Lecture: Dr. Petra Sußner (HU Berlin): With law against the circumstances - On the potential of heteronormativity in asylum law

Sexual orientation and gender identity have been recognized as grounds for persecution in asylum law. In practice, however, it is clear that protection for LGBTIQ refugees is inadequate. There is a threat of violence in accommodation facilities and interrogations fail to reflect the realities of the lives of those affected. The lecture examines implementation deficits and draws on perspectives from legal gender studies; the focus is on the question of the relationship between law and heteronormativity. The central thesis is that heteronormativity as a structure not only generates persecution, but also stands in the way of protection from persecution. This transcends the asylum binary of country of origin (danger) and receiving state (protection), and thus obstacles to protection can be identified that remain hidden from legal dogmatic methods. On this basis, the lecture finally returns to the level of legal practice. The aim is to identify alternatives for a critical legal practice and thus open up new spaces for discussion between gender studies and law.


Dr. Petra Sußner is a project coordinator in the DFG research group "Law-Gender-Collectivity" and works at the Humboldt University of Berlin. She completed her doctorate at the University of Vienna and her dissertation was published in December 2020 under the title "Flucht-Geschlecht-Sexualität. A human rights-based perspective on basic care and asylum status" and was awarded the Gabriele Possanner Förderungspreis, among others. In addition to her academic work, Petra Sußner worked in legal practice for many years.

Registration at: https://veranstaltungen.uni-kassel.de/event/iag-sussner