300854 Decolonisation in Gender Studies (S) (SoSe 2026)

Decolonisation in gender studies is a multidisciplinary course that examines the intersections of colonial history, power, and identity. It critically explores how colonial legacies have shaped contemporary gender roles and relations, often by imposing Western, patriarchal, and heteronormative structures on colonised societies. The course will cover:

Knowledge Production: Challenging dominant theories and centering indigenous knowledge systems and Global South perspectives. Here, ethics of theorising will also be examined, covering:
- African Feminist Ethics
- Emerging issues in global south masculinities

Intersectionality: Using a framework that accounts for race, class, and coloniality alongside gender to understand complex layers of oppression.

Mediatising Gender and gendering the media: Questioning media as social technology that fosters the male gaze, white gaze among others. Specific attention would be given to:
- disinformation, misinformation and the challenges of digital technologies in decolonization processes.
- Political communication in the global south

Epistemic Justice: Advocating for the "decolonising of the mind" by deconstructing biased representations and myths about women in post-colonial contexts.

Transnational Feminism: Critiquing universalist "saviour" narratives and highlighting local women’s agency and social justice movements.

This seminar is offered by external lecturer Dr Sharon Adetutu Omotoso. Sharon Omotoso is Associate Professor (Gender & Media Studies) based at the University of Ibadan Nigeria, where she heads the Institute's Women's Research and Documentation Centre (WORDOC) and is a member of the Institute's Scientific Committee. She is also Director of the newly inaugurated International Media and Information Literacy Institute (IMILI).

In the summer semester, Dr Sharon Adetutu Omotoso is a Georg Forster Research Fellow for experienced academics at the Institute for Media Studies at Ruhr University Bochum and has accepted a teaching assignment at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University.