The initial workshop on “Framing Variance” (April 2016) investigated debates and practices challenging normative implications of gender. Firstly, the aim of the workshop was to investigate an array of approaches to understanding the normative implications of representations of sexuality and gender by comparing different local contexts in relation to globally circulating narratives of gender roles and experiences. The workshop explored similarities and differences in local responses to normative redefinitions of gender identities as well as their representations on local, regional and global scales. A special emphasis was placed on the visual and textual representation and recollection of contested and problematized identities in media, art worlds, academia, museums and archives. A second focus was placed on African, especially South African discourses about gender(ed) identities. Finally, the conference offered a critical interrogation of the concept of “non-normativ gender identities” itself, which inevitably embodies a certain political project, and tried to find new pathways for intellectual discussion as well as empirical observation of the phenomena described above.

The editorial workshop on “Framing Variance” (April 2017) follows-up on these debates and offers the space to discuss and re-work the draft chapters that have been developed out of the individual conference papers.

Program