Friederike Landau Donnelly: Whose City [Image]? A Controversial Plea for Queer-Feminist Urban Policy & Practice

The debate over the “cityscape,” which Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz first raised in October 2025—this anti-foreigner and anti-immigration statement has since sparked an impressive counter-mobilization, for example through public protests and the “We Are the Daughters” petition launched by activist Cesy Leonard, founder of “Radical Daughters.” Building on the charged concept of the “cityscape,” I, as an urban geographer, conflict researcher, and also as an actively engaged “Radical Daughter,” I am using political and spatial theoretical reflections to design a “different” cityscape—or rather, a vision of inclusive urban policy and practice that values differences and makes space for conflicts.

Dr. Friederike Landau-Donnelly (b. 1989, she/they) is an intersectional political scientist, urban sociologist, and cultural geographer. She is currently a visiting professor of social and cultural geography at Humboldt University in Berlin. She is also working on a monograph about conflictual museums in Canada and India. Friederike writes about artistic and affective activism, spatial theory, art in public spaces, and controversial cultural policy. Dr. Landau-Donnelly is co-editor of the Handbook of Cultural Policy (2024), *Conflictual Cultural Policy* (2023), and *[Un]Grounding – Post-Foundational Geographies* (2021), as well as the author of *Agonistic Articulations in the “Creative” City* – On New Actors and Activism in Berlin’s Cultural Politics (2019) and publishes poetry under #PoeticAcademic: https://friederikelandau.com/poeticacademic/.

One year after Merz’s remarks on the cityscape, the Young Academy for Cultures and Societies Research (YAC) at FRIAS is taking a critical look at the concept. Under the motto “Unser Stadtbild – Our Stadtbild,” the two-day symposium on October 1 and 2 brings together representatives from academia, the arts, urban planning, and philosophy to engage in dialogue with the Freiburg public. The focus will be on questions of visibility, racism, and aesthetics in urban spaces—and on how we can design cities that are open, diverse, and livable.

The event is open to anyone interested and is free of charge. To help us better estimate the number of participants, we ask that you register via the link on the event page.