PhD-Scholars

Nihan Duran

Research Interests: Gender Studies, (Forced) Migration Studies, Intersectionality, Labour Market and Social Policies

Current Project: Chances, Choices and Strategies of Refugee Women in the Labour Market in Germany: An Intersectional Approach

Nihan Duran is awarded the Diploma of the International Baccalaureate (IB), at the American Collegiate Institute, Izmir. She holds a dual bachelor's degree in International Relations (Anadolu University), and American Culture and Literature, along with a minor degree in German Translation and Interpretation (Ege University). She received her M.A. degree in the International Relations departement at Istanbul Bilgi University with her thesis, Living in 'the State of Exception:' Experiences of Syrian Refugees in Berlin (2019). She has also visited Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) as an exchange student. Her research article titled "Dual Discrimination of Syrian Refugee Women in the Labour Markets in Europe and Turkey: Identifying the Challenges" wins the prize at the competition organized by the Jean Monnet Chair at the European Institute of Istanbul Bilgi University and is published by the Journal of Social Policy Conferences in December 2018. She currently works on her doctoral research project as scholar of the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung at the Doctoral College on Intersectionality. 

Louisa Kamrath

Research Interests: Intersectionality, Gender Studies, Queer Theory, Material Feminism, Class Discrimination, Embodied Cognition, Social Theory, Social Justice

Current Project: Bodies, Class, Cognition. Understanding embodiment as an analytical category for social injustices.

Louisas Promotionsvorhaben soll als empiriegestützte Theoriearbeit der Idee einer verkörperten Erzählung einen Rahmen verleihen. Dabei werden die Forschungsperspektiven von Narrativität und Embodied Cognition zu einer Theorie der verkörperten Erzählung zusammengedacht. Leitend ist die Frage nach den Bedingungen und Begrenzungen von Agency innerhalb spezifischer
Erzählungen in der (Bourdieuschen) Klasse.
Durch episodische Interviews mit Frauen* in prekären Arbeitsverhältnissen, ausgewertet durch die Metaphernanalyse nach Uwe Flick, soll insbesondere der durch die Klasse vermittelte Determinismus in Denken und Handeln thematisiert und problematisiert werden.
Die Kombination von intersektionaler Verschränkung der Möglichkeitsbedingungen durch die Klasse mit Embodimenttheorien soll den Diskurs um Intersektionalität und soziale Ungleichheit um den Begriff der Verkörperung erweitern.

Jody Metcalfe

Research Interests: Intersectionality, Critical Race Theory, Cultural Identity, Theories of Belonging, Whiteness, Racism, Racialisation, Identity Construction, Mixed-Race Identity, Post-colonialism, African Feminism, Decolonisation.

Geographical Area: South Africa

Current Project: Representations of Mixed-Race Identity in Post-Apartheid South Africa Literature

This research project seeks to unpack the ways in which mixed-race characters are represented in post-apartheid literature. Through a lens of intersectionality and critical race theory, I analyse five South African novels written within and based on the post-apartheid context. My research also considers the impact of settler colonialism and the legacies of apartheid, white supremacy, sexualisation and racialisation, systems of heteropatriarchy, and post-apartheid nationalist ideology. The three analysis chapters are organised into three spheres of intersectionality, namely, personal, social and political. It specifically locates the representation of these mixed-race characters in the narrative world within the historical legacies of processes of racialisation in the post-apartheid setting. By using an intersectional approach, my research seeks to enhance debates around the experiences of first-generation mixed-race South Africans, who construct their identity within the post-apartheid space through their representation in the narrative world, and more specifically, how structures of power like white heteropatriarchy are reproduced in the narrative world as well.

Further Information: Academic CV