2020 German Studies Association-Seminar; Conveners: Martin Lücke (Freie Univ. Berlin); Veronika Springmann (Freie Univ. Berlin); Richard F. Wetzell (German Historical Institute Washington) (Web)
Venue: Washington DC
Time: 01.-04.10.2020
Proposals by: 27.01.2020
This seminar is being organized as part of the series of „GSA seminars“ at the 44th Annual Conference of the German Studies Association, in Washington DC, October 1-4, 2020.
The seminar seeks to bring together scholars from a range of fields – including but not limited to the history of sexuality, gender studies, queer studies, critical legal studies, and legal history – who are pursuing research projects on the ways in which sexuality and the legal order have intersected, come into conflict, and mutually influenced each other in German-speaking Europe since the early modern era.
The seminar proposes to examine not only the effects of repressive laws – such as laws criminalizing homosexuality, abortion, or interracial sexual relations, for instance – on people’s sexual lives, but also the potentially empowering function of law, as in the case of legislation to punish violence against women, for instance, or of laws banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. More generally, the seminar is interested in exploring the myriad ways in which the study of sexuality and legal studies can be brought into a fruitful conversation.
Format: Once seminar participants have been identified, we will solicit their suggestions for common readings; we will review these and make available 4-5 core texts, to be read before participants write their papers (max. 4,000 words, to be pre-circulated one month before GSA), relating their research to the seminar’s theme.
Seminars meet for Continue reading