# Karen Barad [Wikipedia Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Barad) ( – ) ## Description American theoretical physicist turned feminist theorist whose "agential realism," developed from quantum physics (especially Niels Bohr) and articulated in *Meeting the Universe Halfway* (2007), theorizes matter and meaning as mutually entangled and proposes "posthumanist performativity" as an extension of feminist performativity theory beyond the human. ## Key Tags #theorist #posthumanism #feminist #philosophy ## Essential Works - *Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning* (2007) - major statement of agential realism, drawing on Niels Bohr's quantum philosophy - "Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter" (2003 essay) - extends performativity theory beyond the human/social into matter itself ## Details Trained as a theoretical physicist before moving into feminist science studies (UC Santa Cruz), Barad's agential realism has become a central reference for new-materialist and posthumanist theory, treating scientific apparatuses and observation as active participants in the phenomena they measure rather than neutral instruments. ### Concepts and Theories - [[Affirmative Posthumanism]] - agential realism and posthumanist performativity are central texts in contemporary posthumanist theory ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Collaborators - [[Donna Haraway]] - agential realism directly extends Haraway's situated-knowledges and boundary-crossing feminist science studies - [[Judith Butler]] - "posthumanist performativity" explicitly extends Butler's theory of gender performativity beyond the human ### Institutional Affiliations and Associated Movements %% none yet %% ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography Barad, Karen. *Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning*. Duke University Press, 2007. Foundational statement of agential realism. ### Secondary Sources Bibliography van der Tuin, Iris, and Rick Dolphijn. *New Materialism: Interviews & Cartographies*. Open Humanities Press, 2012. Includes an interview with Barad situating agential realism within the broader new-materialist turn.