Center for Gender and Diversity Research

Writing and Reading Across Borders and Differences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

In recent years, traditional hierarchies have been called into question in many areas of society. Calls for fair participation and the visualisation of voices that were previously underrepresented are becoming louder in academia, journalism and literary arts. Authors are increasingly appearing not only as individuals, but also as representatives of collective identities - for example as Black, jewish, queer or affected by poverty. These identities are then made relevant to the production and reception of their texts. This raises fundamental questions about the equitable production of and access to knowledge: Who may, can or should write what about whom?

Current debates about these questions are an expression of deeper structural changes: institutions such as universities or publishing houses must reorient themselves with regard to feminist, post/decolonial, queer and anti-racist movements. This dynamic has ethical, aesthetic and scientific-theoretical implications and brings with it specific consequences for (creative, researching, reporting) writing.

The lecture series brings together researchers from various fields of the humanities and social sciences who will focus on the question of the new political relevance of identity and positioning of authors. In doing so, they will consider the consequences for the respective academic fields and their own academic work from different perspectives (and each with their own positioning).

Programme