Acknowledgments

 

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Facing Drag emerged from a series of international conferences and lectures on gender at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) starting during the challenging period of the COVID-19 pandemic, between 2022 and 2024. In contrast to recent political regressions and calls for defunding the humanities—gender and decolonial studies in particular—the publication of this volume coincides with a hopeful and future-oriented development: the founding of the International Research Center Gender and Performativity (ICGP) at mdw in 2025. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all contributors to the event series—this includes not only the authors featured in this volume but also those whose contributions and presence shaped the intellectual landscape of the event series and our Facing Drag research network: Nadia Davids, Diedrich Diederichsen, Stephan Geene, Fatima Naqvi, Mamela Nyamza, and meLê Yamomo. Our gratitude extends to the audience, to our colleagues and, in particular, to the students whose engagement, questions, and critical insights were essential to the depth and dynamism of the discussions. Special thanks go to the former gender studies team—Mariama Diagne, Silke Felber, Susanna Hufsky, and Julia Ostwald—whose dedication made both the events and the editing of this volume possible.

The volume accompanies Evelyn Annuß’s book on Dirty Dragging, cofunded by the German Research Foundation, DFG (Heisenberg project Demarcations and Performative Transpositions), and the FU Berlin. We are deeply grateful for the generous financial and institutional support provided by mdw’s Rectorate, its Research Support Office, and the university’s publishing house, mdwPress (very special thanks also to Max Bergmann and to Kathrin Heinrich for their stunning professionalism and cordial assistance). Without this backing, the realization of Facing Drag would not have been possible. We wish to give our special thanks to Rector Ulrike Sych, whose unwavering support enabled us to pursue our work. Our sincere appreciation also goes to Vice Rector for Organizational Development Gerda Müller for championing structural support for gender research as well as to Head of Research Support Therese Kaufmann for her crucial involvement in realizing both the event series and this volume—also to the Stabsstelle Gleichstellung, Gender und Diversität, especially to Andrea Ellmeier and Ulli Maier; the Institute for Cultural Management and Gender Studies (IKM), in particular to its head Dagmar Abfalter; and all our mdw colleagues for their support of our endeavor. Moreover, we cordially thank the current ICGP-team—Philipp Hohmann, Thari Jungen, Kyra Schmied, Marina Rauchenbacher, Karo Spöring as well as Michael Thomas Taylor for revising the manuscript, Oliver Brentzel for the cover design—against all odds, and Marion Bräuer for graphics.