik
    1 Media contribution

    Press/Media: Press/Media

  4. Was ist Queer Theory?
    1 Media contribution

    Press/Media: Press/Media

  5. "taz - die Tageszeitung" Besprechung von "Queer Studies. Schlüsseltexte" (hg. Ben Trott und Mike Laufenberg)
    1 Media contribution

    Press/Media: Press/Media

View all press/media coverage

Prizes

  1. Leuphana Prize for Gender and Diversity Research
    Ben Trott (Recipient) ,

    Prize: Leuphana internal Prize, Scholaships, distinctions, appointments › Research

View all prizes

Courses

Cultural Studies
Ben Trott
⌄
This seminar introduces Cultural Studies, as it emerged in Britain in the 1950s and 60s. It looks at the ideas and approaches that shaped it (including those associated with the ‘New Left’), it’s development as an academic field, and the ways in which it has been taken up by others. Students will engage with the work of some of the key figures within (British) Cultural Studies, including Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy, Dick Hebdige and Angela McRobbie. We will look at how these authors have variously drawn on (and re-thought) Karl Marx’s account of the relationship between (economic) ‘base’ and (political/ideological) ‘superstructure’, Louis Althusser’s work on ‘ideology’ (and ‘ideological state apparatuses’), and Antonio Gramsci’s notion of ‘hegemony’. Students will also explore the resonances and dissonances between Cultural Studies related fields, including Queer Studies, Transgender Studies and Post-Colonial Studies.
Next appointment:
Tuesday, 2026-04-21 at 14:15
Room: C 40.255 Seminarraum
Feminist Political Philosophy (SBP)
Ben Trott
⌄

This lecture-based class introduces feminist philosophical approaches to thinking the social and political world. It entails, first, an exploration of feminist engagements with, appropriations from, and critiques of the modern, western canon of social and political philosophy – including the ways it has thought justice, equality, the social contract, freedom and rights. Here the focus is primarily on feminist and queer engagements with liberal social and political thought, which is itself shown to be a highly heterogeneous enterprise. In the second part of the seminar, students address feminist contributions to social and political philosophy that break with or move beyond liberal traditions.

Students will engage work by Susan Okin, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor, Nancy Fraser, Angela Davis, Emma Goldman, Judith Butler and others.
Next appointment:
Monday, 2026-04-27 at 12:15
Room: C 40.146 Seminarraum
Masterforum: Künste, Theorie, Kritik
Ben Trott
⌄
It provides an opportunity for students embarking on their MA theses to present an outline of their projects, with the goal of receiving productive critical feedback – both from instructors and from student peers.

In the first meeting of the Master Forum, Ben Trott will introduce some of the common issues confronted by those carrying out scholarly research or writing in Cultural Studies, the Humanities and the Social Sciences. This will include general questions, including: how to arrive at and formulate a research question and a suitable framework for your project; how to begin thinking about method and methodology, and starting to conducting research; and ways of referencing and of acknowledging the use of sources.

Students are invited to sign up to present an outline of their MA thesis in the subsequent meetings of the Master Forum. Students can choose whther to present in German or English.

Students are required upload a two-page summary of their project to myStudy one week before they are due to present. This should include:
• a working title for your thesis as well as your research question;
• the approach, method or methodology that you plan on using, and the theoretical framework or points of reference for your project;
• what you anticipate discovering or arguing in your thesis;
• and a list of up to five key works that you will use, along with any additional information about sources you plan on using – such as archives, exhibitions or interview partners.

Students are asked to attend all sessions of the Master Forum, not the simply the session in which they will present, and to have read the two-page summaries ahead of time. Please be ready to provide your fellow students with productive critical feedback on their projects!

The Master Forum is examined (pass/fail) as a combined scholarly work [Kombinierte wissenschaftliche Arbeit] made up of (a) your two-page summary and (b) your presentation.
Next appointment:
Thursday, 2026-05-21 at 12:15
Room: C 40.165 Seminarraum
Queer Digital Cultures (SBP)
Ben Trott
⌄

Digital media, digital technologies and digital infrastructures shape contemporary culture in many and far-reaching ways. This seminar examines their impact on 'queer' culture in particular – understood here as both LGBT (i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) cultures as well as, more broadly, cultures that contest or subvert dominant norms around gender and sexuality. Students will explore recent efforts to theorise the relationship between transformations in information, digital and other technologies, and transformations in the fields of gender and sexuality. They will examine recent empirical as well as theoretically-informed work on the ways that digital media and technologies are shaping queer life and culture. And they will address the extent to which the study of digital cultures can be productively approached from a queer perspective.

Issues that will be explored include the following:
• The role of digital media in transgender self-representation
• How social media hashtags (like #lesbian) can facilitate both the production of community and the (de-)stabilisation of identity categories
• How LGBT and queer intimacies are being transformed through dating and ‘hook-up’ apps (such as Tinder and Grindr)
• Digital labour and online pornography
• The possibilities and limits of digital queer activism
• Histories of the transgender internet
Next appointment:
Monday, 2026-04-27 at 16:15
Room: C 40.256 Hybridraum
Queer History
Ben Trott
⌄
This seminar introduces queer history, primarily but not exclusively in Germany and the German-speaking world. It explores the understandings of sexuality developed by sexologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and activists in German-speaking countries in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, including Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Sigmund Freud and Magnus Hirschfeld. It addresses the ways in which theories of sexuality were caught up with theories of gender, the colonial context in which these theories emerged, and the role of eugenics within sexology and early gay rights activism. The seminar also looks at the uneven criminalisation of sexual and gender minorities (including gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people) in the Weimar Republic, the National Socialist period, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and in the Federal Republic of Germany both before and after reunification.

The seminar includes a day of activities in Basel, including a visit to “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of New Identities, 1869-1939” exhibition at Kunstraum Basel.
Next appointment:
Monday, 2026-04-27 at 14:15
Room: C 5.124 Seminarraum
Theories and Applications of Intersectionality and Multidimensionality: Gender and Diversity Certificate Core Seminar
Ben Trott
⌄

Nobody experiences the world in just one dimension. This seminar looks critically at how gender, sexuality, racism and class form multiple, intersecting dimensions that shape individual experience, social structures and power relations. This ‘intersectionality’ or ‘multidimensionality’ informs the ways in which some people and some groups experience specific (often particularly egregious) forms of oppression, marginalisation or exploitation. However, the seminar also looks at how ‘intersectional’ or ‘multidimensional’ approaches have historically informed the ways in which such oppression, marginalisation or exploitation have been resisted.

Throughout this course, we will look at how economic questions – i.e. questions of class and capitalism, waged and unwaged labour – shape gender, sexuality, racism and the ways in which these are entangled with one another.

Students will engage with key works by Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Roderick A. Ferguson, Patricia Hill Collins, Stuart Hall, the Combahee River Collective, Sara Ahmed, and Angela Davis.
Next appointment:
Wednesday, 2026-04-22 at 12:15
Room: C 40.255 Seminarraum