Equity@Bauhaus

»Equity at Bauhaus« is an open format to discuss urgent questions of our present: How can we live and learn together carefully and justly - in the world and at the university? How do we conceive, plan, and shape spaces, processes, relationships, and knowledge for the planet and the survival of all its creatures? What sustainable and holistic transformation processes in the domains of living, learning, moving, and managing do we set in motion, and what do we need to that aim?

Our artistic, design, technical, and scientific 'survival skills' are receiving new impulses from gender, cultural, and ethnic theories and practices. We address these with a decolonial and intersectional view in a series of lectures and workshops. The recurring event will take place at the intersection of the environmental debate and feminism, queer theory, race, inclusion, and equality, in relation to the areas of study at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

The interdisciplinary series has been organised together with Prof. Dr. Mona Mahall (Professorship Presentation Methodology in Design).

SESSION 1 - 10 November 2022 (German)
INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE: HOW DO WE WANT TO LIVE TOGETHER?
Time: 18-19:30h
Venue: Kasseturm, Goetheplatz 10
Format: Lecture and Discussion
Guest: Prof. Dr. Sabine Hark (TU Berlin) - »Den Geistern folgen. Epistemische Gewalt und die Aufgabe der Kritik?« (»Following Ghosts: Epistemic Violence and the Task of Criticism?«).

Abstract: Drawing on theory, literature and music, this lecture performance seeks to explore the relationship between knowledge and domination and to redefine the tasks of criticism. The lecture performance takes as its starting point the consideration that domination is not only dependent on knowledge, but it also functions as a form of knowledge. Indeed, it is the knowledge-based matrices of perception, reasoning, evaluation and action that, embedded in our habitus, make us understand both the world and ourselves in terms of domination. The world is given to us to see. The world is just as it is: hierarchically ordered, organised according to the legitimacy of the given limits of the human, divided into chosen and unchosen.

SESSION 2 - 17 November 2022 (English)
THE ART OF NATURE: QUEER FEMINIST ECOLOGIES AND ECOJUSTICE IN ART
Time: 18-19:30h
Venue: Kasseturm, Goetheplatz 10
Format: Round table
Guest: Dr. Lorena Juan (Artist, Berlin) - »The queer feminist art collective COVEN BERLIN and the ecosystem bog as a metaphor for the queer community«. 

Abstract: In her contribution, Lorena Juan will advocate against systemic violence and inequality and for collective political reassessments, emotional and social sustainability through the example of the queer feminist art collective COVEN BERLIN. Founded in 2013, the collective was formed when some queers answered a Craigslist ad. The group nurtures cultural work, in Berlin and online, in the form of embodied affective research and digital hybrid curatorial approaches, always with a breath of humour. Formats of digital and analogue life merge in the process. She will explain what the ecosystem bog as a metaphor for the queer community has to do with this, based on the analogue-digital-multimedia project "Year of a Bog".

SESSION 3 - 08 December 2022 (English)
ARCHITECTURAL UTOPIAS: FEMALE JOURNEYS NOW AND THEN
Time: 18-19:30h
Venue: Oberlichtsaal, Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 8A
Format: Film Screening and discussion with the director
Guest: Wendelien van Oldenborgh (Hfk Bremen), Screening of the film Two Stones (2019) and discussion with the director.

Abstract: The session will consist of screening of van Oldenborgh's film Two Stones followed by a discussion with the film director. The Russian-English language documentary compares the trajectories of German architect and city planner Lotte Stam-Beese and Caribbean Dutch political activist Hermina Huiswoud. The film focuses on two collective housing projects of Stam-Beese: One in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 1930s and the other in the suburbs of Rotterdam in the 1950s. The journeys of both women intersect with Huiswoud's protests in the 1970s on the Rotterdam housing rule that forbade Caribbean Dutch citizens to exceed 5% of the population in a city's district. The film recounts, among other things, how people live there then and how they live there now; their political concerns at the time; and which spaces were thought for women.

SESSION 4 - 12 January 2023 (English)
IS UNIVERSITY A PLACE FOR EVERYONE? RE-MAPPING A SPATIALLY AND SOCIALLY ACCESSIBLE CAMPUS
Time: 18-19:30h
Venue: Oberlichtsaal, Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 8A
Format: Workshop
Guest: Dr. Dagmar Pelger (Udk Berlin) - »Mapping of physical and social barriers on campus and adjacent areas of the Bauhaus University Weimar«.

Abstract: Pelger will open with an introduction of mapping methods as collaborative design tools as well as carto-ethnographic analytical practices in the fields of architecture and urban planning. Together with students and guests, Pelger will map existing barriers on campus and adjacent areas of the Bauhaus University Weimar. We will not just focus on physical barriers for people with disabilities, but also on social and spatial barriers in the campus community.

SESSION 5 - 19 January 2023 (English)
DECOLONIZING THE CITY: INTERSECTIONALITY AND SPACE
Time: 18-19:30h
Venue: Oberlichtsaal, Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 8A
Format: Round table
Guest: Niloufar Tajeri  (TU Berlin) - »Intersectionality and space: A critique of built architectural practices«.

Abstract: Tajeri has worked on racism, migrant experiences in European cities, and the production of knowledge and identities in the context of architecture and sustainable planning processes. As for the topic of the talk, we will discuss the question of intersectionality and space. She will introduce colonial and decolonial epistemologies and then we will focus on examples in urban space and problematize them within the framework of intersectionality and space and architecture. It will be a critique of built architectural practice.

SESSION 6 - 26 January 2023 (English)
DOES TECHNOLOGY BRING EQUALITY? DE-GENDERING TECHNOLOGICAL ARTIFACTS
Time: 18-19:30h
Venue: Oberlichtsaal, Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 8A
Format: Round table
Guest: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl. Math. Corinna Bath (TU Braunschweig) - »Towards (Gender) Just Technological Artifacts and Intelligent Technology. Analyses, Methods, Case Studies«.

Abstract: Bath will identify gendering processes in products, theories, and assumptions of technological artifacts in order to propose technology design methods, which aim at de-gendering technology. For example, in the 1990s language recognition systems were being developed and were tested only with male voices; the system could not even recognise female voices. Or seat belts in cars, which were not designed for the needs of pregnant women. Important questions are: Is technology neutral? What are dimensions and mechanisms of gendering technological artifacts? How can we avoid a perpetuation of the existing gendered order? What does a (gender) neutral technology look like?

SESSION 7 - 02 February 2023 (English)
HATE MEDIA: RACISM IN DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Time: 18-19:30h
Venue: Bauhaus.Atelier (Info Schop Café), Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 8
Format: Round table
Guest: Prof. Dr. Jiré Emine Gözen  (University of Europe) - »Racism and Academic Freedom«.

Abstract: Gözen will deal with racism masquerading as academic freedom and the work of FAM. The Forum Antirassismus Medienwissenschaft (FAM) is a community of researchers, lecturers and students who actively work against structural racism both in academia and society. Gözen will address how racism is often embedded in our philosophy of thinking and what we can do as scholars and students so that academia is not abused by the extreme right-wing. We will discuss examples and find mechanisms to deal with such cases, particularly in media studies. .

Due to possible Covid-19 restrictions in winter, the number of seats may be limited.

The focus of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) lies on the global challenges of climate change and the resulting demand for models of a future which is designed so as to preserve resources. Central questions for the university in this context are: In view of the global challenge of climate change, how can we shape a future together in the intersection of technology, science, art, and design? How can we and how do we want to live together, today and in the future?

It is necessary to consider equity and social justice in order to develop real sustainable practices and to create future-oriented, holistic transformations. An environment worth living in as well as strategies for sustainability can only be implemented consistently and effectively if everybody is included and all perspectives are examined, also those of hitherto marginalised groups. The transformation and rethinking of both our shared future coexistence and our shared work and learning cannot happen without taking diversity and gender equality into account.

In the course of the NEBW, collaboration with all departments and working groups is therefore sought in this context. In the NEBW, the topics covered by the term »equity« should be central and actively considered in all projects - both in terms of the content and the institutional framework. Advisory and training services support the implementation of diversity and equality aspects within the framework of the NEBW. The aim here is to inform those responsible for the project about relevant topics at the interface of diversity, gender equality and climate change and to support them in implementing aspects in research and teaching in a subject- and project-specific manner.

Persons involved:
Miriam Benteler (Diversity Officer), Judith Krischler (Chair of Intelligent Technical Design), Tina Meinhardt (Equal Opportunities Officer), Martina Mellenthin Filardo (Chair of Construction Management and Construction Methods), Christin Sirtl (Chair of Steel and Hybrid Construction, Deputy Equal Opportunities Officer).