(BA, American, English and German Studies, University of Wuerzburg, Germany; MA, Comparative Literature, University of Rochester, New York.)

Current Studies: Ph.D. Cinema and Media Studies

Supervisor: Dr. Ernest Mathijs

Gerrit proposes a trans-/post-humanistic theory of the cyborg theorized with the help of Japanese cyberpunk animation. His theory reads the cyborg on the means of both the cyber-body (production, resources, labor force, tools of labor/production, organization) and the cyber-brain, its immaterial realm (consciousness, species-being, social-relations, power struggles, networks). Illuminating the depth of Marx’s concept of humanity’s species-being, he demonstrates that its theorization reveals the true potential of liberation and transcendence in both sense consciousness/species-being progression, and towards an alternative to capitalism. Inspired and influenced by theorists such as Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, and Nick Dyer-Witheford, he further develops a cyber-Marxist understanding of culture, economy and politics – one that argues that in order to become human, one must become cyborg.