Coordination Centre
                 for Women’s Studies,
                                    Gender Research and Affirmative Action for Women

• Offer

• Objectives
• Target Groups (Participants)
• International Co-operations
• Team
• Special Offers and Services
• Academic advisory board of the Coordination Centre
• Aigner-Rollett Visiting Professorship for Women’s and Gender Studies
• Professorship in Sociology of Gender Relations
• “Interdisciplinary Gender Studies”
• Equal opportunities-oriented human resources development

 

 

 

 

Offer

The Coordination Centre for Women’s Studies, Gender Research and Affirmative Action for Women, Graz was established in January 1994.

It provides …

• an attractive offer of women-specific personnel development and gender-related continuing education for the university



• expertise, information, consultation, arguments, and strategies on the topics of institutionalization, women’s and gender studies as well as equal opportunities measures with regard to university careers and structures



• an expanded, innovative and interdisciplinary range of courses/on studies on the topic of women’s and gender studies



• know-how, personality development, career planning, and raising the awareness of students and academics



• information on female experts in women’s and gender studies topics, contacts, support in initiating cooperations, and publication support services



• PR for the otherwise not so obvious achievements of university members in the field of women’s and gender studies and the opportunity for female academics to present themselves, the transfer of up-to-date research results in women’s and gender studies, information, and access to recent scholarly findings for the interested public

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Objectives

The Coordination Centre for Women’s Studies, Gender Research and Affirmative Action for Women has three main fields of activity:

• First, the promotion of equal opportunities for women and men by means of measures that go beyond and supplement the legally established protection against discrimination, such as equal opportunity human resources development and initiatives for organizational structures that are more gender-fair.



• The second field of activity concerns the equal opportunities aspects of the contents of research and teaching: The Co-ordination Centre supports and expands the research and teaching activities of women’s and gender studies.



• and thirdly: It provides co-ordination, information and PR services to academics and students with focus on gender studies.

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Target groups (participants)

• University members



• Young female academics



• students of women’s and gender studies / "Interdisciplinary Gender Studies"
  
  
• students who are taking courses in “Social Competency”



• experts and academics working in and on women’s and gender studies

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International Co-operations

• Network ATHENA - Advanced Thematic Network in Activities in Women's Studies in Europe, sponsored by the European Commission



• AOIFE - Association of Institutions for Feminist Education and Research in Europe



• WISE – Women’s International Studies Europe

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Team

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Special Offers and Services

Courses offered in women’s and gender studies: Measures for expansion (visiting professorships, interdisciplinary lecture series etc.) and systematization/ modularization, curriculum development

• continuous expansion of the number of courses offered internationalization (co-operations, visiting faculty, integration into international networks)



• systematization, modularization, and curriculum development



• organization of inter-faculty teaching on women’s and gender studies



• infrastructural support (literature, media etc.)

Publications and events

• publications (anthologies etc.)



• events on different topics of women’s and gender studies
  (book presentations, conferences etc.)
  

Continuing education offers

• Planning and implementation of continuing education units (seminars and workshops, continuing education materials) on the topics



• equal opportunities and gender mainstreaming



• (women-related) key qualifications, personality development, and expanding competencies with regard to how academic institutions work



• know how in organizing one’s own research as well as
  fundraising for research
  

Consultations and information materials, databases on the topics of

• women’s and gender studies in the individual study programs / within Master´s programm
  and the integration of women’s and gender studies into the different study programs



• university careers, research support, equal opportunities measures and affirmative action for women

Information materials

• Online accessible database (documentation of German academic literature on the situation of women in the academic world)



• Online accessible database on female academics and their teaching and research focuses (contact information, more than 400 entries, German-speaking area )

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Academic advisory board of the Coordination Centre

The Coordination Centre for Women’s Studies, Gender Research and Affirmative Action for Women is supported by an academic advisory board made up of experts from different fields in women’s and gender studies.

Composition of the Advisory Board

• One member from each of the faculties of the University of Graz or of the other universities (Graz University of Technology, University of Music and Dramatic Arts, Medical University Graz) 1 member per university
  
+ 1 additional member for the Faculty of Humanities


the professor for gender sociology


1 member from each of the 4 working groups for equal opportunity of the participating universities


2 members engaged in women’s and gender studies from outside the university


• 2 student members

Functions and task

• incorporation of the interests, expectations and wishes of the target groups

• planning and discussing of projects and priorities

• review and selection of inter-faculty teaching positions in women’s and gender studies

• improving the co-ordination of the teaching of women’s and gender studies

• Aigner-Rollett Visiting Professorship

• issue statements on the progress report, and evaluation of the Coordination Centre's work

• to be available for questions of a specialist natur

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Aigner-Rollett Visiting Professorship for Women’s and
Gender Studies

The Aigner-Rollett Visiting Professorship is a professorial position on the topic of women’s and gender studies: In co-operation with the Coordination Centre for Women’s Studies, Gender Research and Affirmative Action for Women in Graz, faculties of the University of Graz, Graz University of Technology, the University of Music and Dramatic Arts as well as the Medical University Graz have the opportunity to appoint a female gender studies expert for a one-semester visiting professorship according to a rotation system.

The courses that come about in this way have an interdisciplinary character and are also suited for students who come from faculties and universities that are not immediately involved.
Thus, students are given the chance to get to know women’s and gender studies from the point of view of different faculties and disciplines. The visiting professorship is both a contribution to the promotion of women in the academy and a contribution to the structuring of the courses’ content in the innovative field of women’s and gender studies.

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Professorship in Sociology of Gender Relations

Winter semester 2005/06 marked an important milestone for the University of Graz in that the Institute of Sociology appointed its first professorship for women’s and gender studies. The new professorship, which focuses on sociology and interdisciplinary gender studies, was filled by Prof. Angelika Wetterer in October 2005.
The “Sociology of Gender Relations” is an interfaculty professorship established at the Institute of Sociology in the context of interdisciplinary women's and gender studies. Its field of activity includes teaching and research on the topic of the “Sociology of Gender Relations“ as well as involvement in interdisciplinary cooperations as part of women’s and gender studies in Graz.

The University of Graz has broken new ground by establishing this professorship since this new position has an interdisciplinary orientation while at the same time maintaining its roots in sociology. This “two-pronged” approach will also guide Prof. Wetterer’s work in Graz.

More detailed information at:
http://www.uni-graz.at/geschlechtersoziologie/

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“Interdisciplinary Gender Studies”

Options for Studying Gender Studies at KFU Graz:

• Master´s Program "Interdisciplinary Gender Studies“
• Master´s Program "Joint Degree Gender Studies"
• Several courses within free elective courses
• Within elective courses bound to curricula

Starting in winter semester 2007/08, the “Interdisciplinary Gender Studies” Master´s program in Graz provides graduates holding different Bachelor's degrees with profound scientific knowledge and the competency to act according to equal opportunities for both sexes. Graduates of this program are in the position to analyze the latest changes in gender relations, to discuss their consequences in the development of theories and social practice, and to work out possible changes.

This is particularly important in the current phase of social upheaval in which work and life undergo fundamental restructuring.

In winter semester 2009/10, the "Joint Degree Gender Studies" Master´s program started in cooperation with University of Bochum, Germany, bringing foward the options on student´s mobility .

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Equality oriented human resources development

The objective of equal opportunity human resources development is to establish a gender-symmetrical organizational culture at the university. One strategy is to promote young female academics. The Coordination Centre for Women’s Studies, Gender Research and Affirmative Action for Women has developed target-oriented know-how.
Offers / assortment:

• Career program for young female academics – competencies, strategies and networks
  
• Orientation workshop on the topic “Careers for Women: University Teacher”
  

further informations

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