Research Initiative Political Epistemologies of Eastern Europe (PECEE): Friedrich Cain and Dietlind Hüchtker (Vienna), Bernhard Kleeberg (Univ. of Erfurt), Karin Reichenbach (Leipzig), and Jan Surman (Praha) (Web)

Time: 13.-15.10.2022
Venue: Liblice Chateau, Czech Republic
Proposals by – extended: 30.04.2022

More than 30 years ago, Donna Haraway published her iconic essay „Situated Knowledge. The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective“, where she discusses the issue of objectivity in feminism. She understands „objective knowledge“ as bound to a specific historical point in time and space – precisely as „situated knowledge“. While Haraway was primarily concerned with defining the relational positioning of feminism and science, the concept of „situated knowledge“ has grown into a central notion in gender studies. By now, it seems necessary to reflect about its relevance today, considering the differentiation of gender related debates from feminism to queer theories, to transactivism and beyond, but also in the face of current social challenges like hate speech and fake news, conspiracy theories and public questioning of established scientific values.

The concept of „situated knowledge“ not only draws attention to the general way relational conceptualizations of science are challenged by proponents of „alternative facts“ as well as dynamics of denialism and hostility towards academic scholarship. It also asks how far epistemologies, evidence and knowledge are determined by gender or contain gender perspectives. Assuming that epistemologies take place in social contexts and thus are situated in space and time, how becomes a determination of difference a condition of cognition? Where and how is gender a category that governs the way in which knowledge has been and is gained?

To deepen the question of how gender and epistemologies are related, a praxeological approach can be useful. Hence, combining the perspectives on „doing gender“ and „doing truth“ could allow to inquire how claims of truth are linked to gender and gender politics. In such a praxeological perspective we can ask about roles and figures that perform truth and gender in arenas of contested knowledge, enabling us to discern and analyse situations where gender is … read more (PDF).