CAAR Member Dagmar Schultz receives Prize
On June 23, 2011, Prof. Dr. Dagmar Schultz received this year’s Margherita-von- Brentano-Prize from the Free University of Berlin. In honor and in memory of Margherita von Brentano, professor of philosophy and first female vice president of the Free University, the prize is awarded for work and projects which further the development of equal rights and opportunities for women in academia and the promotion of women’s and gender studies and research.
Against the background of her experiences in the United States of America and in Puerto Rico between 1963 and 1973, Dagmar Schultz initiated critical debates about sexism and racism within the university as well as in the women’s movement.
While teaching at the John-F.-Kennedy Institute of Northamerican Studies at the Free University and later as professor at the Alice-Salomon- University of Applied Sciences she contributed significantly to the initiation and institutionalization of many themes of women’s studies and gender studies.
As committed scholar and activist she always had the courage to address controversial topics, frequently as the first person. Schultz belonged to those researchers who worked toward a more differentiated approach to gender issues. Viewing gender as a social construct she consciously included women and men in her empirical research.
She continuously worked on the significance of social and ethnic differences among women and contributed substantially to the critical (self-) reflection and new formation of the women’s movement. Furthermore, she supported the development of the Afro-german feminism particularly with her activities as publisher of the Orlanda Verlag.
Presently Schultz is working on the production of a documentary about the African-american poet Audre Lorde and her times in Berlin “Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992” (working title). The award will be used for the production of the film and for the establishment of an Audre-Lorde-Archive at the library of the Free University.