Affect/Emotion - Orientation Matters: A Conversation between Sigrid Schmitz and Sara Ahmed

Sara Ahmed is Professor of Race and Cultural Studies at the Goldsmith College, University of London. With her books "The Cultural Politcs of Emotion" and "The Promise of Happiness", she had a strong influence on feminist and queer discourses in affect studies. Sigrid Schmitz had a conversation with her about the different facets and framings of the terms 'emotion' and 'affect', and about the relations between bodies and sensations. The following dialogue addresses the ambiguity of meanings and wordings in the affect discourse and the use of 'feminist killjoys' in feminist debates and political activism

Why We need Critical Interdisciplinarity: A Dialogue on Feminist Science Technology Studies, Postcolonial Issues, and EcoDiversity. A Dialogue between Banu Subramaniam and Sigrid Schmitz

The following dialogue between two biologists and Feminist Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholars, Banu Subramaniam and Sigrid Schmitz, took place on June 16th, 2016 at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg. Banu Subramaniam gave a talk on “Interdisciplinary Hauntings: The Ghostly Words of Naturecultures.“ Afterwards both researchers discussed the linkages between feminist science studies, postcolonial perspectives, and eco-diversity discourses

Neurofeminism and feminist neurosciences: a critical review of contemporary brain research

To date, feminist approaches to neurosciences have evaluated the debates surrounding practices of knowledge production within and research results of contemporary brain research. Consequently, neurofeminist scholars have critically examined gendered impacts of neuroscientific research. More recently, feminist neuroscientists also develop research appraoches for more gender-appropriate neuroscientific research on several levels. Based on neurofeminist critique feminist neuroscientists aim to enrich neuroscientific work by offering methodological suggestions for a more differentiated setup of categories and experimental designs, for reflective result presentations and interpretations as well as for the analysis of result validity. Reframing neuro-epistemologies by including plasticity concepts works to uncover social influences on the gendered development of the brain and of behavior. More recently, critical work on contemporary neurocultures has highlighted the entanglements of neuroscientific research within society and the implications of ‘neurofacts’ for gendered cultural symbolisms, social practices, and power relations. Not least, neurofeminism critically analyzes the portrayal of neuro-knowledge in popular media. This article presents on overview on neurofeminist debates and on current approaches of feminist neurosciences. The authors conclude their review by calling for a more gender-appropriate research approach that takes into account both its situatedness and reflections on the neuroscientific agenda, but also questions neurofeminist discourse in regards to uses and misuses of its concepts

Embodiment and Ecosocial Theory - Interview with Nancy Krieger

Nancy Krieger is a Professor of Social Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, where she has been researching the relationship between group-specific disease rates and social inequality. One focus of her areas of specialty is gender-specific aspects of health, in particular on the relationship between biological and social factors in health research (sex-linked biology and gender relations), including in relation to social class, racism, and other societal determinants of health. The relevance of the central concepts in her work, especially “embodiment” and “ecosocial theory,” reaches far beyond the boundaries of health research and could be used to develop a basis for research in all life sciences, as well as interdisciplinary projects on bodies in context. The following interview highlights some central theoretical and methodical aspects of her approach which can offer interesting possibilities for an integrative ecosocial perspective, drawing on social and biological insights regarding the development of bodily features

Editorial

Gendergerechtes Lehren und Diversity Management. Diese beiden Stichworte benennen gleichzeitig Anforderungen und Herausforderungen an die Hochschullehre mit dem Ziel einer gleichberechtigten Inklusion aller Lernenden in Lehre und Studium. In den letzten Jahren haben eine Reihe von Projekten - vorwiegend seitens der Gender Studies - inhaltliche, didaktische und curriculare Initiativen entwickelt, teilweise erprobt und umgesetzt, mit denen die Berücksichtigung von Genderaspekten in der Hochschullehre vorangetrieben werden kann. Alle Initiativen und Ansätze bewegen sich in mehreren Spannungsfeldern. Einerseits müssen Geschlechterdifferenzen und -benachteiligungen benannt werden (ohne sie zu reifizieren, andererseits müssen die diversifizierten Anforderungen von Studierenden (Gender als multifaktorielles Konzept) Berücksichtigung finden. Die Inklusion von Genderaspekten in der Hochschullehre soll sowohl innerhalb der Disziplinen als auch als Querschnittsaufgabe erreicht werden. Nicht zuletzt werden im Rahmen des Bologna-Prozesses unterschiedliche Strategien zur curricularen Verankerung zwischen Bottom-Up und Top-Down Prozessen diskutiert. 21.06.2009 | Sigrid Schmitz (Freiburg

Potenziale epigenetischer Forschung für das Konzept 'sex vs. gender'

"Ausgehend von der These, dass die bipolaren Gegenüberstellungen von weiblich/ männlich, sex/gender und Natur/Kultur konstruiert und normativ aufgeladen sind und zur Aufrechterhaltung eines hierarchischen Zweigeschlechtersystems beitragen, werden Möglichkeiten nach Überschreitungen jener Dichotomien in der Geschlechterforschung begrüßt. Der Beitrag setzt daran an und beleuchtet diese Annahme anhand der Epigenetik, einem biomedizinischen Feld, in dem Grenzüberschreitungen zwischen Natur und Kultur debattiert und erforscht werden. Mit einer Analyse epigenetischer Forschung zu Genomic Imprinting wollen wir uns damit auseinandersetzen, inwiefern im Forschungsfeld der Epigenetik tatsächlich Grenzüberschreitungen stattfinden oder eben nicht, um schließlich einzuschätzen, wie sex und gender in der Epigenetik verhandelt werden und welche Einflüsse diese Konzeptionen auf gesellschaftliche Geschlechterverhältnisse haben können." (Autorenreferat)"According to the assumption that the dichotomies of female/male, sex/gender and nature/ nurture are constructed and normative, and support a hierarchical model of a two-sex-system, the opportunities of crossing the line between these dichotomies is discussed in the field of Gender Studies and Feminist Science Studies. The following article takes this starting point and focuses on epigenetics, a biomedical research area in which the crossing between nature and nurture is discussed and investigated. With an analysis of the epigenetic field of genomic imprinting we want to tackle the question in how far the overcoming of the dichotomies really happens so that we can show how sex and gender are discussed in epigenetics and which influence these concepts have on social gender relations." (author's abstract