Forming Trans/sexuality at the Frankfurt Institute for Sexual Science

_{Research project funded by the Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and the Arts in the programme „Dimensionen der Kategorie Geschlecht – Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung in Hessen“} 

The project looks at the formation of trans(sexuality) in Germany, focussing on the Frankfurt Institute for Sexual Science (1973-2006) as a pivotal site for creating understandings and regulations of trans/gender/sex/uality. The project provides a discourse-historical analysis of the Institute’s role in shaping and conditioning trans/itions in Germany. I investigate how notions of gender/sex, body, health and identity were formed and modified over time at the institute, and inform treatment models, clinical guidelines and practices, as well as law making and public views and debates on trans/itions to this day. I take the institute as a vantage point to trace lager shifts in the medicolegal regulation of gender/sex and contextualise current debates around trans(sexuality) and gender self-determination, especially with regards to the Self-Determination Act and recent changes in diagnostic manuals, medical guidelines and practices.

How Trans/itions Assemble | Arranging Gender/Sex

_{Ph.D. project in the Research Training Group Doing Transitions at Goethe University Frankfurt funded by the German Research Association} 

The project looks at how gender/sex transitions come about in Germany today. By transitions I generally mean ways of changing gender/sex that do not adhere to the medically assigned, legally enforced, static male/female dichotomy. I conducted a new materialist ethnography in Germany in 2020-2023: I interviewed transitioning individuals, collected data related to their transition processes, participated in community spaces, talked to activists, counsellors and medical practicioners, and studied medicolegal regulations. I am interested in how gender/sex transitions are constituted and become evident as transitions: When is a transition a transition? How are its boundaries defined, and what gets excluded in the boundary-drawing-process? And what do these boundaries imply for the possibility to be/come trans/itioning? And for contemporary gender relations more broadly? To analyse how transitions are composed and conditioned, I employ a new materialist methodology and draw on relational understandings of differentiation from Karen Barad’s Agential Realism, Gilles Deleuze’s Difference-in-itself, and the Deleuzo-Guattarian concept of Assemblage/Agencement.

Time & Society | 2025

Transitioning Out of Time:
Why Every Gender Transition
Is Always Already Late

︎︎︎ Open Access Download

Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung | 2024

Interaktiv und intersektional: Sexualbildung für Jugendliche mit dem Digitalspiel „Sibel’s Journey“

together with Öykü İnal
︎︎︎ Open Access Download

socialnet Lexikon | 2021

Neuer Materialismus

together with Tamara Schwertel
︎︎︎ Online

Soziologiemagazin | 2020

Familismus in der Coronakrise

together with Magdalena Müssig
︎︎︎ Online

Femina Politica | 2020

Die Covid-19-Pandemie bedroht alle. Geschützt werden nur einige

together with Magdalena Müssig
︎︎︎ Open Access Download

I regularely write journalistic articles for different media and am a columnist for Neue Narrative Magazin. Topics include gender, the economic system, power relations, and our relationships to work, money and collectivity. For a comprehensive list of journalistic publications, please check my torial profile.

Toxic Positivity: Wenn der Optimismus grausam wird ︎

In Coachings und Selbsthilfe-Büchern lernen wir, überall das Positive zu sehen. Doch dieser zwanghafte Optimismus kann schnell grausam werden – und verhindern, dass sich wirklich etwas verbessert.

Female Leadership: Braucht Führung ein Geschlecht? ︎

Führen Frauen anders oder sogar besser? Können Männer weiblich führen? Und braucht Führung überhaupt ein Geschlecht?

Toxic Masculinity: Ist Männlichkeit ungesund? ︎

Was steckt hinter toxischer Männlichkeit und wie sieht eine gesunde Männlichkeit aus?

Commons machen ein bedürfnisorientiertes Wirtschaften möglich

Wer etwas gibt, will auch etwas dafür bekommen – so lautet ein Grundsatz unserer Wirtschaft. Und wer nicht genug anbieten kann, bekommt nichts. Geht das nicht anders?