Excellence Initiative

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Excellence Initiative | Proposals and Draft Proposals | Berlin Graduate School of Gender and Transdisciplinarity

Berlin Graduate School of Gender and Transdisciplinarity

At the Intersection of Disciplines

Although the connection of two disciplines in interdisciplinary research is common in scientific practice, it remains inadequate for the investigation of many issues in research. Transdisciplinarity, i.e. the process of crossing multiple disciplinary boundaries and the critical reflection associated with this process, is necessary to analyse complex problems scientifically, to reflect upon them in new ways, and to solve them. A thematic area which cuts across almost all issues and therefore is central in addressing problems in a transdisciplinary manner is gender research, which itself plays a central role in the development of transdisciplinary approaches. In addition to the analysis of structures of power, privilege and exclusion, and of social and structural inequality, the promotion of gender issues within the framework of a wide variety of research projects will be a central focus of the graduate school.
Transdisciplinary Gender research is a seminal field which is relevant for many individual disciplines and which has a strong international impact. Through the Reaerch Training Group "Gender as a Category of Knowledge", the Centre for Gender Research in Medicine, and the GenderKompetenzZentrum (Gender Competence Centre), Humboldt-Universität has occupied a leading role in gender research in Europe. The planned Berlin Graduate School of Gender and Transdisciplinarity will, in close cooperation with leading university and non-university research institutes, establish the themes of transdisciplinarity and gender as important elements in the education of young scholars and scientists and train the next generation of scholars in this field of research.