Gender as experience
Research and teaching unit 8
The Research Training Group (GRK) investigates people's experiences of their gender within the horizon of society. The focus is on the physical-bodily experience and the social experience of being gendered in the world. How do people experience their gendered existence? How is gender constituted in lived experiences and in the entanglement with other dimensions of existence (class, ethnicity, citizenship, sexuality, health, age, religion)? To what extent does the bodily dimension in particular represent a prerequisite for the transformation of gender orders?
With this focus on physical corporeality and the complex experiential space of gender, the research programme bridges the long-established dichotomy in gender studies between 'deconstructivist' and 'essentialist' approaches. As the objects of investigation and goals of the RTG lie at odds with the established disciplines, subject areas that have so far been largely separate in gender studies are cooperating: American Studies, German Literature, Health Sciences Political Science, Sociology and Sports Science. Mediated by two research pillars - the constitution of social modes of existence (I) and the resulting transformation of gender orders (II) - the empirical realities of gender on the one hand and the theoretical conceptions of the category of gender on the other are to be systematically related to each other in the individual projects.
The aim of the qualification concept is to enable the completion of innovative doctoral theses within the three-year funding period and to prepare doctoral students for academic and non-academic (including international) careers. The qualification concept, which is tailored to the research programme, draws on many years of experience and existing structures at Bielefeld University. The training of disciplinary competences, which is essential for careers in the academic system, is systematically combined with the acquisition of interdisciplinary perspectives in the RTG. Specific working formats form the framework for innovative research, a continuous exchange between different disciplines and the development of socially relevant topics in gender studies for the scientific community and the wider public.
Further information on the qualification concept, participating researchers and current job vacancies can be found at the IZG.