Gender Lectures
The lecture series Heidelberg Gender Lectures zooms in on current topics in Gender Studies and offers a space for discussions, exchange and networking. The multidisciplinary programme focuses on gender as epistemological category across various fields of studies such as migration research, political science, health sciences and linguistics. Researchers at Heidelberg University present their recent works and findings from their respective fields of study.
The lecture series first took place in the winter semester of 2025/2026 and was organised by Theresa Heyd and Vroni Zieglmeier. Heidelberg University was a scientific focal point for scholars who would become leading figures in the field of Queer and Gender Studies already in the 20th century, attracting scholars like Magnus Hirschfeld and Judith Butler, who have both studied here for a period of time. Gender Studies as a field of study is an overarching, intersectional discipline of greatest relevance in our present age, providing insights on a variety of methodological, theoretical and empiricial layers in all scientific disciplines.
In times of increasing criticism and hostility towards science, which becomes particularly visible in discourse about Queer and Gender Studies, events such as this lecture series remain a matter of grave importance; hence it will be held again in the winter term of 2026/2027, as a space that allows and encourages education, exploration and exchange. Further details including the topics of upcoming and past lectures are provided below. This semester’s Gender Lectures are organised by Yaatsil Guevara González and Zhenwei Wang.
Gender Lectures 2026/2027: Space and Gender
The overarching topic of this year’s gender lectures is "Space and Gender”. Regular sessions are held on Wednesdays from 4pm to 6pm in lecture hall HS01 at the Neue Uni (find exceptions in table below).
The lecture series kicks off on the 21.10. 2026 with the Rainbow lecture: a lecture in cooperation with and financially supported by the city Heidelberg as a Rainbow city. This lecture is meant to highlight the importance of queer life in Heidelberg and the close connection between aspects of queer everyday life with the academic discipline of Queer and Gender Studies.
This year’s Rainbow City Lecture with the title ’We are here, we are queer, we are also the demos’: Autoritäre Geschlechterpolitiken, Antifeminismus und LGBTIQ+ Bewegungen als Räume demokratischer Innovation is held by Christine Klapeer from the University of Gießen. The session on the 21.10.2026 takes place in lecture hall HS01 in the Neue Universität from 6pm to 8pm.
Gender Lectures 2026/27
Table
| Date, Place | Time | Lecturer | Titel |
|---|
| Date, Place | Time | Lecturer | Titel |
|---|---|---|---|
21.10.2026, Hörsaal HS 01 (Neue Uni) | 6-8pm | Christine M. Klapeer (Universität Gießen) | „We are here, we are queer, we are also the demos“: Autoritäre Geschlechterpolitiken, Antifeminismus und LGBTIQ+ Bewegungen als Räume demokratischer Innovation |
28.10.2026 Institut für Übersetzen und Dolmetschen (IÜD) | 4-6pm | Angela Figueiredo (Bahia, Brasilien) | Perspectivas e contribuições do feminismo negro no Brasil (Perspektiven und Beiträge des Schwarzen Feminismus in Brasilien) Info: Der Vortrag findet am Institut für Übersetzen und Dolmetschen (IÜD) statt und wird simultan ins Deutsche übersetzt |
11.11.2026 Hörsaal HS 01 (Neue Uni) | 4-6pm | Günter Leypoldt (Universität Heidelberg) | Rooms of Their Own: Weibliche Autorschaft im literarischen Feld seit 1800 |
18.11.2026 Hörsaal HS 01 (Neue Uni) | 4-6pm | Carolin Müller-Spitzer (Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim) | Gender und Sprache im Deutschen unter empirisch-linguistischer Perspektive |
25.11.2026 Hörsaal HS 01 (Neue Uni) | 6-8pm | Dan Healey (University of Oxford, UK) | Before post-socialism: queer sexualities and genders in European ‘people’s democracies’ of the twentieth century Info: In Kooperation mit dem Slavischen Institut und dem Lehrstuhl für Osteuropäische Geschichte |
9.12.2026 Hörsaal HS 01 (Neue Uni) | 4-6pm | Alena Höfer und Claudia Sabine Hoffmann (Universität Heidelberg) | Religion, Migration und Gender. Intersektionale Verflechtungen am Beispiel von Korean Americans |
13.01.2027 Hörsaal HS 01 (Neue Uni) | 4-6pm | Monika Pahlke-Pleyer (Universität Heidelberg) | Demenz, Gender und Identität im virtuellen Raum: Perspektiven pflegender Angehöriger |
27.01.2027 Hörsaal HS 01 (Neue Uni) | 4-6pm | Tabea Bork-Hueffer (Universität Heidelberg) | Gendered (Cyber)Violence: Space, Affordances, Resistance |
Past Gender Lectures 2025/2026
Table
| Termin | Dozent*in | Titel |
|---|
| Termin | Dozent*in | Titel |
|---|---|---|
29. Oktober 2025 | Sabine Hark | Gefährliche Erbschaften. Sex/Gender: Biologische Fundierung und das Begehren nach Kategorien |
05. November 2025 | Corinna Assmann & Miriam Neuhausen | Out-rageous bodies: Unfolding the closet |
19. November 2025 | Ute Hüsken | Nuns and women in transcultural Buddhism |
03. Dezember 2025 | Renata Motta & Yaatsil Guevara González | Geschmack der Grenze: Essen, Gender und Zugehörigkeit auf der Flucht |
17. Dezember 2025 | Brigitte Sölch | Kunstgeschichte & Feminismus |
07. Januar 2026 | Phillip Wehage | Games & Gender – Implizites und explizites Spiel mit Geschlecht |
21. Januar 2026 | Karen Nolte | „WahnsinnsFrauen“ – Aneignung von Hysterie in der neuen Frauenbewegung |