Research
The cooperation of 55 members from seven different faculties, including Medicine, characterises the interdisciplinary intersectional research of the College, which in addition to gender also considers other categories such as socio-economic situation, ethnic origin, educational background or age. The research expertise of EKfG members is concentrated in three interdisciplinary thematic clusters on key societal issues. At the same time, these clusters offer common ground for collaborative activities on a university-wide basis:
Biomedical Research and Clinical Medicine
This cluster includes projects on experimental tumour research, medical psychology and behavioural immunobiology (pain, stress, coping with illness), molecular genetics (obesity and eating disorders) and the significance of gender differences for differentiated diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
Particularly noteworthy in the reporting period are the DFG subprojects TP A10 “From Pavlov to pain: extinction learning in visceral pain” (2017–2021) and TP A12 “The impact of inflammation on the extinction of pain-related fear in humans” in the CRC 1280 Extinction Learning (2017–2021) as well as the DFG project “Effects of negative mood and systemic inflammation on visceral pain perception and pain processing”. In recognition of the top-class published research work of the Network Professorship “Molecular Genetics of Obesity and Eating Disorders taking into account gender-specific aspects”, the Medical Faculty is supporting the Network Professorship and thus a nationally visible unique selling point in the field of molecular genetic research for another three years (2019–2021). Further activities of the cluster in 2018–2019 include the public lecture series “Gender Aspects in Biomedical Research and Clinical Medicine” and the successful implementation of “GenderMedicine” as an elective in teaching.
Action Strategies | Power Structures
The research activities in this cluster focus on the investigation of strategies for action and the analysis of social power structures in historical, cultural and intersectional perspectives.
During the reporting period, the DFG projects “Female Employment Patterns, Fertility, Labor Market Reforms, and Firms” (2019–2021) and “The Ambivalent Significance of Corporate Structures for Explaining Social Inequality between Women and Men – Analyses with SOEP-LEE” (2016–2018) deserve special mention. Also worth mentioning are the HBS project “Comparable Worth: Blind Spots in the Analysis of the Causes of the Gender Pay Gap” (2015–2018), the project “Outsourcing of Domestic Labour. Survey Module included in the GESIS Panel” (2017–2019) and the studies conducted within the framework of the MIWF NRW project “Gender Report 2019: Gender (In)Justice at North Rhine-Westphalian Universities” (2017–2019). In the publication project of the Study Group “The Politics of Fiscal Welfare Markets” at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg/Institute for Advanced Study (2016–2018) the gender dimension of welfare markets is taken into account. The projects “A Model of Distribution for Austria” (2019–2020) and “Digitization and Inequality” (2019) examine distributional issues. EKfG is involved in the BMBF network “Health Literacy in Childhood and Adolescence as a Goal of Health Promotion and Primary Prevention” (2018–2021) with a sub-project on gender analysis.
Perception | Representation | Visibility
The third cluster combines research approaches that scientifically address gender-specific differences and commonalities in the perception, representation and (in)visibility of gender in language and images, including in literature, art and language as well as in society, media and politics. The interdisciplinary cluster combines historical and contemporary research, which often includes an intercultural perspective.
Particularly noteworthy in the reporting period is the participation in the research unit “Ambiguity and Differentiation. Historical-Cultural Dynamics” with EKfG as a cooperating institution. The joint lecture series during winter term 2019/2020 provided an introduction to issues relating to gender ambiguity, (trans-)gender and third gender. Within the framework of the Research Training Group on cross-cutting issues of teacher training and school and classroom development (2019–2022), the sub-project “Religion, poverty and migration in schools: Fundamentals of a Poverty-Sensitive Religious Education of Diversity” deals with schools’ handling of socially precarious life situations. Also worthy of mention is the study “Gender Equality-Related Orientations of Action and Behaviour of Professors against the Background of Gender Equality Policy Regulations” (2015–2018), funded by the State of NRW.