Basic Information​ Doctoral College "Intersectionality Studies"

At the College of Intersectionality Studies, professors and admitted doctoral candidates will collaborate with associated researchers from Germany and abroad, as well as work together with union representatives and actors engaged in a range of social movements. The professors involved represent the transdisciplinary approach of this doctoral programme. They include Prof. Susan Arndt (English studies), Prof. Ingrid Artus (sociology), Prof. Andrea Behrends (ethnology), Dr. Serawit Debele (religious studies), Prof. Matthew Hannah (geography), Prof. Annette Henninger (political science), Prof. Thoko Kaime (law) and Prof. Kristin Skottki (history). Prof. Maisha Auma (educational science and diversity studies), Prof. Ulrike Lembke (law) and Prof. Shankar Raman (literary studies) are members of the college’s advisory board. The PhD programme for intersectionality studies will be framed as a transdisciplinary project that brings together a wide variety of approaches to intersectionality research as interventional praxis and draws on the wealth of (international) expertise in this area. Accordingly, the College seeks to consolidate existing research on intersectionality in the German and European academic landscape and thereby establish intersectionality studies as a scientific discipline in its own right. The College will rely on structured doctoral training, while at the same offering the freedom for individual research and work. Given its emphasis on transdisciplinarity, it seeks doctoral researchers from diverse disciplinary and thematic backgrounds, who share an abiding interest in critically viewing intersectional social inequalities and in exploring modes of intersectional solidarity and justice.

The work of the College will be carried out by four research groups (FG) that cooperate in a transdisciplinary and mutually interdependent manner. The first research group has “Analysis” as its focus, and will research processes, institutions and narratives from a historical perspective, while taking its reference from contemporary social processes. The second FG focuses on “Communication” and from this perspective explores formats, media and spaces. The third FG deals with “Interventions” and the actors, strategies, and measures related to interventional praxis. Labour (worlds) and models of participation; human rights and their violation; memory and projections into the future; narratives and representational patterns as well as practices of resistance and solidarity are at the fore of the first 3 FGs. Combining analysis, communication, and intervention, the fourth FG dedicates itself to issues germane to “Labour(worlds) and intersectional solidarity.”