Project Description
Foto: Mídia NINJA (creative commons) https://flickr.com/photos/midianinja/49215799832/
Decolonisation and Feminisms I
Module content
- Examine Germany’s history of colonialism and migration and its influence on contemporary society and politics.
- Learn about feminist and decolonial struggles in different geographical contexts and the transnational connections between them.
- Learn how gendered dynamics, relations and representations have significantly shaped and structured the projects of German and European enslavement, colonization and empire.
- Discuss current expressions of right-wing extremism on a local and global scale from an intersectional perspective.
- Work with original texts such as Orientalism (1978) by Edward Said and discuss the use of Orientalism in Anti-Muslim Racism in contemporary discourses.
- Develop an interdisciplinary theoretical framework to investigate the relationship between decolonisation, feminism and cultural politics; investigating arts and culture with a feminist and decolonial framework; engaging and discussing with local museum workers in Frankfurt.
- Programme – The course is taught in English (4 ECTS)
- Requirements – Advanced Bachelor and Master students.
- Programme fee – tba. (includes all study materials, transcript of records, and health, liability and accident insurance as well as a public transportation ticket within Frankfurt).
- Application deadline – tba.
Course description
The political debate about the restitution of objects removed from the colonies and exhibited in European museums is in full swing. Decolonising knowledges, cultures and policies, socialities and practices, decolonizing power relations in general are an urgent concern of global justice. Feminisms around the world emphasize that these are crucial political and epistemic questions. A critical reflection upon processes of ‘othering’ and disappropriation seeks to understand how coloniality is embedded in political and social structures and how experiences and perceptions of modernity are shaped by colonial heredities. Raising awareness for exclusionary practices includes self-reflection within emancipatory movements. Bearing this in mind decolonial feminist theory analyses unequal, intersecting power relations and brings forward solidarities and policies to overcome these inequalities.
The course comprises 28 contact hours (8*3.5 hours). Upon successful completion, 4 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) points will be awarded for the module. A single ECTS point is defined as the equivalent of 25 to 30 hours of student workload. This includes class hours, additional preparations for class activities, readings, assignments as well as final assessments.
Attendance: Participants have to attend at least 80 % of the classes.
Instructors
Lilian Hümmler, M.A. is a lecturer at the Institute of Sociology focussed on Women’s and Gender Studies at Goethe-University Frankfurt. She is working on her PhD on sexual-sexualised violence and shame. Her research interests include: right-wing mobilizations and gender, sexuality and violence, intersectionality and social inequalities, sociology of work as well as feminist theories.
Prof. Dr. Helma Lutz is Professor of Sociology with a focus on Women’s and Gender Studies at the Department of Social Sciences at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Her main research topics include: Gender and Care, Transnational Migration, Intersectionality, Racism and Ethnicity as well as Qualitative and Biographical research methods. Since 2015, she is the acting director of the Cornelia Goethe Center for Women’s and Gender Studies.
Dr. Onur Suzan Nobrega is lecturer at the Institute of Sociology, Focus Culture and Migration at Goethe-University Frankfurt. Dr. Nobrega’s work is internationally and transdisciplinary located in the fields of Sociology, Media, Film and Cultural Studies. Previously to and alongside academia, she has worked as journalist (die taz), tour manager for the Black German music project Brothers Keepers, curator for the postmigrant theatre Ballhaus Naunynstrasse Berlin and as project partner, organizer and lecturer for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Kunsthalle Mannheim’s Community College.
Prof. Dr. Sarah Speck is a Professor of Sociology with a focus on Women’s and Gender Studies at the Department of Social Sciences at Goethe-University Frankfurt. Her main resarch topics include: transformations in gender relations and gender arrangements, transformations in the working sphere, sociology of couples and families, sociology of intimacy, feminist movements and intersectionality as well as qualitative empirical social research.