Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Gender as a Category of Knowledge

PhD Project:

Discourses About Female Genital Cutting in the United States:
Feminist, Anthropological, Literary, and Legal Perspectives

Description of the Project

In my doctoral thesis I critically analyze US-American discourses about female genital cutting (FGC) from a cross-disciplinary perspective. I examine to what degree and in what ways recent scholarship on FGC has engaged with critical interventions from African scholars and activists, as well as what the ›West’s‹ intense preoccupation with such ›barbaric practices‹ may disclose about its own societal norms. Foregrounding the categories of gender, ›race,‹ sexuality, and nation, which are conceptualized as intersectional, case studies of literary texts, legal opinions, and debates in immigration politics will be used to demonstrate how knowledge about FGC is being produced. The thesis combines gender theories with concepts arising from postcolonial theory, as well as research on ›race‹ and racism. Additionally, it applies approaches from cultural anthropology that focus questions of representation and self reflection in the research process.

Particulars

Daniela Hrzán, MA in American studies and journalism from the University of Leipzig, 11/2002 – 12/2008 assistant lecturer in gender studies at HU Berlin, 03/2005 – 07/2007 associate member of the research training group  “Gender as a Category of Knowledge”, 10/2007 – 12/2007 DAAD-funded research stay at New York University, 03/2009 – 10/2012 counselor for international career development in science at the University of Konstanz, in Summer 2013 adjunct lecturer at the University of Tübingen.

Selected Publications

zus. m. Claudia Brunner: Female Suicide Bombing – Female Genital Cutting. Wissen über ›die ganz andere Andere‹ im Spannungsfeld von physischer, politischer und epistemischer Gewalt. In: Femina Politica 18/2 (2009). S. 95 – 105.

»Wearing the Cross of My Calling«. Krise und Auferstehung Weißer Männlichkeit in den Erlösungsphantasien von Bruce Springsteen. In: Erlöser. Figurationen männlicher Hegemonie, hg. v. Sven Glawion, Elahe Haschemi Yekani u. Jana Husmann-Kastein, Bielefeld 2007. S. 53 – 66.

(Re)Discovering FGC. Anthropology, Whiteness, Feminism. In: Weiß – Weißsein – Whiteness. Kritische Studien zu Gender und Rassismus/Critical Studies on Gender and Racism, hg. zus. m. Martina Tißberger, Gabriele Dietze u. Jana Husmann-Kastein, Frankfurt a. M. 2006. S. 113 – 142.

zus. m. Martina Tißberger, Gabriele Dietze u. Jana Husmann-Kastein (Hg.): Weiß – Weißsein – Whiteness. Kritische Studien zu Gender und Rassismus/Critical Studies on Gender and Racism, Frankfurt a. M. 2006.

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