Introduction to the Main Research Areas in the Gender & Diversity Department

The Gender & Diversity research area deals with overarching questions such as how intersectional power relations and inequalities are embedded in political institutions and structures and how these are addressed and negotiated politically. We want to understand the conditions under which these power relations and inequalities are reproduced or overcome. We are particularly interested in the constellations of actors as well as the narratives, argumentation patterns, and strategies of different groups of actors in gender-political debates. We examine this empirically using the example of gender and diversity politics in various political institutions and policy fields. On a theoretical level, we address the question of how different currents of feminist thought approach issues of inclusion and emancipation and influence political negotiation processes in institutions and policy fields. Our research focuses on areas such as transnational feminist theories, feminist political economy and the ecology of care, gender politics in global governance, and diversity politics at higher education institutions.

Contested diversity and belonging

In this research focus, we address the central challenges of intersectionality research, namely the question of how dimensions of inequality are categorically captured and politically negotiated. The focus is on processes of boundary drawing and narratives of justification for the inclusion or exclusion of social groups in different social and institutional contexts, including attacks on equality and diversity policies. Research projects in this focus area deal, for example, with the design of diversity policies at universities, the heterogeneity of political representation, and feminist perspectives on national identity and nationalism.

Contested Diversity and Belonging

Re-reading of feminist theories

A major focus of our research lies in the field of global governance studies. We are particularly interested in discourses, strategies, and transnational networks in international gender politics. Among other things, we examine how gender inequality and issues of sexual identity and oppression are negotiated and addressed politically at the national and international levels. We are particularly interested in transnational alliances and the effects of government techniques, such as the use of indicators in international gender politics.

Re-reading of Feminist Theories

Feminist Political Economy of Care and Ecology

In this research area, we examine the theoretical, conceptual, and political dimensions of care and ecology. Depending on the theoretical approach chosen, different dimensions of inequality and aspects of care and ecology come into focus, shaping the analysis of their conditions. Theories of social reproduction, for example, aim to theorize how society is reproduced through unpaid domestic and care work.
In this area of work, we deal with the theoretical foundations of care and ecology, their political-economic conditions, the ways in which they are governed, and their links to intersectional inequalities.