In current debates on the human rights of trans* and inter* people, there are signs of a fundamental transformation of the order of heteronormative bisexuality, which calls into question fundamental ethical, social and cultural values, norms and moral concepts, such as the protection of marriage and family, the right to physical integrity, the right to free development of the personality and, on a more fundamental level, relationships between nature, people and culture. So far, these debates have been dominated by legal and medical discourse. But what do the media, art and popular culture and their sciences have to do with these debates? What role do they play and/or could they play? And in what way do they have specific potential to accompany, modify or critically intervene in such transformation processes?

Following on from queer-theoretical and queer_femminist approaches in art studies, my habilitation project is based on the thesis that artistic and cultural productions, which are always media-based, play a central role in the construction and regulation of genders and sexualities. (The developments of new) technologies not only modify the limits and possibilities of the construction and regulation of gender and sexuality, but also decisively shape how we can or cannot recognise and perceive ourselves and our environment.

In my habilitation project, I am investigating how artistic and cultural productions (can) become effective in the current debates on human rights, in what way they participate in these debates, subvert them, formulate objections and/or affirm them
. The methodological approach comprises a combination of methods from semiotics, everyday hermeneutics and participant observation, which I refer to as "participatory reading".
In order to be able to grasp the im/possibilities of transformation that queer mediospheres offer, the research process itself must engage in practices of "wild thinking" (Lévi-Strauss) and alternative forms of formulation. At the same time, it is important to locate both the cultural-artistic
productions and one's own thinking and writing in concrete cultural contexts in order to avoid fantasies of anything goes or forms of aesthetic escapism. In concrete terms, this means firstly analysing and reflecting on the historical processes in which central elements of knowledge and sensory dispositives have crystallised, and secondly examining the modes of action of queer mediospheres and their effects in the context of concrete normativities, normalisation and disciplinary processes.

Cultural history and theory of gender and sexualities, visual culture studies, questions of representation and visual politics, especially in relation to the body, gender and sexualities, queer/trans* gender studies, feminist-queer media theory

Courses University of Oldenburg, Institute of Art and Visual Culture:

WS 2015/16 Seminar module Theory and History of Visual Culture:

From Monster to Deviation. Gender Knowledge and the Image of Man in the Medium of Drawing in the Early Modern and Modern Periods,

WS 2013/14 Seminar module Theory and History of Visual Culture:

Desired and rejected: Sex, Magic and Morality in Modern and Contemporary Visual Cultures,

Born 1972

09/1993 - 03/2000 Studies of Ethnology, Social Psychology and Intercultural Communication at the LMU Munich.

10/2001 - 10/2003 Postgraduate programme "Cultural Gender Studies" at the University of Oldenburg

01/2005 - 06/2005 Freelance work at the Edith-Ruß-Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg,

06/2006 - 10/2007 Final phase of gender transition according to TSG, experimental-theoretical research phase beyond permanent employment

03/2007 - 02/2010 research assistant at the Institute for Art Studies and Art Education at the University of Bremen

01/2011 - 02/2013 Freelance work at the University of the Arts Bremen, project leader of the series of lectures "un/verblümt. Queer aesthetics and theories in art, design and music"

2012 Dissertation "Not frog - not lab rat. Transmasculinity in the image. An art/cultural studies analysis of visual politics"

"Knowledge (science) policy at the boundaries of heteronormative bisexuality. A conference of the Inter_Trans_Wissenschaftsnetzwerk", 17-19 September 2015 University of Oldenburg with Michaela Koch MA

"Perverse structures. Heteronormative Ordnungen inter/medial queeren", International conference at the University of Oldenburg 29-31 January 2015 Chair: Prof. Dr. Barbara Paul, with Dipl. Kult.arb. Ina Beyer, Natascha Frankenberg MA, Rena Onat MA

un/verblümt No.2 Spatial and gender phenomena in art, design and music, summer semester 2012, interdisciplinary series of lectures at the HfK Bremen (project leader) un-verbluemt.com

un/verblümt. Queer aesthetics and theories in art, design and music, WS 2011/2012, interdisciplinary series of lectures at the HfK Bremen in co-operation with Prof. Dr Barbara Paul, University of Oldenburg (project leader)

Artist talk with Tobaron Waxman, 21 June 2010, University of the Arts Bremen, together with Elianna Renner

Landscape, Housing, Orientation. Territorialisation and Naturalisation Processes in the City, Housing and the Body (5 - 7 June 2009, University of Bremen, Institute for Art Studies and Art Education), with Prof. Dr. Irene Nierhaus and Dr. des. Annette Urban, conception, application, organisation, moderation and follow-up.

ReSaVoir. Images in the field of tension between culture, politics and memory. A symposium for Silke Wenk (10 January 2009, University of Oldenburg), with Angelika Bartl, MA, Dr. des Kerstin Brandes, Patricia Mühr, MA and Kea Wienand, MA, conception, application, organisation, moderation and follow-up.

Evidence and ambivalence of the "men's suit" - Symposium for young researchers (7 - 9 May 2009, University of Oldenburg), Prof. Dr. Karen Ellwanger, Prof. Dr. Silke Wenk (chair), Lüder Tietz (coordination), conception

Public research colloquium of the Centre for Cultural Studies in Gender Studies (lecture series), University of Oldenburg with fellow students, Prof. Dr. Karen Ellwanger and Prof. Dr. Silke Wenk (09/2004 - 06/2005), organisation and moderation

Gender Memory. Representations of Memory, Remembrance and Gender, Summer Academy of the Centre for Gender Studies in Cultural Studies (18 - 20 March 2004), University of Oldenburg, with fellow students, Prof. Dr. Karen Ellwanger and Prof. Dr. Silke Wenk, conception, application, organisation, moderation and follow-up.

Of pigs, freshwater shrimps and butterflies. Controversial notions of values of sexuality in Magnus Hirschfeld's Bilderteil zur Geschlechtskunde, lecture as part of the series of lectures "Wert-Schätzung. Inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives on gender studies", 25 January 2017 University of Oldenburg

Un_Möglichkeiten von Trans*Sichtbarkeit: Visuelle Politiken in Kunst und Aktivismus, lecture as part of the series of lectures "Gender Goes Sience", summer semester 2016, 23/06/2016 TU Berlin

Symbolic rearrangements? Ein Dialog zu Re- und Trans*materialisierungen von Körper und Geschlecht, lecture at the annual conference of the Fachgesellschaft Geschlechterforschung "Materialität/en und Geschlecht", 12-13.2.2016, HU Berlin together with Sylvia Pritsch

Trans*Im_Possibilities: Thinking with Visual Activism, lecture at the "Open lecture day: Transgender Studies" 18.12.2015 Linne Universitet, Växjö Sweden

Performative Acts between Art and Sexology. Adam & Eve in Hirschfeld's picture section on sexology, lecture as part of the workshop "Paare. On the Performativity of Relationships in the Performing and Visual Arts", 20-21 November 2015 FU Berlin

humans, monsters and the undead. About the possibilities and limits how trans*_queer visual activism can decolonise academic knowledge production, Conference "Migrations of Knowledge", 3 to 6 December 2014 University of Oldenburg

trans* at the university, workshop University of Oldenburg, 21 November 2014

Trans*-queer mediospheres: Un_Möglichkeiten des Geschlechts, series of lectures "Jenseits der Geschlechtergrenzen", University of Hamburg,12 Nov. 2014

Really - beautiful - desirable! Trans* in art and culture, 1st LGBTI* Science Congress of the Magnus Hirschfeld Federal Foundation, Berlin, 28.11.-30.11.2013

Trans* - Queer - Masculinities. Practices of Queer Seeing, Action Days Society - Power - Gender, University of Freiburg, 7 November 2013

Queer theory and practice (keynote speech), Network workshop of the LAG Lesben in NRW and the Schwulen Netzwerk NRW, Düsseldorf, 24 November 2012

Identity politics and the influence of the queer movement on lgbtiq networks, seminar "Intergenerativer Dialog" of the Hannchen-Mehrzweck-Stiftung, Akademie Waldschlösschen, 31.8.-2.9.2012

Aesthetic inversions of the perverse or the totem animals of western modernity, Lab: "quite queer" thealit.Frauen.Kultur.Labor, Bremen, 26 Sept.-1 July 2012

Ästhetische Aspekte der Subjektbildung in den "Transgenital Landscapes" von Del La Grace Volcano (Workshop), international conference "Räume der Vermittlung: ästhetische Prozesse zwischen Alltag und Kunst", Institute for Art Studies and Art Education at the University of Bremen, 6-9 June 2011

Das kulturelle Gewicht der Genitalien: Streifzüge durch die Transgenital Landscapes Del LaGrace Volcanos, lecture as part of the series of lectures "Queer as... Kritische Heteronormativitätsforschung aus kulturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive", CvO University of Oldenburg, 2 February 2011

Beyond the binary gender? A dialogue from the perspective of art history and identity theory; Lecturer: Prof. Dr Helga Bilden (graduate psychologist), Munich; Josch Hoenes, M.A. (art and cultural scientist), Bremen, Moderation: Britta Petersen (art historian), Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen Bamberger Haus (VHS), 11.11.2010

Störbilder der visuellen Geschlechterordnung: queer bodies, queer seeing, queer desire, lecture as part of the series of lectures "Jenseits der Geschlechtergrenzen", University of Hamburg, 16 June 2010

Make it real! Subversions and affirmations of photographed trans masculinity, international conference "Gender Transcripts. Transformations of gender-related modes of standardisation and appropriation" of the Gender Graduate School of the Universities of Bern/Fribourg, 11-12 September 2009, University of Bern

"You are the best of both worlds" - "You don't belong here". Loren Cameron's distorted images against heteronormative bisexuality, conference "Mehr(wert) queer. Visual Culture, Art and Gender Politics", 10-11 January 2008 at the Department of Art History and Art Theory / Gender Studies, Institute of Art and Visual Culture, University of Art and Design Linz

The 'naked' body - evidence productions of masculinity in body images, workshop "working politics - politics at work". Dimensions of political action in the context of work and gender, 24 - 25 July 2006, University of Marburg

Monograph

Not Frog - Not Lab Rat: Transmasculinities in the Image. An art and cultural studies analysis of visual politics, Bielefeld: transcript, 2014

Editorships

Transfer and Interaction. Science and activism at the boundaries of heteronormative gender binaries. Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag 2017, together with Michael_a Koch http://oops.uni-oldenburg.de/3050/

un/verblümt. Queer aesthetics and theories, Berlin: Revolver 2014, with Barbara Paul

Seeing - Power - Knowledge. ReSaVoir: Images in the field of tension between culture, politics and memory. Bielefeld: transkript 2011, with Angelika Bartl, Patricia Mühr and Kea Wienand

Landscape. Research approaches between art, architecture and theory, Berlin: Reimer 2010, with Irene Nierhaus and Annette Urban

Indescribably masculine. Queer and heteronormativity-critical perspectives on masculinities. Hamburg: Männerschwarmskript 2007, with Robin Bauer and Volker Woltersdorff

Essays, reviews, catalogue contributions

Teilnehmende Lektüre - Überlegungen zur Objektivierung des Forschersubjekts, in: Josch Hoenes/Michaela Koch (eds.): Transfer und Interaktion. Science and activism at the boundaries of heteronormative bisexuality. Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag 2016, pp. 63-8

Introduction: Wissenschaftspolitik an den Grenzen heteronormativer Zweigeschlechtlichkeit, in: Josch Hoenes/Michaela Koch (eds.): Transfer und Interaktion. Science and activism at the boundaries of heteronormative gender binaries. Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag 2016, pp. 7-21, with Michaela Koch.

The cultural weight of genitalia. Streifzüge durch die TransGenital Landscapes Del LaGrace Volcanos, in: Barbara Paul / Lüder Tietz (eds.): Queer as ... - Kritische Heteronormativitätsforschung aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive, Bielefeld: Transcript 2016, pp. 103-125.

Trans* in art and media studies (individual expertise) in: Sauer, Arn: Geschlechtliche Vielfalt im transdisziplinären Verständnis. Transdisciplinary overview study on concepts, definitions and disciplinary approaches to transgender and intersexuality, Berlin 2016 http://www.bmfsfj.de/RedaktionBMFSFJ//Geschlechtliche-Vielfalt.pdf

The Weight of Imagination - or How Art Produces Queer Embodiments. (Review of: Renate Lorenz: Queer Art. A Freak Theory. Bielefeld: transcript 3/2012.), In: IASLonline [27.10.2015].

un/verblümt - Gender, Sexuality and Desire. Queer Politics in Art and Science, in: Josch Hoenes / Barbara Paul : un/verblümt. Queer Aesthetics and Theories, Berlin: Revolver 2014, pp. 13-37 together with Barbara Paul.

Review of Regener, Susanne / Köppert, Katrin (eds.): privat / öffentlich. Medial self-designs of homosexuality. Vienna 2013, in: H-Soz-u-Kult 05.06.2014

Really - beautiful - desirable! Trans* in art and culture

Aesthetic inversions of the perverse or totem animals of Western modernity, in: von Oldenburg, Helene / Reiche, Claudia (eds.): quite queer, Bremen: thealit 2014, pp. 35-46.

Del LaGrace Volcanos Transgenital Landscapes: Ästhetische Aspekte der Subjektbildung, in: Kittlausz, Viktor (ed.): Räume der Vermittlung: ästhetische Prozesse zwischen Alltag und Kunst. Berlin: LIT-Verlag, 2013

Queer Art of Looking. On the Art of Del LaGrace Volcano, in: Haas, Julia / Katz, Jonathan (ed.): Del LaGrace Volcano: A Mid-Career Retrospective, New York: Leslie+Lohman museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, 2012, pp. 2-5 (English translation by Lisa Glauer)

Ruvele Glibter - or how to make love, in: Renner, Elianna 2012: Bobe Mayses, Arbeiten 2008-, Bremen: KUBO-Verlag, 2012, p. 30

The cultural weight of genitalia. Forays through the TransGenital Landscapes of Del LaGrace Volcano, in: Paul, Barbara et al. (eds.): Queer as ... critical heteronormativity research from a cultural studies perspective, Bielefeld: transcript (forthcoming)

A Fabulous County of Gender. Queer-feminist fantasy images of masculinity and sexuality, in: Katz, Jana / Kock, Martina / Ortmann, Sandra / Schenk, Jana / Weiss, Tomka (eds.): Sissy Boyz. Queer Performance, Bremen: thealit, 2011, p. 42-56 with Julia Noah Munier

"You are the best of both worlds" - "You don't belong here". Loren Cameron's distorted images against heteronormative bisexuality, in: Paul, Barbara / Schaffer, Johanna (eds.): Mehr(wert) queer - Queer Added (Value). Visuelle Kultur, Kunst und Gender-Politiken - Visual Culture, Art, and Gender Politics, Bielefeld: transkript, 2009, pp.43-58 (English translation by Erika Doucette, pp. 59-70)

Mrs Müller, cancellation please! Fachabteilung für queerartporn, in: Bauer, Susanne / Bergermann, Ulrike / Hanke, Christine et al: Prototypisieren. Eine Messe für Theorie und Kunst, Bremen: thealit 2009, pp. 181-193 with Thomas Böker

Queer/Trans: Gender and sexuality in the field of tension between urban centres and peripheries. An exemplary analysis of Boys don't Cry, in: Krasny, Elke /Nierhaus, Irene (eds.): Urbanografien. Urban Research in Art, Architecture and Theory, Berlin: Reimer 2008, pp. 93-104

"Und wenn sie eine fest Form angenommen haben" - die Tranzportraits von Del LaGrace Volcano, in: FKW - Zeitschrift für Geschlechterforschung und visuelle Kultur, "Indem es sich weigert, eine feste Form anzunehmen" - Kunst, Sichtbarkeit, Queer Theory, Heft 45, June 2008, pp. 72-85

Images et formations de corps d'hommes trans. Politique visuelle dans les photographies de Loren Cameron, translated by Elsa Fernandez and Cornelia Möser, in: Boucier, Marie-Hélène / Molinier, Pascale (eds.): Les fleurs du mâle. Masculinités sans hommes? Paris: L'harmattan 2008, pp. 43-58

BodyPictures of Transmen. Visual Politics in the Photographs of Loren Cameron. In: Bauer, Robin / Hoenes, Josch / Woltersdorff, Volker (eds.): Queer and heteronormativity-critical perspectives on masculinities, Hamburg: Männerschwarmskript 2007, pp. 135-148

"Im falschen Körper": Implikationen der räumlichen Metaphorik in der Wissensproduktion zu Transsexualität, in: Lagner, Ronald et al. (eds.): Ordnungen des Denkens. Debates on the Theory of Science and the Critique of Knowledge, Berlin: LIT-Verlag 2007, pp. 189-199

Breaking the silence. Review of the catalogue "1-0-1 [one 'o one] intersex. The two-gender system as a violation of human rights", in: Querelles-Net, No. 18, March 2006 www.querelles-net.de/2006-18/text18hoenes.shtml

Pink location factor. A protocol with notes and quotations, in: GAK (ed.): Tales of Hazyland. Geschichten aus der Stadt des Verschwindens, project reader city.crime.control. Bremen 2005, pp. 21-25, with Thomas Böker www.dekoder.de/uploads/c3_tales_from_hayzland_projektreader_v2.pdf

EigeneGeschichten - SichtProbleme. On lesbian and transsexual receptions of "The Well of Loneliness", in: FrauenKunstWissenschaft, Sonderband: Gender-Memory. Representations of Memory, Remembrance and Gender, Issue 39, 2005, pp. 17-26

Identities in spaces, in: an.schläge, 11/2003: 24, (reprinted in: dérive - Zeitschrift für Stadtforschung, 15/2004:47) www.anschlaege.at/1103ansage1.html

Trans* sexuality. Information on the body, sexuality and relationships for young trans*people. Brochure published by Trans*Recht e.V. together with Jonas Hamm, Milan Geldermann, Maike-Sophie Mittelstädt, Simon Wörmann, drawings and illustrations by Tomka Weiß (forthcoming).

Debaters anonymous: Dissolution of gender. Transgender as beyond gender? Debate with Laura Adamietz, Brigitte Helbling, Bärbel Reimann and Silke Rotermund, Arbeitszimmer thealit, 24.01.2017

Die Schichten der geschlechtlichen Kleidung, Josch Hoenes (texts) and Tomka Weiß (drawings), exhibition at the Schwules Museum as part of the exhibition millionaires can be trans* // you are so brave*, Berlin, 20.5.2016 - 18.09.2016

Sidsel Meineche Hansen: ONE-self - exhibition talk, 28.05.2015 Künstlerhaus Bremen

The misfortune of bisexuality. Discussion on the current debate in art and gender with Linda Hentschel and Elena Zanichelli, moderated by Claudia Beelitz, Kunstverein Tiergarten 23.11.2013

The layers of gendered clothing. Work conceived in co-operation by Tomka Weiß (drawings) and Josch Hoenes (texts), exhibited at Galerie Herold, Bremen 2013 and Cafe Ole, Berlin 2013 tomka.tomec-weiss.de/art-schichten.php

Queering the wild Sky! Exhibition tour, screening and bar, on 06.07.2011 at the Edith-Ruß-Haus for Media Art Oldenburg, together with Nanna Lüth

Queer activism and artistic strategies - meeting of queer and LGBQT activists from Poland and Germany, concept: Ina Mertens, Sandra Ortmann, workshop and lunch lecture at d 12, Kassel 2008

Test procedure for debauched queer evening entertainment - FRAU MÜLLER STORNO BITTE! - Fachabteilung für queerartporn, 29.03.2008 as part of PROTOTYPISIEREN, a fair for theory and art, organised by thealit, on the first floor of the former Leffers department stores'. Together with: kraß, Betty Beatz, Schlampenkneipe, the autonomous feminist department of the University of Bremen and the support of professionally trained grandiose (proto)types, in co-operation with Thealit.Frauen.Kultur.Labor

Guided tour through the "Awkward Society", exhibition by Sandra Ortmann, Tomka Weiß, Osé Rouge, 10.12.2006 with Noah Munier

Lynn Breedlove: ONE FREAK SHOW: Less Rock, More Hilarity, 17.02.2006, Alte Post Bremen, together with krass and others

krass. project for lesbians.gays.queers: irregular parties, bar, film and art evenings.

Fachgesellschaft Geschlechterstudien / Gender Studies Association e.V.

Board of the Hannchen-Mehrzweck-Stiftung (since 2/2012)

Board of Trans Recht e.V. (since 12/2013)

Working Group Queer Visual Culture