FSP 4: Gender sociology

Members:
Libora Oates-Indruchova (spokesperson), Muriel Blaive, Alina Iovcheva,  Jennifer Ramme, Zorica-Iva Siročić

Former members:
Aleksandra Fila, Brigitte Holzner, Susanne Kink, Ana Kladnik, Jana Mikats, Gerlinde Malli, Tanja Paulitz, Susanne Sackl-Sharif, Angelika Wetterer (retired)

The Sociology of Gender is one of the five key research areas of the Department of Sociology. We are concerned with "gender" as a lived experience and as an analytical category that affects and structures all spheres of social life, politics and culture. As such, it is indispensable for sociological analysis and theory. The faculty members of the research area Sociology of Gender offer research and teaching expertise on a range of topics related to gender, including social change, the body and sexuality, culture, creativity and politics. We explore the dynamics of gender as it intersects with other sociologically and practically relevant categories such as class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, age, and physical ability.

The Sociology of Gender aims to equip students with appropriate research methods and theoretical frameworks for a sociological as well as interdisciplinary study of gender: some of the BA and MA courses we regularly offer are on gender sociology, theories of gender, methodologies of gender research, political sociology, creativity and gender, and the history of social movements for gender and sexual equality. Students acquire theoretical and methodological skills about the functioning of gender in social structures that they can apply in a variety of professional careers.

Research activities of the Sociology of Gender contribute to the university focus "Heterogeneity and Cohesion" and to the Field of Excellence "Dimensions of Europe" at the University of Graz. We research gender regimes in their historical and geopolitical contexts, but also topical issues of the present. We specialise in the gender cultures of state socialism and post-socialism in Central and South-Eastern Europe. We work closely with the Coordination Centre for Gender Studies and Equal Opportunities and the Centre for Southeast European Studies. Together we host the biennial conference Creative Bodies - Creative Minds, that brings to Graz an international community of scholars from a range disciplines, engaging in gender aspects of creativity

The Sociology of Gender team has collaborated with universities in Austria and abroad to promote the institutionalisation of gender studies and increase the interest of girls/young women in activities with a traditionally strong gender imbalance.

The Professorship in Sociology of Gender was established at the University of Graz in 2005. The founding professor, Prof. Angelika Wetterer, retired in October 2014 and was succeeded by Prof. Libora Oates-Indruchová in February 2015. 

(1) Gender cultures of state socialism and post-socialism in Central and Southeast Europe

(2) Contested gender politics (feminist, LGBTQ+ movements and their opponents; and their use of conventional, disruptive and cultural tactics);

(3) Creative practices and gender (creative protest, everyday and DIY creativity).