Dr. Peer Illner
Freie Universität Berlin
International Summer and Winter University
(FUBiS)
Dr. Peer Illner is a writer, researcher, and educator based in Berlin. From 2021–2023, Dr. Illner was Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Manchester. Previously, he was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Normative Orders at Goethe University Frankfurt and a Lecturer at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. His monograph Disasters and Social Reproduction (Pluto Press 2021) looks at the history of community mutual aid initiatives in the US and the ways in which social movements from the Black Panther Party to Occupy have resisted the combined and uneven effects of economic and natural disaster. He holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from the University of Copenhagen, an MA in Visual Culture, and a BA in Media & Sociology, both from Goldsmiths, University of London.
Current FUBiS courses:
- Environmental Social Movements (FUBiS Term III 2024)
- 2021 – 2023: Lecturer in Politics, Department of Politics, University of Manchester.
- 2021: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Copenhagen. Co-Director of Novo Nordisk-funded research project Aesthetic Protest Cultures.
- 2017 – 2021: Postdoctoral Fellow, Research Centre “Normative Orders”, Goethe University Frankfurt.
- 2020: Course Tutor, Architectural Association School of Architecture.
- 2013 – 2016: PhD Fellow, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen.
- 2012 – 2013: Research Fellow, University of the Arts, Berlin. Coordinator and researcher on DFG project Design, Art, Lifeworld. Aesthetic Strategies and Cultural Efficacy.
- 2011 – 2012: Student Research Assistant, Humboldt University Berlin. Development of DFG-funded project The Labour of Theory. History of an Epistemic Practice 1960-1990.
Dr. Illner has taught over twelve courses at BA and MA level at The University of Manchester, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, The University of Copenhagen and The Royal Danish Academy of Architecture. He also frequently lectures in an art context, for example at The New Museum in New York City, Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt and Klingspor Museum in Offenbach.
Dr. Illner researches the effects of crises on society, art and architecture. His current research foci are the history of capitalism, social movements, natural and man-made disasters, and American political and social history.