LFU:online

How is knowledge produced, and why do universities take the forms they do? In this interdisciplinary Ph.D. seminar, we foreground history and theory to examine the university as a site where knowledge, power, and social inequalities are co-constructed. Drawing from the history of higher education, feminist philosophy of science, and intersectionality, we explore how gender, class, dis/ability, and racialization influence academia.

Using local and national materials, we analyze the university as a social field, including its formal and hidden rules, governance, and the power relations that structure participation. Throughout the seminar, we link concepts to institutional practices, encouraging participants to closely read theory — not only to understand academia, but also to critically analyze and collectively reshape it as a practice.

Reading and text discussions, peer feedback and learning, writing exercises, discussion, input from instructor; collaborative creation of an informational brochure or wiki on the topic

Attendance, continuous participation and active participation in discussion, moderating a text discussion, a written contribution to an informational brochure or wiki as well as copy-editing

Ahmed, Sara: On Being Included. Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Durham, London 2012.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé: Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex. A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, in: The University of Chicago Legal Forum (1989) 140, 139-167.

Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Encarnación et al.: Race, Class and Gender at German Universities: A Round-Table Discussion, in: Bendix, Daniel / Müller, Franziska / Ziai, Aram (Hg.): Beyond the Master’s Tools? De-colonizing Knowledge Orders, Research Methods and Teaching. Lanham 2020, 163-190.

Haraway, Donna J.: Situated Knowledge. The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective, in: Feminist Studies 14 (1988) 3, 575-599.

Who should attend: PhD researchers from all disciplines who are interested in a theoretical foundation for analyzing universities and knowledge production.