Main Content

History

The Center for Gender Studies and Feminist Futurology at Marburg University was founded in 2001 as an interdisciplinary academic institution. Since then, it has continuously developed as a central hub for research, teaching, and networking in the field of Gender Studies and feminist scholarship, open to all departments of the university.

History of the Center for Gender Studies and Feminist Futurology

Origins

The groundwork for the Center was laid in the 1990s, driven by a study group of professors, mid-level academic staff, and students. Building on the Interdisziplinäre Arbeitsgemeinschaft Frauenforschung (IAG, Interdisciplinary Working Group on Women's Research), founded in 1989, the group submitted several funding applications to the Hessian Ministry of Higher Education. After initial setbacks, a revised application was approved in 1998, securing 80,000 DM in seed funding.

Foundation in 2001

The Center was officially founded on 12 February 2001, with its constitutive assembly held on 9 April 2001. Its name was chosen deliberately to anchor both gender research and feminism in its identity, and to position the future as a focal point for sociopolitical change. From the outset, the Center has been open to all disciplines at Marburg University and has maintained connections with other gender studies centers in Hesse, Germany, and internationally.

Early research activities were organized around three thematic areas: space and time, transformations in gender relations, and communication and new media. The Center also supported early-career researchers through colloquia and teaching opportunities, and hosted several third-party funded research projects, including the Hans Böckler Foundation doctoral program Gender Relations in the Field of Work, Organization and Democracy (2004–2013) and the BMBF projects GendA (2002–2005) and REVERSE (2017–2020).

Today

Gender research is now firmly embedded in the profile of Marburg University. The Center drives research through collaborative and individual projects, and disseminates findings through its own publication series, an annual lecture series (Ringvorlesung), and the Gender Lecture, which has welcomed prominent scholars such as Rosi Braidotti, Linda Zerilli, Londa Schiebinger, and Jack Halberstam. In its 20th anniversary year (2021), the Center organized the Feminismen im Dialog series as part of the university's general studies program.