Feminist Forum: What about love?

As part of our ongoing efforts to foster a community of scholars of gender studies, we are excited to begin the summer semester 2026 with a new format called feminist forum!

The feminist forum is designed to provide a platform for advanced master students, doctoral researchers and post-docs to share their research and engage in discussions with their peers.

The first feminist forum is concerned with love: Love is a complex and multifaceted concept that has been explored from various perspectives in (queer-)feminist and gender theories. From the critique of romantic love and motherhood as a tool of patriarchal control to the celebration of queer love as a form of resistance, scholars have offered a wide range of insights into the nature of love. 

We will hear and talk about three research projects:

• Aline Fehr: Feminist Theories of Love and their Relevance to Political Philosophy

  In my thesis “Feminist Theories of Love and their Relevance to Political Philosophy” I follow a history of ideas approach. Through examining various theories of love by feminist thinkers (such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Emma Goldman, Alexandra Kollontai, Shulamith Firestone, Catherine MacKinnon, Gayle Rubin, Audre Lorde Bell Hooks, Bini Adamczak, and others), I aim to not only show different dis/continuities between those theories but also attempt to illustrate how the different concepts of love relate to political philosophy. My thesis is that, in feminist analysis of love, the boundaries of the political are shifted, and the interconnections between power, crisis, and emancipation become clear. This ambivalent and contradictory space opens up new and relevant perspectives and breaks through dualisms that usually structure political thinking.

• Gwendolin Ott: Construction of the subject in multiple love: A knowledge-sociological discourse analysis of relationship advice books for polyamory

  “Is the search for true love over—and monogamy out?” was the provocative question posed by Der Spiegel in 2024 (Carl 2024). A look at Google Trends and the search history for the term “polyamory” worldwide since 2004 also shows that interest in alternative relationship models has increased. In public discourse, polyamory is often seen as a radical alternative to the monogamous norm. However, my sociological discourse analysis of two popular relationship guides, The Ethical Slut (Easton & Hardy 2021) and Polysecure (Fern 2023), shows that the construction of the polyamorous subject itself is often shaped by contradictory normative expectations. In my master's thesis, completed in 2025, I examined how the polyamorous subject is constructed in popular relationship guides and what expectations are placed on it.

• Lucas Schucht: Love of Masculinity in the Far Right

  In my presentation I will examine the role of (homosexual) love of masculinity in far-right movements and organizations. While male bodies and masculine-coded character traits have often been the subject of adoration in these milieus, openly homosexual relationships between men have mostly been rejected, as they threaten to disrupt ostensibly desexualized homosocial networks of male dominance and run counter to heteronormative family ideals. Nonetheless, there have been several instances of homosexual men as influential figures in far-right and fascist organizations. Using historical and contemporary examples – from Ernst Röhm to Pim Fortuyn and Jack Donovan – I will explore the instrumentalization and (temporary) acceptance of homosexual male identity in far-right spaces and its justification through a love of masculinity.

In the audience, there will be Honours students of the faculty of Social Sciences at Utrecht University, who are visiting Goethe University on a study trip, opening the opportunity for international networking and dialogue.