Work Group "Interdependency - Intersectionality - Postcolonialism"
Members:
Katja Baumgärtner, Käthe von Bose, Ronja Eberle, Kathleen Heft, Kirstin Mertlitsch, Annett Schulze, Jan Severin und Pia Garske (als externes Mitglied)
Time Frame: seit Januar 2009
Research Questions
The working group “Intersectionality / Interdependency / Postcolonialism” was founded in early 2009. It built on the working group “Intersectionality,” which existed during the first generation of researchers at the research training group from 2005-2007. The working group continues to understand itself as a forum for research training group fellows who in one way or another critically reflect on different analysis and power axises and pursue questions of foundational connections, not only interdependent but also inner-categorial connections of sex, race, ethnicity, culture, religion, sexuality, social class and/or disability.
In their work the question of establishment of relationship between intersectionality/interdependence theories and post-colonial theories was a central perspective that the newly founded working group therefore incorporated into its name. The examination of access points to intersectionality (in the Anglo-American and German- speaking worlds) had already produced questions regarding the transcultural transferability and translation of theory and category conceptions in the preceding working group “Intersectionality,” which lead to research work on intersectionality that brought debates over ‘traveling concepts’ to light. Critical reflection on certain more recent feminist contributions to intersectionality in the German context, which speak of intersectionality as a “new paradigm” that implies a problematic ethno-historicization of critical group-thinking of “race”, sex, sexuality and social class in the German context, were added to these research perspectives. The current working group has up to now examined diverse theoretical readings on the one hand, and on the other has worked with more “practical” questions that related to the research projects of group members, for example questions of operationality of intersectionality, interdependencies, and post colonial theory as an analytical perspective.
The theoretical reflexions also included questions that sought to determine the relationships between the research training group’s topic and intersectional/interdependent and postcolonial perspectives, i.e.: how can the terms ‘gender,’ ‘knowledge,’ ‘category,’ as well as their composition, be enriched, resisted, and challenged through postcolonial and intersectional perspectives within the concept of ‘gender as a category of knowledge’?
Was does the attempt to decolonialize knowledge and to reflect (self-)critically on hegemony mean for the project “Gender as a Category of Knowledge”? Where does the focus on categories and categorizations lead? And how can the relationship of between categories of knowledge and categories of analysis, identity and structure be conceptualized. How can a prioritization, centering, and foregrounding of gender as a category of knowledge be conducted on a background of postcolonial and intersectional criticism? These questions were the centerpiece of a podium discussion in June 2010 (see “Events”) and will be continue to be pursued.
Events:
21.11.2009
Workshop:
"Intersektionalität/ Interdependenzen/ Postkolonialismus: Theoretische Zugänge methodische Operationalisierungen"
Zur gezielten Thematisierung methodischer bzw. methodologischer Anwendbarkeiten und Umsetzungen innerhalb einzelner Forschungsprojekte veranstaltete die AG im November 2009 den kollegsinternen Workshop "Intersektionalität/ Interdependenzen/ Postkolonialismus: Theoretische Zugänge methodische Operationalisierungen". Als externe Kommentatorinnen waren dazu Maisha Maureen Eggers, Nanna Heidenreich und Carola Pohlen eingeladen.
11.06.2010
Podiumsdiskussion:
"Geschlecht als Wissenskategorie im Spiegel postkolonialer und intersektionaler Perspektiven. Mit María do Mar Castro Varela, Nikita Dhawan und Gabriele Dietze"
Veranstaltung im Rahmen des Semester-Workshops "Geschlecht als Wissenskategorie: Geschichte, Stand und Perspektiven"
2.-3.12.2011
Workshop:
"Looking at Gender as a Category of Knowledge in the Mirror of Post-Colonial and Intersectional Perspectivves - Referencing own Research Projects" Mit Avtar Brah, Antke Engel und Nanna Heidenreich
In dem kollegsinternen Workshop stellten KollegiatInnen der "AG Intersektionalität/Interdependenzen/Postkolonialismus" des Graduiertenkollegs "Geschlecht als Wissenskategorie" Teilaspekte ihrer Forschungsprojekte vor, die sich auf theoretische Zugänge, Fragen nach methodischen Operationalisierungen und inhaltlichen Umsetzungen intersektionaler bzw. interdependenter und/oder postkolonialer Analyseperspektiven konzentrieren.
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