A Kind of Queer Geography/Räume Durchqueeren: The Doreen Massey Reading Weekends

Abstract

This paper recounts an experiment in learning together, which took place over a series of six reading weekends in different cities over a period of 6 years. The participants were German-speaking geography students plus one English academic. The aim was to discuss issues (beginning with queer theory) that could not be discussed within the German academy and to do so in a way which was open, questioning, cooperative and based on friendship. The MomentOn a sunny day in June 1998 on a terrace in Heidelberg it happened that a group of about six German-speaking feminist geographers were talking with Doreen Massey. The occasion was the prestigious Hettner Lecture organised by the geography department of the University of Heidelberg, to which 30 geography graduate students from Germany, Austria and Switzerland are invited annually. This year the lecture and guest at the subsequent week of discussion was Doreen Massey. The two main topics were high technology and globalisation, on one hand, and identity, gender and space on the other hand. Especially while discussing the latter theme queer theory was mentioned, both by Doreen as a question and by a few of us who really wanted to explore the issue. But somehow it was never taken further. In fact, it became clear that in this kind of formal occasion in German academic geography it was not easy to open up a space for discussion of such a topic. However, on the terrace later, during a break from formal proceedings, a group of us, including Doreen, got talking about it again. Why was it so difficult to raise in such a setting? Both the group of feminist geographers and Doreen Massey felt an urge to continue this rather informal terrace talk on queer issues. The involvement in-and critique of-identity politics was important to the terrace group, for central to identity politics is to understand the social injustice which is linked to identity categories. In this context, queer theory opened up possibilities to approach identity politics beyond gender. This very moment on the terrace was only possible because of a set of

Re-placing gender? Reflections on 15 years ofGender, Place and Culture

“…While many articles in GPC subsequently explored gay geographies at various locations -such as the historiography of gay sexualities in ancient Greece (Bravmann 1994), in work on gay and lesbian pride parades in New Zealand (Brickell 2000) on lesbians in Montreal (Podmore 2001) and gays in Toronto (Nash 2005) -in its first issue GPC had moved into uncharted waters and in the process extended the post-structural perspective on identity to the diversified spaces in which those with transgressive sexualities moved. The broaching of such subjects previously rather muted within mainstream geographical literature continued in the journal, including articles on the complicated passions associated with lesbian motherhood (Gabb 2004), queer Christians in Washington DC (Paris and Anderson 2001) and the story of a group of German feminist geographers exploring queer theory and identities with the eminent Professor of Geography, Doreen Massey, through a series of weekend workshops (BASSDA 2006).…”

Claiming Home

“…At the same time, this was a paradoxical move, as it has made this study complicit in the very dearth of German contributions to queer geography and queer migration scholarship that I criticize here. 18 16 We have recounted the story of these reading weekends in BASSDA 2006a and2006b. 17 As does, for instance, French queer geography, as anecdotal evidence suggests: In June 2010, a workshop was held in Paris entitled "15 ans après Mapping Desire, où en sont les géographies des sexualités?"…”

Boundary spanning in social and cultural geography

“…The impacts of both the Hettner Lectures and the subsequent Knowledge and Space Symposia, which have also been hosted by the Klaus Tschira Foundation in the Villa Bosch in Heidelberg (Table 2), on human geography have been quite substantial. They range from ten published books and videos that document the boundary spanning activities of the ten Hettner Lecturers via regular reading weekends of German-language feminist geographers with Doreen Massey (Bassda, 2006) and transnational academic mobility in both directions to joint publications between Hettner Lecturers, organizers and participants, especially as part of the Klaus Tschira Knowledge and Space Book Series, an outcome of more than ten international symposia to date (e.g. Meusburger, Livingstone, & Jöns, 2010).…”