About the Masterclass 

What can mourning teach us about Black life, memory, and the responsibilities of remembrance? How do people sustain relationships with the dead—and with one another—when institutional records cannot fully convey the significance of a life or its loss?

This participatory Masterclass explores mourning as a practice of knowledge, care, and Black feminist life-making. Drawing on their research project, The Museum Cannot Mourn, Dr. Bailey Thomas will consider how museums and archives shape what becomes publicly knowable about Black lives, and how practices of storytelling, commemoration, preservation, and refusal complicate institutional approaches to memory. Particular attention will be given to the intellectual and caring labour of Black women and nonbinary people.

Following a research presentation, participants will work with selected archival and commemorative materials to examine what they reveal, what remains uncertain, and what responsibilities arise from encountering them. Through small-group activities and collective discussion, we will consider who has the authority to preserve and interpret a life, when withholding can be an act of care, and what an accountable response to loss might require.

Who can apply? 

Open to students, researchers, cultural practitioners, and community members. No specialist knowledge is required, and participants will not be asked to share personal experiences of bereavement. 

To apply please sign up via the link below or send a email to Michael Thomas m.l.thomas@uva.nl. 

About the Speaker

Dr. Bailey Thomas is currently a RPA Decolonial Futures Scholar in Residence (Sep- Nov 2026). They are hosted by Dr. Michael Thomas (Department of Philosophy, UvA). 

They are a Black feminist philosopher and critical theorist whose research works at the intersections of social epistemology, Black feminist philosophy, political philosophy, and ethics. Their scholarship examines how structures of power shape practices of knowing and not-knowing, with particular attention to structural ignorance, epistemic erasure, and the intellectual and political traditions through which Black communities theorize and resist oppressive conditions. Across their work, Thomas develops radical Black feminist approaches to questions that are too often separated across epistemological, ethical, and political inquiry.

Click here for more on Dr. Thomas and their upcoming events at the UvA.