̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

Boy, girl... or intersex? Law and gender

amb206 — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 08:15:13 +0000

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the birth of a child must, by law, be registered within 42 days of the baby being born. To register the birth, the parents (or parent) must provide various pieces of information including the sex of the baby. But what happens if the child has been born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t match the typical definitions of female or male?

Since 2013, it has been possible for children born in Germany to be legally recorded on their birth certificate (and later in life) as ‘indeterminate’. While this remains controversial, especially among intersex groups who see it adding to stigmatisation, it creates a legal gender status other than male or female.

Worldwide, a very small percentage of babies are born intersex – an umbrella term that covers a range of genetic variations that may be apparent at birth or emerge later in an individual’s development. But, argues lawyer Dr Jens Scherpe, their relatively low number doesn’t make these individuals any less important than those judged by society as ‘normal’ in terms of their physiology.

Scherpe carries out research within one of the most controversial and sensitive areas of family law – jurisprudence and gender. His introduction to the topic came when he was working at the Max Planck Institute in his native Germany and was asked to carry out research into nationality and change of legal gender for a case heard by the Constitutional Court. He began talking to transgender people and learning about their experiences.

“Once you meet people directly affected by laws which discriminate against them, you begin to feel differently and I’ve become a passionate advocate for change in the law in this area. I began to question the way in which we seek to categorise people and apply labels. What right does the state have to classify people as male or female in official documents such as birth certificates and passports – and do we actually need gender categories?”

After completing a comparative project on the legal status of transgender people, Scherpe focused attention on the law as it relates to intersex people, a group whose voices are beginning to be heard more forcefully. Because intersex people are a minority and frequently face discrimination, they are often bracketed together with other groups as LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and intersex). Each of these groups, however, is differently affected by the law as it applies to sex and gender.

With funding from the DAAD- ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Research Hub for German Studies (see panel), Scherpe organised a workshop in 2016 on ‘ ̽��ֱ��Legal Status of Intersex Persons’ as a forum to discuss some of the most pressing issues. It brought together participants from ten jurisdictions, including Germany which, as part of a wide-reaching human rights agenda, is making growing provision in the law for people who do not wish to be identified by the binary categories of male or female.

Germany has not been alone in making changes to the ways in which gender is recorded. Changes to the law have been mooted in several countries, including India and Nepal. In 2015, Malta took a lead in passing legislation allowing people to determine their own gender – and for parents, in certain cases, to postpone the marking of gender on a baby’s birth certificate until the child’s gender identity is confirmed.

While welcoming these changes, Scherpe says there is much more to be done to ensure that intersex individuals have the same rights, and are accorded the same respect, as the majority of the population.

One of the themes to emerge from the workshop is a growing concern that cosmetic (rather than medically necessary) surgery is carried out almost routinely. Intersex pressure groups argue that the medicalisation of intersex leads to violations of human rights and that corrective surgery can have devastating consequences.

“Most people strongly condemn the practice of female genital mutilation,” says Scherpe. “But children born with genitalia that don’t match what society regards to be male or female are routinely ‘corrected’ by invasive surgery, agreed by parents who fear the stigma attached to having a different child and who believe that their child will be seriously disadvantaged. Would we operate on a child who had red hair because we’d prefer them to have brown or fair hair – or change a child’s eye colour from brown to blue?”

At the core of this debate is the view, still held by many medical professionals, that intersex is a ‘disorder’ rather than a ‘difference’. Much of the argument surrounding intersex, and the issues it raises in a gendered world, centres on the use of language and how we choose to define ourselves. There is, for example, widespread debate about the definitions of the terms sex and gender in the highly competitive environment of world athletics.

“Because they’re so intertwined with sense of self, and can appear so threatening to our boy/girl view of the world, these questions are understandably super-sensitive. Even the terminology used will be perceived as discriminatory by some. And you can be certain of abuse from those who disagree with you for even investigating the issues concerned. But neither of those things should deter us from seeking to improve the law,” says Scherpe.

Not being part of the communities he writes about may be seen to add credibility to his work; he has no self-interest in pursuing changes in the law relating to any of the groups he works with. On the other hand, his lack of personal experience of the extra challenges faced by minority communities means that he needs to listen to a great many people to find out how their lives intersect with the law.

He adds: “What matters to me is that as a society we have a duty to ensure that all our members are provided with a legal framework, free from discrimination and stigmatisation, within which they can live happy and healthy lives.”

Boy or girl? This is one of the first questions all new parents are asked. In a small percentage of cases, the answer isn’t straightforward: the child is intersex. In a highly gendered society, how does the law apply to people whose physiology doesn’t fit the binary categories of male and female?

What right does the state have to classify people as male or female in official documents such as birth certificates and passports – and do we actually need gender categories?

Jens Scherpe

Jack Wright

Girl, boy

Studying Germany

Jens Scherpe’s work is one of over 30 projects that were funded last year through a research Hub in Cambridge which focuses on Germany.

Historian Dr Hanna Weibe and theologian Dr Ruth Jackson are fascinated by how politics and religion worked together in Germany after the political upheaval of the Napoleonic Wars; Dr Simon Stoddart is interested in urbanism in Iron Age Germany; Dr David Trippett in how Wagner arrived at his theory of melody as a means of communication; and Dr Ksenia Gerasimova in why Germany chooses organic agriculture.

These and over 30 other projects have been supported through the €1m DAAD- ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Research Hub for German Studies, with funds from the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic. “This money was given in recognition of the fact that Cambridge arguably now has the largest number of scholars working on Germany and German culture in the world outside Germany itself,” says Professor Chris Young, who co-leads the Hub with Professor Chris Clark.

“Why study Germany?” asks Young. “Germany is widely regarded as a model economy that appears to be working when others are struggling. Understanding the country’s economic and political importance, especially given the implications and impact of Brexit, is a golden opportunity for us and for Europe. How, for instance, has Germany coped with immigration or austerity? What facets of its history, culture, politics and theology have influenced the way that Germany is today?”

Through the breadth and depth of the research it supports, the Hub hopes to create a German-focused interface between the ̽��ֱ�� and governmental bodies, both in the UK and in Germany, and be a nexus for the Anglo-German relationship.

“Germany has shaped the world in which we live and influenced the ways in which we think about, experience and seek to change it,” adds Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum, and patron of the Hub. “ ̽��ֱ��gains in knowledge that [the Hub] will bring can only enrich and strengthen the ties that bind Germany and the world.”

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Winner of Germany’s most prestigious research award to speak in Cambridge

ag236 — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 09:55:08 +0000

In the latest in a series of high-profile activities organised by the DAAD-Cambridge Research Hub for German Studies, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge will on Thursday 23 February welcome historian Professor Lutz Raphael.

̽��ֱ��winner of the most important research award in Germany, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, Professor Raphael will address the subject of “Imperial violence and mobilised nations: patterns of European history in the first half of the 20th century.”

This will be the first in an annual series of lectures featuring winners of the Leibniz Prize, which was established in 1985 and aims to reward outstanding German contributions to research. ̽��ֱ��lecture series is being jointly supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the German Federal Foreign Office, and by the German Research Council (DFG).

Professor Rafael will be introduced by Dr. Priya Bondre-Beil, Director of International Affairs at the German Research Council, and by Professor Sir Chris Clark, Cambridge’s Regius Professor of History.

Known for his insights into the history of scientific knowledge, Professor Raphael’s influential work has significantly altered perspectives on the contemporary history of Europe. He has consistently championed a European view of history –as opposed to a state-nation centred view.

He is well known for his collaboration with the French school of history for the journal Annales, and his deployment of the philosophical, sociological, and anthropological methods of his teacher Pierre Bourdieu. He further developed these methods with his own studies dedicated to the concept of "longue durée".

Professor Raphael is recognised as an expert in modern historiography, and as one of the leading representatives of a new generation of historians driving forward a critical and methodical self-reflection of their field.

̽��ֱ��lecture “Imperial violence and mobilised nations: patterns of European history in the first half of the 20th century” will take place at 5.15pm on Thursday 23 February in Room 2 at the Mill Lane Lecture Theatres. All are welcome to this free event.

Historian Prof. Dr. Lutz Raphael, recipient of the 2013 Leibniz Prize, will deliver first in an annual series of lectures

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Internationalisation and merit-based advancement are the key to university success

ag236 — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 12:51:00 +0000

Delivering the inaugural ̽��ֱ�� President’s Lecture, organised by the Cambridge-DAAD Research Hub for German Studies, Prof Herrmann emphasised the need for continuous improvement in Germany’s higher education along globally accepted standards of excellence.

Speaking on the subject of “ ̽��ֱ��future of German universities”, Professor Herrmann said: “A university is not isolated from –but must be a part of—society. This is often forgotten.”

“Universities’ mission is to serve society,” he said, adding that modern universities do this through education, through research, and –increasingly—through entrepreneurship.

He was addressing Cambridge students, researchers and administrators only a few days after the Times Higher Education rankings revealed 41 of Germany’s universities are among the best in the world. Nine German universities, including TUM, are in the Top 100, with TUM ranked the third best in Germany.

Commenting on the role of university rankings, he said: “There is a plethora of commitments universities have to fulfil in order to serve society. Rankings do not mirror those different roles. They mirror only a small part of what we do. Rankings do not tell us anything about the quality of the engineers we train to work in local companies, or of the teachers we send into local schools to educate our children. So we are careful about rankings. They are a useful tool, but we don’t rely on them. ̽��ֱ��culture of the university and the variety of talents are more important.”

He singled out internationalisation, interdisciplinarity and competitiveness as the three greatest challenges facing German higher education institutions.

Universities, he said, must be considered in their local and national context. “But it is only international competitiveness that will truly enhance a university’s brand.” He cited TUM’s branch in Singapore as an example of international engagement: “We have joint research activity on megacities. And it’s fun for our PhD students to work in a different cultural environment. This is very much in line with our understanding of a university education.”

Interdisciplinarity, he said, is where the fastest progress in science and technology is being made, because it “yields the best results in complex research areas.” He acknowledged that, despite TUM’s recognised excellence in physical sciences and technology, “technologists also need social sciences”.

He discussed the need for Germany’s higher education institutions to adopt performance-based tenure track processes if they wish to attract and retain top-level researchers, citing a clear, more transparent career path for young researchers as one of the measures needed to make German universities globally competitive.

̽��ֱ��Technical ̽��ֱ�� of Munich began moves towards a tenure-track system of career progression in 2012. Prof Hermann argued that this development has contributed to TUM’s success in the German Excellence Initiative, and that similar moves by other universities would improve the overall quality of the country’s higher education.

“Germans have a problem with telling someone that he or she has to leave the university. But universities cannot be a system of social support. When it comes to scientific performance, we cannot expect everyone to remain at the same level if they are not performing.”

“Young people like competition, they know it is necessary to raise levels. These are the people we want to recruit and retain.”

Professor Herrmann’s lecture is the first in a series of yearly prestige lectures by leaders of German higher education institutions to be delivered at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, under the auspices of the Cambridge-DAAD Research Hub for German Studies.

Launched in January 2016, the Cambridge-DAAD Research Hub for German Studies is a joint initiative of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst).

Through a regular programme of high-profile lectures, workshops, reciprocal visits and public fora, the Hub aims to stimulate research on German subjects in Cambridge and to enhance Cambridge scholars’ access to the leading individuals and institutes of the Federal Republic.

̽��ֱ��Hub aspires to act as a beacon for the study of German culture both in the UK and worldwide, to provide a much needed public platform for the discussion of German themes in the UK, and to create an interface between the ̽��ֱ�� and governmental bodies, both in in the UK and Germany.

Over the following year, the Hub is expected to engage over 400 scholars in Cambridge, Germany, and around the world working on 25 new research projects. Forthcoming initiatives include a programme for visiting scholars; an interdisciplinary conference organised with the German Historical Institute, Moscow; workshops on the city of Berlin organised in collaboration with the newspaper Der Tagesspiegel; and a series of high-profile lectures in Cambridge by winners of Germany’s prestigious Leibniz prize.

DAAD-Cambridge Research Hub for German Studies

̽��ֱ��President of the Technical ̽��ֱ�� of Munich (TUM), Professor Wolfgang Herrmann, calls for structural change to allow Germany’s universities to take on global competition.

A university is not isolated from –but must be a part of—society. This is often forgotten.

Prof Wolfgang Herrmann

Nic Marchant

Prof Wolfgang Herrmann

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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