Diversity between Lived Experience and Educational Knowledge

Date: Wednesday, 16 July 2025
Start: 4:15 PM
Location: Altensteinstraße 48, Freie Universität Berlin
Language: The event will be held in English.

Dear colleagues and friends,

We warmly invite you to a joint academic event that brings together two critical perspectives on the representation of migration, gender, and diversity.

In a society that increasingly sees itself as postmigrant, one key question remains: Who produces what kind of knowledge about whom – and with what consequences?

Dr. Matthias Schneider, in his book “Masculinity and Forced Migration”, explores biographical narratives of men who fled from Eritrea. He traces how masculinity is shaped within the dynamics of national service, structural violence, migration, and arrival – revealing both agency and constraint in lived experience.

Dr. Daniel Schumann, in his book “Epistemologies of integration”, examines civic education textbooks as instruments of official knowledge production. From a sociological perspective, he analyzes how notions of difference and normality are pedagogically constructed – and what forms of thinking are made (im)possible.

Together, both works provide new insights into how diversity is narrated, taught, and negotiated – in state-authorized materials as well as in embodied biographies. They shed light on how subjectivities and knowledge regimes are co-produced within the interrelations of integration, education, and power.

We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Yvonne Albrecht (DeZIM/HU Berlin) as a discussant. She will respond to both contributions and engage in dialogue with the authors.

After the event, we warmly invite you to a summer gathering in the villa garden – with drinks, snacks, and a barbecue. In case of bad weather, the event will take place indoors.

We look forward to your participation and an inspiring exchange!