Bourdieu-Lectures: Geschlecht – Herrschaft – Visualität

The lectures will sadly be only in German.

Conference announcement and Call for Contributions and Call for Workshops

Bielefeld University is hosting the Bourdieu Lectures for the first time on November 19 and 20, 2025 in the Kunsthalle Bielefeld. The Bourdieu Lectures are a new academic event format organized in close cooperation with the Fondation Bourdieu. The aim of the conference is to systematically analyze Pierre Bourdieu’s comprehensive work, to discuss its relevance for contemporary research and to stimulate current theoretical and methodological developments. The thematic focus of the first conference will be on the concept of gender domination, which will be discussed both from a theoretical perspective and in the context of empirical studies.

The conference program will include keynotes (with Andrea Maihofer, Tomke König and Franz Schultheis, among others), panels and workshops. The conference will give young researchers the opportunity to present their work and engage in an exchange of ideas. In addition, the accompanying exhibition in the Kunsthalle Bielefeld will open with thematically relevant photographs from Bourdieu’s ethnographic research in Algeria, offering visual insights into his methodological approach and focusing on Bourdieu’s visual sociology, among other things.

Bourdieus Perspektive auf gesellschaftliche Geschlechterverhältnisse hat die intersektionale Geschlechterforschung inspiriert und über die Verbindung zur Macht- und Ungleichheitsperspektive zur empirischen Genderforschung beigetragen. Das Konferenzprogramm umfasst Beiträge zur theoretischen Weiterentwicklung von Bourdieus Begriffen wie symbolische Gewalt, Habitus und Doxa sowie zur empirischen Analyse geschlechtsspezifischer Machtstrukturen. Eingeladen zur Einreichung sind Beiträge, die eigene Schwerpunkte setzen oder die genannten Themenbereiche adressieren:

Bourdieu’s perspective on social gender relations has inspired intersectional gender research and contributed to empirical gender research through its connection to the perspective of power and inequality. The conference program includes contributions on the theoretical development of Bourdieu’s concepts such as symbolic violence, habitus and doxa as well as on the empirical analysis of gender-specific power structures. Contributions are invited that set their own priorities or address the topics mentioned:

Symbolic violence and gender doxa

• Reproduction of gender order through symbolic mechanisms
• Habitus and the embodiment of social hierarchies
• Deconstruction of gender doxa in different societies

Capital, domination and heteronormativity

• Gender-specific distribution of economic, cultural and symbolic capital
• Hegemony of male domination and social reproduction
• Heteronormativity as a stabilizing element of gender order

Social space, rituals and materiality of the gender order

• Spatial structuring and gender-specific practice
• Significance of material culture for gender hierarchies
• Historical and intercultural perspectives on symbolic domination

Current debates on gender theory and Bourdieu’s relevance today

• Critical reflection and further development of Bourdieu’s gender theory
• Intersectional perspectives on symbolic violence
• Gender policy implications and social transformation
• Feminist connections to Bourdieu in social theory and social movements

We hereby invite scholars at all career stages. Ideas can be formulated for individual contributions, poster presentations or workshops. Theoretical, methodological and empirical work that criticizes, develops or applies Bourdieu’s concepts is welcome. Interdisciplinary perspectives are expressly encouraged.

Submissions:

Abstracts of approx. 500 words (for individual contributions) or approx. 1,000 words (workshops) must be submitted by May 15, 2025
Please send your contributions to: bourdieu-lectures@uni-bielefeld.de
Feedback will be provided by June 15, 2025 at the latest.
We look forward to an exciting exchange at the Bourdieu-Lectures in Bielefeld!