Gender Diversity Certificate for Master Students

Information for teachers and students:

The master’s program complementary studies at the Leuphana University Lüneburg is not just inter- and transdisciplinary, but also conversational. Its goal is, to encourage critical thinking in students and to occupy a comprehensive, reflexive perspective. This is the context in which the Gender-Diversity-Certificate is embedded in the complementary studies of the master’s program. The seminars will be attended by students of various fields of studies and majors. This gives students of the educational sciences, the humanities, the social sciences, sustainability sciences, cultural studies, the natural sciences, economic sciences, and of the sciences of technology, the opportunity to discuss and learn about Gender and Diversity Studies with an interdisciplinary approach. The comprehension of discrimination, structures or practices that foster inequality or societal gender relations is generally not based on a single scientific field of studies, but on a variety of scientific perspectives. They enable specific approaches that complement each other, even if these are not always easy to combine. At the same time, it is the goal of the certificate to aid students in the conversational and critical reflection of their gained insights, while developing personal and social-communicative abilities through respectful discussions in an interdisciplinary context.

We are aware that this might create new challenges for students and teachers. The latter comes from a variety of fields of studies with different prioritizations of gender and diversity research. You are asked to make your teaching content available for a wide target group. From your field of study, you will (among other things) refer to findings in discrimination research, research of racism, research on anti-Semitism, a reflexive, positivist-functionalist or critical-emancipatory oriented diversity research, and women’s- and gender research, research on social inequality or the concept of intersectionality etc. The following questions could be addressed during the seminar:

What do gender- and diversity-oriented perspectives mean, specifically regarding the scientific consideration of various societal fields of action? How does the accessibility of a field of study change, when observed from an intersectional point of view? Are there blind spots (discrimination, inequality/injustice etc.), that become visible when regarded from a new perspective? Which consequences could there be? What does this mean for the configuration and the triggering of societal changes? Which insights and innovative approaches are necessary in the sciences and the research processes, to be able to carry out such a change in perspective?

Students should get to know important questions about justice and inequality from different points of view with the help of the teachers and integrate those in their own research topics. The different disciplinary approaches, questions, and methods of analysis are already a change in perspective, which can be a challenge on their own, though it is mostly an incentive and enrichment.

It is important to us, that the topics and contents of the courses (literature, terminology, privileges, etc.) are continuously discussed and questioned in a constructive-critical manner.

Information for teachers:

As teachers you can make your seminar with connections to gender and diversity research available for the participants of the certificate, by tagging your course just so in myStudy. Should you be interested or have any questions, please contact:

Claudia Echelmeyer (komplementaer.gs@leuphana.de) or

Dr. Anja Thiem (anja.thiem@uni.leuphana.de).

Should any questions surface about or during the courses, please don't hesitate to approach the following contact points:

In addition to the equal opportunities officer and the ombudsperson for students and teachers, there are further contact persons. Generally, every person with managerial or supervision tasks, as well as representatives of the AStA are approachable.

You can find information and services here. The list below can also be downloaded here.

DECENTRALIZED EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES OFFICERS OF THE DEPARTMENTS
They can be found here.

ASTA LÜNEBURG
AStA Website
buero@asta-lueneburg.de

PSYCHOLOGISCHE BERATUNGSSTELLE (PBS) STUDENTENWERK OST NIEDERSACHSEN (FÜR STUDIERENDE)
Online counseling of the psychotherapeutic counseling centre
Michaela Himstedt, Dipl.-Psychologin, Psychologische Psychotherapeuting
Tel.: 0531/391-4935
m.himstedt@stw-on.de

In case of a conflict, we ask you to please contact one of the people/places mentioned above as soon as possible, to commence a conversation, since an early intervention is the best precondition to react to disagreements productively.