Page - 176 - in Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies - Conference Proceedings of the 17th STS Conference Graz 2018

“Genderism is junk science!” Gender studies as object of academic criticism and hate speech NÄSER-LATHER, Marion Philipps-University Marburg, Germany In Germany, the academic subject of gender studies has been attacked recently not only by right-wing movements, parties, and masculinists, but also by fellow-members of the scientific community. In the following, I will analyse this group of critics, their argumentation and their networks. My paper presents findings of my ongoing research, which is part of the interdisciplinary project “Crisis of gender relations? Antifeminism as a threat to social integration” (REVERSE), funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) conducted at the Centre for Gender Studies of Philipps-University, Marburg. I have researched the antifeminist discourses within the scientific community on the basis of a discourse analysis (following Jaeger 2009) of statements by scientists who criticize Gender Studies, as well as an analysis of their reception in online and offline media, theme-centred interviews (based on Witzel 2000, and Schorn 2000) with some of the critics themselves, with gender researchers who have been attacked, with representatives of scientific associations, and participant observations (see Schmidt-Lauber 2007) at events of conservative/right wing groups and movements. Name field papers citations h_index g_index Prof. Dr. Gerhard Amendt Sociology 71 401 10 16 Prof. Dr. Günter Buchholz Economics and Consulting 137 1349 17 35 Dr. habil. Heike Diefenbach Sociology, Ethnology 94 2438 23 48 Prof. Dr. Hanna-Barbara Gerl- Falkovitz Philosophy, political science 74 101 5 7 Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kutschera Plants physiology and evolution biology 135 2278 28 45 Prof. Dr. Axel Meyer Zoology, evolution biology More than one result -> manual check1 Prof. Dr. Harald Seubert Philosophy, Theology 167 80 4 4 Prof. Dr. Manfred Spieker Christian social sciences 153 431 9 15 Prof. Dr. Manfred Spreng Neurosciences 40 310 10 16 Dr. Alexander Ulfig Philosophy, Sociology 33 330 7 18 Table 1: Scientists who criticize Gender Studies: Impact analysis 1 Since the name “Axel Meyer” refers to more than one scientists within google scholar search, an impact analysis via “publish or perish” was not possible. Thus, I´ve taken into account the number of publications and the fact that Axel Meyer has received national and international awards to justify the decision of selecting him as scientist with possible power of interpretation (see his CV at the website of the University of Konstanz, https:/ /www.evolutionsbiologie-uni-konstanz.com/prof-dr-axel-meyer.html [30 April 2018]). 176