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10/20/2021 | So­zio­­­lo­gie der Di­­ver­­­si­­tät | News

Call for Contributions: International Spring School "Decolonizing Gender Studies" 03.02.-07.02.2022, University of Kassel

@Soziologie der Diversität

Call for Contributions - International Spring School "Decolonizing Gender Studies"

03.02.-07.02.2022, University of Kassel

Annual conference of the Gender Studies Association 2022

For an English version of the Call for Contributions click here

The inter- and transdisciplinary field of gender studies is characterized by various theoretical approaches, methodologies and genealogies that strive to challenge their own voids and theoretical and epistemological self-understandings by analyzing gendered orders, relations and constructions. Decolonial and transnational feminisms, black feminisms, feminist border studies, diasporic feminisms, indigenous feminisms and queer diaspora critiques, among others, have recently helped to further establish critical approaches. Epistemological and methodological tools such as intersectionality or the situatedness of knowledge are important anchor points for the critical evaluation of knowledge production practices. Building on the question of whose voices were and are silenced and which racialized and gendered ways of life are changed and excluded, hegemonic knowledge production was examined in its systematic relationship to processes of exclusion, devaluation and othering. Central to this is the questioning of gender and sexuality as colonial categories of knowledge as well as critical reflection on the continuity of colonial logics and the centering of white and Eurocentric perspectives in gender studies.

While intersectional and power-critical perspectives are now established in gender studies and beyond, there are still demands for a decolonization of science, knowledge production and teaching as well as of academic institutions themselves. For practices of decolonization and thus the dismantling of epistemic violence and structural inequality would have to go far beyond neoliberal approaches to reform in order to question the legacy of colonial power structures and enable modes of epistemic change. A consistent consideration of post- and decolonial knowledge and the production of Europe and its 'knowledge traditions' in their global histories of entanglement is by no means a matter of course in academia in the countries of the Global North, including the German knowledge landscape. It is therefore also important to ask gender studies how post- and decolonial perspectives can be given greater consideration.

The Spring School "Decolonizing Gender Studies" aims to create a space for exchange between post- and decolonial, feminist, queer and anti-racist perspectives, practices and visions. We want to address the complexity, challenges and paradoxes of decolonization in the field of gender studies in Germany and contribute to deprivileging, unlearning and dismantling colonial, Eurocentric, racist and heteronormative hierarchies and exclusions. Scientists, artists and activists who wish to enter into a dialog across artistic and activist positions as well as research areas are invited. The aim of the Spring School is to discuss current debates, questions and challenges on decolonization from a gender studies perspective and to create (new) visions and interventions of collective decolonizing strategies in gender studies.

We particularly invite contributors who dedicate themselves to theoretical, literary, epistemological, methodological and empirical or activist approaches to the decolonization of gender studies. We look forward to contributions from the fields of postcolonial gender studies, critical race studies, indigenous and cultural studies, critical whiteness studies, migration studies, trans* and queer studies, disability studies and feminist STS, for example, which address the following questions:

  • How can and must transnational feminist solidarity be shaped?
  • How solidary can and must feminist knowledge production be? How activist can and must research and how research-based activism be?
  • If gender is analyzed as a colonial category of knowledge and as a component of the colonial matrix of thought, what does this mean for the reformulation of the category of gender in gender studies?
  • How are (German) universities involved in the reproduction of colonial conditions? What does 'decolonization of the university' and 'decolonization of knowledge production' mean? Which concepts and practices can be linked to this? What could a decolonial university look like?
  • Which historical, theoretical, artistic, literary or activist concepts and analyses challenge gender studies? What obstacles have prevented their dissemination? How can these be given greater consideration in gender studies?
  • How can and must teaching be (re)designed against the background of decolonial interventions? In particular, how can the curriculum be decolonized?

In addition to discussion events, workshops on "Migration and Asylum", "Extractivism", "Land and Territory", "Digitalization and Decolonization of AI" or "Decolonization of the University" (including inputs on visual and artistic gender studies, activist and participatory gender studies, research practice and publication practices, pedagogical strategies and working conditions) are desired. Another focus is on queering decolonial, postcolonial and intersectional research.

We invite you to submit proposals for individual contributions, workshops, poster presentations or performances in German, English and Spanish. Please indicate in which languages you can give your contribution and, if applicable, to which workshop you would like to contribute. Everyone is invited to submit workshop topics and formats that are not addressed in the call.

 

Please send an abstract (max. 500 words) with a bio-note (max. 100 words), and contact information by 20.10.2021 in a PDF file to decolonizing-genderstudies[at]uni-kassel[dot]de.

 

Childcare will be provided - please indicate when submitting your abstract whether you would make use of this if necessary so that we can plan accordingly. We strive to make the Spring School as accessible as possible. Please let us know your requirements so that we can take them into account from the outset. Please also let us know about technical, time and other requirements for your participation.

We assume that the event can take place in person, but would like to point out that we may have to adapt the framework of the Spring School if the pandemic makes this necessary. We will inform you of any changes as soon as possible.

The Spring School is organized by a heterogeneous group of people anchored in the academic environment of the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Kassel and in cooperation with the board of the Gender Studies Association.