Interdisciplinary Research Network
Gender • Power Relations • The State
Medializations, Social Practices, and Normative Framings in the Attribution and Negotiation of gendered (State) Power
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 Center for Gender Studies and Feminist Futures 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.
PD Dr. Heidi Hein-Kircher (Osteuropäische und Neuere Geschichte) and Dr. Elke Bauer (Ethnologie und Editionswissenschaften) are involved in this research network on behalf of the Herder Institute.
The network partners at the Herder Institute are working on the project:
Loss of Status and Revolution: Effects of the Collapse of the Russian Empire on the Self-Image and Socio-Cultural Role of German-Baltic Noble Elites
The project inquires into how women of the highest social elites – the German-Baltic nobility and bourgeoisie – experienced and reflected on this development. How did they define their position within the late Tsarist society, how did they adapt to the revolutionary and post-revolutionary conditions? Is it possible to find a female interpretation of the revolution and the opportunities that arose for them (women’s suffrage, educational opportunities, etc.)? Did loyalties change (and to what extent), did conflict situations arise within one’s own family, with one’s husband? Were there “typically female” interpretations of this? In particular, the family legacies stored in the Document Collection (DSHI) will be examined in order to work out how the female perspective differs from the male perspective on these developments.