Lecture “Spaces of Knowledge and Gender Regimes: From Double Marginalization to a Gendered History of Knowledge in Central and Eastern Europe”
Thursday, October 15, 2020, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Speaker: Claudia Kraft (University of Vienna)
ZARAH Public Lecture
co-hosted by
ZARAH
Department of Gender Studies
Department of History
The lecture discusses powerful denominations that order the field of historiography. When we write history, we are inevitably confronted with terms such as “General History” or “European History”. These are powerful concepts that create a norm which makes other histories appear peripheral or marginal. The lecture asks for the heuristic potential of gender studies and area studies to decenter these powerful denominations. It criticizes the often mechanical use of spatial categories that ignores the fabrication of spaces by area specialists, as well as the reification of gender identities within women’s and gender studies. It argues for a combination of gender- and area-sensitive research in order to escape the constructivism vs. essentialism dichotomy. History of knowledge and feminist theory of science are discussed as useful tools for such an approach.
Claudia Kraft is a Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna since 2018. Before coming to Vienna she had worked at the University of Siegen as a Professor of Contemporary European History (2011-2018) and at the University of Erfurt as a Professor of Central and Eastern European History (2005-2011). She specializes in 20th century comparative European and particularly Central and Eastern European History.
Students, Faculty and Researchers affiliated with the Department of Gender Studies and/or the Department of History are invited to attend on-site in the CEU Auditorium in QS Campus. The general public and students and faculty not able to attend in person are invited to attend online via this Zoom link (Meeting ID: 987 8133 4351, passcode: 545834)
https://events.ceu.edu/node/9638