Aspects of Sex and Gender

News from "Gender in Focus"

Winter semester 2025/26
Aspects of Sex and Gender
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Published: | By: Gender in Focus

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"Gender in Focus" - Events: A review

In Focus: Anita Thaler

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We can look back on an eventful six months: the "In Focus" event series kicked off in the summer semester 2025 with six lectures in which the speakers gave interesting insights into their sex and gender-specific research.

The speakers were:

  • Diana Lengersdorf (Gender Sociology, Bielefeld University): "Networking, centring and keeping gender research open. Examples from NRW"
  • Anita Thaler (Interdisciplinary Research Center for Technology, Work and Culture, Graz): "Generating 'robust knowledge' through gender- and diversity-sensitive research - from successful individual examples to a lived organisational strategy"
  • Sarah Jäger (Systematic Theology/Ethics, University of Jena): "Beyond Patriarchy? Approaches of feminist and queer theologies"
  • Adrian Simpson, Melanie Weirich, Nato Sulaberidze, Inke Henneberger, Riccarda Funk (Speech Studies and Phonetics, University of Jena): "Women speak differently - men too! Social and biological influences on the vocal expression of sex and gender"
  • Holger Cartarius (Didactics of Physics and Astronomy, University of Jena): "Gender-equitable Physics teaching. What does the research say about it?"
  • Sarah Ganss (Historical Pedagogy and Global Education, University of Jena): "Gender in Education. Impulses for a difference-sensitive Educational Science"
In Focus: Sprechwissenschaften und Phonetik

In Focus: Sprechwissenschaften und Phonetik

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Another highlight was the symposium "Perspectives on Sex and Gender in Medicine" on 11 June, which was organised by PD Dr Ivonne Löffler (Jena University Hospital (JUH)) with the support of "Gender in Focus" and was a great success both in terms of the quality and diversity of the contributions and the number of participants.

Finally, the symposium "Out of Concept" on 24 October proved to be particularly important for the work in the project: A particular challenge in supporting gender and gender-sensitive research is that the terms "sex" and "gender" are used differently in the various research areas. These diverse perspectives were discussed intensively on this day by researchers from the University of Jena from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.

Upcoming dates

Notice

You may have already noticed by clicking on the links: the project website has recently been relaunched and is now more clearly organised, particularly with regard to our service and funding offers. We are happy to accept your suggestions and requests for further improvements to our website - just send us a message to: gib@uni-jena.de.

Promotion and support

A central goal of "Gender in Focus" is to honour and raise the profile of sex and gender-sensitive research at the University of Jena. To this end, the "Gender Aspects in Focus" sponsorship award was established, which in future will be awarded once a year as part of the Schiller Day celebrations in the two categories "Doctoral Thesis" and "Advanced Researcher". This year saw the first award ceremony and the prize was presented for a total of four outstanding research achievements. The call for applications for the "Gender Aspects in Focus 2026" prize is expected to be published on the project's website in January.

Another aim of the project is the targeted funding of research projects in which sex and/or gender aspects are to be (even) more strongly focussed. The "Gender in Focus" promotion funds were established for this purpose and, like the funding award, are tendered for call for applications once a year. A total of fourteen projects de are being supported in the current funding round, and a conference report is already available for one project in the field of speech sciences. The call for applications for 2026 is expected to be published on the project's promotion fund website in January.

Podcast "People in focus"

GiF-Podcast: Oliver Werz

GiF-Podcast: Oliver Werz

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January 2026 sees the launch of the podcast series "People in Focus. How sex and gender make research better" (in German). Over the past few weeks, Jana George and Falk Bornmüller have spoken to researchers from various disciplines to find out what role the consideration of sex and gender aspects plays in the respective research areas. Stay curious!

New ambassador for "Gender in Focus"

From left to right: GiF-Messenger Ivonne Löffler, Staff Memberss Falk Bornmüller and Jana George at the JSMM-Symposium "Perspectives on Sex and Gender in Medicine"

From left to right: GiF-Messenger Ivonne Löffler, Staff Memberss Falk Bornmüller and Jana George at the JSMM-Symposium "Perspectives on Sex and Gender in Medicine"

Image: Inka Rodigast

In August, we welcomed PD Dr Ivonne Löffler from Jena University Hospital (JUH) as a new ambassador, representing the LIFE profile alongside Oliver Werz. With Ivonne Löffler, the "Gender in Focus" project has gained a committed personality who has made an excellent name for herself in the field of gender-specific medical research: This year, the research group leader at the Nephrology Research Laboratory of the Department of Internal Medicine III was honoured for her work with the Paul Kimmelstiel Project Award as well as the inaugural "Gender Aspects in Focus 2025" funding award. In addition, Ivonne Löffler organised the symposium "Perspectives on Sex and Gender in Medicine" in cooperation with "Gender in Focus", which met with an extraordinary response from the specialist audience.

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