As the Vice Dean's Office for Academic Development and Equal Opportunities at the Faculty of Medicine, it is important to us to integrate gender and diversity aspects more strongly into the degree program. Medical students who are interested in gender in medicine should also have the opportunity to deepen their interest. To this end, we offer students the following opportunities.

GeStiK lecture series

The queer-feminist lecture series of Gender Studies in Cologne (GeStiK) and Queer Studies at the Academy of Media Arts has been held for over 20 semesters on various topics. 

In the winter semester 2023/24, the lecture series was organized jointly with the Faculty of Medicine on the topic of "Gender and/or in Medicine - Intersectional Diagnoses and Findings". An excerpt from the program description:

Social, socio-cultural and biological classifications and categorizations mean that people suffer from different illnesses, that illnesses occur with different frequencies and are also perceived and treated differently. Sex/gender, gender, sexuality and sexual identities continue to play a central role in the healthcare system, both as medical norms/standards and for access to treatment and the impossibilities/possibilities of medicalization. For example, what does a still prevalent binary understanding of gender mean for mental and physical health (care)?

With a critical view of power, we want to question structures and norms that (can) lead to discrimination. An interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge on the different understandings of gender and health is intended to stimulate discussion and bring together findings from psychology, social and cultural sciences, law and medicine.

Thursday 16.00 - 17.30h
Lecture hall building (building 105), lecture hall G

Further information can be found here. The archive of past lecture series can be found here. 

Biological, social and socio-cultural conditions mean that people suffer from different illnesses, that illnesses occur with different frequencies and are also perceived and treated differently. In this seminar, various aspects of biological and social genders, as well as sexualities in connection with social and medical norms, access to treatment and medicalization will be addressed. An interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge and lively discussions about gender in the sense of biology (sex) and in the sense of social identity (gender) are the aims of this seminar.

The elective seminar "Gender & Medicine" is aimed at medical students from the first clinical semester as well as students from all other faculties.

The course offers the opportunity to gain recognition points for the Gender Certificate.

Due to the increasing interest in sex, gender and diversity aspects in medicine, scientists from various disciplines have joined forces and established the Sex, Gender and Diversity in Medical Research working group at our faculty. 

The current goals of the working group are:

• to obtain an overview of medical research including sex, gender and diversity aspects and to make this available to the faculty and the public.
• to increase awareness of sex-, gender- and diversity-specific phenomena in medicine.
• to promote cooperation between scientists on campus in the future, to acquire joint third-party funding - and ultimately to contribute to knowledge in this field that will enrich precision medicine in the future.
• to provide students with an overview of possible contact persons for doctoral or other scientific work.

Five subgroups have been formed so far:

• WG Biological/sex aspects in oncology, head: Prof. Dr. Alexander Quaas (alexander.quaasuk-koeln.de)
• WG Neurological and psychiatric diseases, head: PD Dr. Haidar Dafsari (haidar.dafsariuk-koeln.de)
• WG Methodologies, Strategies, head: Prof. Dr. Maria Cristina Polidori (maria.polidori-nellesuk-koeln.de)
• WG Sex Differences in Infectious Diseases (Sex-ID), head: Prof. Dr. Clara Lehmann (clara.lehmannuk-koeln.de)
• WG Diversity and Intersectionality in Health (DiveIn in Health), contact: Zoë Lüddecke (zoe.lueddeckeuk-koeln.de)

If you would like to participate in a working group, you are welcome to contact the respective working group leader.

The dates for the next meetings can be found on the working group website. If you are interested in participating or have any further questions, comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us at DEK-AkadEntw-ChanGeuk-koeln.de.

Gender Studies Certificate - GeStiK

Since the summer semester 2013, B.A. students from all subject areas are able to acquire a Gender Studies certificate as part of the Studium Integrale. This additional qualification is a supplement to the degree course and certifies the acquisition of basic knowledge of gender and queer studies on a theoretical, methodological and epistemological level. The range of courses includes a variety of interdisciplinary seminars and lectures. The certificate can be started at any time and without separate registration.

Structure of the certificate:

12 Credit Points (these are made up of 4 courses, each of which has been passed with 3 credit points)

• 2 basic seminars or 1 basic seminar and 1 lecture series: Introduction to formative theories, perspectives and history of movement
• 2 advanced seminars on practices, policies and phenomena of classifications, hierarchizations, difference(s), inequalities,...

A detailed list of all courses at the UoC in the current semester that can be taken and credited as part of the Gender Studies certificate, as well as course catalogs from previous semesters and further information can be found here.

Master's degree program in Gender and Queer Studies

At the University of Cologne, GeStiK is the central cross-faculty institution responsible for establishing a Master's degree course in Gender and Queer Studies. This is supported by all faculties of the university and is being realized in cooperation with the Cologne University of Applied Sciences, the German Sport University Cologne and the Cologne University of Music and Dance. The single-subject Master's degree course offers students from various disciplines research-oriented profiling opportunities from the broad fields of (applied) social and educational sciences, humanities and cultural sciences, natural and technical sciences, law, medicine, sports sciences, economics and the arts.

The thematic subject of the Master's degree program is the negotiation of "gender" and "sexuality" concepts, which are examined from different theoretical, methodological and system-competent perspectives and thereby convey diverse, mutually complementary (inter-)disciplinary approaches. The theoretical frame of reference is spanned by international gender studies and queer studies and at the same time expanded by application-oriented knowledge. This knowledge space is unique in the German academic landscape.

Important: The Master's degree program usually starts in the winter semester. Applications are submitted electronically via an online portal between June and July. You can find more detailed information and the link to the application portal here.

General inquiries: master-gender-queer[at]uni-koeln.de

Study program coordination: j.scholz[at]uni-koeln.de

Office:

Room: 0B 06 (Entrance Aachener Str. 217)
Adress: Richard-Strauss-Str. 2, 50931 Köln
Phone: 0221-470-1277
Fax: 0221-470-1275

E-Mail: gestik-sekretariat(at)uni-koeln.de