Ambivalent Gender Knowledge: Negotiations of Cultural Difference in Feminist Initiatives of the Postmigrant Society

• Applicant: Dr. Miriam Gutekunst
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 492003373

Phenomena such as ‘forced marriage’ or ‘female genital cutting’ have become an increased focus of feminist engagement in Europe since the 1990s. These forms of gender-specific violence are negotiated as ‘culture-based’ and located among migrant women. Therefore, feminist initiatives fighting against such phenomena are crucial sites for the (re-)production and negotiation of knowledge about the relationship between gender and cultural difference. This gender knowledge is the object of research of the planned ethnographic project. The aim is to contribute to the research about feminist practices and discourses in postmigrant society. The question of the role of cultural difference for the constitution of gender relations and associated debates around processes of Othering, intersectionality and forms of racism have also become – especially in the context of the integration debate – a deep conflict in academia, activism and practice since the 1990s. These discourses again received increased attention in the public consciousness in connection with the events on New Year’s Eve in Cologne in 2015/16. Islam and associated topics, such as the veil or ideas of a specific Muslim masculinity, constitute a gender political focal point of these conflicts in Europe. A wide range of studies in cultural and social sciences have comprehensively analyzed and criticized gendered images and notions of the ‘cultural other’ as well as entanglements of feminism with nationalist, colonial and racist politics. But how does this gender knowledge emerge in concrete practices? How is it produced and negotiated situationally? And how do this knowledge and (political) action interrelate? These questions constitute a research gap which the planned actor-centered and praxeological study aims to close. Thereby, the empirical project focuses on the phenomena of ‘forced marriage’ and ‘female genital cutting’ as fields of feminist engagement. The perspectives of the actors of three initiatives engaged in these fields from different cities in Germany – their self-conceptions, interpretations and ambivalences as well as their practices – are in the focus of the research. The planned research project is located at the interface between cultural-anthropological research of social movements, knowledge and politics as well as gender studies and racism analysis. At the same time, it contributes to the further development of feminist and postcolonial approaches in cultural theories.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Spain
• Co-Investigators: Professorin Dr. Gabriele Dietze; Professorin Dr. Sabine Hess
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Dr. Begonya Enguix-Grau