"Vielfalt trifft Wissenschaft": TKG Prize for Antonia Dölle

"This is wonderful news," says a delighted Professor Julia Knop, Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Erfurt and Professor of Dogmatics at the Faculty of Catholic Theology. "On the one hand, of course, for Antonia Dölle herself, but on the other, the award is also remarkable for theology, as religiously based discrimination against women is as present in the Catholic Church as it is controversial." Julia Knop praised above all the independence of the work, which was not only methodologically well thought-out and innovative, but also delivered convincing results.

Male-dominated social structures and religiously legitimised misogyny are among the historically handed-down commonalities of contemporary institutionalised religions. They can only be overcome by giving women access to all religious and leadership positions – this is the thesis underlying Antonia Dölle's work. Her aim was to analyse, from a cultural studies, theological and traditional hermeneutical perspective, the conflictual process of women's emancipation from the rabbinate, which lasted over 150 years, and its effects on the four denominations of modern Judaism in Germany and the USA (Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reconstructionism and Modern Orthodoxy). The results show that the ordination of women in the non-Orthodox movements is to be seen as the result of social change and was made possible by a convergence with the socio-political developments towards equal rights for women. With regard to Judaism, Antonia Dölle showed in her work that the unrestricted access of women to all religious and leading offices is decisive for overcoming patriarchal structures and misogynistic systems of a specific religion, even though the practical realisation of full equality has not yet been completed.

This year's second prize of 500 euros each went to Lena-Marie Forkel from Friedrich Schiller University Jena for her thesis "Die 'Wende' für uns Lesben. Transformationsprozesse in der Lesbenbewegung der DDR am Beispiel der Jenaer Zeitschrift ‘frau anders‘ in den Jahren 1989/90" and to Larissa Witte from Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences for her master's thesis "Vergewaltigungsmythen in Sexualstrafverfahren: Erkenntnisse für die psychosoziale Prozessbegleitung".

Congratulations!