12 June will witness an international symposium and, with it, the opening of the International Research Center Gender and Performativity (ICGP) chaired by the theatre studies scholar and gender studies professor Evelyn Annuß. Her new book Dirty Dragging, which delves into gendered modes of performing in public under South African apartheid, Nazism, and US segregation, is currently being prepared for publication by mdwPress. In view of current anti-gender politics, the establishment of the ICGP is a clear statement by the mdw concerning academic and cultural policy. The Center, located at the Department of Cultural Management and Gender Studies (IKM), will engage with gender-related issues in the performing arts, political performances, and theories of queer performativity in the context of research and teaching.
In addition to organising various event series, the ICGP will provide a variety of offerings ranging from the lecture series “Performing Challenges” to diverse seminars and tutorials that introduce students to academic writing as well as analyse performances and reflect upon issues associated with artistic work. Bringing together research in the realms of performing arts and gender, the ICGP will also offer the only opportunity in Austria for doctoral study at this interface. In this respect, as well, the new research Center will help to sharpen and internationalise the mdw’s institutional profile.
This becomes especially clear in light of the planned opening event in June. A three-day symposium from 12 to 14 June will bring together internationally known guests from the arts and academia. The opening keynote by Jack Halberstam will be followed by contributions from Claudia Bosse, Elsa Dorlin, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, Ulrike Hanstein, Ulrike Haß, Isabel Lorey, Mbongeni Mtshali, Tavia Nyong’o, and Ginan Seidl. These lectures, artist talks, and screenings, scheduled to coincide with the programme of this year’s Campus Party, will highlight the Center’s three main research emphases and thus also current political issues.
This semester will also see the ICGP bring several new colleagues to the mdw. This new team combines scholarly expertise from the fields of theatre and media in cultural studies. Philipp Hohmann has been a university assistant at the ICGP since March 2025. With a background in theatre and media studies as well as queer theory, he pursues research that includes questions of queer collectivity in the works of Antonia Baehr. The ICGP is also now home to two visiting professors. Marina Rauchenbacher’s research focuses on gender and queer studies as well as interdependence theory, theories of performativity, and—currently—the analysis of figuration processes and environmental structures. Raz Weiner researches concepts of masculinity and race in Central European Jewish performance practice prior to World War II as well as the digital performance of queerness against the backdrop of present-day illiberalism. And with support from Kyra Schmied, the ICGP’s academic coordination is seen to by Thari Jungen, who engages with aesthetic and political theories, visual cultures, Holocaust studies, and gender and queer studies.
Students and colleagues are warmly invited to drop by the ICGP—be it for a course or research-related event, coffee, or collaboration—and, of course, to attend the opening celebration, which will take place on the terrace of the Future Art Lab following Jack Halberstam’s keynote.
