DDGC Cooperatives and Support for Alternative Research Infrastructures

Suzuko Knott (Connecticut College)

Research was always something I imagined happening in isolation, siloed, and alone. Just me, a text, and that loud chorus of secondary literature. It was not until leaving graduate school that I understood the fullness that research could be, and how to begin connecting with other scholars in my field to work in collaboration. And while this new phase of my career gave me insight into the broader potential of researching and writing in community, I was never fully convinced that I belonged in those spaces, or that my contributions would find the audiences with whom I hoped to be in dialogue.

Traditional conference panels felt like one-off moments of show and tell, a kind of intellectual one-night stand with an audience ready to tear down, or worse, ready to showcase their own analyses at the expense of a reciprocal, supportive exchange of ideas. A spark in me died when I realized so many people were only there to pad the CV, dutifully fulfilling their institution’s requirement to present at x-number of conferences to complete their annual year-end reports. Traditional workshop formats provided a space to present and share ideas in development, but for every step towards community, there were always two steps back. I often found the work I was really invested in was not reflected in the traditional venues for research in my respective fields and, with few alternative models, I felt disconnected from the point of doing the work. When the work is not rooted in a shared sense of purpose, then there will be little to sustain the fragile relationships that do develop in these traditional models.

As researchers, practitioners, and activists, we care very deeply about our scholarship but often struggle to connect in more meaningful ways around the purpose of our work with like-minded researchers in the pay-to-play, “just another line in my CV” approach of unwelcoming spaces in the academy. Now more than ever, when research is defunded and censored, we must imagine and take collective ownership of new supports and communities to sustain our research agendas.

I co-created the DDGC Research Cooperatives with my colleagues in the collective in no small part because I wanted to help provide the infrastructure to imagine new ways of being in a supportive community together, rooted in shared purpose. Together with Ervin Malakaj, I brainstormed potential formats that would give some suggested organization to the cooperatives as a starting point without over-determining or controlling their ultimate shape. It was important to us that the cooperatives serve as a space for mutual support and collective purpose defined by the groups themselves, and this impulse led us to the idea of “research cooperatives” (as opposed to more established networks or colloquia). We then set out to draft our ideas around the process of formally establishing the coops and brought this proposal to the DDGC steering committee for discussion and feedback. We now invite you to bring scholars together around a new common theme and in keeping with the DDGC’s Research Cooperatives Guidelines!

Since the DDGC Research Cooperatives were first launched in February 2024, groups have coalesced around a diverse range of topics that align with their research interests. For many, these intellectual and activist communities have become vital sources for connection, camaraderie and support through reading groups, panel planning and informal meetings. Each cooperative operates autonomously from the DDGC and is free to determine how it will structure its meetings and activities. The co-conveners (I and Ervin Malakaj currently serve in this role)  guide the co-ops as they build their infrastructures. To date, the following co-ops have been created:  

●      DDGC Germanists for Palestine Research Cooperative (founded May 2024)

●      DDGC Queer and Trans German Studies Research Cooperative, aka The Pink Pony Club (founded December 2024)

●      DDGC Critical Food Studies Research Cooperative (founded December 2024)

●      DDGC Antifascist Research Cooperative (founded April 2025)

And we always have room for more! Just reach out.