Page - 180 - in Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies - Conference Proceedings of the 17th STS Conference Graz 2018

professors and renowned gender studies textbook authors Nina Degele, Sabine Hark and Paula Irene Villa (Kutschera, 2016: 52-55). The German gender studies have started to react to these developments. There were some lecture series, conferences and workshops about the topic, for example in October 2017 at Frankfurt a conference titled „Feminism and the public sphere”1. While some gender studies researchers avoid confrontation arguing that they, as scientists, are not rhetorically trained for talk shows or other non-scientific contexts, and thus, participation at such events would be counterproductive, others, like professors Sabine Hark, Paula Irene Villa, and head of the administrative office of the German government´s report on equality Regina Frey, promote interventions also on the media and public level2. At the 18th December 2017, some members of the German society for gender studies decided to launch a concerted media action called #4gender studies: different institutes and centres for gender research twittered about their work or why they thought gender studies are valuable, also of course provoking reactions from antifeminist actors like the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland), Germany´s new populist extreme right-wing party. The outcome of this action was discussed at the Workshop #4gender studies taking place in April 2018 at Berlin. It was debated how to pursue a media strategy and it was agreed on proactive actions instead of merely re-acting to populist attacks. It was decided to repeat the #4genderstudies media action also in 2018. Background and Networks As far as my current findings show, inside of academia the gender critics scientists have little power of interpretation regarding the topic of gender studies – as interviews with spokespersons of several scientific associations (e.g. the German associations of theology, sociology, mathematics and economics) show. However, the criticism on the part of academics have to be considered in the broader context of the political and societal backlash which is experienced not only in Germany, but also in Austria, other European countries and the US. Therefore, gender studies were at the same time also assaulted by right-wing populists, for example authors like Birgit Kelle (2015) or Akif Pirinçci (2015), by journalists of conservative newspapers like the editor of the influential conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) Volker Zastrow (2006), by the “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD), who in their program demand the abolition of gender studies (Alternative für Deutschland 2017: 22), and by conservative movements like the “Demo für Alle” which fights against the “sexualization of kids” and against gay-marriage3. It can be noted that the gender critic argumentations of scientists have an impact on these public discourses. Academics are ascribed high authority and the scientific discourse level works as a “superstructure”, as philosopher Arnold Gehlen (1957) has stated, which means as an instance of final justification. To have an impact outside the scientific community also seems to be a central aim of the gender-critic scientists: most of their texts address a non-scientific target audience. They are mostly not published in scientific journals, but as popular scientific 1 See the homepage of the conference https://feminismusundoffentlichkeit2017.wordpress.com/. 2 Source: informal conversations and interviews. 3 See their homepage, https://demofueralle.wordpress.com/. 180