The Jenny Gusyk ‘Gender Equality Award’ in the amount of 3,000 euros was awarded to Vice-Dean Professor Dr Elke Kalbe and the team of the Vice-Dean's Office for Academic Development and Gender at the Faculty of Medicine with Viola Kelb, Dr Vanessa Ramotzky, Kübra Yilamz and Lucas Jungbluth. Among other things, the award honoured the establishment of the Anti-Discrimination Network, which provides support in cases of discrimination via so-called ‘trust teams’ consisting of 15 peer advisors. In addition, Vice-Dean Kalbe regularly informs the Faculty about discrimination and contact points and sensitizes staff members with a leadership role in particular by discussing anonymous examples of case studies. The prize was awarded because the project serves as a best practice example, and the dedication it entails can have an exemplary effect on the university's Faculties.
The Jenny Gusyk Prize ‘Family-Conscious Leadership & Mangement’ in the amount of 1,000 euros was awarded to Professor Dr Matthias Grünke, chair holder of the Conception and Evaluation of School Support with Focus on Learning chair at the Faculty of Human Sciences. Professor Grünke is honoured for the exemplary support of his students. Due to their diverse life situations, backgrounds and needs – in many cases, they are taking responsibility for their families – many students are struggling with specific challenges in successfully completing their Master's degree in Special Education. As head of his team, Professor Grünke ensures a sensitive, supportive approach and promotes working on an equal footing in his team, too. For him, this particularly includes taking responsibility for each other and, for example, standing in for one’s colleagues in the event of family-related obstacles.
This year, the Jenny Gusyk ‘Young Scientists Award’ of 1,000 euros was awarded to two outstanding scientific theses in the field of gender and queer studies. The prizes are endowed with 500 euros each. This year, Ian Boes was honoured for the Master’s thesis ‘Re/Wind: Hauntological video games, spatiotemporal exploration and materialized virtuality’ and Egzona Gashi for the Master’s thesis ‘Between open-mindedness and the power of injury: Women as objects and subjects of warfare and military violence’. Ian Boes analysed how our immersion in digital game worlds (here using the video game The Rewinder as an example) can open up and renegotiate questions of experience and being in relation to space and time, body and imagination. Egzona Gashi’s thesis analyses the actions of international politics and essentialist notions of gender. Recognizing that sexual violence is a war crime, the work highlights the complexity of female modes of subjectivation and advocates both a deconstruction of naturalized and patriarchal gender perceptions and narratives that make women visible as political subjects capable of taking action.
The prizes were awarded as part of the annual GenderForum of the University of Cologne on 27 November. In addition, it provided all interested parties with an insight into the developments promoting gender equality at the university. Professor Dr Susanne Zank was welcomed as the new Vice-Rector for Anti-Discrimination and Equal Opportunities. This year, the focus of the event was ‘Working on Intersectional Gender Equality’.
Media Contact:
Judith Arnau
Central Gender Equalities Officer
+49 221 470 4830
gleichstellungsbeauftragte
gb.uni-koeln.de
Press and Communications Team:
Jan Voelkel
+49 221 470 2356
j.voelkelverw.uni-koeln.de
Further information:
https://gb.uni-koeln.de/jenny_gusyk_awards/index_eng.html