Overview

Spokesperson: Dr. Jutta Hergenhan

The section "Media and Gender" deals with current developments of the media landscape from a gender-sensitive perspective. Gender is seen as a category that structures society fundamentally (physically, linguistically, legally, socially). In addition,  gender plays an important role in the analysis of other inequality phenomena (racism, classism, ableism) and their mutual dependency (intersectionality).

Media plays a central role for the construction of individual and collective gender identities. Gender attributions are made via the media and stereotypes are developed. At the same time, social media in particular is used to protest against stereotypical gender images, to deconstruct them, and to create new gender representations. In this context, an important field of research is the analysis of media production and the glorification of sexualised violence, as well as media protest against it (e.g. #metoo, #aufschrei).

Furthermore, the creation of media products and the use of media have a gender dimension insofar as men and women are involved differently in them. In this context, we would like to highlight the informal processes of inclusion and exclusion in regard to gender, particularly connected to phenomena of digitalisation. Last but not least, human-machine issues play a central role at the intersection of media and gender research.

The section does not explicitly focus on gender-related topics of the Global North, but rather has broad research interests in terms of content and methodology. We are particularly interested in media issues from the technical, medical, natural, and human sciences where a gender dimension may only become apparent upon a closer look.

Interdisciplinary Research Network 

GENDER, POWER RELATIONS, AND THE STATE

This research network investigates the tensions between the guiding concepts of gender, power relations, and the state. These tensions are visible in the gendered dynamics of formal and informal practices of (state) power and domination. The projects cover interactions between medializations, social practices, and normative framings in the attribution and negotiation of gendered (state) power in the process of historical change from the early modern period to the present. This interdisciplinary network consists of scholars from the disciplines of literary and cultural studies, media studies, history, political science, art history, and psychology. It is located at the University of Marburg, but also includes scholars from the Herder Institute for Historical Research on Eastern Central Europe - Institute of the Leibniz Association, from the Justus Liebig University of Giessen, and from the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster. A Flexi Funds application will be submitted in March 2021. The long-term goal is to establish a DFG research group.

Prof. Sigrid Ruby and Dr. Jutta Hergenhan are involved in this research network on behalf of the Section “Media and Gender” of the Centre for Media and Interactivity (ZMI) at the University of Giessen.

Upcoming meeting: