Following the workshop on “Non-violent communication in sensitive discussions” as part of the event series “Let’s talk! Israel / Palestine”, the anti-siscrimination & diversity officer, Alejandra Nieves Camacho, presents the communication guidelines for sensitive political discussions.
These guidelines were developed by students of the UdK Berlin as part of the above-mentioned workshop to ensure that political discussions at the UdK Berlin are characterized by respect, empathy and constructive dialogue. The guidelines are non-binding. They are intended as a tool to promote dialog and can be adapted to the needs of the groups wishing to hold such discussions.
Am 05. Dezember 2022 fand der Aktionstag Recognizing barriers an der Universität der Künste statt. Die in diesem Artikel aufgearbeitete, kritische Reflexion des Programms erfolgte durch den Künstler und Kunstvermittler Dirk Sorge, Gründungsmitglied von Berlinklusion, mit dem Schwerpunkt auf Barriereabbau und inklusiver Praxis im Kulturbereich, und der Schwarzen, intersektional verwobenen Künstlerin Lahya (Stefanie-Lahya Aukongo), deren künstlerische Inhalte sich um die Themen Privilegien, Dekolonisierung, Heilung, individuelle sowie kollektive Liebe und Verletzlichkeit spannen.
Unter dem Titel Recognizing barriers versammelten das studentische Kuratorium, bestehend aus Vivian Chan, Luïza Luz und Chris McWayne, sowie der Vizepräsidentin Ariane Jeßulat und dem ehemaligen Diversitäts- und Antidiskriminierungsbeauftragter Mutlu Ergün-Hamaz kritische Stimmen und ermächtigende Strategien zur Bekämpfung systemischer intersektionaler Diskriminierung in einem Aktionstag für Studierende, Lehrende und Interessierte.
Die Aufschrift des Veranstaltungsplakats „Barrieren, die wir sehen, sind Barrieren, die wir bekämpfen können“ unterstreicht die Relevanz der Benennung von Hürden, um ihnen entgegenwirken zu können, und impliziert sogleich die Schwierigkeit, die dem titelgebenden Anliegen anhaftet: Was für manche Körper als Schranke spürbar wird, bleibt anderen verborgen.
Doch was bedeutet es, wenn Barrieren Ausschlüsse produzieren, wenn ihre Widerständigkeit erhöhte Krafteinwirkung erforderlich macht und folglich diese Perspektiven zu großen Teilen am Rande verbleiben? Im Zuge des Aktionstages sollte der Thematik Barriere(-freiheit) – ausgehend von der Erkenntnis, dass die UdK Berlin nicht frei von intersektionaler Diskriminierung ist –, durch den Einblick in unterschiedliche Lebensrealitäten und durch Kritik an bestehenden Barrieren begegnet werden.
Den Programmauftakt am Hochschulübergreifenden Zentrum Tanz Berlin (HZT) in den Ufer Studios gab die Künstlerin Gugulethu A. Duma mit ihrem Begrüßungsworkshop Awakening Senses, in dem sich die Teilnehmenden einander u. a. über eine von ihnen selbstgewählte Geste vorstellten, die als Begrüßung durch die übrigen Anwesenden imitiert wurde. Das anschließende Panel mit Nanna Lüth (AG Critical Diversity), Sandrine Micossé-Aikins (Diversity Arts Culture), Sophia Neises, Ahmed Shah (Theater X) und Christian Schmidts (UdK Berlin) diskutierte unter dem Titel Recognizing What?! Was (an-)erkannt wird, kann auch verändert werden?
Im Hauptgebäude an der Hardenbergstraße wurde das Programm durch künstlerische Interventionen und Workshops fortgeführt. Die Gruppe Eine Krise bekommen, bestehend aus Studierenden der Fakultät Gestaltung, versammelte in ihrer interaktiven Installation We are sorry to inform you … kollektiv Ablehnungsgründe für die Aufnahme eines künstlerischen Studiums. Sie reagierte damit auf die jährlich verschickten Ablehnungsbescheide, die tausenden Bewerber*innen den Zugang zu Kunsthochschulen verwehren und eine unsichtbare Mauer an Ausschlussmeachnismen und Diskrimierungen bilden. Der Workshop Embodying Vision mit Dr. Aki Krishnamurthy für BIPoC FLINTA* lud dazu ein sich über Übungen aus der Körperarbeit mit der eigenen Kraft, mit Wünschen und Visionen zu verbinden.
Alles selbstverständlich – für wen?
Worte finden
Menschen¹
Alles selbstverständlich
für wen?
Ich bin frustriert, erschöpft
schon nach 19 Minuten
Kein Juhu, nur Unmut
Für wen? Wer darf? Wer fehlt?
Ich möchte schreien
Liebe für die Ungesehenen
Lahyas Gedicht, das im Zuge des Begrüßungsworkshops entstanden ist, hallt nach. Ihre Worte markieren den Anfang eines eindringlichen Gesprächs über Barrierefreiheit an der UdK Berlin, das neben Wertschätzung für die Bemühungen um die Gestaltung eines Aktionstages, die liebevolle Atmosphäre, wie Lahya sie beschreibt, und die Menschen, die dem Tag mit Offenheit und Interesse begegnet sind, auch deutliche Kritik verlauten lässt. Ihr Gedicht erinnert uns eindrücklich daran, dass Barrieren direkten Einfluss auf das menschliche Erleben nehmen und ist erneut Appell, die Bedürfnisse und Erfahrungen derjenigen anzuerkennen und anzugehen, die auf sie stoßen.
Der Beginn des Aktionstages mit der Künstlerin Gugulethu A. Duma wirft für Lahya bereits zentrale Fragen auf: „Es fehlten ganz viele Sachen, wo ich auf einmal merkte, so, oh mein Gott, welche Körper werden mitgedacht? Wie werden nicht-sehende oder blinde Menschen mitgedacht, wie werden Menschen mitgedacht, die vielleicht der englischen Sprache nicht mächtig sind, obwohl es natürlich eine Übersetzung und eine Flüsterübersetzung gibt?“ Dirk Sorge macht deutlich, dass es einen Unterschied gibt zwischen der Auseinandersetzung mit und dem tatsächlichen Erleben von Barrieren, wenn er teilt, dass auch für ihn im Zuge des Programmauftakts bereits „eine oder mehr Barrieren“ entstanden sind.
Für Dirk Sorge ergab sich daraus die Frage nach dem beabsichtigten Publikum der Veranstaltung, die für ihn bis zum Ende unbeantwortet blieb: „,Der Tag wird größtenteils auf Englisch stattfinden’, ja, welche Teile denn? Wann macht es Sinn für mich, zu kommen? Das ist eine Information, die mehr Fragen aufwirft als Planungssicherheit gibt. Das ist halt das Grundding, ihr müsst transparent sein, damit Menschen mit Behinderung oder auch andere Personen überhaupt im Vorfeld genug Informationen haben, um entscheiden zu können, ob sie mitmachen wollen und dann müsst ihr die Informationen in die Kanäle streuen, die auch genutzt werden.“
Es geht dabei um die Intransparenz wichtiger Informationen, die in Unklarheiten über die sprachliche und physische Zugänglichkeit der einzelnen Programmteile, der Verfügbarkeit von Gebärdensprachdolmetscher*innen und nicht zuletzt im (Nicht-)Wissen um die Veranstaltung selbst als Barriere für Menschen mit unterschiedlichen Behinderungen und Sprachkenntnissen wirksam wird. So wurden relevante Communities nicht angesprochen, die möglicherweise bei ausreichender Informationslage in den Aktionstag mit eingebunden hätten werden können, erklärt Lahya. Dirk Sorge bestätigt, dass er als bereits in der Kunst- und Diversitätsszene aktive Person ohne seine eigene Initiative möglicherweise gar nicht von dem Aktionstag erfahren hätte und wirft damit Fragen zur Öffentlichkeitsarbeit der Hochschule auf.
Sein konkreter Vorschlag: „Egal ob Menschen mit Behinderung kommen oder nicht – wir veröffentlichen einfach über jeden Veranstaltungsort die Barrierefreiheitsbedingungen. In welchem Stockwerk findet das Event statt, in welchen Räumen, Wegbeschreibungen. Die UdK gibt’s jetzt ja auch schon ein paar Jährchen, das hätte man bereits für die jeweiligen Standorte entwickeln können. Das sollte es einfach geben und immer, wenn man eine Veranstaltung plant, wird das eben mitgeschickt, ohne dass man weiß, welche Person welche Bedarfe hat. Genauso wie ich keine Veranstaltung veröffentlichen würde, ohne dass da ein Datum dabei steht.“ Lahya unterstreicht im Zuge der Kritik noch einmal die Relevanz von Multiperspektive durch „critical friends“ innerhalb der Planung und Organisation einer Veranstaltung, um Ausschlüsse zu verhindern.
In puncto Öffentlichkeitsarbeit fordern beide insgesamt weitaus mehr Offensive, um „die Blase der elitären Academia“ zum Platzen zu bringen, sodass zudem keine unnötigen Barrieren für Menschen entstehen, die nicht zum Dunstkreis der UdK Berlin gehören, sich aber potentiell für ein Studium an der Hochschule interessieren. „Dass es nicht einfach möglich ist zu sagen, bewerbt euch doch alle, ihr könnt euch doch alle bewerben, wir sind doch eine freie Uni, wir sind doch sichtbar für alle, sondern, ja, da sind so viele Barrieren, die erstmal abgebaut werden müssen und die müssen angeschaut werden“, ergänzt Lahya.
Leerstellen und Abwesenheiten
Auch das Vormittagspanel legte problematische Aspekte offen. „Das Panel und der Tag waren für mich wie eine Zeitmaschine. Ich fühle mich wie im Jahr 2012 und nicht 2022. Alle diese Themen hätten wir vor zehn Jahren genauso besprechen können und haben wir teilweise auch, aber offenbar hat die UdK die letzten 10 Jahre gepennt, ich kann mir das nicht anders erklären“, kritisiert Dirk Sorge die Trägheit des Wandels innerhalb der Hochschule. Lahya fehlte die Radikalität: „Wie können wir Dinge von der Wurzel her verändern? Wie können wir da noch kraftvoller werden?“
Insgesamt unterstreicht sie die Relevanz, auch die teils unsichtbaren Hindernisse sowie Abwesenheiten und Leerstellen in den Bemühungen um Diversität und Inklusion an Hochschulen zu identifizieren, wenn sie fragt: „Wer fehlte da eigentlich auf der Bühne heute, wer fehlte in der Diskussion? Natürlich können wir nicht bis ins Hundertstel alle Leute aufmachen, aber wir können sie zumindest erwähnen oder sichtbar machen, wie den Platz hier unserer Ahninnen [verweist auf den leeren Stuhl neben Mutlu Ergün-Hamaz].“ Es geht darum, ein erweitertes Verständnis von Barrieren zu entwickeln, sie zu benennen und transparent zu machen, um eine umfassende und inklusive Bildungslandschaft zu schaffen. Trans Personen oder Personen mit Fluchterfahrung in der Universität nicht ausreichend zu berücksichtigen, kann als eine Form der Barriereunfreiheit betrachtet werden. Hierbei wird erneut deutlich, dass Barrieren nicht nur physischer Natur sein können, sondern auch soziale, kulturelle und institutionelle Aspekte umfassen.
Von unten und von oben
„Wo sind eigentlich die ganzen Dekan*innen und Menschen, die doch eigentlich heute auch hier sein können, sollen, müssen?“ Die Frage nach Abwesenheiten wird auch beim Blick durch den Raum noch einmal auf andere Weise laut – der Konzertsaal an der Hardenbergstraße ist spärlich gefüllt, neben dem Präsidenten der UdK Berlin Norbert Palz und Vize-Präsidentin Ariane Jeßulat sind nicht viele Leitungspersonen gekommen. Dirk Sorge betont die Notwendigkeit einer klaren institutionellen Verpflichtung zur Barrierefreiheit und führt an, dass Weiterbildung und Sensibilisierung nicht optional sein sollten, sondern als Pflichtveranstaltungen etabliert werden müssen. Er hebt hervor, wie grundlegend es ist, in Stellenausschreibungen die Bedeutung von Barrierefreiheit und Diversität zu betonen. Darüber hinaus wirft er einen Blick auf Auswahlgremien sowie die Besetzung von Professuren und argumentiert für mehr Diversität in diesen Bereichen, fordert Schulungen, um Stereotype und Vorurteile in Auswahlverfahren zu erkennen und zu überwinden.
„Im Bereich Gestaltung wäre es wichtig zu sagen, okay, wir nehmen jetzt ins Curriculum Barrierefreiheit als Pflichtmodul auf, alle Gestalter*innen, Architekt*innen müssen das quasi einmal im Studium thematisiert haben“, schlägt er weiter vor. Dabei ist beiden jedoch bewusst, dass diese Transformationsbemühungen nicht lediglich „von unten“ kommen können: „Man kann an so vielen Stellen ansetzen, aber dabei ist immer die Frage, ist die Leitung an Bord? Sind die Personen an Bord, die das entscheiden können?“, verdeutlicht Dirk Sorge die Verzahnung einer Umsetzung von Maßnahmen und tiefgreifender, struktureller Transformation mit einem Bewusstseinswandel auch oder vor allem in den Reihen von Leitungspersonen.
Lahyas Überlegungen zeichnen ein ähnliches Bild: „Ich habe die Hoffnung, dass solche Institutionen verstehen, dass sie wirklich ihre Plätze frei machen müssen, dass sie wirklich neu denken müssen, dass sie ihren Lehrplan verändern müssen und dass Leute an die Plätze kommen, die vielleicht die letzten fünfhunderttausendmillionen Jahre nicht an den Plätzen waren. Dinge mal wirklich zu verändern und wirklich mal zu gucken: Warum sitze ich hier eigentlich? Was ist mein Privileg, dass ich hier sitzen darf? Und wessen Platz besetze ich hier gerade?“
Sara Ahmeds „brick wall“
Inmitten der Reflexion der Respondenzen zu den Herausforderungen und Fortschritten in den Transformationsbemühungen drängt sich eine philosophische Reflexion auf, die sich auf die Worte von Sara Ahmed stützt. Ahmed, eine bekannte Theoretikerin im Bereich der Queer Studies, beschreibt die Anstrengungen um mehr Diversität als ein Kopf-gegen-die-Wand-Erlebnis und veranschaulicht auf eindrückliche Weise, wie es sich anfühlen kann, Welten für jene zugänglich zu machen, die historisch von ihnen ausgeschlossen wurden. Die Wand, die Ahmed als „brick wall“ beschreibt, repräsentiert dabei die Hindernisse und Widerstände, die in der Diversitätsarbeit als eine physische und emotionale Erfahrung der Beharrlichkeit wirksam werden und zugleich Normen und Hierarchien aufrechterhalten, die sich in realen Strukturen und Praktiken manifestieren.
Wenn wir ihre Perspektive einbeziehen, wird deutlich, dass diejenigen, die in der Diversitätsarbeit engagiert sind, nicht nur gegen institutionelle Barrieren kämpfen, sondern auch gegen ein tief verwurzeltes System, das Veränderungen oft hartnäckig widersteht.
Der Weg zur Veränderung ist zweifellos mühsam, aber von entscheidender Bedeutung. Die UdK Berlin wie auch andere Hochschulen müssen ihre Strategien überdenken und aktiv daran arbeiten, Barrieren abzubauen und vielfältige Perspektiven zu repräsentieren.
¹ Dieses und folgende Zitate sind der internen Videoaufzeichnung des Panels entnommen.
You can also find this text in Arabic (Translation: Michaela Daoud), Farsi (Translation: Forough Absalan) and Ukrainian language (Translation: Yevheniia Perutska).
The student initiative Common Ground originated in the Support Refugees (SURE) project founded by a few students from Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftskommunikation (Communication in Social and Economic Context) at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin) in 2015. The project was a direct response to the war in Syria and the significant number of people seeking refuge in Berlin. Two former UdK Berlin students, Benjamin Glatte and Elisabeth Hoschek, renamed and reshaped it that year into the current format, as part of their Bachelor’s thesis project, envisioning a long-term initiative that would open up institutional walls to offer more welcoming spaces. From its beginnings, the goal of the initiative was to support people who have experienced forced migration, offering advice and opportunities to engage with local creatives and organizations. Over the years, it has further developed to provide assistance and a sense of community to disadvantaged newcomers, before and during their study application process. It continues to be a place for creative encounters between UdK Berlin students and diverse communities in Berlin, as well as for raising awareness about issues relating to migration and exile.
Common Ground’s members act as mediators between prospective students and other university initiatives, such as AStA (Allgemeiner Studierendenausschuss), the International Office, the Studium Generale, Berlin Career College and the Artist Training. Each year, the group organizes and funds social art projects by, with, and for people who have experienced migration. Over the past eight years, these included exhibitions, performances, film screenings, music jam sessions, workshops, and reading groups, among others. The support comes through establishing helpful contacts with students, artists, and other professionals, as well as financing the realization of artistic projects. The student initiative received funding from the DAAD and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through the efforts of International Office.
Since 2020, Common Ground has also been running the Common Ground Studio, a study preparation program providing access to UdK Berlin’s Institute of Fine Arts for disadvantaged individuals. For one academic year, from October to July, it invites selected participants to join one of the specialist artistic classes, granting them guest auditor status. This allows them to actively participate in class meetings, engage in studio projects, and receive guidance from professors. The program offers a valuable opportunity for prospective students to prepare their portfolios for formal study applications, gain insights into the Fine Arts program at UdK Berlin, and further develop their own artistic practice. As a result, the university gains a wealth of diverse perspectives from talented individuals who otherwise may not have had the opportunity to study at UdK Berlin due to structural inequalities.
In this publication, we take a retrospective look at the inception and trajectory of Common Ground: the work accomplished, the challenges faced, and the achievements celebrated. We delve into the low and high points, exploring which strategies have been fruitful and what potential lies ahead. To gain further insights, we had the privilege of speaking with six former and current Common Ground members: Benjamin Glatte, Elisabeth Hoschek, Lima Vafadar, Narges Derakhshan, Forough Absalan, and Vincent Hulme. Their perspectives highlight the continued critical importance of Common Ground at the university, emphasizing its value in supporting disadvantaged individuals and fostering a diverse and inclusive artistic community.
Interview Benjamin Glatte & Elisabeth Hoschek
(c) İpek Çınar
Benjamin Glatte and Elisabeth Hoschek crossed paths during their studies in the Communication in Social and Economic Contexts (GWK) department at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin). It was in 2015 when they initially conceived the idea for Common Ground. Together, they worked on establishing and maintaining a platform that connected artists in exile and newcomers in Berlin with students and professionals in the art community. Over the course of eight years, what initially began as a communications project for their Bachelor’s thesis has evolved into an enduring initiative that has embraced various forms of community building. Currently, Elisabeth is pursuing her studies in film production at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin. She also works as a freelance producer and takes on various roles on film sets for television, cinema, and series. Since graduating, Benjamin has established multiple ventures: an NGO that focuses on diasporic communities and artists in exile, a film set rental company, and a web development company. He is also a communications consultant and a communications coach for young adults.
Adela Lovrić:
How did Common Ground initially develop?
Elisabeth Hoschek:
During our final project at GWK, called the Kommunikationsprojekt, our group of five students aimed to develop a communication campaign for a company. Instead, we decided to work with the AStA of UdK Berlin and further develop their campaign that started out as SURE (Support Refugees). Our goal was to create safe spaces and raise awareness within the academy for artists who had recently fled their countries. We acted as an interface, connecting students, teachers, and artists in exile who wanted to contribute their expertise through workshops and seminars. Our main focus was to match demands and offers, and to build a dense network of communication. Natalia Ali, who was a Fine Arts student at the time, organized a discussion at UdK Berlin about the role of women in Syria and how their life changed through the war and thereby introduced us to the community we wanted to reach out to. This event led to further demands for integration into academic and artistic life in Berlin. We restructured and renamed the initiative, putting a lot of work into creating a lasting structure that could address similar situations in the future.
Adela Lovrić:
What kind of work did you engage in within Common Ground and what were some of its goals and guiding principles?
Benjamin Glatte:
We wanted to create a meaningful project that had an impact beyond our end-of-studies presentation. During this time, the conflict in Syria was happening and we wanted to address the issue at UdK Berlin. Things got quite complex because there were a lot of parties involved: UdK Berlin, AStA, professors, and friends. First, we got the confirmation from AStA that we could further promote the Support Refugees project under its umbrella, and then we also received support from various other parties, including Studium Generale, Berlin Career College, the International Office, and many others. Our next step was to connect all of this together and make the project accessible. We then focused on understanding the needs of the people we wanted to support—young artists who were refugees. We wanted to encourage and empower them. We thought it would be great to invite both students and future artists who are here in exile to come together at UdK Berlin and communicate, make projects, and offer or get support for studying at the university. Our aim was to be the interface and direct contact point bridging the gap between the two groups. We wanted to connect, support, inform, document, and mobilize, making it a collective effort rather than just a nice art project. We wanted artists in exile and newcomers in Berlin to engage in projects, to teach and contribute, while also benefiting from UdK students’ expertise. We also started applying for funding, creating a website, using all the communication channels we had, and establishing new things, and then it all took off. I think 90 percent of the work we did was actually not what we intended to do for our studies, which was a communications project.
Elisabeth Hoschek:
We focused on creating a social network that organically grew to meet the needs of the project. We organized jam sessions, workshops, and portfolio consultations, and maintained a newsletter and blog. We looked for cracks within the university that we could break open and create a more welcoming environment. What we all had in common was having to overcome bureaucratic hurdles. We managed to find some space at the Rundgang to showcase our platforms and the artists we were working with and create a connection between artists and students, which is where the collaboration with UdK’s Berlin Career College became stronger. We saw ourselves as a student initiative, but we had a lot of artists coming to us who had studied before and already worked as professionals. Berlin Career College was working mostly with professionals, but students were always showing up at their door trying to figure out how to study. We tried to bring all those forces together and create spaces of encounter that would allow people to find their way through this network. We also went out and engaged with people directly at different events in Berlin. There was a lot going on but in small circles that sometimes overlapped. We tried to increase the overlap between different scenes and foster word-of-mouth communication. This helped us to create contacts and make the project known.
Adela Lovrić:
What kind of responses to Common Ground did you receive from your target audience?
Elisabeth Hoschek:
There was a lot of interest from all sides, including newcomers, students, the university, and others. Some requests involved urgent matters like finding housing for people, but we were aware that we couldn’t become a flat-searching entity. Instead, we focused on spreading the word and connecting students privately. Sometimes we did manage to engage more in side tasks, but we quickly figured out our limitations and the importance of following our platform’s purpose and communicating it clearly. Some people may have been upset by this, as they expected support in all aspects.
Adela Lovrić:
How did you approach this sensitive task of helping people in need?
Elisabeth Hoschek:
We were aware that as a very white group of people initiating this, it could be seen as the savior complex of rich German kids supporting the “poor refugees.” We invited UdK Berlin students who were related to this context already, to create initiatives and give their opinions on how we should go about things. We really wanted to have eye-level encounters and not something that came from above or was demeaning in any way.
Benjamin Glatte:
The idea was not to approach people as refugees in the first place but as human beings with talents. We wanted to come together at UdK Berlin and create something together, to see if there could be good outcomes for all sides, and to see who could contribute what. This was always the most essential belief when it came to what we wanted to do with Common Ground and what we did not want to do.
Adela Lovrić:
How would you say that Common Ground, being a multi-directional project where both newcomers and the university benefited, has the potential to transform and impact everyone involved, spreading knowledge and ethics beyond its initial scope?
Benjamin Glatte:
This question is pointing towards the core of what it means if people support each other and how you can actually do this, especially if someone is obviously in the more disadvantaged position. In psychology, there’s a concept called a systemic approach, where the specific problem becomes less relevant if you have a solution that works for you. If you put this ideology on our approach, then I’d say we were not focusing on people being in need and being refugees, but on something positive, which is that we are all human beings and we have something to contribute to and share with each other. This is beyond support; it’s how I imagine inclusion to work. It’s about valuing you as a human being, seeing you at eye level, and trying to enrich each other through activity or conversation. This ideology has, through the course of the Common Ground project, definitely stuck with me when it came to how I wanted to engage with people, no matter their background. And, of course, their background is still something to keep in mind.
Elisabeth Hoschek:
We don’t mean to diminish the act of helping others in times of crisis. I genuinely appreciate people who lend a hand when it’s needed. However, the perception of how to really make an impact that goes beyond just giving a hand has shifted, not only for me, but for a lot of people. That comes, for example, through political discussions and developing friendships. For me, the most valuable thing was to get to know so many different people and perspectives that were engaging with us in many different ways. In the end, I’m still very much anchored in the community that resulted from the work we did. I’m in touch with many people we met through the initiative. The nicest thing about the aftermath of Common Ground was the strengthening of a community of art students and artists.
Benjamin Glatte:
During the so-called “refugee crisis”, most problems arose from the lack of direct contact with those who had fled their home countries. There was no direct contact, so they remained a picture on TV. Through Common Ground and getting in contact with people from different nations and contexts, I often had the feeling that this bubble was broken, which had a lasting positive impact on the people that were involved. If I were to explain why Common Ground is so valuable, especially for students, it’s about getting out of their bubble, actually connecting with others, and ultimately becoming more tolerant through this. I think that Common Ground is not necessarily just dependent on the next crisis, which is definitely going to come. It’s another connection point that opens up UdK Berlin, this environment, and this way of living, thinking, and being to the outside world. And it can be adapted to a lot of causes, not just crises.
Interview Lima Vafadar
(c) İpek Çınar
Lima Vafadar came to Germany from Iran in early 2011 to continue her Master’s degree in Cultural Media at the University of Paderborn. Prior to moving, she graduated with joint degrees in Iranian Folklore Painting and Print Design from the University of Applied Science of Tehran. Wanting to further pursue her artistic and creative practice, Lima relocated to Berlin and enrolled at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin) to study Fine Art. During her studies, she also worked as a student assistant at Studium Generale, where she contributed to creative projects for newcomers. Among them was Common Ground, an initiative she joined in 2015 upon meeting its co-founders Benjamin Glatte and Elisabeth Hoschek and stayed with until the summer of 2018. As someone who could personally identify with the struggles of people escaping war and other difficult circumstances, Lima engaged wholeheartedly in creating welcoming spaces and a sense of community for newcomers in and outside of the university. Today, she works as a psychosomatic therapist and continues to develop her artistic practice.
Adela Lovrić:
How did you get involved in Common Ground and why did you feel compelled to join?
Lima Vafadar:
I went through a very long path to find my place in Germany as a creative and an artist. I moved to Berlin in 2011 with the wish to continue my creative and artistic career. To achieve this, I started learning German and applied to UdK Berlin. In early 2015, I began working as a student assistant at the Studium Generale department at UdK, where I developed creative projects for newcomers. They provided a platform for collaborating with fellow students and colleagues on making a safe space for newcomers to find their voice in the art scene of Berlin. While working there, I met the founders of Common Ground. I really appreciated their idea of establishing a bigger container that would connect various creative projects throughout Germany. They wanted to build a space for students and newcomers to meet at the university and share their ideas, as well as to make this digital. I found this wonderful and joined the Farsi translation group to contribute to the beautiful mission of Common Ground.
Adela Lovrić:
What were Common Ground’s main objectives at the time when you were active there?
Lima Vafadar:
We came together from different fields of creative study at UdK Berlin. Our meeting space was AStA, where we discussed how to present our platform to the university president and different institutes within UdK. We wanted to establish communication that would help us open spaces and allocate resources for newcomers in Germany who were eager to engage in creative projects. We sought to address the heartfelt aspirations of these newcomers by providing them a platform where they could be seen and heard, and by opening doors in different institutes of UdK as well as many other creative institutions in Germany. Our intention was to secure funding for individuals who had significant reasons to realize their creative ambitions; to help these talents shine by listening to them and building a supportive community.
We organized open calls for artists and extended our efforts to reach newcomers who had just arrived in Germany. We also talked about our project at conferences and established connections with larger institutions throughout Germany, with the aim of uniting similar initiatives in different cities. At UdK Berlin, we had meetings in the garden with students, professors, and newcomers, where we discussed who we were, what our vision was, who we needed to connect to, and which resources we needed. Through sharing our vision, we could also connect to smaller groups of people and realize the next steps.
Adela Lovrić:
How did you personally connect to Common Ground’s mission?
Lima Vafadar:
For me, Common Ground was the most important community for students and newcomers at UdK Berlin. It gave a sense of community where you could always find people with the same interests and the same kind of empathy, who wanted to do creative projects but not all alone. At that time, a very big collective trauma was happening. As an Iranian born during the war between Iran and Iraq, I couldn’t stay silent. When the Syrian war happened, all of my artistic and creative work was involved with what was happening socially and politically. I remember that the only thing that could keep us alive in Iran during the war was the sense of community. Knowing that many others were sharing the same experiences gave us a sense of safety. Being part of Common Ground was very valuable because it offered an opportunity to meet with individuals with the same passion, share our resources, and be present for each other in therapeutic, creative, and fun ways.
Why is it important for Common Ground to continue to exist at UdK Berlin?
Lima Vafadar:
The world needs people who listen and are brave enough to take action. People who are experiencing war trauma go through many brutal experiences. They often have to leave their loved ones behind. For people who have lost their voices and feel alone, having someone to connect with and express what they’re experiencing is very important. Even if they lack the words to articulate their emotions, they can do it through creativity.
I remember how hard it was to communicate when we started. In Common Ground, we had so many people who could translate, who were familiar with the system, and who knew how to be present for people and connect them to their vision and to therapeutic support. I think it’s so important to provide creative spaces for those who have a big heart and an ability to listen, allowing them to share their ideas and stay connected with those who went through a lot and help them express themselves in any way they can. By doing so, we can foster a stronger, more centered, and more supportive society for the next generation.
Adela Lovrić:
What have you learned through working at Common Ground?
Lima Vafadar:
Through my experiences with newcomers at UdK Berlin, I recognized the significance of our work and also how important it is to learn how to interact with big collective traumas. We gradually learned how to enhance our projects by adding resources to ensure that we could hold space for more people and age groups. For example, we needed an art therapist by our side. Many times we also needed a psychotherapist to be present, especially during expressive theater projects or when working with children. We always needed more people, especially those who were fluent in the participants’ native languages, to hold the space for people partaking in creative projects.
Adela Lovrić:
Has your work at Common Ground in any way continued to inspire you outside of UdK Berlin?
Lima Vafadar:
These experiences inspired me to pursue further studies in psychosomatic therapy, in which I learned how to connect to the emotional and physical parts of people in a very creative way, and to heal trauma in one-on-one and group settings. I’m also still doing my political art these days.
I liked the sense of working in a group because, as an artist, sometimes you feel so alone with your ideas. Through Common Ground, I felt how important it is to share and to resort to other professionals who can help you to create. After finishing my art studies at UdK Berlin, I continued to dedicate myself to this work. I felt how important it was for my own artistic growth to be more connected to people this way. I really hope that we can keep this spirit and let it shine as a beacon for those who have experienced or are currently living through war. It is crucial to be able to come together and hold space for others, not through a rigid systemic way but through heart-to-heart and creative communication.
Interview Vincent Hulme & Forough Absalan
(c) İpek Çınar
Vincent Hulme moved to Berlin from Canada in 2011. Before enrolling in the Fine Arts program at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) in 2017, he worked as an art teacher, gallery assistant, and printmaker in a silkscreen studio. He joined Common Ground in 2019 and, since 2020, he has been managing the Common Ground Studio (CGS), a year-long preparation program for disadvantaged artists aiming to study at UdK. Aside from working and studying at UdK, Vincent continues to develop his expanded media art practice that engages with the topic of normative repercussions.
Forough Absalan is an interdisciplinary textile artist from Iran. Prior to moving to Berlin in 2018, she studied textile and surface design at the Tehran Art University. In 2021, she joined UdK as a student in the MA program Art in Context. The following year, she became a member of Common Ground and currently co-manages the Common Ground Studio alongside Vicent. She is also active in the wider social and cultural field, especially in working with people in the queer BIPOC community. Her most recent educational and cultural art project was a series of collective workshops with FLINTA* migrant youth and children, in cooperation with various NGOs and accommodations in Berlin.
Adela Lovrić:
How did the Common Ground Studio (CGS) start?
Vincent Hulme:
I learned about the *foundationClass at Weissensee when one of its founders visited UdK to showcase their work in 2019, four years after the so-called “refugee crisis”. At the time, the *foundationClass had already been around for some years. I thought it was something really interesting that I would like to get involved with, but at the time they didn’t need more help. The concept resonated with me because, even though I didn’t have to flee my country to come to Germany, I still arrived as a foreigner and had to jump through all the hoops and confusion, mostly by myself. I thought, why wasn’t there something like this at UdK?
When I joined Common Ground, I had the idea to do the same. I met up with Nadira Husain, Marina Naprushkina, and Ulf Aminde from the *foundationClass and asked for their blessing to try something similar at UdK. Then the pandemic happened. I was on the fence about whether this was going to work. I had been looking for a room and it seemed that it was either never going to be a permanent space, or it would have been some weird office and it just wasn’t going to work. I thought of the guest student program, came up with a structure, and asked all the Fine Arts professors if they were willing to try it out. And then we did it and it worked quite well.
Adela Lovrić:
What was the first edition like?
Vincent Hulme:
In the first year we were figuring it all out. It was 2020, five years since a big number of people had arrived in Germany. We debated a lot about whom Common Ground was for, because there weren’t as many new people coming as in 2015 from Syria, and now from Ukraine. We targeted artists in exile who had arrived in Germany in recent years and now wished to study art. Our focus was on individuals who weren’t German or Western European.
To begin, I reached out to professors at UdK, including Mathilde ter Heijne, David Schutter, Hito Steyerl, and Jimmy Robert, who agreed to support the test run by allowing one or two students to join the class for a year. This ensured the students had a studio spot and a connection with professors and students. The idea was to create pathways of access and personal connections, which are so important in the art world. I remember one of the first participants in the CGS went into the studio at UdK for the first time and waited for the professor to tell her what to do, and then nothing happened. She was very surprised because in Syria, the situation was quite the opposite.
In the summer, we launched an open call and screened applicants based on their portfolios, motivation letters, and readiness to study fine arts at a university level. It all happened during the pandemic, so we had to do all of the meetings online, but some people got access to the studios despite it being nearly impossible. In the end, it worked out quite well. Some people didn’t get in, but most did or did something really valuable with their time.
Adela Lovrić:
How did the CGS develop later? Did you implement some changes in the following years?
Vincent Hulme:
The second year was more on autopilot in terms of structure. In the third year, I wanted to encourage a stronger sense of community through simple initiatives like showing work together at school and meeting for drinks. Next year, I hope to get a bit more effort on the participants’ side in terms of building a community and getting involved beyond just coming for info meetings. I also want to make sure that they commit to the program from start to finish. It’s a valuable opportunity, and we do have to turn down some applicants. It’s disheartening when someone disappears after three months, leaving the professors with an empty studio spot. I really want to push them to make the best use of this one-year free pass and the professors who are willing to help.
Forough Absalan:
This year, we also managed a two-week art residency at the university with people from the CGS and UdK students. Every day, we had various activities like performances, screenings, and an exhibition. We are planning to do the residency again with workshops and projects involving the BIPOC art community.
Right now, Vincent and I are also planning for the next semester of the CGS. I would like the participants to also have access to the Master’s program Art in Context. Most of the people I know from the BIPOC community are artists in exile who already have a career and a Master of Arts program is more suitable for them. With this kind of access, we can also accommodate more participants.
Adela Lovrić:
Are there also ways in which the university can help you improve this program?
Forough Absalan:
Every year we have this issue of being told that we can only continue this work until December. It’s disappointing to not know how it’s going to be next year because we cannot plan ahead. It would be great if the university could support this as an ongoing program. It would also be beneficial if the International Office at UdK would involve us more in their decision-making process, since we are more familiar with the students’ and the CGS’s needs and concerns.
Vincent Hulme:
I think it works well right now with putting people into different classes, but the issue with this is that it gets hard to maintain a group dynamic. It would also be good to be independent of the administration as we wouldn’t have to be beholden to its slow pace. It would allow us to be more flexible and attuned to the reality of studying. With more resources and staff, we could definitely have a bigger impact. We are dealing with topics of inequity and discrimination, but I personally don’t feel like the CGS has the capacity and the resources at the moment to address the entirety of these issues.
Adela Lovrić:
How do you see the CGS being beneficial for the communities it targets and the university?
Forough Absalan:
I find it interesting and useful, but there are some things that could be changed. What I and a lot of other people wanted to do when we were new in Germany was to apply to university. At first, I applied to participate in the CGS and then Common Ground advised me to apply for the Art in Context program due to my work and study background. At the time I didn’t know anything about it but I applied and got in. I actually find it much more relevant to my direction than other departments.
I was also involved in the ‘How to Study at UdK’ and the Artist Training programs. This has helped me because, being new in this country and everything feeling overwhelming, I felt a bit lost. I was reassured that everything was manageable and that I didn’t need to worry. These experiences were very positive, and I hope we can expand the CGS to also include people who already have a career and don’t need to start from the first year.
Vincent Hulme:
Because of exclusionary practices at UdK, there are people who approach it with much more privilege and resources, and who then obviously have better chances of succeeding. CGS can work around those walls to assist people who are just as deserving and skilled artists, but may not have the understanding of the system required to get in. A lot of people who come here come from a completely different art background. There’s a critique of the school that asks what it really means to be an art student, whether it is to make Western European-centric art or to also challenge this way of thinking. I think that putting students and professors in contact with diverse perspectives and backgrounds increases awareness within the school. If the student body becomes more diverse, I believe the policies will have to change as well. We are very fortunate to be here and we should extend access to people who have faced incredibly difficult circumstances or continue to do so. Regardless of the crises, there will always be a need for Common Ground. Perhaps in two years, if it continues to exist, it will have a different focus.
Interview Narges Derakhshan
(c) İpek Çınar
Narges Derakhshan relocated to Berlin in 2016 with the aim of pursuing her second Bachelor’s degree in Communication in Social and Economic Contexts at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin). Prior to her arrival in Germany, she studied theater and gained experience as a copywriter for advertising agencies in Tehran. Presently, she is an MA student of screenwriting at Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf and works as a screenwriter and editor. Narges became acquainted with Common Ground during her initial introduction day at UdK Berlin and was immediately captivated by its mission. Shortly thereafter, she made the decision to join the group and remained an active participant until the end of 2019.
Adela Lovrić:
What kind of projects did you realize with your colleagues at Common Ground?
Narges Derakhshan:
At first, we were figuring out how to work as a group of people from really different backgrounds. Personally, I had the challenge of figuring out my place and role and how I could be helpful. Our objective was to come up with new projects and explore ways to improve support for artists who were newcomers to Germany and had no networks here. The idea was to give them a stage to present their art at UdK Berlin. At some point, we started another project which was really dear to me, called “How to Study at UdK Berlin.” We decided to put our minds together and share our own experiences of applying to UdK Berlin, with people who were not German. I think that was also one of our most successful events. Besides that, we were also organizing music jam sessions in the beautiful backyard of the university.
Adela Lovrić:
Can you tell me more about the “How to Study at UdK Berlin” events? What was particularly valuable about this work?
Narges Derakhshan:
At the time, we used Facebook to push the event and that helped a lot to reach out beyond our friend networks. A lot of people that we didn’t know showed up to the event, which was great—people who were interested in studying at UdK Berlin but had no idea how to create a portfolio of their work or how to present themselves. At the event, we had a presentation and we invited UdK Berlin students to show their entry portfolios. Afterward, we had a Q&A session. To me, getting into UdK Berlin was very hard and so my biggest purpose at Common Ground was to help make it easier for someone else. I thought, if just one person can do it in an easier way, then I will be happy. I think one of the successes of these events was also to present study courses that people might not know about. We became friends with some of the people who came to our events and two of them are actually studying at UdK Berlin right now, in courses for which UdK Berlin is not typically known.
Adela Lovrić:
What else was especially important for people reaching out to Common Ground during the time you worked there and how were you able to meet their needs?
Narges Derakhshan:
I think every European has an idea of what a portfolio is. But non-Europeans who are good artists might not know how to present themselves or what to expect. Every now and then, we had people with great ideas reach out to us, but they didn’t know how to translate them into a form that was understandable to a broader audience. I think it was really helpful to share our own experiences and portfolios with newcomers, as it gave them a good example and an idea of how they could also achieve it.
From the outside, UdK Berlin can be scary. Talented artists who need this community and network were scared away because they didn’t know how to get in. For that reason, initiatives like Common Ground are really important. When I got in, I remember Common Ground had a flyer in Farsi and in Arabic. Seeing something I could understand immediately made me feel welcomed and drawn to Common Ground. I also remember a jam session we organized and how cool it was for me to hear an Iranian song inside the university. I think it’s crucial to make UdK Berlin more open to non-Europeans, to people who are a bit afraid of entering this kind of educational atmosphere.
Adela Lovrić:
Can you recall some challenges that you encountered through working in Common Ground?
Narges Derakhshan:
There were many, to be honest. Initially, the biggest challenge was to reach our target group. In the beginning, we also went to refugee camps to present ourselves and hand out flyers. Every time we had an event, there were lots of men showing up and, at some point, I would think: this is about diversity, so how can I reach women? So, at the time, one of our biggest challenges was reaching people who we wanted to actually reach. Another was organizing. I don’t want to repeat the clichés of artists who cannot organize themselves, but when it comes to this kind of work, you have a good will, but on the other side, you need accessibility, programming, and organization.
Adela Lovrić:
Do you still engage in this kind of work or apply some of the lessons learned through Common Ground in your current endeavors?
Narges Derakhshan:
In my work as a screenwriter, I use these experiences a lot. Being a newcomer myself, I was not just an observer but an active participant. I don’t only draw from the people I encountered but also reflect on my own experience. These memories greatly influence my writing and my characters—how they perceive the world and how they feel totally strange but have to pretend they know what’s up.
Adela Lovrić:
Why is it, in your opinion, important to have an initiative like Common Ground at UdK Berlin?
Narges Derakhshan:
Education shouldn’t be a luxury, especially in art. People should trust themselves and give it a shot. But, from the outside, UdK Berlin is seen as a fancy university. Because of that, people don’t have the confidence to apply. The existence of Common Ground is important as a reminder that there are people who share your experiences and to provide this perspective that it’s not only for fancy, rich, privileged people. Everyone is welcome here.
We thank all Common Ground members:
2016 Assali, Mouna Glatte, Benjamin Hoffmann, Leander Hoschek, Elisabeth Laufkötter, Astrid Vafadar, Lima Vent, Johannes
2017 Abo Assali, Mouna Derakhshan, Nagres Faulhaber, Leo Glatte, Benjamin Haddad, Dana Hoffmann, Leander Hoschek, Elisabeth Khalifeh, Farah Vafadar, Lima Vent, Johannes
2018 Derakhshan, Narges Guiness, Joshua Haddad, Dana Khalifeh, Farah Stegmann, Sophia Vafadar, Lima White, Dylan
UdK, Common Ground in collaboration with International Office and Artist Training, UdK Berlin Career College International Office: Regina Werner Artist Training: Dr. Melanie Waldheim Department Fine Arts: Prof. Dr. Jörg Heiser
Common Ground: Benjamin Glatte, Elisabeth Hoschek, Lima Vafadar, Vincent Hulme, Forough Absalan, Narges Derakshan
Graphic Design: Caroline Lei & Quang Nguyen Typefaces: Impact Nieuw by Jungmyung Lee, Junicode by Peter S. Baker
Edition: 100
Universität der Künste Berlin Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts gesetzlich vertreten durch den Präsidenten Prof. Dr. Norbert Palz Einsteinufer 43 D-10587 Berlin
The project Common Ground is offered by the Berlin University of the Arts and is funded by the DAAD and Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in collaboration with the International Office, Student Office and Artist Training, UdK Berlin Career College.
Artist Training presents: The How to Create a Safer Space I-III workshop series aims to discuss structural discrimination and inequalities within UdK Berlin and develop strategies for equality with experts from the fields of anti-discrimination and organizational development. There will also be podcasts accompanying each workshop.
In the first podcast episode, How to Create a Safer Space I: Code of Conduct, there are two guests: Armeghan Taheri (writer, artist and founder of the art and literature magazine Afghan Punk Rock) and Elena Buscaino (student at UdK Berlin, member of the Critical Diversity Blog, and activist). Together with the moderator of the podcast series Johanna Madden, they reflected on the first workshop and discussed further the needs of UdK Berlin, as well as the possible implementation of a Code of Conduct.
Speakers: Armeghan Taheri & Elena Buscaino Production: Johanna Madden & Sel Coordination: İpek Çınar & Melanie Waldheim (Artist Training team)
Im Lektüreseminar „Queer-feministische Ästhetik“ fragen Paul B. Preciado und ich uns, ob Dildos, die einige Feministinnen als künstliche Nachbildungen des Penis und damit Symbole der patriarchalen Hegemonie bezeichnen, nicht eigentlich das exakte Gegenteil sind: inhärent queere Objekte, die sexuelle Machtstrukturen verschieben.
Schriftliche Ausarbeitung des Referats vom 20.05.2022 über „Die Logik des Dildos oder die Scheren Derridas“ in Paul B. Preciado: Kontrasexuelles Manifest. Berlin: b—books 2003. Entstanden im Lektüreseminar „Queer-feministische Ästhetik“ im Fachgebiet „Geschichte und Theorie der visuellen Kultur“ an der Fakultät Gestaltung der Universität der Künste Berlin, betreut durch Prof. Dr. Kathrin Peters.
(c) Laura Thiele, 2022
Queer-feministische Ästhetik
Strukturelle Diskriminierung und Benachteiligung beschränkt sich nicht auf öffentliche und private Räume, sondern ist auch im professionellen Umfeld für viele Menschen tägliche Realität. Die Design- und Kunstwelt wurde – wie viele andere Bereiche der Gegenwart – innerhalb der patriarchalen Hegemonie konstruiert. Historisch gewachsene Regeln und Normen der Kunst und Gestaltung, sowie ihrer Rezeption orientieren sich an männlich konnotierten Fähigkeiten und Vorstellungen. Gestaltende mussten sich in vergangenen Jahrhunderten – insofern sie auf wirtschaftlichen Erfolg und Anerkennung hofften – entweder mit vorherrschenden Ideen identifizieren und ihre Regeln anerkennen oder sind der Kunstwelt gänzlich fern geblieben.1 Sich im 21. Jahrhundert in der Branche als nicht-cis-männliche:r Gestalter:in zu behaupten, ist noch immer eine tägliche Aufgabe, die herausfordert und persönliche feministische Positionierungen ins Wanken bringen kann.
Da weibliche Künstlerinnen weder in Museen, noch in Auktionshäusern annähernd so stark repräsentiert sind wie ihre männlichen Kollegen, sah sich das britische Auktionshaus Sotheby’s im Frühsommer 2021 berufen, die Online-Auktion „(Women) Artists“ anzubieten, um weiblicher Kunst der vergangenen 400 Jahre eine dezidierte Platform zu geben und Künstlerinnen der Gegenwart zu fördern.2 Marina Abramović konstatiert eine in der Branche herrschende „sehr große Ungerechtigkeit, da die Arbeiten von weiblichen Künstlerinnen unter ihrem Wert angeboten“3 werden. Dennoch nutzen Kunstschaffende und Gestaltende das Potenzial visueller Kultur – nicht nur als individuelle Ausdrucksform, sondern auch als Instrument im Kampf gegen Diskriminierung und Ausbeutung. Sich dabei von bestehenden normativen Vorstellungen zu lösen, stellt eine besondere Herausforderung dar.
„Im Film und in der Kunst müssen wir auch eine Sprache finden, die uns angemessen ist, die nicht schwarz oder weiß ist.“4 – Chantal Akerman
Das Lektüreseminar „Queer-feministische Ästhetik“ im Fachgebiet „Geschichte und Theorie der visuellen Kultur“ an der Fakultät Gestaltung der Universität der Künste Berlin beschäftigt sich mit der wechselseitigen Beziehung von Gestaltung und gesellschaftspolitischem Kontext. Wann ist Gestaltung feministisch, wann queer? Was macht queer-feministische Ästhetik formal aus und wer ist in der Lage, sie zu produzieren? Wer wird abgebildet und wer nicht? Kann sich Gestaltung, die in einer patriarchal dominierten Welt entsteht, überhaupt von ihr lösen?
„Die Möglichkeit einer anderen Erfahrung und Wahrnehmung der Weiblichkeit durch Frauen wurde als Infragestellung und indirekte Gefährdung männlichen Kunstschaffens häufig schon mit einbezogen.“5
Der binären Norm folgend, bezieht Feminismus traditionell eine oppositionelle Haltung zur patriarchalen Hegemonie, was diese – zum Leid aller feministischen Bewegungen – ständig wiederholt und erhält. Die Literaturwissenschaftlerin Teresa de Lauretis setzt in den späten 1980er und 1990er Jahren in der sog. „Queer Theory“ nicht nur unterschiedliche Diskriminierungsformen miteinander in Bezug und leistet damit einen maßgeblichen Beitrag zum intersektionalen Feminismus6, sondern beschreibt auch eine Kultur, die sich aus den Eigenschaften und Handlungen ihrer Mitglieder positiv konstituiert und nicht alleinige Gegenhaltung ist.7 Queerness funktioniert nur in der Selbstzuschreibung und definiert sich nicht durch klare Abgrenzungen, weshalb die inhaltliche Bedeutung des Begriffs immer wieder neu verhandelt werden kann und muss. Queer ist keine Opposition, ist nicht anti, sondern fluid und pluralistisch. Doch auch wenn in der nicht-binären Theorie keine gegenüberliegende Seite existiert, auf der ein Gegner verortet werden könnte, existiert er trotzdem auch in der Queer Theory: das Patriarchat.
Angst vor dem Dildo
Symbol des Patriarchats und der Männlichkeit im Allgemeinen ist unumstritten der Penis. Kein anderes menschliches oder nicht-menschliches Organ ist so stark aufgeladen mit Inhalten, wird stolz gezeigt, schamhaft versteckt, auf Schultische gekritzelt, als Foto verschickt, beneidet oder verschmäht. Der Penis ist das prunkvolle Siegelwappen der patriarchalen Vorherrschaft und zeitgleich das sensibelste Glied im organischen maskulinen Kettenhemd. Dass einige Lesben und andere Feministinnen daher Dildos, die in ihren Augen künstliche Nachbildungen des Penis sind, ablehnen, überrascht also kaum. Sie befürchten die (Wieder-)Einführung männlicher Vorherrschaft in ihre durch und durch feminine Sexualität. In den 1990er Jahren boykottierten einige feministische Buchläden in London den Verkauf von Del LaGrace Volcanos „Love Bites“, einer Sammlung von Fotografien, in denen u.a. eine Lesbe zu sehen ist, die einen Dildo leckt.8 Penetration? Ja bitte! Aber mit lesbischen Fingern, die fest mit dem lesbischen Körper verwachsen sind!
Del LaGrace Vocano: „Hermaphrodyké“ (1995) in „Sublime Mutations“, Tübingen, konkursbuch, 2000.
Nicht zu leugnen ist, dass Sextoys sich im Allgemeinen einer großen Beliebtheit erfreuen. Laut einer repräsentativen Studie der Technischen Universität Ilmenau, nutzen 52% der heterosexuellen Befragten zwischen 18 und 69 Jahren Sextoys mit Partner:innen. Bei der Masturbation sind es 72% der Frauen und 31% der Männer.9 Nicht repräsentative Studien legen nahe, dass die Zahlen unter queeren Personen nicht etwa geringer, sondern noch höher sind. Genaue Ergebnisse und wissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzungen bleiben jedoch aus. Der Zugang zum Dildo ist auch im wissenschaftlichen Kontext holprig und schambehaftet. Obwohl die Vorstellung von Paul Beatriz Preciados Text „Die Logik des Dildos oder die Scheren Derridas“, der Teil des „Kontrasexuellen Manifests“ ist, im Lektüreseminar „Queer-feministische Ästhetik“ durch mitgebrachte Objekte, Websites und humoristische Illustrationen niedrigschwellig und zwanglos gestaltet wurde, war die Beteiligung unter den Teilnehmenden eher gering und die Grundstimmung unsicher und angespannt.
Preciado denkt über die Bedeutung des Dildo nach und fragt: „Was ist ein Dildo?“10 Bildet der Dildo patriarchale Machtstrukturen im queeren Kontext ab? Ist er Projektion des maskulinen Begehrens auf die weibliche Sexualität? Welche Rolle spielt dabei seine Ästhetik und die Perspektive, aus der er betrachtet wird?
(c) Mattia Friso: Referat im Seminar “Queer-feministische Ästhetik”, 2022.
Preciado beschreibt im Text „Die Logik des Dildos oder die Scheren Derridas“ eine Szene aus Sheila MacLaughlins Film „She Must Be Seeing Things“ (1987), in der sich die Protagonistin Agatha in einen Sex-Shop begibt, um einen realistischen Dildo zu kaufen. Sie glaubt ihrer Geliebten damit zu gefallen. Beim Anblick des Dildo erkennt sie das zwischen Männern und Frauen herrschende Ungleichgewicht im Zugang zu Sexualität: aufblasbare Puppen – Nachbildungen des gesamten weiblichen Körpers – stehen Dildos – in ihren Augen plumpe Penis- Mimesen – gegenüber. Während männliche Sexualität durch den weiblichen Körper in seiner Ganzheit angesprochen wird, soll die weibliche Sexualität durch den Penis bzw. seine Nachbildung angeregt werden. Agatha entscheidet sich schließlich gegen den Kauf eines Dildos, dessen bloßer Anblick ihr zur Einsicht dieses Machtgefälles verholfen hat. Vielleicht befürchtet sie, dass das sexuelle Begehren ihrer Partnerin sich mit Verwendung des Dildos nur noch auf diesen beschränke und Agathas Körper fortan ausschließe. Preciado stellt fest, dass sich Agathas Sichtweise in diesem Moment der Konfrontation lesbischer Sexualität mit Heterosexualität durch den Dildo verändert und verweist auf Lauretis, die im Dildo einen kritischen, jedoch keinen praktischen Wert erkenne.11
Sowohl Agathas Erkenntnis, als auch Lauretis’ Analyse bauen auf der Annahme auf, dass „jeder Hetero-Sex […] phallisch und jeder phallische Sex […] hetero“12 sei: wenn zwischen Mann und Frau die Penetration durch den Penis ausbleibt, könne – egal wie intensiv die physische Auseinandersetzung ansonsten sein mag – nicht von Sex gesprochen werden. Sobald zwischen Personen ohne Penis penetrative sexuelle Handlungen stattfinden, sei die Referenz zum imaginierten Penis und damit dem Mann und damit dem Patriarchat hergestellt. Im angenommenen phallozentrischen Schema steht der Penis im Mittelpunkt jeglicher Sexualität und sexueller Handlungen. Neben zwischenmenschlichen Interaktionen, wird auch der singuläre weibliche Körper durch die Abwesenheit des Penis definiert. Die Misogynie dieses Denkmodells liegt auf der Hand. Lauretis bringt den Sachverhalt passend auf den Punkt: „Weibliche Sexualität wurde stets im Gegensatz und in Bezug auf männliche Sexualität definiert.“13
Durch die Kombination von Phallozentrik und Verwechslung des Penis mit der ihm zugeschriebenen patriarchalen Macht, ergeben sich sowohl für den Penis, als auch für den Dildo und letztlich die Sexualität selbst fatale Urteile. Diese Kette von Fehlannahmen zurückzuverfolgen, neu aufzuziehen und den eigentlichen Wert des Dildo zu erkennen, erscheint Preciado angebracht.
„Der Phallus ist nur eine Hypostasierung des Penis. Wie bei der Geschlechtsfeststellung intersexueller Babies deutlich wird, ist in der symbolischen heterosexuellen Ordnung der Signifikant par excellence nicht der Phallus sondern der Penis.“14
Schließlich enttarnt der Dildo den Penis und befreit ihn damit vom Gewicht des Phallus. Er offenbart, dass die assoziierte Macht eben kein angewachsenes Recht ist, sondern an jedem beliebigen Körper(-teil) umgeschnallt oder angesaugt werden kann. Sie ist ein Zepter, das beliebig von Hand zu Hand weitergereicht wird. „Der Dildo erscheint als exakte Nachahmung des Penis, bleibt aber vom männlichen Körper abgetrennt.“15 Es klingt wie das Horrorszenario eines jeden Mannes: das Glied ist abgetrennt und wird mal hier, mal dort benutzt, abgelegt oder im kochenden Wasser sterilisiert. Trotzdem ist es voll funktionsfähig – oder sogar noch praktikabler als der organische Referent. Kontrolle und Macht sind nicht angeboren, sondern werden egalitär weitergereicht und nach Lust und Laune eingesetzt. Preciado betont, dass jede:r einen Dildo benutzen und so genderbezogene phallische Machtstrukturen verschieben und in Frage stellen kann.
Vielleicht ist die Angst vor dem Dildo genau deshalb so groß. Die Anerkennung des Dildo als effektiver sexueller Technologie würde dem oder der Besitzer:in eines Penis vor Augen führen, dass ihr bestes Stück eben nur eines ist: ein sensibles Organ. Aber soll diese Erkenntnis nun als Degradierung verstanden werden oder könnte die Anerkennung seiner einzigartigen organischen Fähigkeiten und die gleichzeitige Akzeptanz der technischen Möglichkeiten des Dildo nicht eine Chance sein, die sowohl der Lesbe, als auch dem Hetero-Mann, als auch jeder anderen Person und ihrer Sexualität zugute käme?
(c) Laura Thiele, 2022.
Kontra-Sexualität
„The first twelve years or so I was very busy with trying to turn men on. […] and then after that it was like turn on other kinds of people, but not just in the genitals, but more the mind, the intellect, […] make them laugh, make them think, help them to learn something new“ – Annie Sprinkle16
Wahre Gleichberechtigung kann in jedem noch so kleinen Winkel des gesellschaftlichen Alltags nur bestehen, wenn sie auch dort Realität ist, wo Körper im vermeintlich Privaten und Intimen aufeinandertreffen: beim Sex. Tabus, Scham und Unsicherheit bieten den Nährboden für Gewalt und Missbrauch. Preciados Beitrag zu Gleichberechtigung, für die eine gesunde Sexualität unerlässlich erscheint, ist das Konzept der „Kontra-Sexualität“. Sie handelt „vom Ende der Natur, die als Ordnung verstanden wird und die Unterwerfung von Körpern durch andere Körper rechtfertigt“17. Preciado sieht Individuen nicht mehr als Mann oder Frau, sondern als Subjekte, die zu allen signifizierenden Praktiken gleichermaßen Zugang haben und untereinander gleichwertig sind.
Der Dildo sei das Werzeug der „systematischen Dekonstruktion sowohl der Naturalisierung der sexuellen Praktiken als auch der Geschlechterordnung“18. Dabei geht Preciado so weit, den Dildo als „Ursprung des Penis“19 zu bezeichnen. Diese Umkehrung der eingangs beschriebenen Annahme, der Dildo sei eine Nachahmung des Penis, begründet Preciado mit dem was Derrida als „gefährliches Supplement“ bezeichnet. Das Supplement, vereinfacht übersetzt als „Ergänzung“ oder „Zugabe“, fügt sich etwas hinzu oder setzt sich an die Stelle von etwas, zeigt aber auch die Lücke an, die es füllt. Der Dildo als Supplement vervollständige und produziere den Sex und damit auch den Penis.20
Derrida schreibt: „das Supplement, ob es hinzugefügt oder substituiert wird, [ist] äußerlich, d.h. äußerliche Ergänzung oder Ersatz […]; es liegt außerhalb der Positivität, der es sich noch hinzufügt, und ist fremd gegenüber dem, was anders sein muß als es selbst, um von ihm ersetzt zu werden.“21 Der Dildo bleibt außerhalb des organischen Körpers und ihm damit immer fremd. Er ist eine menschgemachte Maschine, die dem Penis nicht fremder sein könnte, obwohl er sich auf paradoxe Weise an ihm orientiert. Da er nie nur Substitut ist und im Substitut-Sein nicht aufgeht, sondern mehr ist, übersteigert er sich fortlaufend selbst. Er zieht die Autorität seines Referenten ins Lächerliche und widersetzt sich damit heteronormativem Sex.22
Preciado stellt fest: „Der Dildo ist kein Objekt, das sich an die Stelle eines Mangels setzt.“23 Bislang galten die Genitalien als Zentrum der Sexualität. Der Dildo verschiebt dieses Zentrum hin zu anderen Stellen des Körpers und hin zu Objekten außerhalb des Körpers, die durch den Dildo (re-)sexualisiert werden. Die Dezentrierung, die der Dildo auslöst birgt die Chance, den gesamten Raum, über den Körper hinaus, in mögliche Zentren umzuwandeln, bis der Begriff des Zentrums seinen Sinn verlöre.24
„Die Verdrängung der Penetration aus dem Mittelpunkt des sexuellen Geschehens bleibt eine Aufgabe, der wir uns auch heute noch zu stellen haben“25
Der Dildo destabilisert die sexuelle Identität der Person, die ihn trägt und restrukturiert damit auch das Verhältnis zwischen innen und außen, passiv und aktiv, zwischen dem natürlichen Organ und der Maschine.26 Der Dildo ist nicht-binär. Er konstituiert Sexualität positiv und ist somit im doppelten Sinne und inhärent queer.
(c) Laura Thiele, 2022
Laura Thiele (Sie/ihr) studiert visuelle kommunikation an der universität der Künste Berlin und bewegt sich in ihrer gestalterischen Arbeit im Spannungsfeld zwischen Raum, Körper und Gesellschaft. Sie ist stellv. Frauen- und Gleichstellungsbeauftragte der Fakultät Gestaltung.
1 Vgl. Silvia Bovenschen: Über die Frage: gibt es eine „weibliche“ Ästhetik?, in: Ästhetik und Kommunikation, Beiträge zur politischen Erziehung, Heft 25, Jahrgang 7, Berlin, 1976, S. 61 2 Vgl. Sotheby’s: (Women) Artists, 2021, https://sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/women-artists (abgerufen am 09.09.2022) 3 Amah-Rose Abrams: Marina Abramović: A Woman’s World, 2021, https://sothebys.com/en/articles/marina-abramovic-a-womans-world (abgerufen am 09.09.2022) 4 Chantal Akerman. Interview mit Claudia Aleman in: Frauen und Film, Nr. 7, Berlin, 1976, zitiert nach Silvia Bovenschen: Über die Frage: gibt es eine „weibliche“ Ästhetik?, in: Ästhetik und Kommunikation, Beiträge zur politischen Erziehung, Heft 25, Jahrgang 7, Berlin, 1976, S.63. 5 Bovenschen: 1976, S. 68. 6 Dieser Begriff gehört heutzutage zur Grundausstattung eines jeden queeren Tinder-Profils. 7 Vgl. Teresa de Lauretis: Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities, An Introduction, in: Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, Heft 3.2, Providence, 1991, S. 11. 8 Vgl. Paul B. Preciado: Kontrasexuelles Manifest, Berlin, b_books, 2003, S. 54. 9 Vgl. Nicola Döring & Sandra Poeschl: Experiences with Diverse Sex Toys Among German Heterosexual Adults: Findings From a National Online Survey, The Journal of Sex Research, 2020 10 Preciado: 2003, S. 53. 11 Vgl. Preciado, 2003, S. 57. 12 Preciado, 2003, S. 58. 13 Teresa de Lauretis: Die Technologie des Geschlechts, in: Elvira Scheich (Hg.): Vermittelte Weiblichkeit. Feministische Wissenschafts- und Gesellschaftstheorie Hamburg (Hamburger Edition) 1996, S. 468. 14 Preciado, 2003, S. 59. 15 Ebd. S. 61. 16 Virginie Despentes: Mutantes – Annie Sprinkle Interview, 2018, https://youtu.be/Bdl5xscdC_0 (abgerufen am 01.09.2022), 05:02-05:26 17 Preciado, 2003, S. 10. 18 Ebd. S. 11. 19 Ebd. S. 12. 20 Vgl. ebd. S. 62. 21 Jacques Derrida: Grammatologie, Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp, 1974, S. 251 22 Vgl. Preciado, 2003, S. 62. 23 Ebd. S. 61. 24 Vgl. ebd. S. 65. 25 Lucy Bland: The Domain of the Sexual. A Response. in: Screen Education, Heft 39, S.56, 1981, zitiert nach Teresa de Lauretis: Die Technologie des Geschlechts, in: Elvira Scheich (Hg.): Vermittelte Weiblichkeit. Feministische Wissenschafts- und Gesellschaftstheorie Hamburg (Hamburger Edition) 1996, S. 469. 26 Vgl. Preciado, 2003, S. 67.
Trigger warning: The following text reproduces queer- and transphobic statements and attitudes.
Preliminary Remarks Before I try to approach the media debate about the transphobic statements and the resulting withdrawal of the British professor Kathleen Stock as well as the arguments brought forward from different sides, I would first like to shed light on my own situatedness and approach in the discourse about gender. 1. I have the privilege of living without gender or body dysphoria. I identify with the social category ‘woman’ to the extent that this assignment forms my lived experiences of discrimination and situates them within a structural power scheme. However, the concept of womanhood is rather abstract for me and I feel has little to do with my intrinsically experienced gender identity. 2. I am writing this essay in the context of a queerfeminist seminar. This makes it easier to write confidently against hegemonic notions of gender. The text should be as radical as necessary and as sensitive as possible. Since I myself have been socialized into this very hegemony, I must continually check my thoughts and language concerning cis-heterosexist narratives in the writing process. 3. Just as I cannot escape the real consequences of societal conceptions of gender, the social entanglements must not be ignored when considering the debate about Kathleen Stock: It is embedded in a media landscape that is predominantly shaped by cisgendered, white people, and in which visibility and social power are mutually reinforcing. Since I do not self-identify as trans*, I want to avoid speaking for trans* people and instead take a position of solidarity alongside them when writing (following the decolonial methodology “Speaking Near-by” by filmmaker and theorist Trinh T. Minh-ha).
In the autumn of 2021, Professor Kathleen Stock leaves her post after 18 years of teaching at the University of Sussex in England. Her resignation is the result of self-organized protests by an anonymous group of queer, trans* and non-binary students of the same university, who first published a mission statement against her and demanded Stock’s dismissal in the following days with poster actions and demonstrations. The protests were triggered by the queer- and transphobic statements that Kathleen Stock published in newspaper interviews, blog posts and via her personal Twitter account, especially during the last three years of her tenure.
The following text will, on the one hand, re-trace the media debate surrounding her resignation, as well as the argumentation and rhetoric of the accompanying cancel culture accusations and the emphatically expressed fears that academic freedom and freedom of expression have been endangered. On the other hand, it will attempt to identify specific aesthetics of Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism.
Reference is made primarily to various German and British newspaper articles that reported on the debate. First, however, the text will take an in-depth look at the argumentation and thought structures of TERFs.
Why Kathleen Stock is a TERF
On August 19, 2008, blogger Viv Smythe writes the following under her pseudonym TigTog on Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog, her blog on feminism FAQs:
I am aware that this decision is likely to affront some trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs), but it must be said: marginalising trans women at actual risk from regularly documented abuse /violence in favour of protecting hypothetical cis women from purely hypothetical abuse/violence from trans women in women-only safe-spaces strikes me as horribly unethical as well as repellently callous.1Smythe, Viv: An apology and a promise. in: Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog, 19.08.2008, https://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/an-apology-and-a-promise (last accessed 30.10.2022)
Shortly after that the acronym TERF appeared on more feminist blogs,2Williams, Cristan: TERF: What It Means And Where It Came From. in: The Trans Advocate, 03.2014, https://www.transadvocate.com/terf-what-it-means-and-where-it-came-from_n_13066.htm (last accessed … Continue reading gaining popularity over the years. In a 2017 interview with The Trans Advocate, Smythe describes the term as a neutral designation for a branch of radical feminism found primarily online, on blogs and social media. She says she used the term in response to a sudden rise in transmisogynist comments and posts in radical feminist internet spaces, which was then picked up by other trans*-positive/neutral feminist activists and used for distinction.3Williams, Cristan: TERF: What It Means And Where It Came From. in: The Trans Advocate, 03.2014, https://www.transadvocate.com/terf-what-it-means-and-where-it-came-from_n_13066.htm (last accessed … Continue reading
TERFs frame trans* women and trans*-feminine persons in various scenarios as threats to cis women, which is why they fundamentally reject their inclusion in (safer) spaces such as women’s restrooms or women’s shelters.
Under the highly transmisogynistic assumption that trans* women remain ‘biological men’, they are imagined as potential sexual offenders. Accordingly, there is a rather dismissive and sometimes mocking attitude towards terminologies such as ‘cis’ or self-identified pronouns. Moreover, something like a neo-liberal trans* agenda is often being suspected, which persuades lesbian women into believing that they are trans* men—“transing the gay away”, as Bev Jackson claims, co-founder of the transphobic advocacy group LGB Alliance, of which Kathleen Stock is also a member.4Dixon, Hayley: Tavistock clinic ‘putting young gay people at risk by treating them as trans’. in: The Telegraph, 12.09.2022, … Continue reading
The conflict surrounding Kathleen Stock, whose teaching focus at the University of Sussex on the nature of fiction and imagination as well as art and music theory in philosophy before the conflict began, ignited in 2018 over several contentious writings and essays Stock published on various blogs on the occasion of the proposed reform of the Gender Recognition Act—a legal reform that would make it easier for trans* people in the UK to change their gender identity without having to present humiliating medical or psychological certificates.
In an essay on the US-american publishing platform Medium, she circumvents terms like ‘cis’ or ‘afab’ by awkwardly calling cis women “women-who-are-not-transwomen” and abbreviating them as “WNT”. This is not a harmless linguistic gimmick, but follows a rhetorical strategy of preserving cis gender as a social norm by never explicitly naming it.
Language is a subtle but effective means of perpetuating established relations of oppression and power: In a heterosexist, predominantly white society, a person is imagined as cis-male, straight, white, able-bodied, etc. until they are linguistically marked and categorized as trans*, queer, of color, or disabled. However, language can also very effectively unmask and destabilize structures of power and oppression by examining supposed norms and also describing them with terms—such as ‘cis’. Kathleen Stock’s active avoidance of the concept of cis as just another gender, which has been established in Western gender studies since the 1990s, impressively underlines the progressive potential of this seemingly small word.
She continues:
Citing the history of male violence against WNT, some have pointed out what seems perfectly reasonable — that this change in the law will allow some duplicitous or badly motivated males to “change gender” fairly easily […] in order to do harm to WNT in women-only spaces, and possibly children too, since children are often with their mothers.5Stock, Kathleen: Academic philosophy and the UK Gender Recognition Act. in: Medium, 07.05.2022, https://medium.com/@kathleenstock/academic-philosophy-and-the-uk-gender-recognition-act-6179b315b9dd … Continue reading
In the same year, she expressed the following opinion to the local British newspaper The Argus: “many trans women are still males with male genitalia, many are sexually attracted to females, and they should not be in places where females undress or sleep in a completely unrestricted way.”6Doherty-Cove, Jody: ‚Trans women are still males with male genitalia‘ – university lecturer airs controversial views. in: The Argus, 15.07.2018, … Continue reading Furthermore, in the internationally renowned magazine The Economist, Stock publishes a text that reveals an extremely biologistic and essentialist way of thinking about the social gender categories of “man” and “woman” and predicts gender self-determination as a crime statistics distorting rape and threat scenario for cis women.7Stock, Kathleen: Changing the concept of “woman” will cause unintended harms. in The Economist, 06.07.2018, … Continue reading
Even though Stock regularly dismisses all accusations of transphobia, this is ultimately purely at the discretion of those who are affected. In the case of the student protests at the University of Sussex, at least, it’s clear. In their mission statement published on October 6 via the Instagram channel antiterfsussex, the anonymous group of queer, trans* and non-binary activists writes:
Transphobes like Stock are anti-feminist, anti-queer and anti-intellectual, they are harmful and dangerous to trans people. […] They camouflage their transphobia in academic language, in fake feminism, in „reasonable concerns“, and then we suffer the real material consequences of it.8antiterfsussex, 06.10.2021, https://www.instagram.com/p/CUrjq01MbQ1 (last accessed 31.10.2022)
Media Representation of the Conflict over Scientific Freedom, Cancel Culture, and Discourse Sovereignty
In both the British and German media, the protests and Stock’s subsequent personal resignation attract a great deal of attention. The headline of the British tabloid The Daily Mail reads:
Terrorised off campus by the trans hate mob: Balaclava-clad fanatics targeted her for daring to speak up for women’s right. But here, ex-university lecturer Kathleen Stock defiantly says she WON‘T be silenced in fight for freedom of thought9Bindel, Julie: Terrorised off campus by the trans hate mob: Balaclava-clad fanatics targeted her for daring to speak up for women‘s rights. But here, ex-university lecturer Kathleen Stock defiantly … Continue reading
The German newspaper FAZ writes in a slightly more moderate way about “Cancel Culture”10Vukadinović, Vojin Saša: Chronik einer orchestrierten Verleumdung. in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18.03.2021, … Continue reading and the “smear campaign against a philosopher”11Vukadinović, Vojin Saša: Schmutzkampagne gegen eine Philosophin. in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 11.10.2021, … Continue reading, while the taz uses the mocking neologism ‘Wokistan’ in its reporting12Feddersen, Jan: Antifreiheitliches Wokistan. in: taz, 01.11.2021, https://taz.de/Professorin-tritt-nach-trans-Eklat-ab/!5809038 (last accessed 30.10.2022). The daily Zeit speaks of “transactivists [who] go after feminists”13Vukadinović, Vojin Saša: Gezielte Kampagnen. in: Die Zeit, 26.11.2021, https://www.zeit.de/2021/48/kathleen-stock-wissenschaftsfreiheit-feministen-transaktivisten-philosophin (last accessed … Continue reading and thus deems academic freedom endangered. One author appears conspicuously often in the discourse: Vojin Saša Vukadinović, who himself studied gender studies in the early 2000s, then called it the “academic nail in the coffin of women’s emancipation”14Vukadinović, Vojin Saša: Butler erhebt „Rassismus“-Vorwurf. in: Emma, 28.06.2017, https://www.emma.de/artikel/gender-studies-sargnaegel-des-feminismus-334569 (last accessed 30.10.2022) in 2017, defends Stock’s position very vehemently and unyieldingly in his texts.
Almost all articles reporting on the case are illustrated with a photo of the resigned professor, a white woman with a short gray haircut, at times portrayed in her office with an exhausted smile or a troubled scowl, at times in a heroic perspective from below, then again with her back to the camera, the dark shadows of a crowd retouched on top. The pictorial politics makes it clear: the defendant and her perspective have the word.
In the contributions to the debate, the hostility experienced by Stock from the activists is profusely discussed. The majority of student activists had protested through flyer and poster campaigns, social media posts, and demonstrations in a show-stopping but peaceful manner. Nevertheless, the protest is vilified as a targeted defamation, campaign of lies, hatred and agitation by oversensitive students, and the argumentation of the protest letter15Open Letter Concerning Transphobia in Philosophy, 06.2021, https://sites.google.com/view/trans-phil-letter (last accessed 30.10.2022) signed by more than 600 philosophers worldwide is largely undercut. Stock’s persistent adherence to long outdated biologisms and binaries is elevated as a courageous questioning of the “gender paradigm.”16Vukadinović, Vojin Saša: Gezielte Kampagnen. in: Die Zeit, 26.11.2021, https://www.zeit.de/2021/48/kathleen-stock-wissenschaftsfreiheit-feministen-transaktivisten-philosophin (last accessed … Continue reading At the same time, her derogatory and defamatory behavior towards trans* persons inside and outside the university remains completely unmentioned, as does the fact that she “tried to prevent its discussion in a student magazine,”17Celikates, Robin; Hoppe, Katharina; Loick, Daniel; Nonhoff, Martin; von Redecker, Eva; Vogelmann, Frieder: Wissenschaftsfreiheit, die wir meinen. in: Die Zeit, 18.11.2021, … Continue reading as the philosophers and social scientists Robin Celikates, Katharina Hoppe, Daniel Loick, Martin Nonhoff, Eva von Redecker, and Frieder Vogelmann emphasize in another Zeit article. Rightfully, as authors of one of the few counter-positions, they object to the claim that freedom of science and speech is threatened and point out the double standards that underlie the argumentation:
The biased presentation of such cases is methodoligical and a real reason for concern. Again and again, similar strategies are used to convince the public that it is, of all people, those with established and institutional support who are threatened.18Celikates, Robin; Hoppe, Katharina; Loick, Daniel; Nonhoff, Martin; von Redecker, Eva; Vogelmann, Frieder: Wissenschaftsfreiheit, die wir meinen. in: Die Zeit, 18.11.2021, … Continue reading
Academic freedom is a mere buzzword that is supposed to make power and violence in the academic world invisible and thus legitimize reactionary positions. An emancipatory understanding of academic freedom would therefore need to recognize the university as a space that is shaped by exclusions and hierarchies arising from historical relations of power. True knowledge can only be pursued through the inclusion of marginalized positions and the continuous dismantling of power asymmetries.19Celikates, Robin; Hoppe, Katharina; Loick, Daniel; Nonhoff, Martin; von Redecker, Eva; Vogelmann, Frieder: Wissenschaftsfreiheit, die wir meinen. in: Die Zeit, 18.11.2021, … Continue reading
Grace Laverey, a professor at Berkeley, trans* activist, and former student at the University of Sussex, makes perfectly clear in an essay published on her blog at the same time that Stock’s academic freedom and freedom of speech have not been curtailed, but, shamefully, the rights of that activists.20Lavery, Grace: The UK Media Has Seriously Bungled the Kathleen Stock Story. in: www.gracelavery.org, 17.10.2021, http://www.gracelavery.org/uk-media-biased-stock-sussex (last accessed 30.10.2022) When, for example, Amelia Jones, student representative for trans* and non-binary people at the University of Sussex, explained in an interview with the BBC why Kathleen Stock, as an active member of the transphobic LGB Alliance and her signature on the Women’s Declaration of Sex-Based Rights—a manifesto against trans* rights—created an unsafe atmosphere for trans* students21Thorburn, Jacob: BBC is forced to air ‚correction‘ from feminist professor Kathleen Stock after allowing students‘ union officer to ‚falsely‘ claim that she signed a ‚declaration to … Continue reading, Stock started a media campaign against the student, who had to close her social media accounts after attacks by Stock’s supporters.22Lavery, Grace: The UK Media Has Seriously Bungled the Kathleen Stock Story. in: http://www.gracelavery.org, 17.10.2021, http://www.gracelavery.org/uk-media-biased-stock-sussex (last accessed … Continue reading
And the statements made by the Vice-Chancellor Adam Tickell on the University of Sussex Twitter account are indeed a violation of students’ rights to academic freedom by threatening to launch investigations and consequences for those who publish arguments in favor of Kathleen Stock’s suspension, i.e. put up posters. Thus, while Kathleen Stock is continually allowed to speak out in numerous media outlets and backed by the university administration, particularly Vice Chancellor Adam Tickell, the activists’ position and arguments are muzzled in the media portrayal.
The mode of reporting clearly illustrates the prevailing power relations in the gender debate, and the fact that Kathleen Stock is offered (and accepts)23Woolcock, Nicola: Kathleen Stock: Exiled academic joins free-speech college The University of Austin. in: The Times, 10.11.2021, … Continue reading a teaching position at the ‘free-speech’ University of Austin in Texas a few days after her resignation is only further evidence of the fallacy of the cancel-culture narrative, which claims that progressive debates continually lead to the systematic and forceful exclusion of previously established positions. On the contrary, the fact that activists were able to achieve Kathleen Stock’s resignation through their protests is not something we should take for granted. They have had to act loudly, multi-media, and consistently in order to be taken seriously in their demands, and yet both the British and German media have inevitably followed the cis-heterosexist perspective24Steinhoff, Uwe: Was man nicht kritisieren darf. in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 22.11.2021, … Continue reading, taking some of the most extreme and frightening positions in the current debate about the human rights of trans* people.
In a final statement, the activists write about their partial success:
We have organized as a network of autonomous actors – and it is due to our anonymity, plurality of tactics and decentralized structure that we have succeeded. Fuck the national press media who happily collaborated with the university and Stock to turn this into a debate about ‘free speech’ and ‘academic freedoms’. […] For those reaching out to this account, we will not speak to the press because we will never debate, discuss or organize on the terms of the people who have enabled discrimination and transphobia. […] But the struggle isn’t over. Institutional transphobia lives on, it runs deeper than Stock or Tickell or Sussex or any university. Trans liberation is possible in our lifetimes but we must stand strong together in the face of structures that support eliminationists and bigots.25antiterfsussex: ANTI-STOCK ACTION 2021, 28.10.2021, https://www.instagram.com/p/CVlRyn3gcrs (last accessed 31.10.2022)
TERF Aesthetics and their Proximity to Neo-Fascist Narratives
The transmisogynistic claim that trans* women are and remain ‘biological men’ is not new. It is underpinned by an outdated but widespread biologistic binary that divides humanity into two groups: the XX group and the XY group, and pathologizes all those who disrupt this binary. Any debate that seeks to discuss the antecedent conditions of this division, thus questioning its objectivity, is in turn, in an attempt to delegitimize it, accused of subjective (i.e. ‘unscientific’) affectedness.
The film theorist and literary scholar Teresa de Lauretis is one of the many representatives of gender and queer studies who have been writing against this accusation for decades. She regards the cultural production of gender in the understanding of Michel Foucault as a ‘technology of sex’, which “is a product of various social technologies such as cinema and institutionalized discourses, epistemologies, critical forms of practice, and also of everyday practice”26de Lauretis, Teresa: Die Technologie des Geschlechts. In: Kathrin Peters (Hg.), Andrea Seier (Hg.), Gender & Medien-Reader, S. 459. (last accessed 31.10.2022). In other words, technology is composed of multiple practices/discourses (pop culture, laws, police, art, media discourses, science) that continuously (re)produce concepts like ‘sex’ and ‘gender’.
The trans- and queerphobic trope of the serial killer or sex offender dressed in women’s clothing is, in fact, found in pop culture in multiple forms, such as in the award-winning and million-received motion pictures Psycho from 1960, in which the serial killer believes his jealous deceased mother has taken possession of him, and therefore murders the women he desires dressed in women’s clothes and wigs, or 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs, in which a man kidnaps women, murders them, and skins them to make a dress based on his desire to be a woman. These transmisogynistic narratives are a direct product of the misogyny of patriarchy, which inherently demonizes women acting in a self-determined manner and accordingly declares men who explore their femininity to be insane and monstrous.
Not only do TERFs pick up on these pop culture-enhanced, violent narratives in their arguments, but in right-wing circles, explicitly transphobic and anti-feminist beliefs have also become a cornerstone of neo-fascist ideology. Sascha Krahnke, who researches right-wing extremism at the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, describes how right-wing extremist and transphobic disinformation campaigns are converging: “For a few years now, or increasingly this year, [we’ve seen] the strong focus on the trans issue. And especially trans women or trans-feminine people as an enemy image, as a threat.”27Kogel, Dennis: Genzmer, Jenny: Die Anfeindungen nehmen zu. in: Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 16.07.2022, https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/transpersonen-desinformationen-100.html (last accessed … Continue reading
However, disinformation is only one example of the tactics and rhetoric of TERFs that are alarmingly similar to those of (neo-)fascist movements. Another tactic is the appropriation of originally leftist terms and theses: Expressions such as cancel culture and woke/wokeness/wokistan, which originated in queer and/or Black (internet) communities, are now combative terminologies of right-wing conservative politics, much like the concept of political correctness. The appropriation, distortion, and inversion of leftist images, concepts, and narratives is known in the Identitarian movement as ‘Metapolitics'28https://www.identitaere-bewegung.de/faq/was-ist-unter-dem-begriff-metapolitik-zu-verstehen (last accessed 04.12.2022), a political strategy absurdly coined by the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci.
The last example brings us back to Kathleen Stock: similar to neo-fascist ideologies, the narrative of the hero/martyr who dares to speak out against the supposedly discourse-dominating gender ideology can also be found in this case. Thus the slogan of the German TERF magazine Emma reads “Stay brave!”, a magazine that Kathleen Stock defended in a long article29Louis, Chantal: Kathleen Stock: Realität & Ideologie. in: Emma, 23.02.2022, https://www.emma.de/artikel/realitaet-wiegt-schwerer-als-ideologie-339251 (last accessed 31.10.2022), a few weeks after it not just implicitly referred to the Green party politician and trans* woman Tessa Ganserer as a man in women’s clothes30Ganserer: Die Quotenfrau. in: Emma, 19.02.2022, https://www.emma.de/artikel/markus-ganserer-die-quotenfrau-339185 (last accessed 31.10.2022). And the narrative voice set to emotive music in the promotional video for the so-called ‘Forbidden Courses’, a summer school at the University of Austin, Texas, where Stock now teaches, enthuses about the university’s concept: “willing to take intellectual risk will attract the intellectual risk takers and those of course are the intellectual innovators”31https://www.uaustin.org/forbidden-courses (last accessed 31.10.2022). At the same time, with the rise of the religious right in the U.S., more and more trans* people are fleeing Texas for fear of losing their human rights.32Kogel, Dennis: Genzmer, Jenny: Die Anfeindungen nehmen zu. in: Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 16.07.2022, https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/transpersonen-desinformationen-100.html (last accessed … Continue reading
The circle closes with the abundance of references to persons from neo-Nazi networks among the supporters of the LGB Alliance, of which Kathleen Stock is a member.33Parsons, Vic: Neo-Nazis and homophobes are among the supporters of the ‘anti-trans’ group LGB Alliance. in: PinkNews, … Continue reading The statement on their website that “a religious person who is struggling with their sexuality [should] be allowed to seek guidance or counselling from their faith group or religious leaders”34https://lgballiance.org.uk/end-conversion-therapy (last accessed 31.10.2022)—conversion therapy light, so to speak—and the close ties many members have to conservative and religious groups such as the Heritage Foundation, the Alliance Defending Freedom or the Centre for Bioethics and Culture35Lavery, Grace: The UK Media Has Seriously Bungled the Kathleen Stock Story. in: www.gracelavery.org, 17.10.2021, http://www.gracelavery.org/uk-media-biased-stock-sussex (last accessed 30.10.2022), is ultimately no wonder.
TERFake News, TERFascism, TERFundamentalism…?
By re-tracing the debate it becomes clear that transphobia, and especially transmisogyny, is, just like racism or anti-Semitism, an inherent part of Western societies, which for some time now has been used by right-wing political groups to strengthen their fascist ideologies and make them more acceptable to society. This approach is calculated and extremely effective and can only be interrupted by making visible the structural discrimination in Western societies and the subsequent consistent, power-critical reappraisal of these structures. Or to put it more concretely in Grace Lavery’s words:
Sussex University needs to start acting like a University again. Adam Tickell, who misunderstands academic freedom and who issues vague threats against student protestors, needs to lose his job. […] And the British media needs to grow a spine, swallow its pride, and hire a bunch of trans editors, any of whom could have seen this coming a mile off.36Lavery, Grace: The UK Media Has Seriously Bungled the Kathleen Stock Story. in: www.gracelavery.org, 17.10.2021, http://www.gracelavery.org/uk-media-biased-stock-sussex (last accessed 30.10.2022)
Smythe, Viv: An apology and a promise. in: Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog, 19.08.2008, https://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/an-apology-and-a-promise (last accessed 30.10.2022)
Williams, Cristan: TERF: What It Means And Where It Came From. in: The Trans Advocate, 03.2014, https://www.transadvocate.com/terf-what-it-means-and-where-it-came-from_n_13066.htm (last accessed 30.10.2022)
Dixon, Hayley: Tavistock clinic ‘putting young gay people at risk by treating them as trans’. in: The Telegraph, 12.09.2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/12/nhs-clinic-transing-gay-away (last accessed 30.10.2022)
Doherty-Cove, Jody: ‚Trans women are still males with male genitalia‘ – university lecturer airs controversial views. in: The Argus, 15.07.2018, https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/16334391.trans-women-still-males-male-genitalia—university-lecturer-airs-controversial-views (last accessed 30.10.2022)
Stock, Kathleen: Changing the concept of “woman” will cause unintended harms. in The Economist, 06.07.2018, https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/07/06/changing-the-concept-of-woman-will-cause-unintended-harms (last accessed 30.10.2022)
Bindel, Julie: Terrorised off campus by the trans hate mob: Balaclava-clad fanatics targeted her for daring to speak up for women‘s rights. But here, ex-university lecturer Kathleen Stock defiantly says she WON‘T be silenced in fight for freedom of thought. in: The Daily Mail, 03.11.2021, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10163007/Ex-university-lecturer-Kathleen-Stock-says-WONT-silenced-fight-freedom-thought.html (last accessed 30.10.2022)
Lavery, Grace: The UK Media Has Seriously Bungled the Kathleen Stock Story. in: www.gracelavery.org, 17.10.2021, http://www.gracelavery.org/uk-media-biased-stock-sussex (last accessed 30.10.2022)
Thorburn, Jacob: BBC is forced to air ‚correction‘ from feminist professor Kathleen Stock after allowing students‘ union officer to ‚falsely‘ claim that she signed a ‚declaration to eliminate trans people in law‘ during live broadcast. in: MailOnline, 15.10.2021, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10095721/BBC-apologises-student-union-rep-says-professor-supports-elimination-trans-people-law.html#v-642147033211617435 (last accessed 30.10.2022)
Lavery, Grace: The UK Media Has Seriously Bungled the Kathleen Stock Story. in: http://www.gracelavery.org, 17.10.2021, http://www.gracelavery.org/uk-media-biased-stock-sussex (last accessed 30.10.2022)
Woolcock, Nicola: Kathleen Stock: Exiled academic joins free-speech college The University of Austin. in: The Times, 10.11.2021, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/kathleen-stock-exiled-academic-joins-free-speech-college-the-university-of-austin-kdrf883sj (last accessed 30.10.2022)
de Lauretis, Teresa: Die Technologie des Geschlechts. In: Kathrin Peters (Hg.), Andrea Seier (Hg.), Gender & Medien-Reader, S. 459. (last accessed 31.10.2022)
Parsons, Vic: Neo-Nazis and homophobes are among the supporters of the ‘anti-trans’ group LGB Alliance. in: PinkNews, 03.04.2022https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/04/03/lgb-alliance-neo-nazi-homophobia-spinster-death-head-charity-commission/ (last accessed 31.10.2022)
Robinet, Jayrôme (2022): Blume ohne Stiel. In: Erb, Andreas / Hamann, Christof (Hg.): die horen. Zeitschrift für Literatur, Kunst und Kritik Nr. 285: furchtlos schreiben. Das Politische in der Literatur 2. Göttingen: Wallstein, S. 204-208.
In dieser Folge spricht Katharina Lüdin anlässlich der bundesweiten Wissenschaftswoche #4GenderStudies 2022 mit Jayrôme C. Robinet, Autor, Übersetzer, Spoken Word Künstler und ehemaliger Kollegiat des DFG-Graduiertenkollegs “das Wissen der Künste” der UdK Berlin über sein Promotionsprojekt Ästhetiken und Politiken von trans und nicht binärem Spoken Word, über transformatives Potenzial und das Spannungsfeld zwischen geschriebener und gesprochener Sprache.
In dieser Folge erwähnt: Julia Serano: Spoken Word Performance “TransForming Community”, 2005 (abgerufen am 18.12.2022) Gin Müller: Lachen, das körperliche Erschütterung erzeugt. In: Maske und Kothurn, für Monika Meister, Internationale Beiträge zur Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft, hrsg. v. Klemens Gruber, Rainer M. Köppel, H. 3-4, Wien: Böhlau 2016, S. 108 – 113. #4GenderStudies: (2) Schreiben der Körper – Ein Gespräch mit Annika Haas Jacques Derrida: Grammatologie. Frankfurt / Main: Suhrkamp 1974 Jayrôme C. Robinet: Liebe cis Leute. In: Das Licht ist weder gerecht noch ungerecht. Berlin: w_orten & meer 2015, S. 30-34.
Katharina Lüdin ist Mitglied der AG Critical Diversity, ehemalige Frauen- und Gleichstellungsbeauftragte der Fakultät Gestaltung und studiert Kunst und Medien an der UdK Berlin.
Anlässlich der bundesweiten Wissenschaftswoche #4GenderStudies vom 12. – 18. Dezember 2022 hat Katharina Lüdin in dieser Folge mit Annika Haas, wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Gestaltung an der Universität der Künste Berlin, über ihre Dissertation “Avant-Theorie – Hélène Cixous’ écriture du corps” und über Situiertheit des Schreibens gesprochen.
In dieser Folge erwähnt: Gramlich, Naomie; Haas, Annika: Situiertes Schreiben mit Haraway, Cixous und Grauen Quellen. In: Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft. Heft 20: Was uns angeht, Jg. 11 (2019). Annika Haas’ Dissertation Avant-Theorie – Hélène Cixous’ écriture du corps Hélène Cixous: Das Lachen der Medusa. Zusammen mit aktuellen Beiträgen, hrsg. v. Esther Hutfless, Gertrude Postl, Elisabeth Schäfer, übers. v. Claudia Simma, Dt. Erstausg., Wien 2013, S. 39-61
Katharina Lüdin ist Mitglied der AG Critical Diversity, ehemalige Frauen- und Gleichstellungsbeauftragte der Fakultät Gestaltung und studiert Kunst und Medien an der UdK Berlin.
Most Middle Eastern countries have authoritarian regimes that at best treat women as the second sex and violate their basic rights. Their grand narrative of power is defined by patriarchal and religious values. It is common in such regimes to ignore the rights of women and queers, as well as to humiliate them – regimes that view “the feminine other” as a threat to the male hegemony govern society from a tribal, non-pluralist, and dictatorial perspective.
Women, queers, environmentalists, advocates of nuclear disarmament, etc. are considered threats by totalitarian and petrified governments in the Middle East – including Iran. According to the autocratic regime’s rules, these groups are minorities fighting against the regime. The rise of extremist and fundamentalist parties in democratic countries, on the other hand, is causing xenophobia, racism, nationalism, and anti-immigration, which is a grave threat to democracy. In such a situation, by supporting women’s uprisings in countries with dictatorial governments, like Iran, women’s and queer rights activists can defend the concept of democracy in the world.
In the Middle East, the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the most conservative totalitarian regimes. In dealing with social movements, the regime is hostile, aggressive, and conflictual. The government depends on confrontation and rejection to maintain its political-social order. In Iran’s current situation, femininity is a powerful and threatening factor of the fake order of the regime, which essentially ignores concepts such as equality, justice, and freedom among people. During its forty-three-year rule, the Islamic government of Iran has always violated human rights in various ways. This regime has humiliated sexual, religious, political, and other minorities, and suppressed and detained women activists regardless of socio-political pluralism.
Throughout the Islamic regime’s rule, the government has faced waves of dissatisfaction from the people. National protests have resulted from an increasing class divide, systematic government corruption, repeated violations of human rights, and external pressures. According to a 2009 World Economic Forum report, Iran ranked 128 out of 134 countries in terms of gender discrimination.1https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GenderGap_Report_2009.pdf Hijab became mandatory after the 1978 revolution. A woman who does not observe the Islamic limits of hijab is sentenced to 70 lashes or 60 days in prison in accordance with the Islamic Penal Code.
The death of Jina (Mahsa) Amini on September 16, 2022, brought the world’s attention to the issue of women in Iran. In Iran and many other countries, Jina’s killing by Iran’s morality police for not regarding hijab according to the regime’s rules sparked widespread protests. Millions of times Jina (Mahsa) Amini’s name was repeated on social networks, and over the last two months, the hashtag #MahsaAmini has broken Twitter’s record for most shares.2https://globalvoices.org/2022/10/13/the-world-must-hear-the-voice-of-iranian-women
Women’s protests took on new and performative forms as a result of Jina’s emergence as a symbolic “the other” threatening the regime. Based on Butler’s theory, women’s protests in Iran can be considered performative because they question the regime’s legitimacy through bodies appearing in public spaces and repetitive gestures even digitally. Bodies articulating in resistance to violence their “continued existence” and their right to “continue to exist”. 3See Judith Butler: Notes toward a Performative Theory of Assembly. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 2015
Here are some examples of performative forms of women’s protest against the Iranian regime:
Burning scarves or scarf-burning campaigns as a protest against compulsory hijab. It originated from a protest gathering in Sari4An anti-mandatory hijab protest was held on September 20, 2022, by invitation of women activists in the north of Iran., located in the north of Iran, and was repeated in many other cities. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spSTw-zs-AA)
An ancient Iranian and some other nation’s custom is to remove or cut hair during mourning (Gisoboran), which creates an emotional state of sadness. After the Islamic Revolution, this custom was forgotten in Iran, but after Jina was killed, it became a performative way for women and even men to express their frustration and anger. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zNngyPYK2w)
School students tear the photo of the leader of the Islamic regime of Iran from their textbooks. (https://tinyurl.com/yv9ammrd)
The Slogan „women, life, freedom“ (Jin, Jiyan, Azadi) has been repeated extensively. The slogan is associated with Jineology5Jineology (Kurdish: Jineolojî) is a form of feminism and of gender equality advocated by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the broader Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) umbrella. and is said to have been coined by Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The slogan marked the political activities of Kurdish women in the 2000s. (https://tinyurl.com/ms7fy822)
A video of an unidentified girl tying her hair and preparing to face the security forces is one of the protests’ symbols. The act of tying hair is considered a sign of women preparing for an important event in Iranian culture. A large number of young people declared their readiness to confront the regime by repeating this act and posting the video on social media. (https://tinyurl.com/2p9xupzm)
Honking is another symbol of the protests, with cars continuing to honk on the streets and highways to accompany protesters’ voices with this action. (https://tinyurl.com/44a4nae6)
Throughout universities and schools, bloody handprints on doors and walls have been used as protest signs to remind students of the regime’s crimes against them. (https://tinyurl.com/53uyhhu5)
Many athletes refuse to sing the national anthem of the Islamic Republic of Iran and wear black armbands during national and international sports events. In the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar – which has been widely criticized for repeatedly violating human rights and not recognizing sexual minorities – Iranian protesters were prevented from entering the stadiums, and blocking them was a coordinated action with the regime. As a result of this, the players of the Iranian national football team refused to sing the national anthem of the Islamic Republic before the match against England. (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-national-anthem-world-cup-england/)
Every day, these forms are developed in a performative way and affect more people. There is no doubt that these protests are the largest, most unified, and most widespread protests in Iran after the Islamic Revolution (1979). Women’s protests against the mandatory hijab can liberate Iranian society, bring down the Islamic regime, and eventually free women, queers, and all minorities. Our duty as advocates of women’s rights, and sexual minorities’ rights as human rights is to support Iranian women, men, and people of all gender who chant in the streets: women, life, freedom.
Jineology (Kurdish: Jineolojî) is a form of feminism and of gender equality advocated by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the broader Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) umbrella.
Gender is performance. But how does it perform? On the occasion of the Medienhaus Lectures 2021 at Berlin University of the Arts, Paris based writer and researcher Claire Finch re-visited the queer-feminist notion of gender’s performativity. We publish the lecture together with an introduction by Annika Haas, who co-organised the two-day conference together with Henrike Uthe.
Claire Finch is a writer and researcher whose work samples queer and feminist theories as a way to intervene in narrative. Their recent projects include „I Lie on the Floor“ (After 8 Books, 2021), „Lettres aux jeunes poétesses“ (L’Arche 2021), „Kathy Acker 1971-1975“ (Editions Ismael, 2019) and their translation into French of Lisa Robertson’s „Debbie: An Epic“ (with sabrina soyer, Debbie: une épopée, Joca Seria, 2021).
Introduction by Annika Haas
Regarding the notion of performing gender, Claire Finch intervened into a common misunderstanding of the concept coined by Judith Butler right in the beginning of their lecture stating that “it’s not about acting, but more about interrupting the idea of what it means to be an actor, to be a self, to have a body […]”. In turn, even what has been called the “assigned sex” presented itself as “the residue, the result of citing re-citing gender gender gender as the body gets all solid in repetition”. Tackling this issue, Finch’s contribution to the conference motto “Performance? Performance. Performance!” was an exercise in stretching, bending, loosening and cross-cutting the identities that form and solidify in bodies and “the residue of sex and language” respectively. This exercise is physical, emotional, sensational and text-based, all at once. Finch proposes to utilize strategies like plagiarism, body functions like vomiting, technologies like sex toys, and last but not least language for what they broadly understand as “textual intervention” into the livid residue of our bodies and in order to cross-cut their identities.
In this way, seemingly separate spheres and practices in themselves – e. g. writing and using sex toys – creatively begin to inform each other. Considering for example, as Finch remarked, that “[y]ou can attach a sextoy to any part of the body and transform that part of the body into a sexual surface” not only decenters sex and the gendered body. It also inspires textual strategies: “What happens when we think of the sextoy as a textual graft, if we perform the same decentering and reorganizing operations on form, as we do on the body?”
Making these connections by translating and transposing concepts and practices from one medium and form into another and thus allowing for mutual interventions – e. g. of the body or the sex toy into the text and vice versa – is what drives their practice, as Finch underlined in the discussion that followed the lecture and that left the audience with an inspiring task: To develop further dissident strategies with their bodies and tools of their choice in order to practically do these things that we say we want to do in theory.
Annika Haas is a media theorist and works as a research associate at the Institute for History and Theory of Design of Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). She completed her PhD on Hélène Cixous’s philosophy and embodied writing practice. Annika’s practice at the intersection of art and theory includes art criticism and experimental publishing.
In Auseinandersetzung mit ihrer eigenen Migrationsgeschichte fertigte die Künstlerin Ana Tomic eine Serie von zehn Pastellkreide-Zeichnungen an, die jeweils eine Zeile ihres Gedichts “The Lonesome Crowded West” illustrieren. Der Titel ist vom gleichnamigen Album der us-amerikanischen Band Modest Mouse aus dem Jahr 1997 übernommen. In das Gedicht und die Zeichnungen sind dabei ihre Erfahrungen als Teenager und erwachsene Frau, Zitate des Vaters, Darstellungen von Luxus und Erfolg in sozialen Medien, sowie Referenzen auf kanonische Maler wie Caravaggio und Kandinsky eingewoben. Dabei entsteht an manchen Punkten eine interessante Spannung zwischen den autobiografischen Anteilen der Arbeit und den Zitaten aus Kunstgeschichte und Popkultur, an anderer Stelle sind sie wiederum deckungsgleich.Ana Tomic thematisiert in dieser eindrucksvollen Arbeit internalisierte Vorurteile über die eigene Herkunft sowie idealisierte Vorstellungen über die westliche Welt.
Die Arbeit entstand im Rahmen des Seminars Feministische dekoloniale Gesten und Ästhetik, organisiert und durchgeführt von Pary El-Qalqili im Wintersemester 2021/2022 an der UdK Berlin.
Fatima El-Tayeb is an author and Professor of Ethnicity, Race & Migration, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University in Connecticut, USA. Her work deconstructs structural racism and centers strategies of resistance among racialized communities, especially those that politicize culture through an intersectional, queer practice. Her current research projects explore the intersecting legacies of colonialism, fascism, and socialism in Europe and the potential of alliances of (queer) people of color in decolonizing Europe. She is active in black feminist, migrant, and queer of color organizations in Europe and the US.
In this episode, El-Tayeb speaks about the construction of Otherness and discrimination of migrants, refugees, and racialized people in Europe, the (im)possibility of a post-migrant society and university, and other questions relating to migration within the academic context and beyond.
Sickness Affinity Group (SAG) is a group of art workers and activists who work on the topic of sickness and disability and/or are affected by sickness and disability. Rowan de Freitas, an artist studying at the Institute for Art in Context, had a conversation with Laura Lulika of SAG about art production, sickness, and disability as well as institutional barriers and support. The conversation took place in the seminar “Critical Diversity – Projects and Productions” at the Institut für Kunst im Kontext.
Production: Nina Berfelde, Rowan de Freitas, Jisu Jong and Svenja Schulte, Art in Context.
Einer Person of Colour begegnen ein Leben lang weiße Menschen, die auf unterschiedliche Weise über das Thema Rassismus reden wollen. Eine Form, die mir besonders häufig begegnet und durch ihre tückische Beiläufigkeit auffällt, ist eine männlich kodierte Position des Bescheidwissens oder des Mansplainings: genauer die des weißen Mannes, der gerne Advocatus Diaboli, den Anwalt des Teufels, spielt.
Die Erfahrungen und die Lebensrealität von Betroffenen werden von ihm als rein theoretisches Gedankenexperiment behandelt – denn diese Probleme sind für den Außenstehenden nur theoretisch, nicht realistisch erfassbar. Es macht ihm Spaß, über die Rechte und Existenzen von PoC zu diskutieren: „Lasst uns darüber sprechen, warum euer Existenzkampf diskutabel ist.“ Die tatsächlichen Probleme sind für ihn wie ein Spielball, denn sie betreffen ihn nicht. Er kann es sich leisten, sich munter über Definitionen von Rassismus zu äußern, denn er erfährt die Müdigkeit, die emotionale Arbeit, das Trauma und die Diskriminierung hinter dem Begriff nicht am eigenen Leib.
Rassismus-Debatten werden von ihm aufgegriffen, um die eigene vermeintlich kosmopolitische Fortschrittlichkeit und Belesenheit zur Schau zu stellen. Vielleicht auch, weil er einem „aktuellen Trend“ folgen will. Ohne Bedenken übergeht er die Lebensrealitäten von PoC sowie die gewählten Mittel, mit denen Betroffene ihre Erfahrungen kommunizieren. Aus purer (Schaden-)Freude an der Diskussion wird eine problematische Aussage in den Raum geworfen, nur um sich anschließend unter dem schützenden Mantel von „Zu einer Diskussion gehören auch Gegenmeinungen“, „Das darf man ja wohl noch sagen dürfen!“ und „Meinungsfreiheit“ zu verstecken. Unter diesem Deckmantel liegt die Tücke des Phänomens: Betroffene erkennen den Typus nicht immer sofort, doch lesen die Situation als äußerst unangenehm. Womöglich realisiert man nicht richtig, wieso man sich so herabgewürdigt fühlt. Es ist doch nur eine wissenschaftliche Debatte, alles komplett objektiv – oder?
Dass der Außenstehende am Ende ausweicht, in passiv-aggressive Defensivhaltung verfällt und seine problematischen Aussagen als rein hypothetische oder gar wissenschaftliches Gedankenexperiment bezeichnet, gehört dabei zur gängigen Technik. Wichtig ist hierbei zu betonen, dass es ihm nie darum geht, zu lernen oder das eigene Wissen zu erweitern. Ganz im Gegenteil: Er will Dinge beim Alten belassen, denn er profitiert vom aktuellen Status Quo. Das Ziel des weißen Mannes in dieser Situation ist es, seine eigene Überlegenheit und Deutungshoheit zur Schau zu stellen. Das Wichtigste ist, dass ihm weiterhin Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt wird. Insbesondere dann, wenn er ausnahmsweise einmal nicht im Zentrum steht.
Was passiert also, wenn Betroffenen wieder und wieder darauf hinweisen, dass sie von diesen Gedankenexperimenten verletzt werden? Was passiert, wenn sich zahlreiche Stimmen von PoC gegen diese demütigenden Diskussionen erheben?
Leider nur wenig. Uns wird Emotionalität, Empörung und fehlende Empirie vorgeworfen, welche im krassen Gegensatz zur Wissenschaftlichkeit und Rationalität des reinen Beobachters ständen. Wenn wir uns nicht auf eine Fortführung der Gespräche einlassen und keine kostenlose Bildungsarbeit leisten möchten – sei es aus Erschöpfung, Angst, Zeitmangel, fehlenden Ressourcen oder sonstigem Grund –, wird uns vorgeworfen, nicht offen zu sein und keine ertragreichen Diskussionen zu wollen. Die Schuld liegt nie bei demjenigen, der Erfahrungen in Frage stellt, sondern immer bei denjenigen, die sich nicht für die Evidenz ihrer traumatischen Erfahrungen rechtfertigen wollen. Das bringt mich zur Frage: Wie reden wir über und mit Betroffenen?
Ich habe diese Spielchen satt. Wer tatsächlich im Fokus stehen sollte, sind Menschen, die Rassismus erleben. Ihre Erfahrungen und Perspektiven sind viel wertvoller für unsere gesellschaftliche Entwicklung, als es eine polemische Debatte, ob diese Erfahrungen überhaupt real sind, jemals sein könnte.
Christina S. Zhu arbeitet als Illustratorin und studiert im Master an der UdK Berlin. Sie engagiert sich für intersektionale Antidiskriminierung und ist Referentin für Antidiskriminierung des Inneren im AStA, Mitglied der studentischen Initiative I.D.A. und der AG Critical Diversity.
„Das ist so kitschig, das würde sogar Erdoğan gefallen“, sagte mir ein alter weißer Mann, der an der HfG Offenbach1Die Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach bietet die Studiengänge Kunst und Design an und genießt mit einem aufwendigen Aufnahmeverfahren und etwa 750 Studierenden einen hervorragenden Ruf. als Professor für Markenstrategie unterrichtete. Als ich mich 2017 an deutschen Kunstuniversitäten bewarb, wurde ich mit autoritären Machtdemonstrationen, Rassismus, Sexismus und toxischer Männlichkeit konfrontiert – und stelle mir nun die Frage, inwiefern die Strukturen von Kunstuniversitäten pädagogisch verändert werden müssen, um solchen Dynamiken entgegenzuwirken.
Bevor es überhaupt losging
Um sich für den Studiengang Kunst an der HfG Offenbach zu bewerben, braucht es Zeit: Für die Bewerbungsunterlagen, ein Portfolio mit mindestens 30 Facharbeiten, die künstlerische Eignungsprüfung und mehrere Mappensichtungen im Voraus, die dringend empfohlen werden. Dort schauen sich Professor*innen der Hochschule vor anderen potentiellen Bewerber*innen die Mappen an und sollen eigentlich konstruktives Feedback geben. Bei solch einer Mappensichtung befand ich mich 2017 und wartete, bis ich dran war. Vor mir bewarben sich Menschen mit Abschlüssen von verschiedenen Kunstakademien und zeigten ihre Werke und Lebensläufe. Der zuständige Professor jedoch machte sich genüsslich über die Deutschkenntnisse von Bewerber*innen lustig, anstatt eine Einschätzung oder Kritik der Arbeiten anzubieten: Er fragte eine Südkoreanerin, wieso die Illustrationen denn nicht im Manga-Stil gestaltet wurden. „Manga passt doch so gut zu dir“, bemerkte er. Ihre Fotografiearbeit zu Rotweinsorten wurde kommentiert mit „Gibt’s bei euch in Korea überhaupt Wein?“ Einer anderen Person sagte er „Das ist ja so bedrückend wie euer China“, woraufhin diese konterte: „Ich bin aus Japan.“ Während die Arbeiten von männlich gelesenen Personen mit unkommentiertem Kopfnicken bestätigt wurden, mussten sich viele Bewerberinnen solche Sticheleien anhören.
Und nun war ich dran – meine Gefühlslage war eine unangenehme Mischung aus Nervosität und unterdrückter Wut. Bevor es überhaupt losging, fragte er mich penetrant nach meiner ‚Herkunft‘ – meine Antwort „Ich bin aus Frankfurt, gleich hier um die Ecke“ reichte natürlich nicht. Nach einer Weile gab ich nach. „Aha“ antwortete er, und während des Sichtens meiner Mappe wiederholte er dann viermal: „Das ist so langweilig, so kitschig, dass es sogar Erdoğan gefallen würde“ und schaute mich provokant an. Es war der Teil meiner Mappe, welcher nicht der ,westlichen‘ Ästhetik entsprach. „Das hat doch gar nichts mit Kunst zu tun“ sagte ich perplex. „Ja, genau deswegen“ antwortete er willkürlich.
Eine falsche Assoziation, die im Übrigen (unabhängig von der diskriminierenden Aussage) nicht einmal auf meine Familiengeschichte und Antwort zutrifft. Ich erinnere mich, dass ich trotzdem den gesamten Rückweg „nicht weinen, nicht weinen, nicht weinen“ in meinem Kopf wiederholte. Und darauf folgend: „Wieso habe ich nicht besser gekontert oder wenigstens den Anderen geholfen?“ Peinlich berührt realisierte ich, dass ich nach diesen Machtdemonstrationen keine Zivilcourage geleistet habe, weil ich einen guten Eindruck hinterlassen wollte, um an der Universität angenommen zu werden. Mein zukünftiger Studienort als auch die Bewertung meiner Arbeiten hingen davon ab, wie er mich wahrnimmt: Ich rebellierte nicht, um nicht als wütende Migrantin abgestempelt zu werden.
Diese Dynamik funktionierte, da sich der Professor als einzige Person im Raum zu den Arbeiten äußern durfte – nach anderen Meinungen wurde weder gefragt, noch waren sie erwünscht. Von seinem privilegierten Standpunkt aus spielte er mit der Unsicherheit der Bewerber*innen: Die hierarchische Situation wurde für vermeintliche Witze und unprofessionelle Bemerkungen genutzt. Welcher Ästhetikbegriff hierbei eine Rolle spielte, wurde durch das Betonen der assoziierten ‚kulturellen‘ Zugehörigkeit ebenso klar: Deine ‚Herkunft‘ bestimmt über deine Mappe, und nicht andersherum. Entweder passt du zur HfG, oder deine Arbeit ist zu ‚fremd‘ und ‚kitschig‘.
Von Zuschreibungen und Betroffenheit
Die Vorstellung, als etwas abgestempelt zu werden, oder auch Sich-Denken-Was-Der-Andere-Von-Einem-Denkt, öffnet die Büchse des internalisierten Wahnsinns. Hierbei werden nicht nur die eigenen politische Haltungen, sondern auch Emotionen unterdrückt oder hinterfragt. Das Dilemma, sich von zugeschriebenen Rollen (hier: die wütende Migrantin, die keine Abweisung verkraften kann) zu distanzieren und zugleich antidiskriminatorische Arbeit leisten zu wollen, beschreibt Sara Ahmed mit der Figur des Feminist Killjoys: Eine Spielverderberin*, die, egal wie sie spricht, als Feministin* wahrgenommen wird, die ständig Probleme verursacht. Und dadurch selbst das Problem verkörpert.2Ahmed, Sara: Living a Feminist Life, Duke Univ. Press (2017)
Am Beispiel der Mappensichtung in Offenbach – wie auch in vielen anderen Fällen – ist aber der zu beachtende Punkt, dass von Diskriminierung Betroffene nicht die Pflicht tragen, den*die Täter*in zu konfrontieren. Denn letztere haben in den Strukturen der Kunstuniversitäten die Möglichkeiten, ihre Macht und Überlegenheit zu demonstrieren – und das nutzen sie oftmals auch. So entsteht eine Wissenshierarchie, in der überwiegend westeuropäische Künste wertgeschätzt und legitimiert werden. Wenn Lehrende eine ästhetische Sprache auferlegen, reproduziert das weiterhin die bestehenden Strukturen, was bei Lernenden negative Folgen im Studienalltag auslöst. Laut Ira Shor zählen dazu Selbstzweifel, Empörung, Frustration und Langeweile: „These […] are commonly generated when an official culture and language are imposed from the top down, ignoring the students’ themes, languages, conditions, and diverse cultures.“3Shor, Ira: Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change (1992) 23
Das unbenannte Vorwissen und Verständnis einer ästhetischen Sprache formulieren sich unter anderem wie folgt: „Diesen Künstler müssten Sie aber kennen!“ Es wird angenommen und vorausgesetzt, dass Studierende ähnlich sozialisiert sind wie Lehrende, sei es eine vergleichbare Bildungssituation oder ein bestimmtes Kunstverständnis und ‚Allgemeinwissen‘. Dies äußert sich oft durch Abfragen von Referenzen bis hin zur ästhetischen Wertung, deren Begründung oftmals nicht genau benannt werden kann. Der Standpunkt, der hier als lehrende Person eingenommen wird, ist geprägt durch die eigene Bewertung und Wahrnehmung von Künsten.
Diese unausgesprochenen Normen können nur jene verstehen, die auch in einem spezifischen kulturellen und akademischen Kontext aufgewachsen sind, wodurch sich die Bildungsungleichheit verstärkt. Gerade Kunsthochschulen, die sich als zukunftsorientiert, vielseitig und offen verstehen, bestärken diese Dynamik durch fehlende transkulturelle Kompetenzen.
Dass Studierende of Color besonders betroffen sind in von Diskriminierung geprägten Situationen, zeigen die vielen anonymen Rassismuserfahrungsberichte, die an der Universität der Künste Berlin im Rahmen der Protestaktion #exitracismUDK gesammelt und an den Universitätsfassaden4exitracismUdK ist ein offener Brief mit formulierten Forderungen an die Universität der Künste Berlin, und eine Antwort auf die „mangelnde Solidarität von Seiten der Lehrenden.“ https:// … Continue reading gezeigt wurden. So schrieb ein*e Queer Student of Color: „Den Lehrenden fehlte es an emotionaler, pädagogischer, sowie (trans)kultureller Sensibilität.“5Ausschnitt eines Erfahrungsberichtes, welcher durch exitracismUdK in der UdK-Ausstellung KUNST RAUM STADT am 16-17.7.2020 gezeigt wurde. „2018 wurde ich für den Master an der UdK angenommen. … Continue reading
Die Vorstellung, dass lediglich Betroffene die Aufgabe tragen, Diskriminierungen zu behandeln oder aufzuarbeiten, funktioniert nicht: Es ist ignorant und verwerflich, sich der Verantwortung zu entziehen, bestehende Strukturen weiterzuführen – und von ihnen zu profitieren. Denn nach bell hooks6bell hooks ist Literaturwissenschaftlerin, Professorin, Aktivistin und Autorin intersektionaler, anti-rassistischer und feministischer Bücher. ist Bildung politisch und findet in einem spezifischen politischen Kontext statt, verbunden mit einem politischen Ziel, auch wenn dieses nicht explizit hervorgehoben wird.7Kazeem-Kamiński, Belinda: Engaged Pedagogy: Antidiskriminatorisches Lehren und Lernen bei bell hooks (2016). Lehrende treffen politische Entscheidungen, wenn sie lehren, was im Kontrast zu dem verbreiteten Bild einer objektiven und universellen Bildung steht.
bell hooks formuliert hierbei pädagogische Praktiken, die auf8ebd. Lehrende sowie Lernende zutreffen: Das Bewusstsein davon, dass Bildung politisch ist und dass politische Entscheidungen getroffen werden, was und wie gelehrt wird; die Anerkennung davon, dass der gesellschaftliche Kontext diskriminierende Strukturen aufweist; und das kritische Hinterfragen der eigenen Position.9Eine Positionierung in bestehenden Machtverhältnissen können Angaben zu unter anderem Geschlechtsidentitäten, sexuelle Identitäten, Behinderungen, Rassismuserfahrungen oder ökonomische … Continue reading Denn Bildung kann und sollte auch ein Werkzeug sein, um Rassismus, (Hetero)sexismus, Ableismus, Antisemitismus und viele weitere Diskriminierungsformen zu überwinden: Indem es zu einer Auseinandersetzung kommt und internalisierte Vorstellungen aufgebrochen werden, geht der Raum des Lernens über die Wissensaneignung hinaus. Im ‚participatory space‘, also einem Raum, in dem die Teilhabe jeder*jedes Einzelnen möglich ist, wird kritisches Denken trainiert. Das bedeutet auch, dass im Gegensatz zur häufigen Forderung, objektive Fakten zu nutzen, auch individuelle Erfahrungen anerkannt, wertgeschätzt und nicht von der Theoriearbeit getrennt werden. Erst daraus können wertvolle Diskurse und eine feministische, antirassistische, dekoloniale und antiklassistische Lehre entstehen. Kurz: eine kollektive, kritische Praxis.10Kazeem-Kamiński, Belinda: Engaged Pedagogy: Antidiskriminatorisches Lehren und Lernen bei bell hooks (2016)
Design, aber dekolonial.
Im Kontext der Kunstuniversität bedeutet eine kollektive, kritische Praxis auch das Überdenken der Lehrinhalte. Diskurse um Künste, Ästhetik und Design müssen unter anderem antirassistisch, feministisch und dekolonial neu gedacht werden. Das kann nur geschehen, indem sich zuerst mit der (vor allem kolonialen) Geschichte auseinandergesetzt wird, um sie zu reflektieren und in der Lehre widerspiegeln zu lassen. Danah Abdulla erklärt, dass der Designbegriff als kontextbasierte, sich ständig entwickelnde Praxis verstanden werden muss11Abdulla, Danah: Design Otherwise: Towards a locally-centric design education curricula in Jordan (2017) – und nicht als Ergänzung für eurozentristische Kategorisierungen. Das bedeutet also nicht nur eine Erweiterung und das Hinterfragen des Lehrmaterials oder der Referenzen, sondern auch das geschichtliche Aufarbeiten und Benennen des eigenen Standpunkts: Alle sind ein Teil der Praxis der Aufrechterhaltung bestehender Machtverhältnisse – und deswegen geht es auch alle etwas an. Inwiefern das im Designkontext aufgearbeitet werden kann, zeigt die Forschungsgruppe Decolonising Design12Decolonising Design ist eine Forschungsgruppe, die analysiert, in welchen kolonialen Strukturen Gestaltung und Design agieren. (https://www.decolonisingdesign.com/) sowie Open Source13Teaching Design ist eine Open Source Bibliografie mit dem Fokus auf Designvermittlung in der Bildung aus intersektional-feministischen, dekolonialen Perspektiven. (https://teaching design.net/)Bibliografien wie Teaching Design oder Decentering Whitenes14Decentering Whiteness in Design History Resources ist eine Open Source Bibliografie, die von Designgeschichtsdozent*innen erstellt wurde als Reaktion auf die Forderungen der Studierenden, … Continue reading in Design History Resources.
Diese (oftmals von BIPoC aufgearbeiteten) Informationen sind ausreichend vorhanden – die Frage ist nur, wann und wie sich Kunstuniversitäten aufrichtig selbstkritisch reflektieren und pädagogisch neu positionieren, jenseits des oberflächlichen Diversity-Images.
Wenn ich an die Situation an der HfG Offenbachdenke, formuliere ich viele Was-Wäre-Wenn-Überlegungen, denn in diesem Raum haben allein in einer Stunde etwa sechs Menschen Rassismus und Sexismuserfahrungen gemacht, ausgehend von einem einzigen Professor. Weder seine studentische Hilfskraft neben ihm, noch der andere Professor im selben Raum haben interveniert oder widersprochen, trotz ihrer privilegierteren Position als weiße cis Männer. Wenn der Raum partizipativer gewesen wäre, hätten mehr Menschen auf die Werke reagieren können, wodurch sich die Wissens- und Machthierarchien verschoben oder sogar aufgelöst hätten. Im Falle von diskriminierenden Äußerungen hätten sich nicht nur mehr Menschen wohlgefühlt, zu reagieren – idealerweise hätte sich der Täter nicht wohl gefühlt, diese überhaupt zu äußern. Der Professor wäre vielleicht auch nie berufen worden. Kein „Wo kommst du her“ und „Ihr macht das dort drüben doch so“ oder „Mach das mal, das passt doch so gut zu dir“, keine unterdrückte Wut, Unwohlsein und sich Hinterfragen auf dem Rückweg nach Hause. Und vor allem auch keine kreativen Hemmungen, die sich durch das gesamte Studium ziehen15Als mittlerweile zugelassene UdK-Studentin musste ich erleben, dass der Studienalltag von patriarchaler Hierarchie geprägt ist und von eurozentristischen Bewertungen abhängt, die umso … Continue reading, weil die eigene Praxis ständig mit Ästhetikdefinitionen verglichen wird, die man sich zähneknirschend aneignet, um mitreden zu können.
Was wäre also, wenn die Lehrenden an deutschen Kunstuniversitäten all diese Bauhaus-Referenzen16Die Kunst- und Designschule Bauhaus war 1919-1933 aktiv, der Einfluss auf deutsche Kunsthochschulen bleibt weiterhin stark: In meinem Studium der Visuellen Kommunikationwurde ich in vielen Seminaren … Continue reading in ihrer Lehre mit Werken von BIPoC Künstler*innen, Gestalter*innen und Wissenschaftler*innen ersetzen würden? Oder anders: Was wäre, wenn die Präsenz der sogenannten ‚Bauhaus-Frauen‘ nicht als Frauengleichstellung verstanden, sondern ihre Realität gezeigt wird – nämlich in der Weberei, und kaum in Führungspositionen? Angemessen wäre es, wenn sich der Blick auf die Künste von Grund auf verändert. Denn die Biennale ist nicht nur in Venedig.17sondern auch in: Chengdu, Kairo, Singapur, Breslau, Ulaanbaatar, Porto Alegre, Ouagadougou, Prag, Casablanca, Bukarest, Shanghai, Moskau, Gwangju, Idanha-a-Nova, Havanna, Busan, Istanbul, Athen … Continue reading
Dieser Beitrag wurde zuerst in der Publikation „Eine Krise bekommen“ veröffentlicht. Studierende der Fakultät Visuelle Kommunikation an der Universität der Künste Berlin schreiben mit kritischem Blick über die Auswirkungen der Pandemie, ambivalente Identitäten und die politische Verantwortung der Kunsthochschule. Die vierzehn Beiträge entstanden im Jahr 2020 – einer Zeit, in der die Gefährdung verwundbarer Gruppen verdeutlicht wurde – aus dem Drang, unterrepräsentierte Auseinandersetzungen und studentische Perspektiven sichtbar zu machen. Sie fordern einen differenzierteren Austausch und Anerkennung marginalisierter Perspektiven in den Räumen der Kunsthochschule – anstelle von leeren Worten zu Vielfalt und Solidarität.
„Eine krise bekommen“ ist im Buchhandel und über den UdK Verlag erhältlich. Zum Preis von 5 Euro + ggf. Versandkosten kann die Publikation hier direkt bestellt werden: einekrisebekommen@systemli.org
Die Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach bietet die Studiengänge Kunst und Design an und genießt mit einem aufwendigen Aufnahmeverfahren und etwa 750 Studierenden einen hervorragenden Ruf.
exitracismUdK ist ein offener Brief mit formulierten Forderungen an die Universität der Künste Berlin, und eine Antwort auf die „mangelnde Solidarität von Seiten der Lehrenden.“ https:// exitracismudk.wordpress.com/ (abgerufen am 11.03.21)
Ausschnitt eines Erfahrungsberichtes, welcher durch exitracismUdK in der UdK-Ausstellung KUNST RAUM STADT am 16-17.7.2020 gezeigt wurde. „2018 wurde ich für den Master an der UdK angenommen. Was die eigentliche Erfüllung eines lange erkämpften Traumes sein sollte, entpuppte sich als richtiger Horrortrip. […] Ich hatte das Gefühl, dass man von mir verlangte, meinen multiethnischen Background so zu präsentieren wie es für sie (die Lehrenden) am verdaulichsten ist: wenig kritisch und am liebsten exotisierend. Ich hatte wirklich Schwierigkeiten, mich in diesem Umfeld einzufügen. Den Lehrenden fehlte es an emotionaler, pädagogischer, sowie (trans)kultureller Sensibilität – Queer student of color“
Eine Positionierung in bestehenden Machtverhältnissen können Angaben zu unter anderem Geschlechtsidentitäten, sexuelle Identitäten, Behinderungen, Rassismuserfahrungen oder ökonomische Situationen sein.
Decolonising Design ist eine Forschungsgruppe, die analysiert, in welchen kolonialen Strukturen Gestaltung und Design agieren. (https://www.decolonisingdesign.com/)
Teaching Design ist eine Open Source Bibliografie mit dem Fokus auf Designvermittlung in der Bildung aus intersektional-feministischen, dekolonialen Perspektiven. (https://teaching design.net/)
Decentering Whiteness in Design History Resources ist eine Open Source Bibliografie, die von Designgeschichtsdozent*innen erstellt wurde als Reaktion auf die Forderungen der Studierenden, Perspektiven und Werke von Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian und anderen Designer*innen und Wissenschaftler*innen of Color in den Designkursen richtig zu repräsentieren. (https:// www.designhistorysociety.org/news/view/decentering-whiteness-in-design-history-resources)
Als mittlerweile zugelassene UdK-Studentin musste ich erleben, dass der Studienalltag von patriarchaler Hierarchie geprägt ist und von eurozentristischen Bewertungen abhängt, die umso persönlicher werden, da es an professioneller Distanz zu den Lehrenden fehlt (das verbreitete ‚per Du‘ dient oftmals lediglich dem Image der Universität). Meine Kursauswahl ist dementsprechend primär von den wenigen kritischen Lehrenden und kaum von den Inhalten abhängig.
Die Kunst- und Designschule Bauhaus war 1919-1933 aktiv, der Einfluss auf deutsche Kunsthochschulen bleibt weiterhin stark: In meinem Studium der Visuellen Kommunikationwurde ich in vielen Seminaren penetrant auf dessen Relevanz hingewiesen.
sondern auch in: Chengdu, Kairo, Singapur, Breslau, Ulaanbaatar, Porto Alegre, Ouagadougou, Prag, Casablanca, Bukarest, Shanghai, Moskau, Gwangju, Idanha-a-Nova, Havanna, Busan, Istanbul, Athen und vielen weiteren Orten.
Katharina Oguntoye ist eine afrodeutsche Schriftstellerin, Historikerin, Aktivistin und Dichterin. Sie gründete den gemeinnützigen interkulturellen Verein Joliba in Deutschland und spielte eine wichtige Rolle in den Anfängen der afrodeutschen Bewegung. Prof. Mathilde ter Heijne hat sich mit ihr getroffen um über das Buch Farbe bekennen zu sprechen, welches 1986 von Katharina Oguntoye mit May Ayim und Dagmar Schultz im Orlanda Verlag herausgegeben wurde. Die Sammlung ist eine Zusammenstellung von Texten, Zeugnissen und anderen Sekundärquellen und lässt die Geschichten Schwarzer deutscher Frauen, die in Deutschland inmitten von Rassismus, Sexismus und anderen institutionellen Zwängen leben, lebendig werden. Das Buch greift Themen und Motive auf, die in Deutschland von den frühesten kolonialen Interaktionen zwischen Deutschland und der Schwarzen „Andersartigkeit“ bis hin zu den gelebten Erfahrungen Schwarzer deutscher Frauen in den 1980er Jahren vorherrschen.
Der Ausgangspunkt des Gesprächs war Looking Back 1930 I 2020: Building on Fragmented Legacies, ein Performance- und Diskussionsabend mit Karina Griffith, Sandrine Micossé-Aikins, Katharina Oguntoye, Abenaa Adomako und Saraya Gomis am 24.09.2020 im HAU Berlin. Die Veranstaltung fand im Rahmen des Programms Radical Mutation – On the Ruins of Rising Suns statt, kuratiert von Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Saskia Köbschall und Tmnit Zere. Das Programm verband historische Kämpfe für Gleichberechtigung, Antirassismus und Repräsentation in der Kultur und aktuelle Bemühungen um radikale Veränderungen mit Berlin als Startpunkt. Der Titel bezog sich auf eines der ersten überlieferten schwarzen Theaterstücke (Sonnenaufgang im Morgenland, 1930), welches die Repräsentation von Schwarzen Menschen in kulturellen Produktionen der Weimarer Republik in Frage stellte.
Ableism
Adultism
General Equal Treatment Act
Antisemitism
Accessibility
Harassment
Gender Binary
Sex
Cisgender
Dominance Culture
Prison-Industrial Complex
Gender-Expansive
Gender
Gender Transition
Gender Expression
Gender Dysphoria
Gender Identity
Heteronormativity
Hormone Therapy
Institutional Discrimination
Inter*
Intergenerational Trauma
Intersectionality
Islamophobia
Classism
Colonialism
Culturally Argued Racism
Cultural Appropriation
Marginalization
Microaggression
Misogyny
Neurodiversity
Nonbinary
Patriarchy
Pronouns
Racism
Sex-Gender-Difference
Sexism
Sexual Orientation
Social Origin
Social Norm
Socioeconomic Status
Structural Discrimination
Tokenism
White Supremacy
Whiteness
Xenophobia
Abolition
Accountability
Ageism
Agender
BIPoC
Colorism
Critical Diversity Policy (UdK)
Deadnaming
Doing Gender
Misogynoir
Queer
Safer Space
Social Justice
Trans*
Ende
Ableism
Ableism is the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with differing physical and mental abilities and needs. It typically involves a negative assessment of a person’s body and mind due to skills and abilities, based on a supposed biological (physical and/or mental) norm of what an able-bodied, neurotypical person should be. Ableism can intersect with other forms of oppression such as racism and sexism.
Adultism
Adultism is the discrimination found in everyday life and law based on unequal power relationships between adults, on the one hand, and children, adolescents, and young people on the other.
General Equal Treatment Act
The General Equal Treatment Act (AGG), enforced since 2006, is the uniform central body of regulations in Germany for the implementation of four European anti-discrimination directives. For the first time, a law was created in Germany that comprehensively regulates protection against discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity, gender identification, religion or belief, ability, age, or sexual orientation.
Antisemitism
Antisemitism is a belief system based on hatred/hostility towards or discrimination against Jewish people as a religious or racial group, Jewish institutions or anyone/anything that is perceived Jewish. Antisemitism varies over time and between cultures, with antisemitism intensifying in different historical moments.
Accessibility
Accessibility names the extent to which a product, service, or environment can be used and accessed by as many people as possible. Inclusive accessibility therefore assesses the needs and desires of all possible people—including those who are neurodivergent or who have varying abilities—and incorporates these into its design and function. Changes to enable those with different abilities to have equal opportunity and participation are often referred to as accommodations.
Harassment
Harassment is undesired and non-consensual conduct that violates the dignity of another person. Harassment can often create intimidating, hostile, humiliating, or offensive environments, and can be based on someone’s sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability, age, race, gender, and more. Harassment can take a variety of forms, including verbal, physical, and/or sexual.
Gender Binary
The gender binary is the classification of gender into two distinct and opposite categories of man/masculine and woman/feminine. This belief system assumes that one’s sex or gender assigned at birth will align with traditional social constructions of masculine and feminine identity, expression, and sexuality. Assignment beyond the gender binary is typically viewed as a deviation of the norm.
Sex
Sex refers to a person’s biological status and is typically assigned at birth, usually based on external anatomy. Sex is typically categorized as male, female, or intersex.
Cisgender
Cisgender, or simply cis, refers to people who identify with the gender assigned to them at birth. Cis comes from the Latin prefix which means “on this side of.”
Dominance Culture
This concept, according to Birgit Rommelspacher, assumes that there is a system of hierarchies, rule and power in which the various racist, sexist, classist, and other forms of governance intertwine. In this interconnectedness, a dominant group maintains power, which is socially negotiated again and again. In a given society, the dominant group achieves their role by being perceived as pertaining to a majority of the population and having a significant presence in societal institutions.
Prison-Industrial Complex
The prison-industrial complex (PIC) is a term that describes the complex and interrelated dependencies between a government and the various businesses and institutions that benefit from practices of incarceration (such as prisons, jails, detention facilities, and psychiatric hospitals). Based on the term “military-industrial complex,” PIC urges a more comprehensive analysis of how imprisonment is used in a society, noting all the interest groups that prioritize financial gain over keeping people out of prisons.
Gender-Expansive
Gender-expansive is an adjective that can describe someone with a more flexible and fluid gender identity than might be associated with the typical gender binary.
Gender
Gender is often defined as a social construct of norms, behaviors, and roles that vary between societies and over time. Gender is often categorized as male, female, or nonbinary.
Gender Transition
Gender transition is a process a person might take to bring themselves and/or their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. This process is not a singular step nor does it have a definite end. Rather, it can include any, none, or all of the following: telling one’s family and social circles; changing one’s name and pronouns; updating legal documents; medical interventions such as hormone therapy; or surgical intervention, often called gender confirmation surgery.
Gender Expression
Gender expression is how a person presents gender outwardly, most typically signalled through clothing, voice, behavior, and other perceived characteristics. Society identifies these cues and performances as masculine or feminine, although what is considered masculine or feminine varies over time and between cultures.
Gender Dysphoria
Gender dysphoria refers to psychological distress that results from the incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity. People of all genders may experience dysphoria at varying levels of intensity, or not at all.
Gender Identity
Gender identity is one’s own internal sense of self and their gender. Unlike gender expression, gender identity is not externally visible to others.
Heteronormativity
Heteronormativity is the concept that heterosexuality—romantic and/or sexual attraction between people of the “opposite” gender—is the normative or acceptable sexual orientation in a society. Heteronormativity assumes the gender binary, and therefore involves a belief in the alignment between sexuality, gender identity, gender roles, and biological sex. As a dominant social norm, heteronormativity results in discrimination and oppression against those who do not identify as heterosexual.
Hormone Therapy
Hormone therapy, sometimes called gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) or hormone replacement therapy (HRT), is the process by which sex hormones or other hormonal medications are administered. These hormone changes can trigger physical changes, called secondary sex characteristics, that can help better align the body with a person’s gender identity.
Institutional Discrimination
Institutional discrimination refers to prejudiced organizational policies and practices within institutions – such as universities, workplaces, and more – such that an individual or groups of individuals who are marginalized are unequally considered and have unequal rights.
Inter*
Inter*, or intersex, is an umbrella term that can describe people who have differences in reproductive anatomy, chromosomes, or hormones that do not fit typical definitions of male and female. The asterisks (*) emphasizes the plurality of intersex realities and physicalities.
Intergenerational Trauma
Intergenerational trauma refers to the trauma that is passed from a trauma survivor to their descendent. Due to violent and terrifying events—such as war, ethnic cleansing, political conflict, environmental catastrophe, and more—experienced by previous generations, descendants may experience adverse emotional, physical, and psychological effects. As the original sources of trauma are structured by forms of discrimination such as race and gender, intergenerational trauma also occurs along intersectional axes of oppression. For example, Black communities have brought to light the intergenerational trauma of enslavement. Intergenerational trauma is sometimes called historical trauma, multi- or transgenerational trauma, or secondary traumatization.
Intersectionality
Intersectionality names the interconnected nature of systems of oppression and social categorizations such as race, gender, sexuality, migratory background, and class. Intersectionality emphasizes how individual forms of discrimination do not exist independently of each other, nor can they be considered and addressed independently. Rather, addressing oppression should take into account the cumulative and interconnected axes of multiple forms of discrimination.
Islamophobia
Islamophobia is a belief system based on hatred/hostility towards or discrimination against Muslim people as a religious or racial group, muslim institutions or anyone/anything that is perceived Muslim. Islamophobia varies over time and between cultures, with Islamophobia intensifying in different historical moments.
Classism
Classism is a term that describes discrimination based on the belief that a person’s social or economic status determines their value in society. Classism, as a form of discrimination and stigmatization, is based on actual or assumed financial means, educational status, and social inclusion. “Inferior” classes in the hierarchy are problematised and stereotyped, and often receive unequal access and rights within society.
Colonialism
Colonialism is the control and dominance of one power over a dependent area or people. In subjugating another people and land, colonialism entails violently conquering the population, often including mass displacement of people and the systematic exploitation of resources. Beyond material consequences, colonialism also includes processes of forcing the dominant power’s language and cultural values upon the subjugated people, thereby effecting cultural, psychological, and intergenerational trauma.
Culturally Argued Racism
Culturally argued racism is directed against people based on their presumed cultural or religious background. This form of discrimination can occur regardless of whether they actually practice one culture or religion and how religious they are (e.g. anti-Muslim racism and anti-Semitism).
Cultural Appropriation
Cultural appropriation is the act of taking on aspects of a marginalized culture by a person or an institution who is outside of that culture, without comprehensive understanding of the context and often lacking respect for the significance of the original. Cultural appropriation, when promoting negative cultural or racial stereotypes, reproduces harm. Acts of cultural appropriation can often reveal power dynamics within a society: for example, a white person who wears a marginalized culture’s traditional dress is praised as fashionable, while a racialized person could be isolated from the dominant group and marked as foreign.
Marginalization
Marginalization describes any process of displacing minorities to the social fringe. As a rule, marginalised groups are presumed to not correspond to the norm-oriented majority of society and are severely restricted in their ability to behave freely, have equal material access, enjoy public safety, and more.
Microaggression
Microaggression names individual comments or actions that unconsciously or consciously demonstrate prejudice and enact discrimination against members of marginalized groups. As small, common, and cumulative occurrences, microaggressions can comprise of insults, stereotypes, devaluation, and/or exclusion. Microaggressions often negatively affect the person on the receiving end, affecting their psychological and physical health and wellbeing.
Misogyny
Misogyny is a term for sexist oppression and contempt for women that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thereby maintaining patriarchal social roles. Misogyny can indicate an attitude held by individuals and a widespread cultural system that often devalues anything perceived as feminine. Misogyny can overlap with other instances of oppression and hate—such as homophobia, trans*-misogyny, and racism.
Neurodiversity
Neurodiversity is a term that describes the unique ways each person’s brain structures function. The basic assumption of what kind of brain functioning is healthy and acceptable within a norm-oriented majority society is called neurotypical.
Nonbinary
Nonbinary is a term that can be used by persons who do not describe themselves or their genders as fitting into the binary categories of man or woman. A range of terms are used for these experiences, with nonbinary and genderqueer often used.
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system whereby cis men dominantly hold positions of privilege both in public and private spheres. In feminist theory, patriarchy can be used to describe the power relationship between genders that favors male dominance, as well as the ideology of male superiority that justifies and enacts oppression against women and all non-normative genders.
Pronouns
Pronouns, or personal gender pronouns (PGPs), are the set of pronouns that an individual uses to refer to themselves and desires for others to use when referring to them. The list of pronouns is continuously evolving. An individual may have several sets of preferred pronouns, or none. The intention of both asking and using a person’s pronouns correctly is to reduce the negative societal effects for those whose personal pronouns don’t match with the gender identity that’s assumed by a cisnormative society. Using gender-neutral wording and terms to refer to groups of people (such as “folks,” instead of “guys”) are also inclusive steps that resist the gender binary and cis-normativity.
Racism
Racism is the process by which systems, policies, actions, and attitudes create unequal opportunities and outcomes for people based on race. More than individual or institutional prejudice, racism occurs when this discrimination is accompanied by the power to limit or oppress the rights of people and/or groups. Racism varies over time and between cultures, with racism towards different groups intensifying in different historical moments.
Sex-Gender-Difference
Sex-gender difference names the distinction between the concept of “sex” as a biological fact and the concept of “gender” as a product of cultural and social processes, such as socially constructed roles, behaviours, expressions and gendered identities.
Sexism
Sexism is the process by which systems, policies, actions, and attitudes create unequal opportunities and outcomes for people based on their attributed or supposed sex and the ideology underlying these phenomena. It is mostly used to name the power relations between dominant and marginalised genders within cisheteronormative patriarchal societies.
Sexual Orientation
Sexual orientation is the term that describes which sex or gender a person feels emotionally, physically, romantically and/or sexually attracted to.
Social Origin
Social origin describes the socio-cultural values and norms into which one is born, including factors such as environment, class, caste, education biography, and more. The values that accompany one’s social origin are constructed, but often have material impact that privileges or under-privileges certain groups and people. For example, someone whose social origin includes living in a Western country, inheriting intergenerational wealth, and having a consistently good education will increase their chances for a high-paying job as an adult. Their social origin must therefore be taken into account, rather than their inherent worthiness for such a job.
Social Norm
A social norm is a shared belief in the standard of acceptable behaviour by groups, both informal as well as institutionalized into policy or law. Social norms differ over time and between cultures and societies.
Socioeconomic Status
Socioeconomic status, usually described as low, medium, or high, is a way of describing people based on their education, income, and type of job. The values and norms assigned to each socioeconomic class are socially constructed but have material impact.
Structural Discrimination
Structural discrimination refers to patterns of behaviour, policies, and attitudes found at the macro-level conditions of society. This discrimination of social groups is based on the nature of the structure of society as a whole. Structural discrimination is distinct from individual forms of discrimination (such as a single racist remark, which is a microaggression), though it often provides the contextual framework to understand why these individual instances occur.
Tokenism
Tokenism is a superficial or symbolic gesture that includes minority members without significantly changing or addressing the structural discrimination of marginalization. Tokenism is a strategy intended to create the appearance of inclusion and to divert allegations of discrimination by requiring a single person to be representative of a minority.
White Supremacy
White supremacy names the beliefs and practices that privilege white people as an inherently superior race, built on the exclusion and detriment of other racial and ethnic groups. It can refer to the interconnected social, economic, and political systems that enable white people to enjoy structural advantages over other racial groups both on a collective and individual level. It can also refer to the underlying political ideology that imposes and maintains multiple forms of domination by white people and non-white supporters, from justifying European colonialism to present-day neo-fascisms.
Whiteness
Whiteness is a socially and politically constructed behaviour that perpetuates an ideology, culture, history, and economy that results in the unequal distribution of power and privilege favoring those socially deemed white. The material benefits of whiteness are gained at the expense of Black, Indigenous, and people of color, who are systematically denied equal access to those material benefits. On our blog, white is often written in small italics to mark it as a political category and emphasize the privileges of whiteness which are often not named as such, but rather taken for granted as the invisible norm.
Xenophobia
Xenophobia names the hostility towards groups or individuals perceived as “outsiders” based on their culture. Xenophobic attitudes are often associated with hostile reception of immigrants or refugees who arrive in societies and communities that are not their homelands. Xenophobic discrimination can result in barriers to equally access socioeconomic opportunities, as well as ethnic, racial, or religious prejudice.
Abolition
Abolition is a term that names officially ending a system, practice, or institution. Rooted in 19th century movements to abolish slavery, present day abolitionism is often invoked to end the practice of policing and military and/or the interconnected carceral systems of prisons, refugee camps, detention centers, and more. For more, see the definition of prison-industrial complex).
Accountability
Accountability is the obligation and willingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions. In the context of social justice, accountability refers to the ways in which individuals and communities hold themselves to their principles and goals, as well as acknowledging the groups to which they are responsible. Accountability often requires a transparent process and continuous self- and collective awareness.
Ageism
Ageism is discrimination or prejudice based on a person’s age, such as when skills and abilities are questioned and assessed based on one’s older or younger age.
Agender
Agender is an adjective that can be used by persons who do not identify as any gender.
BIPoC
BIPoC stands for Black, Indigenous and people of color. A term that originated in the U.S., it is a self-designation intended to center the specific experiences of Black, Indigenous, and other racialized groups, who are severely impacted by systemic racial injustice rooted in histories of enslavement and colonialism, and to unite people and groups affected by racism.
Colorism
Colorism is a term that describes the prejudice or discrimination favoring people with lighter skin tones over those with darker skin tones. This is especially used to describe the nuanced discrimination faced within a racial or ethnic group.
Critical Diversity Policy (UdK)
The Critical Diversity Policy at UdK is a document whose intention is to emphasize and enforce the idea that differences in values, attitudes, cultural perspective, beliefs, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientation, gender identity, abilities, knowledge and life experiences of each individual in each group of people should be considered and overcome within the university.
Deadnaming
Deadnaming is the act of calling a trans*, nonbinary, or gender-expansive person by their birth name, or an incorrect name, when they have changed their name as part of their gender expression. It is never okay or necessary to use a person’s deadname when they have changed their name, including when describing past events. If you deadname someone, take accountability by apologizing and commit to not doing so in the future. Take steps to know someone’s current name and commit to using it.
Doing Gender
This sociological term focuses on how people observe, (re-)produce, and make gender relevant in everyday life. Rather than taking gender as an innate quality, the acts of “doing gender” emphasize how gender is a social construct that is prevalent in daily human interaction.
Misogynoir
Misogynoir is a term, coined by Black feminist Moya Bailey in 2010, that describes the gendered and racial oppression faced by Black cis and transgender women (the latter sometimes referred to as trans*-misogynoir). Taking an intersectional lens, misogynoir examines how anti-Black racism and misogyny combine into a particular form of oppression and discrimination.
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. It Is used for a broad spectrum of non-normative sexual and/or gender identities and politics.
Safer Space
Safer spaces are intended to be places where marginalized communities can gather and communicate shared experiences, free of bias, conflict, or harm perpetrated by members of a dominant group. Recognizing that there is no such thing as a perfectly safe space for marginalized people under the current systems of our society, the term “safer” indicates the goal of temporary relief, as well as acknowledging the fact that harm can be reproduced even within marginalized communities. Examples of safer spaces created in organizations and institutions are queer-only spaces and/or spaces only for Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
Social Justice
Social justice is a form of activism and political movement that promotes the process of transforming society from an injust and unequal state to one that is just and equitable. Social justice is rooted in the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political, and social rights and opportunities, and the fundamental right to feel psychologically and physically secure. Social justice therefore aims to change governing laws and societal norms that have historically and presently oppressed some groups over others. Social justice is not just the absence of discrimination, but also the presence of deliberate systems and supports that achieve and sustain equity along lines of race, gender, class, ability, religion, and more.
Trans*
Transgender, or simply trans*, is an adjective that refers to people whose gender identity is different than the sex assigned at birth. Trans comes from the Latin prefix which means “across” or “beyond.” The self-designation is not an identity feature that automatically indicates whether this person identifies with a different gender, no gender or multiple genders. Thus, there are several trans* identities. The asterisks (*) emphasizes the plurality and fluidity of trans identities.