News archive
News archive
Lecture and workshop "Profiling Perspectives on Gender Concepts", FREE project, 31.05.22 in Madrid, Spain
Dr Sylvia Pritsch and Pia Schlechter, M.A., gave a joint lecture and workshop on "Profiling Perspectives on Gender Concepts" on 31 May 2022 at UNED, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, the National Open University in Madrid, Spain. This was part of the EU-funded ERASMUS+ project "FREE - Female Academic Role Model Empowerment, Equality and Sustainability at Universities in Mediterranean Region". They were invited and accompanied by the project coordinator Laura Sadowski, M.A. (Business Informatics/ Department of Computing Science UOL), who also moderated the presentation.
From 31 May to 3 June 2022, workshops, lectures and workshops took place as part of the FREE project. Participating universities were AIU Arab International University, Damascus University (both Damascus, Syria), Lebanese University, American University of Beirut, MUBS Modern University for Business and Science (all three Beirut, Lebanon), PSUT Princess Sumaya University for Technology, University of Petra (both Amman, Jordan). Further lectures and workshops were also held by the European partner universities Vilnius Tech (Vilnius, Lithuania) and Universidad de Alicante (Alicante, Spain).
Sylvia Pritsch and Pia Schlechter already presented the organisational structure and projects of the ZFG and Gender Studies in Oldenburg on 28 April 2021 in the online event series "Female Empowerment in Academia Forum - A conversation with the partners of Erasmus+ project FREE" entitled "Gender Studies at the University of Oldenburg".
Announcement: Publication "Gender knowledge in and between the disciplines", transcript 2020
Publication:
Barbara Paul; Corinna Bath; Silke Wenk (eds.):
"Geschlechterwissen in und zwischen den Disziplinen.
Perspectives on the Critique of Academic Knowledge Production"
transcript Studien Interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung 2020
Expected to be published by 27 August 2020.
Information from the publisher
Publication: AG against discriminatory language behaviour: Flyer "Gender-sensitive language around the university".
Publication: AG against discriminatory language behaviour: Flyer "Gender-sensitive language around the university".
In order to contribute to more diversity in language at the University of Oldenburg, the working group against discriminatory language behaviour has created the flyer "Gender-sensitive language around the university". This will initially be made available free of charge in digital form on the working group's homepage as a download in various formats: wp.uni-oldenburg.de/gendersensible-sprache-rund-um-die-uni/.
As the University of Oldenburg does not offer a centralised guide to gender-sensitive language, there was a desire to compile information and further advice for teaching staff and students in a compact format. The working group against discriminatory language behaviour was founded for this purpose. The ideas developed in the flyer are not intended to serve as a set of rules, but rather as orientation, suggestions and assistance - for all those who are interested in gender-sensitive language but are still unsure about how to use it.
The working group was created in the context of a course on the BA Gender Studies degree programme, which was initiated and run by Renata Kutinka and Pia Schlechter as part of their work at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Women's and Gender Studies (ZFG) and consists of Anne Boczaga, Hannah Doeker, Renata Kutinka, Anika Mikulski, Martha Motzer, Pia Schlechter and Paula Terstappen. The working group meets at regular intervals and develops all content based on consensus in a heterogeneous, non-hierarchical group.
Interview in Die Zeit: "What's it about... in 'Gender Studies'?" with Kerstin Brandes (ZFG) and Anika Mikulski (BA Gender Studies) from 16.01.20
Prof. Dr Heike Fleßner, 14.04.1944 - 02.02.2021
The Centre for Interdisciplinary Women's and Gender Studies (ZFG) and the Gender Studies programme at the University of Oldenburg owe an immense debt of gratitude to Professor Heike Fleßner. Through her creativity and critical thinking in teaching and research, her collegiality and approachability in her dealings with lecturers and students, and, not least, her institutional commitment to the degree programmes and the ZFG, she has played a decisive role over decades in numerous developments in women’s and gender studies, not only at this university.
Women’s issues have been a focus for Heike Fleßner since the start of her academic career as an educator, which initially centred on questions of public early childhood education. She incorporated this early on into the activities of women’s and gender studies at the university, which were not yet structurally established: For example, in 1987 she was involved in the first Oldenburg Women’s Week, ‘Women’s Lives & the Province’, and in 1989 she organised a conference at the university on opportunities for cooperation between female academics and local Gender Equality Offices.
The local and regional dimension remained an important constant in her work in the decades that followed, including in her commitment to the history of women in Oldenburg. At the same time, however, her involvement at national and international level also grew, not least with the aim of finally establishing women’s and gender studies as independent degree programmes in Germany as well.
In the USA, there had already been 600 such programmes since the 1970s; in Germany, by contrast, there was not a single undergraduate degree programme. At the 1993 conference ‘Women’s Studies in International Comparison’, the groundwork was laid and a firm commitment was made to establish women’s and gender studies at the University of Oldenburg. It took a few more years to achieve this goal – and, above all, the support of fellow campaigners from the Working Group of Women Academics – but then the time had come: Following a unanimous decision by the University Senate, students were admitted to the minor subject of Women’s and Gender Studies at Master’s level for the winter semester of 1997/98. Oldenburg and Berlin share this first in Germany, as the programme was launched at the same time at Humboldt University.
Another important two-pronged step – the establishment of an academic centre and international structures – was achieved at the turn of the millennium. In the introduction to the conference proceedings published in 1994, a self-critical observation was made: “Women’s studies programmes from Third World countries were left out” – this was actively countered during the process of founding the ZFG. In 2000, women from Oldenburg, including Heike Fleßner, invited female academics who were stayingin Hanover at the International Women’s Universityto an excursion to Oldenburg, thereby forging lasting contacts, particularly with gender researchers from the Global South. This culminated in the inspiring 2001 conference ‘Societies in Transition – Challenges in Women’s and Gender Studies’, which marked the opening of the newly founded ZFG: featuring researchers from every continent who, at that time, looked to the future with optimism.
Amidst this spirit of optimism, Heike Fleßner served as a dedicated and accomplished director from 2001 to 2009, successfully leading negotiations with the State of Lower Saxony as well as with the university management and the Schools. As a result, the university regularly succeeded in attracting international visiting female academics through the Maria Goeppert Mayer Programme, thereby expanding the international dimension of teaching and research. Heike Fleßner was also committed to interdisciplinarity – amongst other things, she played a key role in securing the junior professorship in Gender, Biotechnologies and Society, with the aim of advancing the integration of gender studies into the natural sciences. She combined her role as director with the leadership of a number of research projects, thereby making a significant contribution to the long-term establishment of the ZFG and Gender Studies. In the context of the Bologna Process, the Master’s minor in Women’s and Gender Studies was transformed into the BA in Gender Studies, which was run for many years in collaboration with the Centre for Feminist Studies/Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Bremen.
There are many other activities in which Heike Fleßner took the lead or played a part: these include the publication series *Oldenburg Contributions to Gender Research* and, with *transcript Verlag*, the *Studies in Interdisciplinary Gender Research* series, both of which feature a lively publication programme; as well as collaboration with other gender research centres, including, amongst others, the State Working Group of Institutions for Women’s and Gender Studies in Lower Saxony (LAGEN), and, last but not least, the many, many other gender studies events that raised the profile of the centre and the subject within the academic community, as well as regionally, nationally and internationally.
With the death of Heike Fleßner, we have lost a key figure and important ally, a deeply committed colleague and dear friend. We thank her for her optimism and her incredibly diverse contributions – and hope that, despite all the new uncertainties and adversities, we will succeed in continuing her work, which in many respects is also our own.
Dr Lydia Potts, Prof. Dr Almut Höfert, Karola Gebauer, Dr Jutta Jacob, Dr Ulrike Koopmann, Prof. Dr Barbara Paul, Dr Sylvia Pritsch, Prof. Dr Silke Wenk
Mourning for Ilse Dröge-Modelmog
After a long illness, Ilse Dröge-Modelmog, former Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Oldenburg, passed away on 15 November at the age of 77. She worked there from 1973 until her retirement in 2005. Both her academic work and her practical and political commitment were driven by an interest in critically analysing structures of power and domination and contributing to their dismantling - particularly in the area of gender relations. They were among those who were involved in the process of shaping the University of Oldenburg as a reform university in the 1970s, a shaping that for them also meant anchoring gender-equitable structures and content relevant to women's politics. From 1986 to 1988, she was the first female Vice President of the University and implemented the first women's promotion plan at a university in Lower Saxony. She was one of those who successfully campaigned for the establishment of a professorship for women's studies. She was also instrumental in the establishment of a degree programme in Women's and Gender Studies and in setting up the Centre for Interdisciplinary Women's and Gender Studies (ZFG). Both the degree programme and the centre are currently central elements of the institutional anchoring of the gender perspective at the University of Oldenburg. At the same time, Ilse Dröge-Modelmog was active in the Women's and Gender Studies section of the German Sociological Association - from 1991-1993 she was its first spokesperson.
Ilse Dröge-Modelmog's teaching and research activities focussed on sociological theories, theories of science, cultural sociology and an interest in new technologies and biotechnologies in particular - always from a gender-critical perspective. Ilse Dröge-Modelmog was a passionate thinker who creatively combined perspectives from different scientific disciplines - and also across the boundaries of the humanities and natural sciences - and in this way repeatedly came up with new insights and questions. In doing so, she has inspired and fascinated students and doctoral candidates. For her, scientific work was always fun. "Desire to know" and "thinking as resistance" - this is how she describes the guiding principles of her "scientific biography "* in an autobiographical text.
In this text, Ilse describes how she developed a "strong desire for freedom" at an early age, felt like a "young savage" who enjoyed adventurous outdoor activities and how "aesthetics" became important in children's games as a counterbalance to the "destroyed world" in post-war Germany - elements of which also characterised her life as a professor. She loved adventurous trips to faraway countries, autonomy in her lifestyle was just as important to her as unusual, artistic and creative - in other words "aesthetic" - clothing. The boundaries for this became increasingly narrow over the course of her long illness with Parkinson's disease. Ilse was able to expand these limits again and again in an impressive way and with a strong will to live - all the more painful for her were the regressions, the relentless progression of the disease, to which she finally had to surrender.
*Ilse Dröge-Modelmog: Wissenschaftliche Biographie, in: Vogel, Ulrike (ed.): Wege in die Soziologie und die Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung. Autobiographical notes of the first generation of female professors at the university. Wiesbaden 2006, pp. 100-115.
Karin Flaake
Obituary of Prof Dr Amatalrauf Al-Sharki, Yemen, former Maria Goeppert-Mayer Visiting Professor at the ZFG
The journalist and activist Prof. Dr Amatalrauf Alsharki, better known as Raufa Hassan, died in Cairo on 27 April 2011 at the age of 53. She was buried two days later in Sana'a, Yemen. 'Doctora Raufa' was a prominent personality in her home country. At the age of 13, she presented herself to the Prime Minister with a complaint about the quality of girls' education. In the following four decades of her life, the rights of women and girls remained a leitmotif, linked to other key issues in the development of Yemen and the Arab world: freedom of the press and democracy, the fight against the popular drug qat, higher education - to name but a few. Her voice carried weight in the public sphere. In a gender-segregated society, she was one of the few women who was recognised and revered by people of all ages and genders everywhere.
Under her leadership, the country's first centre for women's studies was established at the University of Sana'a, which was closed in 1999 after fierce attacks from the Islamist side. Several of the academics involved left the country. Raufa Hassan was particularly under attack, and the apostasy proceedings against her were only dropped years later. Since then, her path has repeatedly led her to Oldenburg: initially for guest lectures and conferences, and in 2003 she was awarded a Maria Goeppert-Mayer Visiting Professorship for International Women's and Gender Studies at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Women's and Gender Studies. From here, the charismatic media and gender researcher with a wealth of ideas successfully prepared her return to Yemen - and then invited Oldenburg lecturers and students. This was followed by jointly organised conferences, teaching and research projects, student excursions and internships.
Despite the successes that Raufa Hassan experienced, the tragic dimension is unmistakable: the prime minister, who was visited by the girls in 1971, allowed them to attend boys' schools. In other words, he made an exception instead of taking the path towards gender equality in education. And decades later, the country is still a long way from achieving this goal. Raufa Hassan died in Cairo, at the centre of the 'Arab Spring'. The hopes that millions of people associate with him are the achievement of many - including Raufa Hassan.
Lydia Potts
15 years of ZFG and a farewell...
The Oldenburg Centre for Interdisciplinary Women's and Gender Studies was founded on 18 December 2000, was successfully established in the following years and continues to this day.
Heike Fleßner, Karin Flaake, Eske Wollrad, Sylvia Pritsch and Lüder Tietz recalled this in their welcoming addresses at the anniversary celebrations on 22 June 2016. Founding members, the current director, her deputies and staff joined the guests in a toast.
At the same time, Dr Jutta Jacob, Managing Director of the ZFG and research associate from the very beginning, retired.
Dear Jutta, we would like to thank you for your many years of commitment and wish you all the best for the future!
Women of the century - 100 years of International Women's DayFilm series at Cine k Oldenburg
More information:
In 1910, Clara Zetkin made the proposal to celebrate International Women's Day every year.
In 1911, women in Germany and other European countries demonstrated for their rights for the first time on this day - and have done so every year since. For the Cine k, this is a reason to celebrate not just on 8 March, but for the whole year.
"Women of the Century" is the name of the series, which presents a film every month about strong women around the globe and across the history of the past one hundred years: one decade - one film.
This series has been made possible by committed women from Oldenburg who have each taken on the patronage of a film.
Further information and the programme can be found here