Body and gender are part of the conditio humana: a gendered body is intrinsic to every human being and is often a determining factor in shaping individual identity. However, to regard this as a biological constant is insufficient. Rather, body and gender are powerful categories that can be used to justify and literally embody social orders. At the same time, this social order acts upon the bodies subjected to it: bodily techniques are trained, bodies disciplined, and supposedly natural gender roles learned. The historical variability in this regard is considerable: depending on culture and time period, notions of “bodies” as well as conceptions of femininity and masculinity – or of gender categories beyond this dichotomy – differ significantly. Yet bodies are not merely passively shaped objects: on the one hand, they possess a material resistance that places limitations on cultural imprinting and efforts to discipline them ; on the other hand, they are also bearers of ‘agency’ and thus have the potential to transform the very structures they embody through their actions.
The research cluster brings various ongoing research projects at the History Department into a cross-epochal dialogue. The aim is to examine the historical contingency of bodies (particularly with regard to boundaries such as notions of nature or animals) and the variability of gender, a category closely linked to corporeality.
