(Epistemology, post-human, new media)
This strand focuses on recent feminist theoretical insights, and on the way in which they relate to the canon of feminist theory and to developments in contemporary cultural theory more broadly. Gender studies at Utrecht University has the reputation of being at the forefront of new feminist and postcolonial theory formation, concerning ontology and epistemology, ethics and aesthetics, and feminist theory and its applied character.
The research group positions itself in debates on among other issues new media, science, and technology studies; human rights and post-humanism; the diverse schools in feminist epistemology; and the ‘turns’ in the humanities. ‘Doing gender’ or ‘gendering’ reveals a distinctive conceptual stance: we are interested in the contextua-lized and processual study of gender in its entanglement with ‘race’/ethnicity, sexuality, age, and so on. This we take to be a third-wave feminist perspective: the third wave is not about arguing against the second wave, but rather about revisiting and revitalizing its theoretical and political legacy.
Members of the research group participate in Utrecht University’s research focus areas Cultures and Identities, and Origins and Impacts of Institutions.