Materialität revisited

Over the past few years, materialism has re-emerged as a topic of interest in the context of feminist activism and research. This ‘material turn’ manifests itself in the context of analyses of gender relations, labour, and transnational capitalism as well as in feminist studies of biopolitics and ‘nature’. Materiality is also addressed in feminist theories of sciences which understand bodies and the environment beyond notions of performativity. Furthermore, contemporary global struggles of women in different locations center on material conditions of life, such as access to and the right to food, water, land, labour, health, social security and the right to self-determination regarding one’s body and sexuality.

On the background of the various feminist engagements with materiality, the colloquium aims to critically illuminate the relationship between ‘old’ and ‘new’ materialisms. The former are understood as perspectives that address contemporary phenomena such as transformations of labour, surrogate motherhood, preimplantation diagnostics and egg donation mainly from the viewpoint of historical materialism, while the latter designate recent attempts to engage with materiality and matter from the perspectives of poststructuralism, Science and Technology Studies, Ecology and discourses of the body.