Contemporary Queer Histories in German-speaking Europe

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Martin Lücke
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 456415389

The research network „Contemporary Queer Histories in German-speaking Europe“ will enhance the visibility and the impact of a theoretically productive and internationally established field of study that has so far received at best scarce attention within German, Austrian and Swiss historiography: research on changing sexual subjectivities, practices and discourses since 1945 up to the turn of the twenty-first century that traces and emphasizes the role non-normative sexual and gender identities played for the social construction of sexual norms. The network will systematically assess what is currently going on within field, link different research strands with one another by way of synthesis and generate fresh vistas for future research, especially by looking at the conflicting narratives that have informed the history of homosexualities so far: liberalization, emancipation and normalization.Based on existing research and the aforementioned approaches of contemporary queer histories the network will discuss theories, methodologies and various essential themes. The results of this collaborative process will be published in a three-volume handbook in open access and in both German and English. This publication will facilitate further research across the world by making fundamental knowledge accessible and by raising original questions that will inspire future studies. A possible model for this could be the Enyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History in America (Stein 2004). The handbook’s three volumes will address Spaces; Belongings and Exclusions; as well as Activism and Politics. They will systematically summarize and discuss existing studies, highlight lacunae where further research is needed and above all devise fresh perspectives that will engender future endeavors. While previous research has primarily focused on the Federal Republic of Germany, our handbook will broaden the purview to include the contemporary queer histories of the German Democratic Republic and to ask for entanglements between both German states as well as with Austria and Switzerland. All this will be places in a global context, considering all kinds of transnational transfers and exchanges. The volumes will also move beyond the long dominant focus on male homosexuality and also look at lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex experiences. Above that, intersectional perspectives will be foregrounded which consider questions around sexual and gender identity, class, race, disability and other arenas for social and cultural hegemonies simultaneously. The concepts under which the three volumes will assemble their contributions allow for highlighting the strengths of current research, for pinpointing themes and questions that have so far not received sufficient attention, and for developing directions for the future of what will surely continue to be a thriving field of academic knowledge production.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks