This research cluster (responsible scientist: Prof. Patricia Plummer) brings together research approaches to gender-specific differences and commonalities in perception, representation and (in)visibility of women and men in language and images. The research questions in the represented subjects and disciplines are investigated in literature, art and language as well as in ­society, media and politics. This cluster likewise has an interdisciplinary base and connects historical and contemporary research, which often contains an intercultural perspective.

Cluster members contributed to the preparation of a research unit “Ambiguität und Soziale Ordnung”, the MIWF project “Gleichstellungsbezogene Handlungsorientierungen und Handlungsweisen von ProfessorInnen vor dem Hintergrund gleichstellungspolitischer Regelungen”, which studies attitudes and actions among professors in relation to equal opportunities against the background of equal opportunity regulations (2015–2018), as well as the BMBF project “Ready for Dialogue. Conference on the Gender Dimension in science and research”(2015–2016). Research in this cluster was supported by interdisciplinary and in part international research seminars.

New opportunities for cooperation between the College and the Faculty of Engineering are emerging as a result of the successful acquisition of the DFG Research Training Group 2167 “User- Centred Social Media” with the participation of EKfG members, as well as support for Prof. Nicole Krämer’s chair (Social psychology: Media and Communication including Gender Perspectives in the Handling of new Technologies) as part of the NRW programme for gender-equitable universities.