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GeStiK - Gender Studies in Cologne

On June 25, 2022, GeStiK celebrated its tenth anniversary as a central academic institution for gender and queer studies at the University of Cologne. Together with cooperation partners in the academic field of gender studies at the Technische Hochschule Köln and the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, at the University of Cologne, in university management and the faculties, with the supporters of equality and diversity policies, with teachers and students of the BA Certificate in Gender Studies and the Master's program in Gender & Queer Studies, with colleagues from the Fachgesellschaft für Geschlechterstudien and the Netzwerk Geschlechterforschung NRW as well as actors from consulting, urban politics and cultural workers, the team reviewed the last few years.

As a place of research and teaching, of encounters and networking, of dialogues and controversies, GeStiK remains committed and involved, agile and moving, controversial and in demand even after ten years; sometimes on the sidelines, sometimes as a central player. In this sense, GeStiK is part of what gender and queer studies do every day: Setting impulses to enable other knowledge (science) productions and practices, articulating critiques and objections to prevailing discourses, fighting for changes in the participation and accessibility of higher education.

After numerous welcoming speeches, the panel discussion, in which 'Situations, perspectives and solidarities' were discussed, showed that gender and queer studies are situated in a tense situation both as an academic field and as part of the institution of higher education. Degree programmes, centers and research projects are involved in the (re)production of (power) structures that they criticize, but they also stand up for their (at least partial) transgression. The contributions from BIPoC colleagues and students started here and made it clear that celebrating 10 years of GeStiK means, above all, continuing to take on the challenges of participation, redistribution, decolonial collaborations and the question of possible alliances. In the future, we must continue to struggle to expand what is possible and present and to change the world. GeStiK is one of hopefully many places that want to and will contribute to this.

Impressions

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