Equal Opportunity Workshops: Critical Practice in Academia

The RTG offers its fellows training on "Social Justice, Gender and Diversity" as an integral component of the qualification programme. This is one of the tools by which we seek to foster the RTG’s core values of conviviality, positionality, geopolitical decentring and social commitment (see the mission statement). Following the Social Justice and Diversity Training method developed by the institute for Social Justice and Radical Diversity associated with the FH Potsdam, the training focuses on intersecting forms of structural oppression. It seeks to create sensitivity to differences like gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, social background, and religion.

In addition, the RTG cultivates ethical and critical academic practices with the help of a catalogue of different expert trainings, made available to all of its members. These trainings can be put into practice at short notice and when needed. The workshops are supported by the funds the DFG makes available for equal opportunity measures. We think it vital that the RTG not only ensures equal opportunities for individual doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, but actively fosters a research environment where all RTG members are aware of different mechanisms of discrimination and exclusion and can draw on tools and strategies to counteract them.